#also please hand wave all the obvious plotholes

[drivingsideways]

Here, have like 5.7k of not-fic, because I am *still * not writing in this fandom, god damn it. 

In which Gon is an asshole, and Tae-eul knows it. Unfortunately, that doesn’t stop Jo Yeong from wanting him.

It’s at the naval academy that Gon realizes that he is, in fact, in deep shit.

Gon is there because he’s expected to be there, Yeong-ah is there because Gon is there, and also because he’s the most stubborn 16 year old in existence, and even commanding him to stay at school and join only two years later, along with his peers hadn’t worked, probably for the first time since Gon had given him a play sword and brought an infinitely more precious thing into existence.

 Yeong had just turned up in the naval academy class in his trainee uniform, all coltish limbs and squared shoulders and defiant chin and serious eyes, and his collar more starched than even His Majesty’s and Gon had thought god damn it, but he’d also been conscious of a sense of relief. It was lonely without his shadow of almost twelve years now, and honestly, if Yeong-ah thought he could do it, who was Gon to disagree, because he knows what Yeong-ah is capable of when he’s determined.

 (Yeong-ah has the scars to prove it, and Gon has the worst night after his father’s murder to remember, the night when he sat beside Yeong’s bed as he slept off the anaesthetic, post surgical removal of a bullet from his shoulder. Yeong had taken off his service vest during combat training, apparently deciding that he needed to learn to fight through an actual bullet wound.

The idiot.

Gon had wept all night beside his bed, and raged at him in the morning, and expressly forbidden him from pulling a stunt like that ever again, and Yeong had looked at him, confusion in his dark eyes, and said blearily, his usually lovely clear voice still thickened by sleep and painkillers, but how can I be the unbreakable sword if I don’t practice?

Yeong, Gon had replied, helpless in the face of such devotion. Yeong.

 So yeah, he should have probably known that Yeong would turn up at the Academy.)

 The four years at the academy are great- actually the most freedom Gon has ever experienced, which is hugely ironic, given, it’s like, the navy; and he wants Yeong to have that too before they both return to the palace. He wants Yeong to have as normal an adolescence as he can, hang out with the guys, make friends, and who knows, maybe even date? Like, Yeong should have the delicious experience of a first kiss, her lips soft and tasting of champagne and plum-flavoured lip balm, the slim curve of her waist that fits into the slightly damp palm of your hand, and the fluttering of her eyelashes against your cheek, and the wild roaring of your heartbeat in your ears- and her almond-shaped dark eyes on yours- 

 Yeah, so, Gon wants  Yeong to have all of that and more, and he’ll do his best to arrange the world so that it will happen; what kind of elder brother would he be if he didn’t?

 So when they’re at one of the few parties that trainees- including His Majesty- are allowed into at the Naval Club, he tries to manoeuvre things suitably so that he can casually introduce Yeong to some pretty young things, at least two of whom, he’s pleased to note, have the good taste to realize how handsome and adorable Yeong is. Well, he’d best leave them alone now, trusting that nothing can stop a determined young woman who’s spotted something she wants- and in the meanwhile, he has caught sight of Ms.Kim Seo-Hyun, she of the laughing dark eyes, and the wicked mouth, and goes off to renew a very pleasant acquaintance in the shade of some conveniently placed trees. 

 It’s a while before he returns to the main ballroom, and his eyes scan for Yeong, and don’t find him. He’d half been expecting for Yeong to break in on Seo-Hyun and himself, because Yeong rarely lets Gon out of his line of sight, except for very good reasons. And hey, look at that, perhaps for once, Yeong was not thinking about protecting Gon, and was instead having a good time by himself.

 Good, he thinks, the light buzz of alcohol in his veins adding to the generally pleasant feeling, and he smiles to himself when he thinks about the fun he’ll have later, teasing Yeong about it. He stands for a minute watching the milling, chattering crowd, god, it’s warm in here. 

He finds what looks like a deserted corridor, that lines the back of the club building, and drifts down it, hand still clutching the slowly warming glass of champagne (his fourth) that he’d taken off a passing tray. 

He recognizes Yeong from his silhouette- of course he does- before he actually sees him. He’s leaning against a pillar- if such a ramrod straight posture could be termed leaning - and he seems to be in conversation with someone opposite him, who’s entirely in shadow, thanks to a pillar and a large leafy potted plant. The clouds clear at that moment, and the moon comes out, and Yeong is smiling, actually smiling, with his teeth and everything, the smile softening the sharp cut of those cheekbones, and the sight stops Gon in his tracks, because Yeong rarely smiles, Gon should know, Gon has worked harder at winning those smiles than at any mathematical problem, but here’s Yeong, smiling at someone who isn’t Gon. 

 He should probably leave- after all, he doesn’t want to embarass Yeong or accidentally crash their rendezvous- but for some reason he can’t move. He can’t move, and he can only watch as the person opposite, comes out the shadow- and that-that is not a girl- no, that’s another cadet, and he’s crossing the two feet between him and Yeong, and now he’s leaning in, a little, one hand coming to rest over Yeong’s shoulder on the pillar behind, while the other comes up to tilt Yeong’s face toward his, and Yeong’s eyes are dark, unfathomable pools, but he’s leaning in, his eyelashes fluttering shut, and then-

No, thinks Gon, No. 

He’s mine. 

And then, appalled, fuck.

 He manages to stumble away without being seen- the other two are too busy-  and listen, it’s not for nothing he’s been trained since childhood to wear an armour of charm and stoic politeness no matter the provocation, and he calls on every lesson he’s ever learnt from endlessly boring state dinners, and even more uninteresting briefings, and manages to get through the rest of the evening without doing what he wants to- destroy every single glittering, happy smile in sight- and grab Yeong’s hand and run. 

 Because Yeong would go along, if he did. Yeong would follow, like he always did, and if Gon- if Gon ever asked him- then Yeong would, of course he would, because Yeong has never ever not given Gon anything he’s asked for, not since he was four and Gon had bought him with a few thoughtless words, said mostly in jest, just so the little boy would stop crying like that, as though it was his world that had ended, and not Gon’s. 

 He lasts the evening, and the next two years, and he never asks Yeong about that night, or any of the nights after, and Yeong never volunteers the information. There’s a part of Gon that’s resentful, that wants to scream, do you trust me so little, do you think I’d love you less because you’re gay, and there’s a part of him that’s glad Yeong never tells him, because if it were- out there- between them, then Gon might become weak one day, and ask, after all, and no, it’s best that it remains unsaid, and it’s fine, it’s FINE. 

 He has Yeong in all the most important ways; he has his time, and his devotion, and his quiet, dry wit that he rarely displays to anyone except Gon, and he has Yeong’s touch, even- Yeong reaching out to pull him up from the floor after beating his ass at taekwondo, Yeong brushing lint off his shoulder after he’s dressed for one of those stupid dinners, the brush of his knuckles against Gon’s suddenly dry throat as Yeong adjusts his tie, the press of Yeong’s shoulders against his as they sit side-by-side watching The Seven Samurai for the forty-seventh time. He has Yeong’s face peering into his as he shakes him awake for the 4 am drill, and he has Yeong’s disapproving frown when he discovers Gon has skipped both lunch and dinner because he got lost in reading this brilliant new paper by Maryam Mirzakhani, Yeong, you don’t understand, the woman is a fucking genius, and god, why is it spinach today, why, Yeong, you’re so cruel to me. 

 They graduate, and then it’s back at the palace, and they slip back into its routines and confinements, and if he applied to the Pope for canonization, surely, he’d get it, because Gon deserves it.

 It’s been ten years since that awful, life-altering realization, and every hour since then has been a lesson in restraint and abject self-denial in the face of the loveliest and most every day of temptations:  to kiss the curve of Yeong’s quiet smiles and run his finger along the sharp blade of his cheekbones; to trace the shell of his ear, and turn fully into the warm heat of his body, that’s always, always within reach, and if Gon ever asked-

Gon doesn’t ask. 

 Then he’s transported to a parallel universe and meets Tae-Eul  and Eun-sup and she introduces him to things like half-and-half and also asks him questions like “what kind of king are you?”, things he has no real answer for, and it’s nice- it’s nice to be able to be honest with someone, to have them treat you like you’re a weirdo, but not like, a royal weirdo, and though he jokes about it with her, one day she says, suddenly, “You can be anyone you want to be here and you’re telling me that you choose to be some stick-in-the mud blueblood?”

She snorts, inelegant, and comfortable within her skin, and that’s when he realizes-

And alright, he has to sell a couple of more diamonds and some rare gold artefacts to arrange it, but then it’s done- he gets to resurrect Lee Ji-hun. Lee Ji-hun is just some guy here, a musician, not a mathematician, living a quiet, ordinary life in a moderately posh neighbourhood.  

 (Tae-eul contests his definition of “moderately posh” when she walks into his large fully furnished studio apartment, all floor-to-ceiling windows, and polished dark-wood floor, but listen, he wouldn’t be able to pull it off if he had to live in actual poverty, sorry, but he has limits. Tae-Eul gives him a distinctly unimpressed look, but probably agrees about his limits, he thinks.

 “You should be a lawyer or a tax consultant instead” she says, touching the beautiful grand piano he’s installed. “They’re rich”.

“Ugh, boring. Musicians aren’t rich here?”

Tae-Eul sighs, “Not ones as mediocre as you” she mutters

“I have never been mediocre at anything in my life”.

“Who told you that, Your Majesty?”)

  The reason he gives her for this entire project is that he wants to draw Lee Lim out into the open, but it’s not just him, but that part he never tells Tae-Eul. He’s told her all about Yeong of course, about his unbreakable sword , and she gives him one of her penetrating looks and says, abrupt, people are not things , and he feels himself flush to the roots of his hair

 I just meant, it’s not like that,  he stumbles, and stops. 

There’s an awkward pause. 

Then she says, quietly, I forget how different your world is. 

 And that’s it, isn’t it?  Here he can be anyone, and if he can be anyone, then he doesn’t have to be Yeong’s lord, and he can be Yeong’s equal, perhaps, and - and- but he doesn’t let himself hope for more. Equal. Friend, perhaps. If that’s all it can be, then that’s enough. 

 So he tells Yeong, who’s been quietly going crazy, he knows, what with Gon’s strange behaviour and disappearances,  about the parallel world, and Yeong says, sharp, and agonized- don’t go where I can’t follow - 

I’m not, he reassures Yeong, and then takes him through the portal. 

He introduces Yeong to Tae-Eul, and then to Eun-sup, and enjoys the mutual horror of the latter meeting very much. Seeing them together is just one more reminder of how much he loves his Yeong, though Eun-sup is adorable- everything about him loose and loud and in the open- in contrast to Yeong’s grave eyes and buttoned cuffs and ramrod spine, and that twist to the corner of his mouth that indicates that he’s suffering at the realization that his doppelganger is a complete goof, and god, Gon should probably stop staring so openly at Yeong, before someone realizes that he’s half a breath away from pressing Yeong against a wall and ruining him.

 He thinks he’s rather given himself away though, the way Tae-Eul is looking at him, something startled and then thoughtful in her eyes.

Yeong is incredibly suspicious of everything about Tae-Eul, though Gon tries to talk him out of it.

Why are you so determined to defend her, Yeong asks, sounding bewildered. 

She and I are bound by fate, Gon replies, quietly. I know it in my heart, just like I know she’s a good person.

He doesn’t quite understand the look in Yeong’s eyes then- a flash of something- so quickly gone that he might have missed it, if he hadn’t been used to watching Yeong all the time. 

But Yeong nods, once, and then says, in his brusque way, “What do you need me to do?”

Enter Lee Ji-hun. 

He gives Yeong the same story that he gives Tae-Eul, except that he doesn’t tell Yeong that there is no Lee Ji-Hun, because his bastard uncle had made sure of that. 

Find a way to befriend him, he tells Yeong instead, and stay by his side here, and if Lee Lim turns up, you have my permission to behead him.

Yeong gives him a dry look.

I don’t think it works like that here, Your Majesty, he says.

He’s my subject, says Gon, and he can’t quite keep a lid on the vicious hate that bubbles up from where he’s buried it all these years, and I am the law.

Yeong is silent for a minute, and then asks, how long?

Tae-Eul and he have worked out some kind of plausible back story for Lee Ji-hun

Anyways, he regurgitates it to Yeong, adding the necessary flourishes when needed, (“He’s supposed to be one of the best pianists in the country!”) who looks increasingly sceptical.

“Well?” Gon demands.

“I don’t see how I’m going to befriend him” Yeong gripes. “It’s not like I can play an instrument”.

Not to worry, Gon and Tae-eul have a plan for that too, though essentially their plan is to move Yeong, ex-military captain, now into private security, into the apartment opposite.

“Ex-military can afford this kind of apartment here?” Yeong asks, incredulous, while Gon narrows his eyes at him.

“Private security pays good money” Tae-Ul offers and gives Gon a look.

Hmm, says Yeong, and then proceeds to strip-search every bit of the apartment while Tae-eul gawks at him.

Gon thinks it’s adorable.

 So begins the most exhausting cat and mouse game that Gon has ever played with himself.

He’s just wondering how to arrange for a ‘chance meeting’ with Yeong- in the lift perhaps? (because he’s sure that despite everything, Yeong would probably take days to make a first move, and Gon simply doesn’t have that time in his schedule. As it is, working it out so that he gets at least four hours of sleep out of 24 has been an absolute nightmare.)

Anyways, he’s still musing on it, when there’s a knock on the door, and he opens it to the sight of Yeong in a half-sleeved t-shirt and loose trackpants and a really sweet smile, asking whether he can borrow some sugar.

Gon nearly expires on the spot, because for years now, even when training, Yeong wears full sleeved shirts with high necks, and this- this- excuse for clothing even has a v-neck, dipping down, and Gon unsubtly tracks the miles of skin between the hollow of his throat and where the dip of it ends, feeling a little like he’s been run over by a train, and he would really like to know why Yeong felt the need to dress like a total harlot to ask a stranger for a half-cup of sugar.

His silence has Yeong back away, with an awkward look.

“I’m sorry if I disturbed you sir” he says, and it’s so stiff and formal, and it snaps Gon out of his idiocy.

“Oh no..not at all…sorry” he says, “I was just…” he snatches around wildly for a plausible reason, “I was just distracted by this piece of music I was composing!”

(what?)

“Oh” says Yeong, “You’re a musician”.

“Please do come in” Gon says, “And allow me to make up for my rudeness by welcoming you with a cup of tea? Coffee?”

“Tea” says Yeong, another surprise, because his Yeong doesn’t touch the stuff, but will drink gallons of coffee.

“Nice” says Yeong, as he looks around the apartment with its modernist furniture, so unlike what they back at home, and the way he says it, so deliberately polite and fake, makes Gon hide a smile.

He walks to the piano while Gon gets the kettle going.

“So you’re a pianist”?

“Yes” Gon replies, easily, “What do you do?”

“I was in the army” Yeong says.

“Which division?” asks Gon, just to be a little shit.

“88th” Yeong replies, lying through his teeth.

Gon is proud of him.

“I’m with a private security firm now” he adds, conscientiously.

“Celebrities?”

Yeong shrugs, another strange gesture, “Mostly corporates” he answers. “It pays well”.

“I don’t suppose I could pay you to protect me” Gon says, smiling.

“Do you need protection”? Yeong’s eyes on him are sharp as he walks slowly toward the kitchen area.

Gon runs his hand through his hair, messing it up, and Yeong’s eyes grow sharper.

Gon had tried to comb it differently, to maintain some illusion of difference, but he’d probably ruined it, he realizes.

“Not really” he says, giving Yeong a sheepish smile. “It’s just that I’m new to Seoul so I could do with some help getting around the place”

“I’m new too” Yeong says, because that’s the story they had agreed to.

“Hey, perhaps we could figure it out together” says Gon, cheerfully. He sticks out a hand. ”Deal?”

Yeong gives him that smile again, and Gon wants to- wants to-

“Deal” says Yeong, taking his hand in a firm, familiar clasp.

 Gon explains away the reasons he stays at home, mostly- “Decided to give myself a break for a month, to settle in”- over tea and then over dinner (it’s not a bother, I was going to make some anyway), they chat about nothing and everything; the good thing is that Gon knows he needn’t worry too much about being “found out” by some inappropriate reference- at this point Yeong doesn’t know much about this world either. Honestly, it’s a piece of cake.

“The Seven Samurai” he says, unthinking, to a question about his favourite movie, and Yeong stares at him for a moment, before looking down into his bowl, and murmuring, “Mine too”.

“We should watch it together sometime then!” says Gon brightly, “I’m due for my annual rewatch anyway”

Yeong gives him a strained smile.

It goes pretty well for two days; Gon pretending he doesn’t see Yeong tag him all around his deliberate tour of the most unsuspicious places, and then in the evening, when Yeong’s gone back to his apartment, after being well dined-and-wined, Gon sneaks out and heads back through the portal, and spends half the night signing papers and reading reports, before he comes in before dawn back to his apartment.

On the third day, Tae-eul asks him to meet her after dinner.

“I’m going to be late” he tells her, already looking at his watch as he approaches her.  “There’s a mountain of paperwork waiting for me back home”.

“What the fuck, Lee Gon???!!!” she yells, and Maximus whinnies in distress.

He steps back, surprised.

“What do you mean?”

“Why haven’t you told Yeong that there’s no real Lee Ji-hun” she hisses at him. “What.The.Fuck.”

He pales.

“How did you find out?”

“Because I’m not an idiot and I’m a detective” she snaps.

“Have you been wiretapping us?” he gasps, outraged.

She snorts, “God you really have no idea about privacy and rule of law, do you? No, you idiot, Yeong called me to dig up more info on Lee Ji-Hun, and as you can imagine, I was curious why he would need to do that!!!!”

“Ah”.

“Yes”.

She ties her hair up, pulling the knot tight.

“Go on” she snaps, “Explain yourself! Do you suspect him of being a traitor?”

“What?! NO! Of course not!”

“Then why this whole game?”

“It’s not a game” he says quietly. “I-you said it yourself- I can be someone else here. I can be someone that- that- Yeong might- love-“

Tae-eul gapes at him

“Even a blind man can see that he already loves you!” she exclaims. “What the hell are you talking about?!”

“He loves the king he was given to”  Gon says, miserable. “I want him to love the man”.

She closes her open mouth with a snap.

“You know” she says, her voice taking on a conversational tone. “In a shittier story, you and I would be the ones falling madly in love, you with your I’ve waited twenty- five years to meet you and tallness and your face and your horse and everything. As if me, a girl from a middle-class family who works her ass off trying to protect law and order, would fall for someone like you, who literally thinks he’s the law and whose idea of “living in poverty” would keep one hundred families fed for a year. And that’s even before this bit of assholery.”

He sits down on the bench with a thump, and says, weakly, “At least we’re not in that story?”

“No” she concedes, with a small sigh. “No, we’re just in a slightly upgraded, but still shitty version where the lone female character is there to knock some sense into the heads of two emotionally dense male characters and keep them from doing something irredeemably stupid, like, oh, I don’t know, ruin the most important relationship in their life because they don’t know how to be functioning adults in a relationship?!”

“Tae-eul” he says, “I can’t-“

“Why not?” she says, “Why can’t you just tell him you’re in love with him?”

“Because I’m his king!” He yells, jumping to his feet.

“I’m his king, and he’s devoted his entire life to me, and he’s never said no to anything I’ve ever asked, and I can’t ask him this- I won’t—"

She stares up at him.

“And when he finds out?” she says, softly. “What then? Or do you think he never will?”

He shakes his head, and sits back down, covering his face with his hands.

“What then?�� she asks, relentless. “What happens once we’ve figured this out and caught Lee Lim- how are you going to divide yourself then?”

“I don’t know” he says, muffled. “I don’t know. I haven’t figured it out yet. I just- I just want some time-some memories-“

“Lee Gon” she says, and she’s back to being kind, even if her words are painfully blunt. “Don’t be a fool. Tell him now before it gets more complicated”.

“No” he says, “No.Tae-eul. I know you can’t understand me or agree with me. But no. I won’t, I can’t give this up—”

Because it’s only been two days, and he’s already used to Yeong’s smiles, and his surprisingly strong opinions about ice-skating, and the way he pauses for a minute, inhaling the scent of his tea before sipping it. He’s used to Yeong sprawled loose limbed, on his couch as they argue about the which team should take the league cup, and hopping around in agony when Ji-hun tries out a new ramen recipe and spice, eyes streaming, and the stillness with which he sits , while Ji-hun plays the first movement of the moonlight sonata, and his eyes when he says, softly, “that was beautiful”.

The last ten years- the last ten years have been an arid desert compared to this- because he’s constantly been on his guard, always being careful not to let his feelings show, trying his damnedest to be the brother and king that Yeong thinks of him as, and Yeong had- Yeong had been the same, he realizes now. Yeong had maintained a distance too- the distance between a liege and knight, even one who was like a brother.

And now the rains have come, and things are sprouting green and wonderful and fresh, and Gon wants to let it grow into a garden, lush and colourful, for whatever time he has.

He wants to wander around this new, strange city with Yeong, discovering its sight and tastes and sounds and smells, and then, tired and happy, he wants to take him home and curl up with him, and he knows- he knows it in his marrow- that it could happen- that he could make Yeong his, really his- if only, if only he had the goddamn time—

“I have to go” he says, dully, rising to his feet.

She nods in silence and watches him leave.

 So that’s what he does, for the next two weeks, wandering between worlds, sleep deprived and bone tired, and the happiest he has been in a decade, Yeong by his side.

He thinks- he hopes desperately- that Yeong is happy too.

In the third week, he shows up as Lee Gon to meet Yeong.

Yeong is in his dark suit, with his collar buttoned.

“Your Majesty” he says, bowing.

They’re in a small diner, nobody looks at them.

If they did, what would they see, Gon wonders.

Would they wonder who these two men are, what their relationship is; one of them relaxed against the cheap faux leather of his seat, while the other sits up straight, tension in every line of his body.

“Relax, Yeong” he murmurs, leaning forward, putting his elbows on the table. “You’ll make people stare”.

It’s almost painful, watching Yeong make the effort.

“Your Majesty” Yeong says, quietly, “Are you well?”

“As you see” he says, with a small shrug. “I’m perfectly fine”.

Yeong’s eyes search his.

It’s fine, Gon has learnt to hide from Yeong.

“How’s Lee Ji-Hun?” he asks.

“Not in any danger” says Yeong, and picks up his coffee mug, taking a deep swallow.

He doesn’t volunteer anything more.

“What is he like?” Gon asks, because he has to know.

Yeong sighs, and then looks up, meeting his gaze.

“Sometimes I think he’s you” Yeong says, “Sometimes”.

Gon feels his heartbeat speed up.

“In what way?”

“He has your face”

“What else?”

“Your Majesty” Yeong says, “I think it’s time I went home”.

“Lee Lim could…”

“Lee Lim is more likely to make an attempt in Corea” Yeong argues, “He’s not interested in Lee Ji-hun, why would he be?”

“Why do you want to go home?” Gon asks, abrupt.

“Because you’re there” Yeong replies, and it sounds- sounds so simple- when he states it like that, and Gon is sick to his stomach.

“You’ll stay here” Gon says, “As long as I want you to”.

Yeong stares at him, the hurt in his eyes obvious.

“Yes, Your Majesty”.

 Later that night, after Gon has- dismissed – Yeong, and taken a long, miserable, lonely walk, he lets himself into the studio. A warm shower might help, he thinks, tired and heart aching.

He’s just pulled on his pajamas and a t-shirt, when there’s a knock on the door.

It’s Yeong.

He’s back to his casual attire, and seems to have showered too, after his meeting with His Majesty.

“Let’s watch Seven Samurai” he says, as he brushes past Gon, not waiting for an acceptance. “I’m in the mood for a movie”.

“Uh” says Gon, befuddled.

There’s one part of him that’s relieved to have Yeong- any Yeong- with him, there’s another that thinks, desperate, I can’t do it anymore, I can’t-

They watch it in silence for a while, sitting two feet apart, Gon with his feet curled up, and Yeong sitting oddly straight, hands in his lap- as if-

Gon thinks there’s an odd tension between them, but he can no longer trust his own emotions and he wants- that’s all he is now, he thinks, a creature stitched of want and weariness-

“Yeong” he says.

Yeong’s dark eyes are on his.

He reaches out a hand and covers Yeong’s hands with it.

Yeong’s sharp inhale, and his exhale are swallowed as their mouths come together.

“Yeong” he moans, after a minute, and his wants and needs are expanding every moment like the universe, and if Yeong doesn’t- doesn’t-

But Yeong does.

He pushes Gon down on the couch and clambers over him, his mouth already red and wet with Gon’s kisses, his eyes burning into Gon’s, and his hands tugging at Gon’s t-shirt.

Gon grabs his wrists.

“Bed” he gasps, and he’s a little shocked at how high and needy it sounds. “I want you to-I need you to-“

Yeong stills.

Please, Gon whispers, and he’s not above begging, he’s not above getting on his knees-

Yeong slides off his legs and gets to his feet, looking down at Gon.  

For a moment they stay frozen like that, Yeong’s wrists locked in Gon’s grip, and all the air in the room is gone, Gon, thinks, lightheaded.

Then Yeong breaks his grip, easy, like he’s trained to do, and he’s hauling Gon up by his hand instead, and into his arms, and then they’re stumbling toward the bed, barely six feet away, clothes flying in all directions as they try to do several things at once, and Gon’s not being kissed, he’s being devoured, he thinks helpless, as he falls into the bed with Yeong above him, something fierce and intent in his eyes, and it reminds Gon of that time they went bungee jumping, the roaring in his ears, the wild thudding of his heart, and sensation of falling, falling, falling, but Yeong’s there to catch him, as he always has been, and always will be.

 Afterward, Gon kisses the top of his spine, and nuzzles at the soft skin under his ear, curled sleepy and content around Yeong, hands splayed across Yeong’s rib cage.

Yeong sighs.

Slowly, his body relaxes against Gon’s and his breathing evens out.

 In the morning, Yeong is already dressed when Gon wakes up, rubbing sleep from his eyes.

“Do you have to go so early?” he rasps out. “I’ll make you breakfast”.

Yeong’s smile is apologetic.

“Sorry” he says, “Can’t stay”.

Gon blinks up at him.

“Oh” he says.

“Will I see you this evening?”

Yeong says, quietly, “There’s another matter I have to attend to”.

Gon nods.

This is Yeong trying to let him down gently, he realizes.

“Alright” he says, and oh, is this what heartbreak is, this quiet shattering, surely there should be more noise, “Alright”.

 Of course, he does see Yeong that night, except that it’s as Lee Gon, as himself.

It seems he needs some reminding of that fact.

“Your Majesty”.

Gon has chosen a place that Yeong and Lee Ji-hun had been to just last week, talking and laughing for hours over food and beer.

It’s cruel; he consoles himself that the cruelty is directed toward himself, for Yeong obviously doesn’t care.

He sits, straight-backed and prim as ever.

“How was your day?” Gon asks, eyes on the menu. “Anything new to report?”

When there’s silence, he looks up.

“I’ve compromised the mission” Yeong says, quietly. “I slept with Lee Ji-hun”.

Gon stares.

Whatever else he’d expected from Yeong, it wasn’t this.

“Why?” he says, and it doesn’t matter that his voice comes out strangled.

“Because he has your face” Yeong says, still in that quiet voice,  “Because sometimes, he’s you, and I was greedy, and tired of wanting, but not having, and I couldn’t help myself”.

“Yeong”.

“Is it treason?” Yeong whispers, “To want you like this?”

Gon swallows hard.

“You know” he says, and his voice wobbles, a little,  “There’s sencha at the palace too, but you never drink it there. Why?”

Yeong’s face does too many things for him to parse.

 “Why?”

“I was greedy, and tired of wanting, but not having, and I couldn’t help myself”.

“You never asked” Yeong says, and it sounds like he’s bleeding. “Don’t you know there’s nothing I would deny you?”

“That” says Gon, softly, “was the problem. I wanted you to want me”.

“You are not a soul divided” Yeong says, “not to me”.

Gon nods.

“I know” he says, “but I feel like that. Sometimes. All the time”.

“Gon”

It’s the first time that Yeong has called him that, the first time since they were children, and Gon had stupidly bought a soul without thinking of the consequence.

His name in Yeong’s mouth sounds like that’s where it was always meant to be.

He places his hand on the table, palm turned upward.

“Yeong” he says, “Forgive me”.

Yeong takes his hand and presses a kiss to his palm, and then turns it over, and kisses his ring, the one that means lord, master, king.

His dark eyes are not as unfathomable as Gon had thought, after all.

Gon exhales shakily.

“Alright” he says, “Alright”.

Their fingers tangle and stay that way, while they smile at each other, foolish, and Gon thinks, surely, everybody must be staring, how inconceivable for it to be any other way, when he feels like he’s been lit up from the inside by a thousand suns.

But no one is.

After a minute, Gon says, “Eun-sup told me the japchae here is pretty good as well”.

“Eun-sup” says Yeong, “knows nothing”.

[bluepenguinstories]

Remoras Full Chapter XXXVII: Cold Comfort For Change

Crowds of people seated, sucking in each other’s oxygen with their open, smiling faces. Plates full of lobster and mashed potatoes and what was that? Spinach? It was something green. Could’ve been seaweed or...whatever other plant was green. I didn’t think about the color green often. Maybe like once or twice, and only when I saw something green. That was all.

Through the air was a nauseating aroma of boiled vegetables and a vague hint of starch. Carbohydrates? I wasn’t sure. Whatever potatoes smelled like when they were heated. If not for the aroma, loathe as I was to breathe it in, I wouldn’t have been able to tell there was any sense of heat at all. At least the food was warm. Maybe the people, too. It did look like a sunny day, and by sunny, I meant that the sun was out.

Decorations of little stone angel statues were lined on shelves and windowsills. Glasses, a counter with a dedicated bartender (some guy in a fancy three-piece suit with a monopoly man mustache). Stairs which led...where? Beats me. Upstairs, probably. If not for the food stench which drowned out all other smells, I might not have picked up on the sleek scent of refined mahogany which made up the hardwood floors, counters, stairs...ah, hell, everything.

What was I doing? Waiting for my seat. I had a reservation and I figured maybe if I arrived a little early, I could get to my seat faster. I was wrong. Dead wrong.

I tapped my foot. It didn’t make anything go faster and the crowds, the chatter, everything worked in tandem to see how far I could stand being in such a place. Rich folks and people on dates who probably pretended to be rich in order to impress the other person. All I wanted was a good meal, something I didn’t have to make, and look at the mess I got myself into: at any point, any one of them could look over to me and they would raise an eyebrow, tilt their head, point, stare in confusion.

It would have made sense, too. I mean, who on a near-summer day would wear a thick, red jacket and have their arms folded as they shivered in place and wished they could find a place of warmth at last, some kind of warmth that would never come? Plenty of people, maybe, I mean, maybe the air conditioner was really working on overdrive. It’s not like I checked the temperature outside before I stepped foot in such a posh hellhole.

All these people smiling and laughing and making face noises. It’s just like how people on the Titanic must’ve been like. Am I the iceberg?

“Dee Flecked?” Called the server. Or receptionist. I didn’t know these restaurant job titles. It wasn’t my job to know. The...whatever was another “some fancy guy”, just like the bartenders. His features were...a face and clothes. That was all I was going to warrant.

Yes. ‘Dee Flecked’. I have to be careful. I’m veering awful close to my original name. At least I don’ t know anyone with a ‘D’ in their name. Nope. None at all.

“Me…” I raised my hand with a feeble motion.

“Right this way, madame,” he motioned.

Finally someone with manners.

He ushered me to my seat, which was a solitary table in the middle of the dining hall. Which meant I was ambushed by all these people who probably didn’t feel so much as a hint of a draft. I guess I should’ve been grateful as at least in the summer time, it was manageable.

“Uh...can I...have a different seat?” I looked up and asked the guy in expensive clothing who was probably paid too little to be way too polite (which meant he probably couldn’t even have afforded his clothing. Was that a plothole, but in real life?).

“I’m sorry, madame, but there are no other seats available,” he broke the news in such a way that it was like he was telling me my great grandmother who I never knew and so had no attachment to had just passed away.

“Oh...that’s...yeah, that tends to happen in a place like this...ha…” I tried not to express my disappointment too hard and I hoped my weak and shaky voice didn’t give me away. To aid in my endeavor, I waved about a hundred dollar bill.

“Here’s a per-emptive tip,” I looked down at the table and muttered.

“Thank you,” he took it, “I’ll get you the finest water we have.”

I let out a foggy sigh of relief. I had done it.

Now, as for what I was doing there, or what I was doing anywhere at all, I couldn’t really say. I’ll be honest – I wasn’t expecting to still be around after all that time. Many months went by (but less than a year) since I parted ways from that glacial diner. For the first several whiles of my time alone, I didn’t really had any particular goal or objective. I slept in alleyways and rooftops alike, anywhere where I thought I wouldn’t be bothered and wouldn’t have to pay rent. Food was difficult to come by, but shoplifting from grocery stores was easy. Also there were food banks, but I didn’t want to rob a food bank.

To think I was living at all, though. It wasn’t really in the plans, but as I said, I had no plans. Life just had a way of going on. Didn’t know how to feel about that one, but it was a little out of my control, so I let it go (conceal, don’t feel) for the most part. Make no mistake, it was unbearable, and at times I did hit something of a rock bottom. I remember being in Italy, concealed by any shadows I could occupy, and would beg others for just a sip of wine. Eventually, though, I had enough, so being individualistic in nature, I did something about my situation and worked hard to earn a fair bit of money.

...In other words, I robbed a rich person’s house in the dead of night while they were on vacation and took off with over a million dollars.

“Ray would’ve been so proud,” I remarked.

Not that I care. It’s not like I miss him. I don’t miss any of those people.

I made my peace with that part of my life and I was sure the feeling was mutual for everyone else as well.

“I’m so glad Remora’s finally gone! Everything’s much easier now!” Was what I was sure they must’ve said. ‘They’ being any one of them, including Tigershark.

Heh. ‘Remora’. What a silly name that was. To think it was all because I saw some dopey fish one day.

Yeah, I thought of the kid from time to time. Thought stuff like, “crap I just left and didn’t even say anything to her.” But then I was reminded of the fact that she had Ray and Sunny anyway, and they were much more equipped to take care of a kid. Plus, as far as I could tell, they were caring people. Not some frost-bitten oaf like me. After being reminded of that, I would always be relieved.

So yeah. No complaints from me. I had my own life now, and I didn’t know what kind of life that was, but my organs still functioned (possibly? Haven’t checked in a while).

Two or more minutes passed and the server handed me a glass of water in a wine glass.

Gee, it really is fancy.

“Thank you,” I handed the server another hundred.

“Have you had time to look at the menu?” He asked.

Fuck. There was a menu? All this time...see, this is what thinking does to you.

“Ice...cream?” I blurted out.

“You want ice cream?”

Why did I say ice cream? Well now it’s out there, so I have no choice but to double down, otherwise I come off as awkward.

“Yes. Get me some of your finest ice cream. Please,” I begged, then gestured and handed another bit of currency to the server.

“Very well. What flavor, madame?”

“Fish…” No. That would be awful. Shut your mouth now.

“Fish?”

“No. I said ‘fresh’. As in, fresh strawberries, please.”

“Very well. I will have a waiter bring you our finest of sherbets.”

“Who?”

“Who will the waiter be?”

“No. Who is ‘Sure Bert’?”

Rather than answer my question, he laughed, then walked away.

How rude. And to think I gave him a tip. Oh well, I have to remember how hard of a life food service workers have. He probably doesn’t get much tips from other people. He probably sleeps on broken glass. Rich people tend to be stingy, after all, which is why I should have their money instead.

When the waiter arrived, he set down a large bowl filled with several mounds of light-reddish colored ice cream and piles of strawberries on top.

“Here you are, madame,” the waiter took a bow as he gestured to the food before me.

“Th...thank you,” I shivered. It was as if I was also one of those ice balls.

“Are you cold, miss?” He asked, his soft politeness almost deceiving me into believing he had any concern.

“Mm...a little…”

“Would you like to eat outside?” He offered.

What the fuck? That server guy said there was no other seating available. That bastard.

“Uh...no...that wouldn’t fix anything. Thank you, though,” I appreciated the offer, really, even if I knew how futile it would have been. For the effort, I handed him a couple of hundred dollar bills. Also, for the record, his attire was so fancy that it reminded me of that one ogre in Shrek. Couldn’t quite remember that ogre’s name, but he wore a fancy outfit, that much I knew. Also, the waiter had hair, I guess. I wasn’t really paying attention.

After he took the money, his tune changed.

“Oh...oh my. Uh...can I massage your back? Bring you cushions for your seat? More food, perhaps?” He seemed desperate and predatory.

“What’s your problem? I just want to eat my ice cream, creep,” I side-eyed the guy who I thought was decent up until that moment.

“Sorry. By all means,” he skittered away, obvious damage control.

I shook my head. Here I thought I would enjoy myself at such a stuffy establishment, but no, it was not meant to be. How tragic.

I left that place, and I wasn’t even sure if I paid for my meal. All in all, I was rather disappointed, especially since I didn’t even want ice cream. I would’ve been just fine with something like shrimp fettuccine alfredo, or a massive super rare steak along with a valley of grapes. But noooo...lousy service gave me ice cream instead.

That was fine. It was good ice cream, for what it was worth, and even though it wasn’t filling, it did bring me a false sense of warmth which I couldn’t have gotten from whatever other food I would’ve wanted instead.

Out on the streets, I took my stride back toward the apartment I’ve occupied for about four or five months now. My days never really consisted of much, so as far as I was concerned, my day was pretty much done. Yet the sun had yet to set and there was little guarantee that I would see any sleep. Such was the gamble I was willing to take. It wasn’t like the apartment was a home, and it wasn’t like the quiet I had found was peace, but inaction in a confined setting was close enough to both of those things for the time being.

So when I opened the door and was about to make my way up the stairs, I was stopped by the landlord, a vile woman who always seemed to wear Hawaiian shirts and had dark sunglasses. Even at night.

“Lenora!” Shouted Abalone, the vile landlord in question, and an extraordinary cause of problems. Many times I’ve heard her cursing up a storm and pounding on doors, demanding her toll like she was on a bridge and not in an apartment complex. Coupled with those demands were the threat of eviction, which I would then wait until she was done with her tirade, walk up to the doors of the people she made miserable, and slipped rent money underneath their door. All so I could get some peace and quiet in my own apartment.

“How many times have I told you to call me Len? Len Arietty!” I reminded her. Two of us could shout, even though I really didn’t like to raise my voice. It was such a chore to do.

(But yes, I went by Lenora, because it seemed much more name-like of a name than Remora, which was not a very name-name)

“Hmph. I’ll call you the name you put on your lease and nothing more,” she stuck her nose up, that self-righteous attitude which was unwarranted.

Nobody appreciates a good pun these days. That’s the problem with modern society.

“And I won’t call you at all. Because I don’t have a phone,” I pointed out. I had a phone, but it was back at a certain diner which wouldn’t be named (I was pretty sure it didn’t have a name, anyway).

“You should get one. What if you’re late on a payment and need an extension?” She hung over my head, but being that I just ate, I didn’t take the bait.

I could buy out the apartment complex, myself, if I wanted to, and I would do it just to put you out of a job.

“Have I ever been late on a payment, Abalone?” I asked in turn, doing my best to make a little baby voice, along with it.

“One day, Lenora. One day,” she warned. What she was trying to warn, however, wasn’t clear.

“One day what? Which day? Tuesday? Just any old day?” I asked, genuine in my confusion.

“Just one day,” she growled.

“Okay, fine, don’t tell me which day it will be,” I was exhausted enough as it was, I wasn’t about to play any guessing games, “uh, one day to you, too, and take care?”

I trudged up the stairs. There was nothing more to speak about and if I wanted to be confused, I’d just go seek out any other social interaction.

After a sluggish march, I stood at the door to Apartment 108. The most basic of numbers. Totally inconspicuous. My hands shook and felt frostbitten as I struggled to place the key in its respective hole. It was a delicate process, one with many fumbles, and at one point I dropped the key. It wasn’t one of my proudest moments, but I didn’t care for such things as ‘pride’ and any grandiose reactions were just a waste of breath.

Inside of the apartment was a sparse collection of what was necessary and nothing more: a small kitchen with a refrigerator, toaster, and microwave oven. None of those things went used, as I preferred to eat out (in spite of the presence of other people), but at times I would press the lever for the toaster down, just so I could try to feel the warm currents against my hands. When that didn’t happen, I would feel compelled to stick my hand in, but so far, I’ve resisted.

Aside from those things, there was a closet with a box of clothing. Shampoo, conditioner, and a bar of soap. None of those things were very impressive and showers always felt awkward. It was just standing there and letting water fall on me, worse, no matter how much I turned the dial, it remained cold. Then when I stepped out of the shower, and steam came out, but I continued to be a shivering mess, I just felt like a fool.

When I slept, if I slept, I would lay on my back in the middle of the floor, wrapped up in a snuggie (yes, that very same snuggie gifted to me from Cybele, some random woman who lived in an airport. While I didn’t really know her, so I couldn’t even hope to care about her, I refused to allow myself to forget such a kind gesture. Besides, snuggies are...snug) and a space heater next to me to keep me company. Even if the space heater did nothing, it was the gesture, what it represented...or maybe I was just desperate. Like, maybe one day, I would actually feel what I was meant to.

Most of the time I laid on the floor, regardless of sleep. It was just what I did. Dwell on things, like life, what I’ve been through, events that had transpired, and who I was. None of it ever did me anything good and any questions I had on life never went answered. It sucked not even having a phone, as there were probably hundreds of thousands of memes that I was missing out on. Things I would never understand without the context, and even then, sometimes things were better without the context. Small price to pay to live in the isolation I so desired, I suppose.

But let’s not dwell on that. Let’s not dwell on my dwelling. If rest may come, then let it come. That was enough.

By now, there must have been an apparent contradiction: if I wanted to isolate myself, why live in a populated area? In fact, I was probably better isolated in the arctic, but that place was so. Damn. Cold.

Well, the answer was a strange one, and it was both an advantage and disadvantage: with all the crowds of people in a city, most people didn’t care who you were. Paid you no mind. Then again, when there were crowds, there was always the possibility that they would pay you mind. In fact, that meant even more people with their watchful eyes who would want nothing more than to react to your every move and mistake. Any quirk or sudden motion that didn’t fit with the norm and those faceless entities were sure to pounce.

But the same thing could happen in a less populated area, and in fact, in a place less popular, you would know for a fact that people were talking about you. That was terrible and bad and uncool. Would not recommend.

Of course, I had a solution, and it was to just not care. When that solution failed, which 9.9 times out of 10, did, I wandered into the town square where there was a fountain and park benches scattered around and took a seat. For whatever reason, few people ever occupied the town square, and especially not in the morning. Someone more inquisitive might have wondered why that was, but I wasn’t about to question a good thing.

Down on the ground was a crow that hopped about. Rather than pigeons, the city seemed to be more dominated by crows. Wasn’t complaining, birds were birds. Could’ve been a cockatrice and I wouldn’t have anything to say on the matter. Of course, I stared down at the crow and their little hops. My palm was against the side of my face and I leaned forward.

“Look at you: are you dancing for others or just to dance? Or is that just how you walk?” I asked the little bird. Then, out of boredom, I dug into my jacket pocket and tossed some bird seeds the crow’s way.

“Make no mistake: I’m not rewarding you for your dance. I’m just bored,” I informed the crow, not that the crow cared. In the crow’s eyes, a free snack was a free snack.

As of late, it’s become a routine of mine to toss stuff at crows. It started one day (probably not the day that landlord was referring to) situated at the town square where I thought of nothing in particular and I had a sandwich in my hand. Some pieces of the sandwich and when a crow started eating the fallen piece, I got a little annoyed.

“Get your own sandwich, crow,” I remember scolding the black bird. My words didn’t seem to deter the crow at all (what could I say? I wasn’t a very threatening person) and I didn’t really care to scold the crow any further. It was just a sandwich, after all. But after that day, I took it upon myself to buy some bird seeds at the local bird seed store.

“Just so you know, just because I’m doing this nice thing, I don’t care about you,” I told the crow, then tossed another handful of birdseed. That crow just pecked away.

“See? That’s what I like about you: you don’t care either. I could call you a dummy stupid butt bird and you wouldn’t have anything to say, would you? I could call you a big stinky hairy butt bird.”

Yep. Nothing to say. The crow looked up at me for a brief second. I gave a small wave, and then they went right back to eating.

“Why can’t more people be like you, crow? We have a mutual apathy for each other and we still get along just fine…” I think I was starting to think things I didn’t want to think about.

Just as I was about to seed the crow further, that little opportunist looked away, then flew off.

Looks like we got a dine and dasher.

“Heh, were you offended by what I said after all?” I wondered aloud. If anyone saw me they must have wondered, “what was that crazy lady doing in that thick jacket, shivering and talking to a crow?” But what were they doing watching me for? If anything, they were the crazy ones for watching.

Maybe the bench would be a nice place for a nap, if I could find any tiredness at all. I tapped my foot and pondered my options.

“What to do...what to do…”

Before I could figure that out, the crow returned (or at least, a crow returned. Could’ve been any old crow).

That crow landed next to my feet and set down something on the ground. I spread my legs and peered down to find a silver coin.

“What...what the...no. No, no, no. That’s not part of the deal. You’re not supposed to give me money, look,” I reached into my pocket and pulled out several hundred dollar bills, “I’ve got plenty of that. I’m just doing this out of boredom.”

Instead of doing the sensible thing and taking off with the quarter after realizing their mistake, the stubborn crow pushed the quarter closer to me with their beak.

“Dude, you’re being real pushy. Don’t you know that’s a real turn off?”

Again, the crow remained persistent, and having had enough, I got up and shooed the crow away.

“Go on, begone with ye!” I waved my hands away, and the crow at last took off, although I noticed that the quarter was still next to me. What a hassle.

“Would it be bad if I didn’t take this? I mean, what if that crow was actually a fairy in disguise and if I don’t take their payment, they’ll curse me?” I pondered. There was no real need to ponder, as I knew that fairies weren’t real (although there were creatures from outside of earth that were fairy-like) and it wasn’t like my life wasn’t already cursed from the day I was born. But still, if fairies were real…

OK. I took the quarter. Better safe than sorry.

My next plan of attack was...my growling stomach. Well, that was unexpected, but who would I be to not quell the beast?

Whenever I felt that beast (my stomach) roar, I did what any sensible person would do and I went and got coffee. Back in my diner days, I never really gave coffee much thought despite it being a signature drink at such places. Yes, I was aware of its existence, but I never really saw value in it. Now, having lived a new life filled with self-discovery and wonder, I learned the truth: coffee was like a drink and a meal all in one. Well, it helped to also get a meal along with the coffee. Maybe I’d consider that.

I looked around and as luck would have it, there was a coffee shop situated just behind where I had sat, obscured by tables with umbrellas and kiosks (one selling deep-fried portabella mushrooms, the other selling horseshoe crab enthusiast magazines with little horseshoe crab plushies hanging off the ceiling of the kiosk). Drip Drip Drop Coffee was the name of the place, and with a name like that, it was almost certain that the coffee was top quality.

“I know a place…” I mouthed the words, then stepped forward and into Drip Drip Drop. An ominous feeling followed me along as I entered. There were indeed far too many people. There were at least five people inside, and worse yet, some were conversing with each other. Not seated were three people in line who I had to stand behind. As much stomach continued to growl, I looked up at the menu.

Oh, thank goodness, they have sandwiches. Sub sandwiches, to boot. I think I’ll order a cold cut. Every kind of meat on it. Double stacked. You know, now that I think about it, why are they called ‘sub’ sandwiches? I get it’s short for submarine, but it doesn’t even look like a submarine. It looks like a sandwich. Makes me think that whoever named it didn’t even know what a submarine looked like. That, or didn’t know what a sandwich looked like, and just thought everything else that wasn’t a submarine was just like a submarine, but not. Maybe it’s called that cause some bored person in a submarine had enough materials to make a sandwich, and they just happened to be in a submarine when they made it. On that note, I’m willing to bet that if you drop a sub sandwiches in the ocean, it will, indeed, get soggy.

“Monster energy iced cappuccino with quadruple shot espresso for ‘Boruto’!” One of the baristas shouted. I found that to be an odd name, but a little curious, I looked around and saw some average height scrawny woman in a camouflage print hoodie as well as camo pants whose brown ponytail poked out from her backwards cap.

“Heh. Heh heh heh. They probably think my name really is Boruto. Suckers,” sneered the gremlin-like stranger.

I shook my head. Didn’t people have better things to do than give poor baristas a fake name? They were already underpaid and overworked as it was, no need to humiliate them further.

“Hello? Are you going to order?” Asked a faint and soft, but cheery voice. I looked around, then heard a tap against the counter. That was when I realized that there was no longer a line in front of me and I was supposed to be the next to order.

“Huh? Oh. Yeah. Sorry,” I stepped forward. Behind the counter was a young woman who looked to be in her mid-twenties and had wavy, pink hair along with three piercings along both ears. On each cheek were three freckles.

“That’s fine! There’s no one behind you!” She informed me in a sing-song like voice. Indeed, there was no one behind me, much to my relief. But something told me that I would have noticed had there been someone behind me.

“Oh, huh. You’re cute,” I remarked, and realizing that had been spoken aloud, I continued as if nothing was said, “I’ll get a…” I shivered much more than I meant to and it felt more like a jolt.

“Air conditioner?” She asked.

I gave a feeble nod.

“Yeah, it’s always out of wack. I get it’s a warm day and all, but seriously, does it have to feel like we’re in the freakin’ arctic?”

Finally someone who gets it. Or at least I don’t have to make up a big excuse.

“Yeah...Okay. I think I’m ready. I’ll get a mocha and a c...co…” the shivering continued.

“Take your time.”

I really don’t want to. I want to be in, then out.

“Cold cut sandwich,” I sped through the words.

“Great! And how do you want your coffee?”

“Cold...too…” I answered through grit teeth.

“Mm...mm...I get it. Yeah. Hot day, cold coffee. Makes sense. Yeah.”

That had nothing to do with it. Maybe it didn’t make sense for me to get it, what with the whole idea of wanting to feel warmth, but the thing was, when I drank hot coffee, it just tasted like cold anyway. So if I got cold coffee, at least I could taste it. Besides, it’ s not like the temperature of the coffee really changes the body’s temperature. It’s not like people dump cold coffee on their head on a hot day, or hot coffee on their head on a cold day. That’ s not how it worked.

I fished out the handful of hundred dollar bills and set them on the counter.

“Uh, keep the change? Bye.” “Wait,” she called out before I could get very far, “Can I get a name for the order?”

Crap. Name. Think, think…

“Karen,” that was a rather unassuming name with no connotations attached whatsoever, unlike something like Rhea. “Karen Alotte.”

“What kind of name is that?!” Shouted the annoying ponytail gremlin, “At least Boruto is an actual name! Fictional, mind you, but still real!”

I lowered my head. Customers really were the worst.

“Don’t let it get to you,” the barista told me. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having a name that’s not Boruto.”

“Uh, thanks, I guess?” I wasn’t sure what to say to that.

Well, I wouldn’t have to deal with any annoying customers and their pointless comments much longer. About five minutes later, my name was called and I headed out the door without a second thought, back to where I was situated in the town square. While I didn’t know the time, I assumed it was about noonish, give or take some minutes.

Now there were two crows when once was one. It must have been a good omen, all because I took that quarter.

“Hey guys. Look what I got,” I pointed to my sandwich. Those crows didn’t so much as look up.

“Well, that’s fine, too. I’m not offering you any.”

One iced coffee later, and halfway through my sandwich, I heard a distinct voice yell out from behind me.

“YOU’RE CUTE TOO!” Their voice rang through the air and I turned around and saw a girl with pink hair who stood before me, one foot in front of the other, and cupped her mouth with her hands.

I turned back to the crows.

“Get a load of this girl,” I pointed my thumb behind me and told them, “I feel bad for whoever she’s calling to.”

Seeing as no one else had it in their hearts to break the news to her, I took it upon myself. After all, I was cold enough to not hold back.

“Hey, girl! You’re embarassing yourself!” I shouted back to her. “Everyone around can hear you!”

She looked over at me and stood up straight, then blinked.

“Oh. Sorry,” she replied, then walked over. “I was trying to get your attention, actually.”

I pointed to myself.

“Me? Cute? Why?” I was most confused. I didn’t recall ever being called ‘cute’ before.

“Does it have to be said?” She gave a smile that looked like she was about to burst into laughter. “Your puffy jacket, your short black hair, your nervousness,” she began to list.

“The nervousness isn’t cute...I’m just generally uncomfortable,” I corrected.

“Okay, well, still! You said I’m cute, and I think you’re cute too! Just accept it!”

I looked away and blushed. So that’s what it was all about, huh? I just had to say that out loud and now I was reaping the consequences?

“So it was you,” I muttered.

“Yeah, I know, it’s weird, right? It’s just that I’ve always been told that by creepy dudes and not someone as attractive as yourself,” she remarked.

“I’m not at...at...I’m repellent,” I concluded, and put my hands on my hips all proud.

“Oh, sure. Tell yourself that,” she slouched over and groaned, then perked right back up. “Hey! Can I sit next to you?”

I looked around.

“It is possible,” I informed her. I didn’t know why she would want to, seeing as there were plenty of other places to sit elsewhere, but unless she had a condition that made it hard for her to sit down, then I didn’t see why that would be a problem.

She sat down and I felt a wave of discomfort come over me.

It was so much easier to eat a sandwich when I didn’t have someone sitting next to me.

“Shouldn’t you be at work right now?” I asked.

“It’s my lunch break! I’m usually not very hungry on my lunch breaks, so I usually wait to eat until I’m off work. Because of that, I usually have a lot of free time, and since I’m a very social person, I tend to have conversations with random people.”

“I wouldn’t recommend that. What if you end up talking to someone dangerous?” I suggested.

“Hmm...that’s a good point. Are you dangerous?”

“Not at the moment, no,” I replied without thought.

“Then I think it’s fine to talk to you, no?”

I shrugged.

“Do what you want.”

She beamed a bright grin, but it took about a solid minute before she had anything more to say and instead she just kicked her legs back and forth against the bench. It was a little creepy.

“So, Karen, was it?” She leaned her head forward and asked.

“That was a name I used, yes.”

“Oh? That’s not your name?”

Damn it. I shouldn’t have phrased it that way.

“I’m...still trying to figure out a name,” I admitted.

“What do you mean?”

I let out a heavy sigh. If there was something I cared about...then that one thing was something I didn’t want to care about. But I had to be delicate in my apathy.

“Well, it’s like...I was going by a different name for a little while and before that, I had a different name, my original name. I also had many other names, but that original name, that was who I considered myself to be. You follow?”

She nodded.

“I think so. Go on?”

Why? Oh, well. If I’m committed to not caring, then I have to treat this with a carefree attitude.

“Thing is, that name didn’t really make me uncomfortable in of itself. I once went to a meeting just for the hell of it and decided to talk about the name issue with them, too, and they thought I was referring to a ‘deadname’, which I didn’t know what that was, so someone explained it and mad respect to trans people, but that’s not quite what I mean.”

“All right. So what do you mean?”

“Well, I guess you can think of it like a deadname. Because it’s like, imagine there was another me, like, hypothetically, and it’s like that other me died. That other me, who shared that name, no longer exists, and can’t exist, but they still follow me. Not physically, but it’s like I’d get compared to how she was, the good and the bad. Worse, I compared myself to that other me. I felt inferior at times, other times I desired to be superior. It was like I was living in a shadow of myself and I didn’t know any other way to escape from it but to change my name. Thing is, though, all the names I’ve come up with just haven’t feel right, either.”

“So, you’ve been trying to escape from yourself?” She asked, now less inquisitive and more sounding confused.

“Yeah, funny enough, I think I have been, and I don’t know what it is: whether or not I can fundamentally change or whether or not I want to. I mean, I’m comfortable enough, as uncomfortable as my existence is, but I also didn’t want to associate with that other me. Hypothetically, I mean.”

“Right. It’s easy to say ‘don’t compare yourself to others’ but I suppose it’s harder when you have this idealized version of yourself that you compare to? I know I get thoughts like, ‘I should be better than this. I know I can be smarter, so why do I have this job?’ Which can then spiral down and...yeah…”

I wasn’t really sure what she was referring to. She had me in the first half, not gonna lie, but then it just fell apart in the second half.

“You sound like you need therapy,” I pointed out, “but anyway, I think what it comes down to is, there’s over a million people with that name, or at least five. Sure, she was one version of me, but does that mean that two people can’t have the same name? I don’t think so. Maybe I’m not exactly like her, but she lived her life and I’m living mine. So I think I’m ready now,” I concluded, then looked over to her and tried my best to give a smile. It was only slight. But progress was progress.

“One talk and you’re ready?” She looked surprised.

My heart took a huge leap. It was probably the coffee, but it could have also been because of what I was about to say.

“Yeah. I’m Rhea Flection.”

“Well, nice to meet you, Miss Flection. My name’s Ceres. Ceres Lee.”

Aww...everything was going so well, too…

I got up.

“Nope. Nope. Not doing this again. I’m out,” I took a few steps away.

“What?!”

Oh, come on, me. If you can get past one name, you can get past another.

I sucked in my pride, which in this case, was just my breath, and I walked right back and sat right back down.

“Okay, sorry. That was rash,” I admitted. “Also, I left my sandwich behind.”

I picked it up and continued eating.

“What was that all about?” She asked.

“I once knew someone with a name similar to yours and she was very dear to me,” I confessed. “But I didn’t care about her. Though I wanted to be friends with her, and close with her, but...I guess can’t really do that when you’re unable to be close with others.”

“Okay, so it’s someone dear to you that you don’t care about?” She asked as she counted on her fingers. What she counted, I wasn’t sure.

“Yes. Exactly. See, you get it. By the way, I don’t have feelings for you.”

“Wouldn’t expect you to.”

Damn, she got me there.

“But yeah, her name was Demetria, and Ceres is the Roman equivalent of Demeter...yeah, I know, I’ve done my research, but in my defense, I only found that out recently. Anyway, she was kind of a nuisance and I didn’t really understand much of her behavior and I was just fine being on my own. But I don’t know, something kind of happened over time and then I got sick and I really wanted to confide my whole life and then I told her something I shouldn’t have. I mean, it felt right at the time, but it wasn’t true.”

“What was it?”

“That I didn’t care about her.”

Her mouth hung low and she tilted her head, like she was just about to throw up.

“Okay...but didn’t you just tell me that you don’t? I swear, you keep contradicting yourself.”

“I know! My head was a mess then and it’s a mess now. I didn’t understand and rather than think about it, I decided that I didn’t want to and so I haven’t been, but it still bothers me.”

“Sounds like you need a therapist,” she pointed out.

“Hey, that’s what I told you.”

“Yeah, and how do you know I don’t have one?”

Argh. I didn’t consider that one.

“I don’t know. I think I still need to figure out how to identify that I care about something. That would be a good first step. But still, I wish I could take it back. I can at least identify that as a mistake.”

“So, Rhea Flection? You didn’t do any self-reflection?”

I scowled.

“Ceres Lee? Seriously?”

She nudged me, I nudged her back. We both laughed.

“I can’t believe you called me cute only to talk about another girl,” she laughed, “do you know what that all sounds like to me?”

Don’t say ‘love’. Please.

“What?” I asked, as much as I’d rather not hear the answer.

“It sounds like I’m in some kind of romantic comedy! Like I walked into a movie set and I didn’t even know it!”

“Oh, come on. These things can happen. This isn’t fiction, it’s real life.”

“I know, I know,” she laughed and wiped away some sweat from her eye. “It’s just...so cliché, y’know?”

“I guess,” I grumbled, “but if I’m gonna be feeling things, I’d like to know that I’m feeling things.”

Ceres pulled out her phone.

“Oh hey, I still have like fifteen minutes before I gotta get back. Wanna walk around town a bit?”

“Sure, but I don’t see why,” I replied and shrugged.

We walked past her place of employment, past the various shops, and continued to wander.

“I need to kill off time. I’m not about to go back to work early!” She explained.

Makes sense, but why am I tagging along?

“Look! It’s a hat shop!” She’d point out, or, “look! An ostrich museum!”

My eyes scanned around throughout; nothing of interest stood out to me, but I didn’t want to miss anything in case something caught my eye.

From an alleyway shot out a thin thread-like appendage in Ceres’ direction. Acting fast, I ducked, then shoved Ceres out of the way. She wobbled a bit, lost her balance, then fell. Still better than whatever that thing would’ve done to her.

“Hey, what was that for?!” She balked.

“Sorry. Just wait here,” I instructed.

I ran into the alleyway. It may have been nothing or it may have been a trap. Even if I had ran right into a trap, I would much rather have done so than endanger some stranger I just met.

At first, I saw nothing out of the ordinary, just a dead-end alleyway with a dumpster and a brick wall in the very back. Then, as if materialized from the shadow cast by the enclosed area, was a dark cloaked figure with a blank white stone mask over where their face should have been. Behind the mask was a thick head of long, flowing golden hair. They pointed one near-skeletal thin hand forward, and out from the cloak, released several more of those appendages.

I ducked and rolled toward the side of the wall.

“You have evaded every one of my traps, and in some cases, were already lying in wait with a countermeasure,” they spoke, a solemn monotone, not unlike my own voice, but with a wispy tone of sorrow attached.

“Uh, sorry for being smart, I guess?”

They shook their head.

“Even as those you’ve allied yourself with in the arctic are encased in an inescapable fog, you remain unharmed. But that all ends now. Once you are gone, I will have no need for such drastic measures.”

After hearing those words, I was stunned and I felt the shivers return, along with a tenseness I didn’t anticipate.

“What are you talking about? For that matter, who are you?” I forced out the words, a heavy and chilly breath let out along with them.

“The fact that you don’t know only makes it worse,” uttered their cryptic reply.

From behind me I heard the clacks of shoes and caught in the corner of my eye, Ceres, running up to me.

“What’s going on? Who is this guy?” She asked.

“No offense, but I think they’d just give you the same answer they gave me,” I replied without much thought, and then upon realizing who was next to me, turned to scold. “I thought I told you to stay where you were!” I hissed.

“Yeah, but you didn’t tell me why!” She argued.

“That’s because I didn’t know what was up, but you should trust that I wouldn’t just push somebody for no reason!”

My presumed enemy spoke up and freed me from my distraction.

“So I see you’ve brought someone else with you. Rather unfortunate, but I will dispose of you both.”

“Go. Now,” I hissed at Ceres.

She looked at me, then over to the cloaked figure.

“Yeah, I think that’s a good call,” she nodded, and began to run out, but fell.

“Ow! It’s like there’s an invisible wall or something,” she rubbed her forehead.

They must have set up a bounded field. They’re really expecting to trap us in and kill us both.

Each of their arms stretched out now and the fingers on each hand turned to little blades. Along with that, several thorny vines protruded from each arm.

“Okay. This guy certainly isn’t normal,” in fact, I’m reminded of a previous encounter. “Ceres,” I addressed her, “I’m much better at taking a life than I am defending one, so I suggest you take cover behind that dumpster.”

“Taking a li – What are you talking about?!” She cried out.

Looks like the cat’s out of the bag.

“Nothing you need to worry about. I’ll take any hits that come, so just take cover.”

At last, she did as I instructed, and hid behind the dumpster.

With little time to react, I covered my head with each arm as the vines shot forth my way. Their thorns cut right into my arms and I felt each sting. I ducked under to avoid any more hits, and moved forward toward the figure, whose arms were poised to strike me. Before they could slice through me, I grabbed one of their arms and tossed them into the nearby wall, their back slammed again and they fell back.

“Let me guess: Buddy Fairweather?” I asked as I stood back up.

“Took you long enough. He was just a spare corpse, but I was the man who spoke through him, yes,” oozed out his voice as he picked himself back up.

Spare corpse?

“I should have known better to assume it would end with him,” I remarked. If I recall, I even figured that things wouldn’t end, but just like a fool, I forgot all about it.

“How unfortunate, indeed. But it will end with you. You’re powerless without your rifle. Worse, you have no weapons, nor any means of defense.”

I hate to admit, but he’s right. I can take some hits, I’ve got my reflexes, but I’m unequipped against a supernatural being.

“Hey Ceres! Find me something to use as a weapon, will ya?” I called over.

“You want me to go dumpster diving?!” She called back.

“Yeah!”

She stood up and opened the lid and I saw several of those vines launch toward her again.

“Nope!” I kicked my leg up and stamped those series of vines out of the way. His clawed hand struck at my leg and I lifted it higher just to avoid them.

That was a close call.

“I found a metal rod!” Ceres exclaimed.

How convenient.

She tossed it over, but a few of those vines caught it instead. They worked together to bend, then snap them in half. Desperate, I grabbed onto them from the base of one of his arms and yanked against them. As I squeezed and tugged, the thorns from the vines tore against my palm and bled through. I would just have to endure a bit of bleeding.

As I exerted my strength, I slammed the group of vines against the wall. At the same time, they were successful in snapping the metal rod in half, but also dropped the split pieces as well. I hurried and picked them up in each hand, and at that same instance, he tried to strike down with both of his bladed hands. I caught them with both rods.

I then ducked down and released the rods, then shoved them both into his chest. To my surprise, blood seeped through the wound.

“Rhea! Are you okay?” Ceres shouted.

Jeez. No discretion at all.

“So you’re going by that name, now? Before you only used it as a ruse, but now you embrace it?” He asked, still alive, even through what should have been a fatal wound. But of course, I knew better than to consider something so simple to be fatal. Not when I wasn’t dealing with a simple person in the first place.

“What’s it to you?” My lips spread to an ecstatic smile.

“I only find it amusing, is all,” he seemed to smile as well, then took one of his hands and swiped right at me. I managed to pull out one of the rods to block the attack, but in the process of trying to pull out the other, his other hand swiped faster than I could react and slashed across my face. Small cuts formed along my cheek. As much as he got a clear hit in, I was most surprised to find how little I felt from it.

“Are you hurt?!” Ceres cried out.

Blood ran down from my cheek, but I only felt a little bit of a sting at best.

“No, I’m just bleeding,” I replied, then turned to my enemy, “don’t you know that if you wanna go in me, you have to go deeper?”

He tried to slash again, but I wouldn’t let him get away with it twice, not when I was sure he’d make for a more fatal cut the second time around. I pulled out the other rod, blood oozed from the gash in his chest, but he looked unfazed by the injury. I blocked his swipe, then kicked him back into the wall and plunged the tip of one of the split rods into his head. He blocked with his bladed hand, but it just went through as well and I continued to drive it in until it tore through his mask and wedged its way into his skull.

He gasped out and cracks formed in his mask until it broke off. In its place, instead of a face, looked to be a mass of worms.

“I take it that after I tear you apart, this won’t end?” I asked.

“Yes...this is but one feeble body…”

“Good to know,” I hissed, then took the other rod and jammed it back into his chest.

As he gasped out his last breaths, the worm-face caved in and formed something of a smile.

“Tell me: do you fear death?” He rasped.

I shook my head.

“No. But I fear what you might do with the dead,” I answered.

After that, his body dissolved into a black ooze, then a puff of smoke which fizzled up until it faded and there was no longer a single trace that anyone, or anything, was there.

I took several heavy breaths after that and dropped the metal rods to the ground.

“What was all that?!” Ceres stood beside me in shock. “For that matter, what did he mean by anything he said?! And ‘rifle’?”

“A rifle is a type of gun,” I informed her.

“I know that! Okay…” she took heavy breaths as well, more out of shock than anything, as she had no trace of injury save for some bruises from falling. “How do we get out of here and are you going to be okay? You’re badly injured!”

“This?” I looked down at my arms. “Nah. I’ve had worse. But that should’ve gone smoother, that’s for sure. All that tells me is that I’ve been slacking. But that was just the rush I need.”

I was smiling. Even a simple sense of heat from injuries were enough for me.

“What do you mean?”

I smiled.

“I guess I’m just never truly alive unless it’s in a fight.”

“Okay...you’re scaring me a little. But seriously, how are we going to get out of here? Weren’t we blocked off?”

I shrugged.

“Those barrier devices aren’t meant to last for a long time. They usually dissipate after a while,” I explained. They’re good when you want to trap someone in and are confident that you can take care of your target quickly. Less effective in prolonged fights. However, it’s more concerning that he had one set up at all. I don’t have to think very hard to understand the implications.

“Well, gee, ain’t that fucking convenient?” She just about gasped. Poor barista must’ve seen too much and if I had to guess, her head was spinning in a thousand different directions.

I unzipped my jacket and took it off, then dropped that on the ground as well. It was dirty now and did me no good, seeing how torn it had become due to the nature of the fight. As soon as I did so, I began to shiver with greater intensity.

“Are you all right?” She looked up and asked.

“Y-yeah...it’s just a condition of mine. Come on, let’s get out of here,” I folded my arms together and walked out from the alleyway. Sure enough, there was no barrier keeping either of us in.

“You know, I never noticed before with the jacket, but you’re really muscular,” Ceres pointed out.

“I’m surprised, myself, since I haven’t been very active in a while,” I replied. Though something tells me I’m ready to start working out again.

As soon as we stepped back out into the street, Ceres checked her phone.

“Crap! My lunch break just got over! My manager said that if I was late from my break again, she’d fire me! My life is over!” She started to freak out.

“Considering what we just went through, I’d say your life was almost over already,” I pointed out.

“This is so much worse! I don’t wanna be out of a job!” She began to whine.

“I think if you had died, you would have also been out of a job, just saying.”

“This is serious!”

I groaned. Talk about skewed priorities. Before I could argue further, she ran back toward the coffee shop.

“I’m not gonna make it in time!” She yelled as she ran. I chased after and soon caught up to her.

“You know, I don’t think your boss should fire you. If anything, it’s my fault you got into that mess,” I told her. After all, if she had literally gone to talk to anyone else, she might not have had that problem. Besides, whoever her boss was should be a little understanding over the fact that their employee’s life was threatened.

We both rushed into the coffee shop at once and she ran past the customers and into the back. I followed behind, even though that probably wasn’t allowed. But who was I to care about something like that?

In the back was a little area with a large porcelain sink and many dishes and soapy water filled to the top of it. At the back wall, where the uniforms were, stood the manager, a middle aged woman with curly red hair. Her arms were cross and she tapped her foot.

“Ceres Lee! What did I tell you would happen if you were back late from break again?” She growled.

“But...but..!” Ceres stammered and tried to come up with an explanation, but her words didn’t ever come.

“No excuses! You’re always slacking off!”

“Hey!” I cut in. Her managed turned to me and exchanged her cross expression my way.

Great. As if I really wanted to deal with confrontation.

“Who are you?” She asked.

“I’m a paying customer,” I informed her.

“Okay, well, this place is off limits, it doesn’t matter if you’re a customer or not.”

Do I look like I give a fuck what’s off limits?

“You shouldn’t fire her,” I refused to back down. “She was with me.”

“Trust me: she does this all the time. You’re not helping her case.”

I furrowed my brow and scrambled for an excuse.

“For your information, I’m her girlfriend!” I blurted out.

Ceres just looked at me all tense, her face red, and she shook it slow to tell me that what I just said was a bad idea. But as with most things, I didn’t care.

“My dear is always telling me how much she hates how little we have to spend together because of how busy you guys make her,” I came up with.

Tenser still, Ceres’s face didn’t move, but her eyes darted first to her manager, then toward me.

“Is this true? Is this person your girlfriend, Ceres?” Her manager asked.

Ceres broke a sweat, then gulped.

“Y...yes…” She squeaked out, almost inaudible.

“I see. I didn’t know we worked you so hard considering you’re PART TIME,” she just about spat in Ceres’ face. Manager or not, that just seemed unnecessary.

Looks like I’m going to have to embarrass myself now.

“Hey!” I snapped, then stepped up to the manager until she backed up into a wall. I raised my right leg up to the wall and planted my foot next to the manager’s head.

“Do you know why they call me ‘Karen Alotte’?” I growled as I asked her. She looked over to my leg in terror.

“Hey,” I snapped my fingers. “Eyes up here. Do you know why?” I asked again.

“B-Because it’s your name?” She took a feeble guess, fear having been struck in her. Just like Ceres, her face turned red as well.

“No. It’s because I be carin’. A lot,” I then pointed behind me. “Now, my girl over there, this job is important to her, and I know that if she loses it, she’s going to be hurt. She’ll cry. That girl means the world to me and if I know that she’s been hurt, there will be hell to pay.”

“I...I see…” She glanced over at my leg. How disgusting. Couldn’t even look me in the eye.

“Let me tell you something: when I first met Ceres, I thought she was a weirdo. I didn’t understand her at all. She’d say things like ‘I want her to step on me’ and ‘wow, she could kill me and I’d thank her’,” as I was about to go on, I was interrupted by Ceres:

“What?! Er...I mean, that’s private stuff!” She was doing her best to play along, I could tell. I ignored her outcry. I wasn’t finished.

“But over time, she grew into an amazing person, someone who was both admirable and admired me as well. Sure, she still says weird things sometimes, but I love her anyway, and I know I’ve said some hurtful things in the past, things like how I didn’t care about her, but how could I not care about her? I mean, she’s…” I looked over to Ceres. She tried to force a smile through clenched teeth. “Well, just look at her!”

“Ahem,” her manager cleared her throat. “I...see your point,” she then turned to her employee, “Ceres!”

Ceres stood up stiff.

“Yes, ma’am?” She shouted, as if she was a cadet in an army.

“I’ll let you off with another warning, just today, but try to separate your love life from work. Got it?”

“Yes,” she hung her head low.

“Good. Get yourself cleaned up and get back out on the floor!”

I waved to Ceres.

“Bye, honey,” I told her in a teasing voice. After that, I walked away. As soon as I stepped out from the coffee shop, I heaved out a huge breath.

“Damn, that was embarrassing. I’m never going to that coffee shop again,” I told myself, then headed back to the apartment. There were a few things I had to retrieve before I could leave town.

For the most part, I didn’t really have anything to take with me. I gave away all the items in the apartment, save for the snuggie. That I wrapped around myself like a cape. I told the landlord that she could go to hell, and as much as I could have bought that apartment complex out, I figured it would be a waste, since I wouldn’t do anything with it, and I was ready to ditch that whole city anyway.

I had to take a few flights, as the next city I visited turned out to be a bust. But someone suggested I try another city, so I went, and at last found what, or rather, who I was looking for.

“Well, well,” she smiled her sinister smile as her head was leaned back against a shack, “look who decided to show up.”

“Hey Wendy,” I waved and already felt like I was going to regret being there. Beside Wendy was a large cup from a fast food restaurant and she took it and sipped through the straw, then set it back down.

“Name’s Ellie Tomiko now,” she informed me with a sly smile that told me she wasn’t all too serious about that change.

“Okay. Whatever. Sure.”

“Oh, poo. You’re no fun,” she seemed disappointed, then offered her drink to me, “want some?”

I took her cup and took a sip, then spit it out.

“What is that crap?!” I exclaimed.

“What? Never had soda before?”

“I know what soda tastes like. That was not it.”

“Okay, so maybe it got flat and then turned warm from sitting out in the sun too long, but it's still good,” she took a sip to demonstrate. Her taste buds must’ve been broken.

“What’s the point of something being warm if I can’t feel it? There wasn’t even any steam.”

“Because not everything warm has steam and not everything’s about you,” she informed me.

“I never said anything was. It just doesn’t make sense to me, is all.”

“So everything warm doesn’t matter if it’s not steamy? What about love?”

That didn’t make sense to me. Leave it to her to impart the philosophical questions, but I just couldn’t wrap my head around how you could assign a temperature to an emotion.

“How do you make love steamy?” I asked her.

“Want me to show you?” She smiled that sly smile once again, and I decided I was better off not knowing.

“Nah. I don’t trust you. I can always look it up online later.”

“Very well. So what can I do for you? By the way, you just missed her.”

I wasn’t sure who she was talking about.

“Who?” I asked.

She ignored the question, just as I figured she would.

“How have you been?” She asked instead.

I shrugged.

“Fine, I guess. I’m still alive.”

“That makes one of you,” she observed. That kind of stung a little. “But good. It’s good to see you.”

“What about you?” I asked, out of courtesy.

“Can’t complain. I’ve got plenty of money now. I took your advice and checked out that diner. Ray’s got me working as an escort now.”

“An escort?”

She nodded.

“Yeah. I help people along, get them to safety.”

“Why does he have you doing that for?”

“You really have no idea what’s going on, do you?” She asked right back instead.

Wrong. I have some idea.

“No. Tell me.”

“Basically, soon after you left, a thick fog filled the air and has remained since. Anyone who passes through it gets injured, and that’s only if they’re lucky. Some wind up dead. There’s no physical force that gives these injuries, but some people report seeing shadows in the fog, and others claim to hear voices, but can’t make out the words. Almost like the work of ghosts.”

This is all my fault. If not for my shortsightedness…

“Anyway, because of the properties of my sword, I’m able to pass through unharmed, even if it is difficult to navigate around. So Ray has me gather anyone I can and either send them to the diner, or send them to the nearest hospital. It hasn’t engulfed all of the arctic, but the fog seems to spread further with each passing day. All flights to and from the area have been canceled, in hopes of minimizing the risk.”

“What are you doing here, then?”

“It’s like an ebb and flow. Sometimes it eases up. Not the fog itself, but the damages. There’s periods where people don’t pass through. It’s still a risk being away, but he says he can afford to keep the place together as long as things don’t get too bad, but when things start to pick up again, the risk, the injuries, all that, I go back.”

“Are they all okay?” I asked.

“They’re still holding up, but it wears at them. I suspect it’s only a matter of time and they’d already be gone by now if not for outside help.”

“Outside help?”

“Yeah. They’ve practically made it into a full on restaurant again, except they don’t charge people. People sleep in the booths and any spare room there is. There’s a waitress and everything.”

Waitress. That brings to mind De...no, shouldn’t jump to conclusions.

“Who’s the waitress?”

She shrugged.

“Dunno. Some kid with white hair. She takes the orders, Tigershark makes the food. Ray and Sunny oversee the whole thing. It’s a mess, but they’re making it work.”

That’s at least somewhat of a relief.

Before I could probe her for any more questions, her phone rang.

Oh, that’s new. She has a phone.

“Well speak of the devil!” Ellie (or Wendy) exclaimed, “how’s it going, Ray? Guess who’s with me right now. R –” Before she could continue, I gestured to her by sliding my finger across my neck and scowling. For added measure, I kicked her in the shin. “�� Ow. Rowdy Roger, my good friend Roger.”

She then held the phone away and covered it with her hands.

“What was that for?” She hissed.

“I don’t want him to know I’m here,” I muttered.

She shook her head and put the phone back up to her ear.

“Yeah, I don’t know. I was feeling a bit silly, sorry about that. Oh? That bad, huh? All right, I’ll be on my way. Just keep holding out, okay? Bye.”

She hung up and set the phone down.

“Well, looks like that’s my cue,” she announced.

“How bad is it?” I asked.

“Why? Worried about them?”

I gulped. My head sunk.

She studied me, then spoke again:

“You miss them, don’t you?”

I nodded.

“Well look at you, my little Remora’s grown up. She’s got emotions,” she remarked.

“Hey, don’t tease me,” I pouted. “It’s just...I left and I shouldn’t have and now this…”

“What about Demetria?”

Oh, of course she had to go there.

“Yes. I miss her too.”

She scratched her chin.

“What if you see her again and she’s not the same person you knew when you last saw her?”

“That doesn’t matter. I want to see her again. I want to see everyone again.”

“You know, I’ve seen her recently. She’s gotten stronger. She might even be strong enough to take you on.”

“That doesn’t surprise me.”

Ellie let out a heavy sigh, then looked up.

“Don’t take this the wrong way, which I’m sure you will, but the two of you really piss me off.”

“What? Where is this coming from?” I was taken aback.

“You know where it’s coming from,” she smiled her usual smile, even if I could tell her words were sincere, “you start feeling things you don’t understand and what do you do? You get all worked up and leave. Do you know what you do when you don’t understand something?”

“What?” I asked, even though I didn’t really like the lecture.

“You work on figuring it out! It’s just like if you’re on a mission, you gather all the information you need, you look for a solution.”

“But it’s not a mission,” I corrected.

“It was important to you, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah, but…”

“Well if you won’t think about it when it’s important, maybe it would help to think of it as a mission. As for her, she’d go on and tell me how ‘it’s no longer part of my life, so it’s no longer important’ as if that makes any sense at all.”

“It doesn’t?” I asked. “It makes perfect sense to me.”

“Come on. You’re no longer a janitor, but that life affects you, does it not?”

Ugh…

“Yeah.”

“So don’t you think it’s dumb to be like, ‘well, that didn’t work out, so it no longer matters to me’ when it clearly does. You guys can have your little soap opera if you want, misunderstand to your heart’s desire, but I’d really like to be left out of it. I like you guys, but I’m not here to babysit.”

“Thanks, I think?”

She shook her head.

“No problem. So about this fog situation, what are you going to do about it? We can’t let it keep going on, can we?”

That time, it was my turn to shake my head.

“I’ll gather as much information as I can, then work toward a solution,” I concluded.

“Good. Now, I should start heading out.”

“How are you going to get there?” I asked.

“I’ll figure out a way. What about you?”

“Same.”

As she was about to turn away, I asked her:

“Hey. Can we...be friends?”

She turned around and blinked.

“Friends? Sure.”

“Cool. Can I have your number?”

She smiled and held out the phone.

“This isn’t my phone.”

“Oh,” well, that was a bust.

“What about you?” She asked.

“I don’t have a phone right now. But I’ll get one eventually.”

She gave a light chuckle.

“Well, Remora, I’m sure we’ll see each other soon one way or another. Take care, eh?”

“Yeah,” I smiled. “You too.”

Before we parted ways, she added, “wait right here.” After about a minute, she came out from the shack and handed me a sheet of paper.

“This should give you some leads.”

I folded the paper and placed it into my pocket.

Once we parted ways, I read the note, then began to formulate a plan: first, I would have to dye my hair again. Then, I’d need a boat. In other words, it was time for me to get rid of all my money and do something drastic.

[miraimisu]

These Stones We Skip | Cha̵̭̦̓͜pter̷̳͎̮͍̆ 1

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[Read at FF.net]

[Read at AO3.]

Summary: Uraraka, as a newcomer to the most powerful guild in this forsaken village, had not only one, two; but three responsibilities: grow stronger until she was able to pin the world down, untangle the mystery that her past was and survive under the eyes of a crowd that watched over her as night chased the sun’s tail, the charade going on and on until the thread… suddenly snaps.

Rating: T because of obvious reasons such as Bakugou and swearing children. And it’s an AU. Medieval AU.

Word count: it’s fucking long get over it ALREADYYYY

Author’s note: : I FEEL YOUR HEAAAAAAARTBEEEAAAT TO THE BEAT OF THE DRUMZ (8) Hi, y'all /kicked So sorry if this took so much but it's so damn hard to continue this story at a comfy pace with so much lore and stuff building up and having to construct some kacchako as well? I AM STRUGGLING? And a friend of mine told me this was novel-length like lmao she is right tho. I gotta reconsider my life choices. Fo now thanks to all kind people who leave reviews and stuff in this clusterfuck? I DON'T DESERVE IT? But omg thanks

Warnings: it’s long, it’s messy, OLD SCHOOL MIRAI :V It has them feels tho. Kinda. Tons of broshipping. And… some kacchako, finally?? maybe not idk

I’LL BE ALSO EDITING MINOR PLOTHOLES IF THERE ARE ANY HAHA SORRY LOVE YOU ALL BYE :D

“Mama?” the little chubby child tugged at the woman’s red jersey, pointing then across the little river. “Who are those people?”

The pink woman followed the child’s finger to the land on the other side, and squatted to secure an arm around the girl’s petite figure. “Those people are dangerous, honey.” the girl blinked at the older woman, doubt dancing in her big pristine pools. “Don’t you ever go near them, or they will do nasty things to your little cute body.”

The pink woman tickled her tummy for emphasis, which made the girl squirm in her hold. The laughter didn’t last for long. “But mama, I don’t understand! Why are they dangerous? They don’t look so menacing.”

She shook her head at the child and pointed at them. There were some adults working as guards across the river, meters away from the pair. “They don’t like us, and they want to invade our land, your land. They wish to destroy our home because they are greedy.”

“Gweedy?” a finger scratched her cheek, and the woman nodded. The little girl gasped, hands flying to her mouth. “They want to kill us? They want to kill this village?”

The elderly woman got up again, hands ruffling her hair with tenderness. “I don’t know, but just be careful. They are a dangerous species– they are humans, thirsty for blood and lands.”

“Humans?” the woman nodded above, and the brunette looked up. Sunshine covered the mother’s face, but the little girl knew those soft factions nonetheless. “But Harold and I… see?” she rose her hands, grinning toothily. “We have the same skin!”

The woman sighed. “I know, darling.”

“Then, why can’t we all be friends, mama?”

Mother looked far ahead, frown crowning her kind eyes as her hands grew frantic around her child’s head. “It’s more complicated than being friends or not, Nameless.” her finger shot to point at a boy working on the river. His hair was golden, reflecting the sunshine of a clear day, and it made the child’s eyes gleam in delight. “See that boy there? He is a beast, an assassin.”

“But Hawold and I–“

The woman’s hand slapped the child’s head in frustration, aware of the implications of such obvious fact as the skin color, the white of their eyes and the very same absence of horns. “I know, you are similar. But you will never be one of them, honey. You are not a monster like they are.”

The mother gave her hair a last ruffle before smiling softly at the girl under her, who was looking at the boy in wonder. “Why would he want to kill me?”

The mother sighed and started to walk away, throwing a glance behind her to check that the little girl was still in place. “Same skin color doesn’t determine one’s intentions, honey. Just stay there until your friends come here.”

Mother left the second afterwards, the little girl sitting on the muddy grass as the contemplated the thought. A whirlwind of newfound doubt, curiosity and wonder swam freely around her eyes, corseting her heart into a tight grip of anticipation and excitement. Her heart beat out of cadence, skyrocketing high above and exploding into a mixture of deep expectations, wondering how that boy’s voice would sound like, or how his skin would feel. Would his body be as warm as hers, or would his eyes float against hers like Harold’s did?

The girl got up, stumbled a little and brushed some dirt off her yellow dress. Gee boosted her energy and encouraged her to take a leap of faith and start running– running towards the land filled with warm golden night from the sun, bathed in blues and whites with silver creaking against her eyes like a jewel, and the boy’s pale skin coming to view the more she ran to him. Sounds of steel clanking against wood and iron twinkled around her, symphonies of sweat and grunts compassing the hush.

Her dainty feet reached the river, and the waters seemed darker than what they had looked like a minute ago. She tiptoed, human boy not noticing her presence as she smiled at him. There were some guards around that only acknowledged her presence inwardly and continued their game of minding their own business.

“Hi, excuse me?” the boy didn’t even flinch at her calling, focused on molding the iron. He couldn’t be much older than her, maybe 11 years old or so, but his hands were bruised as if he had been working for a century, marred in blisters and dry blood. “Hello, blonde boy!”

The boy grumpily turned to look across the border, expecting to find a brainless pink alien he would have to behead and seeing a waving stupid girl in its stead. “Oi, what is your problem, cheeks? I am busy!”

“Hello, blonde boy!” she waved even more excitedly, water crashing below her feet as her feet grew closer to the edge. He only huffed grumpily and went on working. “Excuse me! There is something I need to ask you!”

“What in the world is your problem?” his hands were constricted in fists, eyes shadowed by his untamed mane of golden streaks. He was somewhat pretty to her. “I am busy!”

“Well–!” she almost tripped and fell over, squealing for a second before recomposing herself while messing with her head, anxiety for this boy’s mood crippling under her skin. “There is something I need to ask you!”

“I don’t care about your stupid problems! Besides, you can’t cross and I can’t hear your girly voice from over here.” his voice was also pitched, but gave hints of growth and it would undoubtedly become rich and deep in the future. “Who in the world are you anyway?”

Nameless had a quick solution for that. The girl touched her shoulder and leaped over the edge, floating for a pair of meters before touching ground. Guards around her started to point their spears at her, startled by the careless display. The blonde boy was scared shitless, having scrambled off his stool and standing a good pair of meters away from the floating alien. The brunette started to flail her arms around, panicking as her mother’s words ringed again in her mind.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to cause such ruckus!” she took a tentative step towards the boy, only to have him recoiling. “I just didn’t think I would have made it across in a single jump, and skipping rocks would have been too slippery and risky–“

Golden boy pointed at her, words struggling to get out of his idle vocal chords. “You breaking your neck while crossing would have been much better than this witchcraft you have going on!”

The guards only pointed at her with more intensity, armors clanking and drawing the attention of other humans who looked at the scene with concern. “No, please! I don’t mean harm to this village! I just desired to ask this boy a question!”

“And why did you have to be so adamant about it, crazy girl?” the boy grit his teeth at her, fists clenched and his body rigid, tense, ready in case that witch decided to pick up a fight. “You are just another alien– but you guys are mutating fast so we can’t tell you apart and–“

“I am so sorry, I don’t mean to be an intruder here!” her hands clasped the hem of her little yellow dress, shining like sunflowers in pure bloom. “Please, allow me a second of this boy’s time, I’ll run away like the wind after that!”

People lost interest over seeing her so docile and carried on with their daily duties. Meanwhile, the boy snarled at her, shifting to grab his little shaping hammer in case she decided to get feisty and start throwing punches at him. “Be quick or I’ll smash your useless species to smithereens.”

His eyes flickered in fire against hers, a rush of trepidation washing over her as hell, blood and dangerous lights started shining through his bleeding eyes, pale skin contrasting with the dark intentions his impure heart held. Her question suddenly seemed useless seeing a human like this, so bare and bone think, but she still blurted it out.

“Are you–“ her eyes pounded against his very own bonfires, beaming with intention and silly curiosity. “Are you a monster, golden boy? Would you kill me if I were to hug you, ride you like I ride horsey Harold, or if we had fun bathing in the river?”

His brows wrinkled in disgust as such blunt, stupid question, but he was taken aback by how much honesty and sheer wonder she had poured in a short amount of time. To her credit, she had shoved a ton of bullshit in very little time. “Why in the world would I– no, why would I not kill an alien like you, cheeks? Get outta my sight before I shred you to pieces!”

“But–“

“You said you wouldn’t put a fight after this, we have pardoned you enough minutes.” he gripped the handle of his hammer harder this time, an alarming amount of teeth showing. Regardless, he didn’t step to behead her or even made a move to harm her, instead decided to start waving her off the land. “Do your sparkly stuff and leap over, I don’t care. Just leave this place.”

Nameless stared at the boy, heartbroken as he only stared back with a stern glare that warned her to leave before somebody saw her and decided to make the dirty job of torturing her in a dark chamber– somewhere even he knew she didn’t belong to. In a way, he was making her a favor. The doe-eyed girl nodded and turned around, activating her ability and jumping across, a fog of sadness clouding over her heart as the boy only stared in wonder, seeing her fly away so gloomy when she had come to him as a bright, beautiful flower. He decided to hammer those thoughts away, and the girl was soon forgotten.

When Uraraka came to, the smell of burning wood greeted her sleepy senses, heart swarming near her fingertips as the bonfire crippled upon the lodges of stacked wood, flickering and waving under the mercy of the night breezes. The little sorcerer fluttered her eyelids open as the flames greeted her unfocused eyes. Blurs of oranges, yellows and greens melted together and then sharpened to give shape to the forest, the bonfires and a very sleepy Kaminari struggling to keep his eyes awake.

The girl shifted underneath the spare blankets and, when she didn’t feel Asui’s body sleeping next to hers, an unsettling feeling came to open her eyes and slap her dazed mind awake. However, when she heard the rustle of leaves and clanking somewhere near her, those thoughts of alarm slowed her frantic sowing of irrationalities and she dared look up to see a little cauldron heating up something nasty, which prompted Uraraka to sit up.

“Good evening, Uraraka.” Asui peeked from behind the big pot to smile at her with kindness. “I see you have woken up. You sure have light sleep.”

The brunette rubbed her big gooey eyes to open, but they were tired and half lidded regardless her restless heart. “You can say that again.”

The sorcerer removed the blanket from her form and straightened her back, eliciting a pleased little moan from her sore throat. Uraraka had never really slept on the ground before– well, excepting that time she woke up mindless and brainless under a curtain of rain with a wound on her ribs, but it was a completely different kind of ground with some squishiness to it, wet and muddy. This ground was hard, dry, had stones sticking up from the sandy surface and there was always this irrational fear of ants tangling on her hair. Yes, that was petty, but she would have to get used to such hard conditions.

The girl glanced around swiftly, and found out that most people were asleep around the clearing. Iida and Tokoyami were asleep against a trunk between its big roots, swords resting right beside them. Kaminari was all alone though, making Uraraka kind of worry about where Bakugou could have scrambled off to.

“Bakugou is off for some herbs.” she continued stirring the mixture as if nothing, but the sorcerer still almost snapped her head to look at Asui. That girl was perceptive. “No need to worry so much. Don’t cry me a river.”

“Huh?” a weak grimace made her nose wrinkle in distaste, but she couldn’t deny that it was offsetting to see him off this late in the night. “I am not worried. I am just concerned. He is our leader and he’s gone so late in the night. What a freaking weirdo.”

Uraraka huffed in exasperation, eyes stealing a glance at the vacant place beside Kaminari. She didn’t let her mind wander any further and got up with weak limbs, hands dangling by her side– there was no way that stupid narcissistic sociopath would even burden her sleep with his absence, with the possibility of him being in danger.

Why the fuck would he even be in danger? He was perfectly able, be it in the dead of the night or in the middle of a maze. Her teeth grinded against each other, jaw clenched– because this petty tiny concern was useless, unneeded, unrequited, he would never hold her in any higher regard as she would possibly do– yet, a part of her seemed to hold some care for the boy. And it drove her off a damn cliff usually, because it was a tiring game of chasing in circles, never stopping.

Uraraka sighed tiredly, crumbles of sleep issuing from her throat. Despite the obvious fact that Bakugou would never get along with her, she found herself caring for his despicable self regardless– he was her leader, another peer that, she had been advised to stay far from. Yet, she couldn’t find the heart to give up on him to such extent. He had defended her back there at the village, had kind of had faith in her against Shinsou…

There was some hope for him…

Perhaps.

“You like sleeping, I see. I don’t like being woken up, either.” the herbalist made an attempt to change topics, which Uraraka was thankful for. She got up from the makeshift bed and walked to the pharmacist. “While the others sleep, I take time during nights to prepare the potions for the next day, while somebody stronger keeps guard.”

Uraraka eyed the girl tenderly, a little soft smile sketching itself on her face. She was not as familiar as she was with other people like Jack or Mina, but she was attracted to her regardless. “I don’t think you are that weak. You sure would put up a great fight, Asui.”

The water sorcerer looked at Uraraka, not impressed by the dash of fresh warm air the other carried with her, but still a little bit touched by her kindness. “It’s not like I undermine myself, but it’s just for safety measures. Don’t want an ambush coming to kick our healer’s ass– Bakugou’s words.”

Uraraka looked at the pot afterwards, glaring at the nasty looking brewage. “And what is this you are preparing?”

The colors inside the pot blended, bubbled and brewed in an aromatic mist that Uraraka couldn’t really identify, but it smelled like something akin to mind and chocolate mixed together. She tiptoed forward and smelled a little bit of the brewage. Again, it was minty, hot, and had that sweet undertone to it.

“It’s a dipping poison.” Asui stirred a bit faster this time, changing directions. The other girl looked at the water sorcerer and nodded with interest. Asui being there with her group would be a huge advantage, as Uraraka could learn lots from her and pharmacy was always a handy science to nurture from.

“Dipping?” nod, nod, and Uraraka only looked at the colorful mixture in even deeper wonder. A part of her wanted to put her finger in– but it looked scorching hot and her skin was easy to scar and blister. “Is this some kind of poison to use in food?”

The green-haired girl shook her head, not looking at Uraraka and instead rummaging through her bag. Her hands came out empty, so she signaled the other sorcerer to fetch her some spare ones in a flask on the ground. The frog girl couldn’t reach down for the items below the cauldron as she was quite small and she had to stand on an actual big stone to reach the top of the pot, so Uraraka would have to serve as a temporal assistant. When she had the herbs, Asui poured them contently into the mixture, and stirred slowly.

“You dip weapons here, and give temporary poisonous properties to them.” Uraraka nodded again, eyes glinting in curiosity and surprise. It was a pretty handy technique for making weapons be even more lethal than they already were, and it seemed like a very intelligent way of rendering any single threatening object as a needle useful and mortal. “Bakugou wanted me to give his sword a coat of poison in case we have a harsh encounter tomorrow.”

The girl frowned at the prospect. “I see.” she peeked over the edge of the iron container and gawked at how it was turning darker and darker the more Asui stirred. “You must know very well what you are doing when it comes it these things, yes?”

Asui removed the wooden spoon from the cauldron – it had big stains and it was broken in a few places, marred in scars of hurried preparations – and jumped off the stone. “It is a risky process. But it’s not that much of a difficult science.”

She then marched off to a bag she had near her and Uraraka’s blanket, getting some jars full of some kind of pebbles no one but Asui knew about, and threw a handful of them from below, not even caring to look in afterwards. When the alchemist left again, the brunette lifted her hands to fidget with her gloves, afraid of burdening Asui with her request.

“I was wondering…” Asui didn’t stop her task to even show a sign that she had listened, but the newcomer still talked. “if you could show me some advanced pharmacy when we reach our next stop, or maybe along the way?”

The girl did turn to her now, finger on her chin. “Yes, we did talk about this.” it seemed more like a murmur of ponderation and not a proper answer, so Uraraka waited with her fists clenched. She didn’t really have much idea on how to interact with some members of the guild, so she just would go with the flow most times. “I guess I can show you some techniques you can use at emergencies. I don’t have quality equipment here to show you much more.”

Uraraka showed a dashing smile, eyes twinkling in delight as Asui gathered their blanket and settled it on the ground. The other girl was quick to sit down on her knees, legs together with her fists resting on her lap, head slightly bowed– and the pharmacist was a bit taken aback by how willing and docile the sorcerer looked under her. A part of Asui believed that if she asked her to go to the end of the world for a single useless flower, Uraraka would go there if it meant making her happy.

God, how could have Bakugou mistaken her for a villain?

“No need to be so stiff, Uraraka.” the girl didn’t lessen the posture either way, and continued looking at her straightly and determined, serious and collected when she was squirming in excitement and gee for this little lesson. “It’s just a few tips to improve potions, curas and the like. I take it you can only prepare minimal brewages now.”

“Er, yes.” the brunette titled her head in defeat, a bit ashamed to admit that she knew very little for a being a sorcerer. “All potions I have with me were there when I woke up at the forest. Some were a bit more advanced if I recall… but most were basic.”

“It’s fine, you can learn a bit now.” Asui took out some leaves and little fruits. Some sterolias rolled off her little purse, and Uraraka reached out to fetch one. Indeed, it was as sweet as Mina had mentioned it to be. She accordingly spit it out again. It would never not repel her with such invasive sweetness. “Hold on while I sort this out. I didn’t have time to organize my tools properly.”

“It’s fine.” the sorcerer waved it off with a kind smile, and looked around for a bit. Everyone was sleeping soundly, tired from the journey and beaten up after having to put up with Bakugou grumping about how unhelpful Grinning Blade had been, and Uraraka could recall how guilt had been crippling inside of her as she shut up about the ordeal with that man, that guy who had looked at her so intensely and whispered such cruel, fateful words.

Her fingers tightened the fist. Death… they unclenched, relaxed, and the brunette looked at her bruised palms in deep concern and wonder. What did he mean with all that? And why had Shinsou… opened up so fast? What dark business did they have that somehow involved her, of all people?

Something foggy and dark was stirring in a corner of her mind, blending behind the broken shards of a frosted mirror, her future identity and all that carried behind that somehow bringing a chill down her spine– but she couldn’t touch it. The thought was bubbling, bruising, even. In the back of her mind, that man’s words had caused an unpredictable damage that wasn’t palpable, yet it was there, lurking behind the shadows she tried to look through, yet she couldn’t tell apart from mere paranoia and mild fear for what was to come.

A part of her wanted– needed to blame Bakugou for causing her such unnecessary ruckus inside her mind. The way he had spoken so highly and shaken about RampAge had her all kinds of shaken up. He was gone now, doing who knows what in who knows where, probably punching some butterflies off their caskets like the douchebag he was. Perhaps life was having a party on his body and he was being punished, hurt and that was why he hadn’t come back, and an unnoticeable spine run down her stomach and pushed down, down–

Her eyes darted across the clearing and stopped at the empty slot by Kaminari, wondering, again, why she was so uneasy at the thought of him being suspiciously gone so late in the night, why this care did actually exist. It could probably be because he had actually defended her from Shinsou and the whole village before this voyage had begun, but it was such a weird feeling to possess when he was all but kind to her. Why was she worrying so much when he was no more than some kind of vigilant for her?

What a nuisance, a little unneeded feeling. It sure would be a good riddance once she was out of this tired, critical state. A part of her wanted to get rid of it… yet another part of her knew there was no letting go.

“Tell me, Asui,” words fell off her mouth helplessly, not even thinking about what repercussion they’d have, or what Asui would think of her. It was a pretty bad habit of hers. Her eyes left the wrinkled blanket that was his red cape and looked at the one below their knees. “does Bakugou have that much trouble sleeping?”

It took a few seconds for Asui to answer. “It’s always been like this, really. I don’t see him much often, but Kirishima told me it’s been this way ever since he was a child. He can’t sleep until deep into the night. He runs on little sleep, though – tough guy, he is.”

Uraraka tasted those words wistfully, tapping her fingers on her lap. Bakugou didn’t really seem to have such problem, skin always pristine and devoid of rings or bags – but now that she recalled, he had mentioned he knew it took him too much time to sleep. Judging by his foul mood, he probably never got good sleep either. Was the bed too big for him? Or maybe he just got into heated arguments with the pillows? Apparently, the only way to ease this issue was going up the clock tower to either spend a peaceful night in solitude stargazing or being tortured with her presence.

Maybe he was gone for so long because he found that maybe solitude would prompt the so needed rest. It made her feel some pity for him in a sick, twisted way.

“Pay attention, Uraraka.” this snapped the sorcerer out of her reverie, blinking heavily. “Making a novice cura is easy, but making a successful extra one takes some practice. Making one mistake on the process is normal, and it won’t be a catastrophe to ruin the ingredients, but you can’t go relying on luck for further practices.”

Asui took a green, heart shaped leaf, and started to tear off its midrib with her teeth. “This is rough hand work, and if I had pincers, I would be much more classy and neat. One has to take the midrib off these leaves. These are called looibus, and are pretty cheap in an average shop. It’s always more economic to buy these instead of the prepared potions.”

Uraraka observed Asui remove the mid sections easily, and blinked in amazement. She had never seen such display in her life, her lips pinching the leaf and teeth tearing the section apart. “How can you do it so easily, though?”

“The veins of this species are especially thin at their starts.” she took a spotless specimen and pointed at the mid section, tracing it with her finger. She had a cut on a side of her index, Uraraka noticed. “See how the veins are almost unnoticeable? It makes the process much easier. I usually act precautious and use pincers and gloves, but this will suffice for the time being.”

Then, her fingers pinched the petiole of the leaf. “Good fetched herbs must always have their petioles, and if possible, a part of the branch they come from – just a minimal part, to extract the whole juice of the plant. How big the petiole is determines how much properties one can extract from it, therefore determines its final value.”

“Was that why you complimented Kaminari the only day?”

“Not really, ribbit.” she started to squeeze the petioles, also draining some from the midribs. Gooey, red liquids cascaded down into the flask. “The specimen he brought to me is special because of its spores. Those kinds of herbs have other value standards, and are hard to find. As for fruits, they depend on how squishy and intense they are in color.”

The sorcerer took a little sterolia from nearby and inspected it. She gave it a little squeeze, and the tiny fruit, not bigger than a raspberry, melded a bit. It was scarlet red, darker splashes coloring some parts. “Does that mean sterolias are sweeter, then? You never mentioned any property other than its taste.”

“Sterolias are used to dim the bitter taste of curas, but one can’t go around eating them like Mina does. They are horrifyingly sugary and can give one a bad stomach ache if eaten in grand amounts.”

Asui uncorked the green part of the little fruit and squeezed it. A teensy drop of yellow splashed on the other ointment. “May seem like a very small amount, but the potion won’t be very grand.” then, the sorcerer pointed at a jar near the cauldron, sitting next to Uraraka. “Pour some of that water in here. It’s fresh from a nearby river.”

Uraraka gingerly took the glass recipient and slowly put the water in. “Got’cha.” she was maybe a little bit too slow. The water made an agonizing dripping sound as it fell, and the other liquids started blending with the transparent water.

When the flask was full to a quarter, Asui put a hand on her shoulder. “There, that’s enough.” the brunette put the water away. “No need to be so delicate, though. You can be all harsh you wanna. Speed won’t affect the quality of the cura.”

The brunette scratched her rosy cheek with a bit of shame, grin trembling in shyness. She was trying to be as careful as ever, not wanting to let Asui see how nervous she really was about learning so many new things, and being a good pupil. “Right, sorry.”

“It’s ok. Now, stir this a little bit.” the sorcerer started mixing the liquids together until the red and transparent yellow blended and created thick, red substance. “As you see, you would need more leaves for a proper potion, but this will be enough for now. Looibus have high pigmented elements and nutrients, so very few leaves can do wonderful things.”

Uraraka took the little flask and did what human nature instructed her to: sniff the hell out of it. It smacked her nostrils with protruding sweetness and some acid undertones to it. If she had to guess, she’d say it would taste like cherries and lemon. “Smells rather nice. How much damage would this cover?”

Asui looked at the flask and then up to the awaiting girl, who held the potion with dainty hands and delicate touch, as if it was a treasure. “I’d say only minimal wounds, and not very fast. Kirishima told me you gave him and Tokoyami a pair of those during the battle with Pyrox.”

“Ah, I did.” the memory of Tokoyami and Kirishima sitting down in such bad state had Uraraka trembling for a second there. “I see it wasn’t that much of a big help.”

Asui sighed, shaking her head. “Not much, but it’s intention what counts. They could go home in a better state thanks to you.” this information made Uraraka’s heart swimming in pleasant warmth. “Either way, I will give you a little secret for better potions. It’s very silly… but it actually works.” she pointed at her bag as she drank a little bit of the point. “It’s part of what got me in this guild. Give me the little blue spines in a purple jar.”

The brunette undid the covering with deft fingers and ever so carefully took out a single needle. “There we go.” Uraraka was scared to the bone, chilled in goosebumps as Asui unfazed pinched her finger. Hard. “Don’t freak out, I’m not gonna die.”

“What the hell, Asui?” the water sorcerer licked a bit of the blood, nodded and dripped some of it on the potion below. Just some droplets. “Are you actually telling me–“

“I one day discovered that looibus has an actual toxin that stimulates blood creation in the blood stream. I once thought about what would happen if one added blood into the mixture, healthy blood.” Asui stirred the mixture languidly, and dedicated Uraraka a sideways glance. The aforementioned was busy having a seizure near the cauldron, shaking in utter despair. “What’s wrong? Are you really so peachy over seeing a bit of blood?”

“T-That’s not it at all!” then, the brunette pointed at her with an accusing finger that Asui paid no heed to. The brewage turned darker and darker. “It’s just insane to see you so content with bleeding and stuff for the sake of a little cura!”

“This isn’t a little one, you see.”

As a demonstration, the herbalist poured some of it on one of her many cuts of her hand, probably done during harvesting these very herbs. The cut started closing slowly, like a flower blooming inwards, and it was gone in a minute. “My blood is specially pure and healthy. Blood is thought to be replenishing for hard travels, a reason why most of us eat meat scarcely cooked.”

This had Uraraka even more afraid of the stoic herbalist, who was talking about drinking blood as if she was some kind of– “What the hell? Are you suggesting that even drinking human blood is alright?”

Asui looked at her with a slight exasperated glint in her eyes, but it didn’t show much. It seemed like that woman enjoyed keeping herself to herself in the weirdest of ways. “Sorry if it sounds weird, but it’s more of a little belief than solid science. It is true that blood boosts potions, though.”

Uraraka gazed at the still pouring blood, and saw it mix with the cura in little spurs of red claws, blending with the crimson red to make it powerful, an ingredient to save a life with the mere sacrifice of a droplet of human blood. A part of her heart trashed wildly inside her ribcage, the wise and troublesome words Asui had said so casually falling into a void of endless information, lore and extreme complications that would one day save her life– she just couldn’t see it right now, but Uraraka was sure she would find it useful one day.

She didn’t know why, but this lesson was extremely important to her. Yes, it was mildly creepy and offsetting, but she couldn’t help but feel thrilled to know a way to save someone’s life so easily, or at least prevent such occurrence. She entwined her fingers with an easy smile, watching the herbalist dump the potion into her bag. “I had a little stupid question.”

“What is it?”

“Well,” she looked at the ingredients spread on the blanket before the other girl started packing them into her bag. “I was wondering, would the effect be the same if one sucked the liquid straight from the loibuus if one can handle the bitter flavor?”

Asui bit her thumb in thought, and Uraraka had the urge to mirror her doubts by biting her knuckles or messing with her hair. Actually, it was feeling awkwardly itchy. She started to absentmindedly scratch her nape. “Now that you mention it, I had never thought about it. It sure would come in handy.”

“Well, don’t–“

“Are you fucking telling me that sucking on leaves can actually do your job?” the gruff voice made them turn around, and they watched Bakugou’s muscles flex as he held some logs on his shoulder. He unceremoniously threw them into the fire and it started licking the wood with passion, his blood irises brightening. “What do we have you for?”

That bold statement would have affected anybody who didn’t know him, but none of the sorcerers flinched at his brusque, rude words. Uraraka eyed Asui, who eyed her back for a second before looking up at their leader. “To make sure you guys have decent weaponry and not sticks like Hatsume would make to you. She can’t stand you.”

Bakugou shoved a bag with ingredients to the herbalist’s chest, who inspected the paper fixing in caution. “Fair enough, I guess.” condoned the messy blonde to the pharmacist, who ran happily back to the cauldron now that the fires were at their fullest. When she was safely up on her stone again, Uraraka started to fold the blanket.

The hunter watched the sorcerer scramble to sort out their sleeping arrangement, and started patting her pillow. She stretched her arms, her shirt lifting a bit and exposing some of her soft, pale skin. When her mouth fell shut after a little yawn and her eyes blinked soreness away, he finally understood what she was up to.

And when she limmped on the makeshift bed, all he could do was rage about her blatantly ignoring his presence. “Oi, Uraraka! What the fuck’re you doing!”

The sorcerer turned under the blanket and started stirring a bit, eyes blinking to focus on the heaving leader a meter away from her disgustingly tired face. “Do I seem to be killing rabbits?”

“Well, that would at least be useful to the situation, you dumb–“ he shook his head, because snapping on her wouldn’t do for the situation. He had tried to ignore this obvious feeling of hatred he had for her– but sometimes, just sometimes, she made it a bit too difficult being so casual with him. “Whatever, just what the fuck do you think you are doing?”

Uraraka turned under the thin blanket, her eyes facing the sky. Her words took some seconds to get out, his glare so focused on her that it was both amusing and somewhat intimidating, again, to see him so agitated. “I thought we had already stated that.”

Bakugou shook his head and proceeded to squat right next to her bed, hands gripping the fabric of his clay pants. Only now did Uraraka realize he wasn’t wearing his trademark cape and he suddenly looked so much more human and reachable like this.

“That’s not what I meant.” his contorted eyes landed on her stargazing ones, full of stars he would never even dare reach out for. It agitated him so much to see her so– just so pure and snarky at the same time. “Seeing the clusterfuck of problems we have around the problem, I can’t understand why you are trying to sleep it all off and not help somehow.”

That made her finally tear her relaxed gaze from the stars and finally pay attention to her fuming leader, who was seething over her and was either trying to scare the hell out of her or get her to move. None of them worked. “I was just taking some spare lessons from Asui for chemistry resources. Should I remind you of our encounter with Shinsou earlier today?”

Just out of nowhere, the working herbalist butted in. “Just so you guys know, the others are sleeping…”

Both warriors looked at her for a pair of seconds and dismissed her to continue bickering.

“Yeah, I do remember pretty damn well– and not because you did much anyway.”

It was now when the brunette squinted at him a little bit harder, eyes pointed in analysis as his posture was too scrunched, his cape forgotten in a bunch – something so odd from him, as she had taken him as a tidier individual – and his eyes racking around the embroiled ends of her blanket, his mind probably years and possibilities away from what mattered, from what was spinning around them as she stared intently at him. Her brow fell, and she found herself asking before she could bite it all back into place.

“What’s wrong?”

The blonde snapped from his trance immediately. His hands released the fabric of his pants and they slammed the dirt underneath, eyes widened in panic and accusation before she could even explain herself. “What the he–“

She clamped a hand over his mouth, and much to her surprise, he didn’t bite it off like he probably would have done before. Judging by his eyes though, he was probably dying to. “You are going to wake the others up, stop raging on me.” Uraraka hesitantly let her hand drop a little after she sensed he had calmed down, and he made her retreat with a hand to her wrist. He didn’t let go of it for security measures. “I am a member of Yuuei now. You have no other option but to regard me as such.”

She very sadly had the upper hand there. She could no longer be ignored or treated as the terrorist he was trying to believe she wasn’t, but the title was so fucking hard to get rid of after he had hung it on her for this long. Now that he noticed it, her looks weren’t those of a rogue criminal or a strong person altogether. Her cheeks were annoyingly rosy, eyes too big and hair too stupid. Again, she was so deceivingly naïve looking that it frustrated him and only added more to the fire.

He despised her. Bakugou couldn’t say he hated her anymore, because he was no fool and Uraraka wasn’t either. Her eyes weren’t those of a liar, but held kindness of an unbeaten person, slate clean purity in a brown splash of colors, gleaming to the fires of the camping. Her hands seemed to hold the keys to every untamed kingdom of his mind, yet he would never let her have the right locks to open all its rooms. His eyes shifted again, looking at his hands again.

Yeah – his hands clenched, admiring its scars, and closed it again with a grimace – he hated how he hadn’t been right about her being an impure bitch, but a part of him lay in joy seeing the investment would be worth it. The little titles of her head, the twinkle in her eyes, he would be there to see it all come true. It would take time for him to fully accept it, but he had to start taking steps.

It took him a little bit of resistance, but he ended up talking, shaky.

“There is a traitor in our midst.”

There was silence after that. Bakugou looked up to see her mouth agape, eyes big as saucers– but there was no trace of suspicion or anger, just shock and mild fear, or maybe curiosity? Her mind had toppled over the edge and fallen into an impossible abyss of mindless options, scattered pictures of her companions crowding her fall. The faces outnumbered her, scratched canvases of compatriots becoming traitors, and claws pulling her down where it was darker, faster.

Her body landed in solid reality, snapping back as the possibilities stopped spiraling around her– eyes settled on Bakugou, and this was the very first time that, underneath the soft stare of the stars and the moon, the leader had let anything akin to actual feelings show through that thick barrier of his, surrounded in spikes that not only separated people from him, but also the other way around.

He was a leader, another member, one that trusted his people with his stone, guarded heart. Knowing that there was a traitor in his surroundings must have him scared for once, feeling betrayed and having a knife pointed at his neck without knowing who the hand belonged to. The feeling was a bit alike with Uraraka, who regarded all her sleeping companions in a clouded scan.

It was then when the sorcerer realized that Asui had settled near her, and was tugging at the big blanket to cover herself as well. The girl gave the thingy up and shifted closer to Bakugou, who was sitting in front of her. This bad habit of being too near to people could get the best of her very easily, but this was the first time she intended to be a comforting presence to him.

After all, she had to take steps to normalization as well.

“How can you say this?”

The boy sighed, and rubbed his face with hardened hands. The brash leader was a far cry from this exhausted man, who was starting to see a mountain of problems coming to them with RampAge on the loose as well. Having a traitor among them, possibly in this very same camping where security was minimal– alarms were flaring inside of him, and it made him look ages older.

“Remember this afternoon, when we were almost ambushed by an archer?” the brunette nodded. Her hand had throbbed with intensity to protect the blonde in a primal instinct of sudden care, but the initial shake had very much worn off ever since. “The wood of the arrow was made with our guild’s material.”

This piece of data was incredibly accusatory, but the pieces were totally scrambled in Uraraka’s head. “But, maybe they simply use the very same types of–“

“No. Things ain’t that easy in our village.” the wood had burnt so nicely in his hands once he had been alone, so flammable and nice to combust. He knew the touch and feel of it very, very well. “Guilds have their own portion of forest to take resources for weapons from. Pillaging is a very different thing to this, but the Council would never let us have a whole forest for ourselves. Even I can tell that would be conceited and dumb as fuck.”

“So, you are saying that you know it because it’s wood from your forest?”

“Not exactly, as Grinning Blade has the very same kind of wood for their arrows and sticky blades.” of course he would talk about them as wimps when he had a fucking axe as playful toys to battle with. This man was gentle now, but he would have his claws out the moment this intimacy was torn apart. “Clock girl applies a material that helps the arrows burn fast, but that can preserve the arrow while burning, like a match. It’s a handy technique we use for ambushes at guild battles.”

Now that she thought about it, Mina’s hands did have ugly burns. She must be a really valued asset to their guild, as archers seemed awfully scarce as well. “Are you sure this is that much of a secret ointment?”

The ashen blonde nodded, a frown crowning his angular traits. He dragged his ass to a tree behind him and he rested his head on it, a bit far from the sorcerer now. Fire burnt not very much away, the clearing being small and the guild members resting far away from the other, yet close this time heart-wise.

“Frog girl there is who actually helped our blacksmith develop the resin.” oh, so he was talking about Hatsume, the overly excited girl at the support basement. Clock girl was… kind of a lame nickname for her, though. “I trust them enough to know they wouldn’t give this away, so I assume this fucker must have taken arrows from our headquarters.”

Rewinding back into daytime, it had been a shame sun had hidden this traitor in shadows, cloak and hands covered in blackness. Uraraka hadn’t thought much about this event in particular, had thought it was probably one of those illegal hunters making trouble again. Her hands started raking the back of her head, that thing she did all the time when she was nervous or anxious– yes, all the damn time, and everyone included Bakugou hated it.

“This is troublesome, then.” spoke she, matter o’ factly. Her eyes bore in his, worry shining through like water in a glass jar, so painfully obvious she cared for his guild that he snarled, feeling creeped out by her attachment. “If the traitor is with the others, they won’t be able to call us for help.”

He looked at her a bit more, then looked at the fires and secretly watched over his peers. The girl in front of him did the same. “I will be keeping guard in case somebody here decides to play hooky on my ass.” he spoke with such hate, burning ire and anxiety for his guild’s security rising into the air. “I won’t let that fucker get out of my eyes that easily.”

Uraraka observed him from the corner of her eyes, a sincere smile fighting its way into her tired cheeks. Her next words were as gentle as her smile, as her eyes. “You do care, after all.”

It was no more than a whisper, but he heard her anyway, ears trained to hear an ant jump from a leaf to another, and craned his eyes to her. Bakugou showed no sign of approval, but didn’t reject the statement, either. “I am a damn leader. It is my obligation to look after these wimps, because if I don’t, they will be rotten meat by the time we get to the village.”

That made her laugh, then do a double take and actually revise his pointed words. “It’s not like we can’t manage, you know. If you have won so many battles against Grinning Blade, you sure can be lethal. Jack’s words, not mine.”

The hunter turned to her, eyes indifferent but still tasting the pride in her words. In a sense, he was immensely proud of what they had all accomplished together, but his heart somehow didn’t want to take the conversation in that direction. “I never said you weren’t able– I sadly know you are perfectly able to fight anybody in your path.” she looked at him again, cautious for whatever he was going to spit now to ruin her. Surprisingly, he just didn’t. “Kaminari and Kirishima sure are, the same with Iida. I know you guys can actually fight back.”

Arched eyebrow at him. “So, you are actually complimenting us.”

Bakugou doomed her with that sadistic smile of his that sent her heart in a mad ride, but she couldn’t really explain why she still felt so intimidated while on the road to normalization. She would have to get rid of those petty fears if she wanted to meet his ground someday. “When I call you a terrorist, I mean it because you are a menace. It is an insult.”

Her eyes deadpanned in his, bored and waiting for him to go down the very same decaying road. “C’mon, finish me off.”

He squinted his eyes at her, head titled forward. The fires shadowed his eyes in an even harder glare. “What I mean is that now it seems like you can play the role we want you to. So you can try to see that as us knowing you are able.”

“So, you are admitting to me, right here and now, that you do aknowledge that I am strong.”

“Oi, don’t sass me, Uraraka.” the sorcerer giggled, and she crawled to rest against the tree by her makeshift bed right next to Bakugou, who only recoiled so she wouldn’t step over his boundaries. Her eyes climbed up to the starry ceiling above their heads, and found out that Bakugou was wistfully stargazing as well. “Relatively speaking, you are strong for a novice. But I can’t have you relying on brutal smacks that leave you as a leech right after. That will never do.”

Her voice was lost in the night sky, then closed her eyes to feel the dark breeze of the river neat them. “I guess you are right on that. I do wanna get stronger, you know.”

Bakugou looked at her with intensity. The orange lights of the fire lit up her eyes, but it wasn’t like she needed actual fire to shine, right? It was this weird feeling inside his chest of seeing something ever so scary inside of that petite body of hers, a feeling so enticing yet so mysterious as that face of hers seemed familiar– but it had terrified him and then made him leap to anger. She was the only one in this forsaken guild that could flip his switches.

And it threw them off even stronger when he saw that she never meant to trouble him, but she did anyway. Uraraka hadn’t meant to come across as a terrorist, as a menace, as his heart sworn enemy after Shinsou and Midoriya– yet, she hadn’t shrunk. She had sucked it all up and faced him in so many occasions, little by little, and had made her stand up against a fucking mob of people conspiring against her.

She hadn’t meant to step in here, but she had anyway and there she was, quiet as if her whole life hadn’t been turned upside down like his had been. Couldn’t she realize what a fucking nuisance she was, that he was bearing with a little too much to his liking?

Look at what she made him do, have to step out of his way to try and accept her. Disgusting. Yet he was doing it anyway, and it was starting to become easy not to hate her. And a part of him knew she was easier with it that she had once been. He didn’t really want to know what was going through her head, but he deemed it better to be like this.

But then her eyes drifted to his, and she grinned when he found him staring. Bakugou growled with disdain, making her giggle. Her eyes warmed slightly when he didn’t immediately threaten her like he would have, just swallowed it up. Yeah – both thought, eyes glancing up the stars – it was becoming easier to overcome such universal rules.

“How strong do you wanna get, though?” his words were hoarse in wonder, more spoken to himself than her, but it made her interrupt her internal schemes to regard him. His eyes moved to hers as well, red bleeding in pure chocolate. “I don’t know how ambitious you are power-wise, but I can assure you you ain’t becoming a professional powerhouse anytime soon.”

Uraraka hugged her knees, sighing. Her tone deflated slightly, her mind set off far ahead. “As much as I can. As much as I can take. As much as it requires so we can take down RampAge and fix the universe.” so there she went, speaking about such thing like it was a silly matter to the wind. “I will overcome myself, and never bow to an enemy again.”

Her eyebrow was knit in determination, no longer talking to Bakugou, but to herself. A part of him knew this was like some kind of mantra to her and that Uraraka had this tone that esteemed danger and threat in a thousand languages, but not a single cell of his body found the energy to complain despite this being a clear hazard to her. Honestly, at this stage, she could go throw herself off a cliff, he didn’t care much about it.

It may be because he was tired, but stepping from actively trying to kill her to simply not caring about it seemed like a great step to him. Better to not want her than want her dead, right? Irony would get him for that later on.

“Well, as long as you don’t cause me fucking trouble, it’s fine.” condemned the leader, but he had a feeling she wasn’t really listening. “Now go to sleep, it’s been enough talk for the night.”

“Mhm, agreed.” nodded she, still relishing in the glimmer of the fire near her, wood cracking under the moonlight. “We have stayed civil for too long, better to not drag any further.”

The blonde hunter growled at her after such remark, to which she could only laugh and sigh. She wasn’t stupid, and knew that deep inside, he was a bit afraid of moving on from that comfortable stage they had of hating each other recklessly and having swords drawn all the time– but she was starting to move on, which sadly didn’t mean he would move as fast as she would. The past was a long forgotten memory, but she could only wonder how much it’d take for him to let it go.

And the thought tired her so, so much.

Yeah – after a short glimpse at his eyes burning at the fires with passion and complexity, her head craned back to the fires too – she did care about him, after all.

“Papa, who are those people at the barrier?”

Nameless peaked from the border of the cauldron, pink hands coming to swat them away in fear she would burn herself. Bubbles floated from the recipient, pink hues delighting the girl before they burst in the air, and she laughed in senseless joy. “Ah, my child, no more than silly invaders.”

“Yes, that’s what mama told me… but I don’t understand. They seem docile and…” the face of the boy came into her mind, his rude and blonde behavior contrasting so much with those kind faces that had allowed her to cross the river, bland attitudes and some smiles thrown her way. “They even have the same skin as I and Harold do!”

“Harold?” she nodded, only to have her tutor crouch and ruffle her hair with his clawed hand. “Don’t you mean that red boy with the hard skin? Was it... Kirishima?” the girl’s eyes lit up, and her head bobbed again with a wide smile. “Well, yes. You do share some similarities, but the color of your skin doesn’t define who you are, darling.”

“But we are so similar!” Nameless outstretched her chubby hands, petite pads grazing his dad’s claws. “Look, papa, my hands are different! Yet, they are invasors and mama hates them? I don’t get it.”

The little brunette crossed her arms, cheeks puffed in disagreement. Whether they were invaders or not, they hadn’t tried to touch her despite being from another species, from another face of the incoming war– she was their enemy. But nobody had dared to touch her. Her dad could see a million thoughts running across her sensible mind, so he just shook his head in utter defeat.

“Some time ago, we took something from them– something very important.” that had her looking up, hands limp on her sides with the very same naïve look everyone knew her for. “Something that holds great power, something that belongs to us, and has always belonged to us. It’s the reason we are still alive now, they fear us. This land– this planet alone, it all belongs to us.”

Nameless continued looking up, brow knit in confusion. Her heart beat out of control, breath stale and staggering to keep her alive in the very same place she stood, and she wasn’t there anymore, backgrounds changing to a fuzzy rainy ghost town full of dead trees, where an orange house stood and a warm family lived. The drops of a far away rain hammered on her skin, and never left.

When her eyes looked up again, they were wet with tears. “Daddy, I don’t understand! Does that mean they want to really destroy our species? Because they are… greedy?”

Father looked at the girl sternly, but didn’t give her a response, stirring the brewage silently as Nameless wiped her eyes clean. In fact, her father would never give her an answer, but the fact that his eyes had stared at her so intently brought tears to her face every time.

A part of Uraraka had once found herself believing that travels like these were bound to be fun, used for bonding and mental training. As she had been packing all her stuff, the only thoughts that racked her head being images of her friends laughing, telling stories as they went or taking about everything and nothing at the same time.

Of course, she had been wrong.

Not too much. But still.

The group walked through the forest in a slow trudge, under the shelter of a blinding sunshine that never gave it a rest. Whilst they were walking just by a river – Iida had diligently explained to her that the Capital was located just by a river, so as long as they went in the right direction, they would never get lost – there was no breeze whatsoever, and Uraraka had to remind herself that using magic under such critical elements was not healthy.

There was this moment when Tokoyami came to her side and asked for some whips of air, as Asui had no knowledge of how to do them. The brunette had sighed in resignation. “It’s not wise to use elements you can’t actually bend in space. Bending elements consumes energy, but bending elements one has to actually create is an incredible waste of energy.”

Kaminari, who had been talking with her all the way, butted in shamelessly. “Whoa, those books that Yaoyorozu gave you must have paid off for sure. You sound so technical, Uraraka.”

The sorcerer smiled as contently as possible, sweat gleaming under the hat. “One tries her best. It has happened to me that when I try to light up a candle with no fire around, I feel a bit colder afterwards. So now, creating air out of nothing would possibly knock me into a heat stroke, and I doubt you guys would enjoy carrying me all the way to our next stop.”

She could already hear Bakugou scheming ways to convince her to help Tokoyami, and fumed at his back. He walked a few steps ahead of them, battle sword in hand just in case any nasty enemy came to crash the party. Bakugou looked behind him and instantly snapped when he found her staring at him with that stupidly fumming of hers. “What the hell are you gawking at me for, Uraraka?”

“Wow, Bakugou, moody much.” commented the other blonde, and it sounded like such an obvious statement, devoid of surprise and just too plain regular that nobody paid him any attention. “Sleepless again?”

This time, the hunter was the one to look back at her, but his eyes weren’t as loaded with hatred as one would expect them to be. “Yeah, talkative midgets won’t let one rest.”

Uraraka found herself very much offended when all eyes landed on her. “Hey, I am not that talkative! Stop– Asui, are you seriously laughing at me?”

Asui had only giggled a bit, which counted as a laughing fit for her. “Sorry, I am just kind of glad you two are already making nice. Kudos for putting up with Bakugou so far.”

The leader stopped in his tracks and leaped before Asui with a tapping finger on her arm. It had taken him way too long to snap at someone, which made Uraraka breathe out, finally. It was better to have him throwing a fit now than when they got to the village, tired and sore from skipping streams and getting boulders out of the way.

“Oi, who you calling hysterical, frog girl!?”

She only blinked at him, not as terrified as pale Kaminari was of him. It really seemed like most people from Yuuei had the beast under control, but even Uraraka herself who was kind of used to him – she had experienced him at his worst personally, there wasn’t much worse than that in store for her – would jump at his brashness sometimes. Asui, though, she was so collected and unbreakable.

Sometimes, she wondered if–

“FUCK!” Uraraka turned to see Tokoyami clutching his shoulder in pain, and with a little shift of his posture, she found a dagger stabbing his skin. “What the absolute–“

“My my, foreigners in our territory!”

The crew turned to their right, above the river and up to a mountain cliff. The leader of the group growled loudly and unconsciously walked to stand before his team, sword drawn at the unwanted presence that stood atop the cliff. They wore black cloaks and there was this one that stood in front of the group with some kind of scepter drawn out, black strands of hair blowing in the wind. Uraraka could even sense the wicked smirk that Bakugou sported so well under the capes.

“Hold on…” her eyes squinted at the cloaks, and recognized the beads at the pointed hoods. Her breath got stuck in her throat. “– t-those are…!”

“That fucker.” snarled Bakugou, cleaning some sweat from his jaw. “Where the hell did you guys come from?”

The female voice talked again, head lolled in mean intentions. “Nobody you will ever care about, soft boy.” she looked at one of her henchmen. “Wipe them out.”

This mercenary swung his hand to the right, and a thousand purple spears appeared in the air, pointing at them, and fell down faster than a lightning bolt to crush them dead, pierce their skulls and leave them bleeding on the ground, making the leader chuckle and lips her licks at the full display of flesh she’d have for her people, but–

“Look out!” Uraraka’s staff swung at the sky and a rampage of fire and lighting exploded the attack into smithereens as a ceiling of light rippled in the air, making the forest dance at the wave and the enemies’ cloaks float for a few seconds. The energy rippled onwards into the forest, and burnt some of the highest trees until they were no more than ash.

Uraraka stood straight again, forehead sweaty and weak knees. “That was close.”

Bakugou smacked her on the neck with a grimace, which she rubbed in pain. “No need to burn the fucking whole forest down though. We’re seriously gonna work on that.”

The woman narrowed her eyes at the awaiting group, dangerous lights flickering down in her glower. “Noisy children.” she tugged at her hoodie, and dug some dirt out of the cliff with her staff. “Be right back, guys. Don’t wait up.”

And the woman straight jumped off the cliff, staying in mid air for a few seconds to focus on a safe landing. The blonde leader tugged at Uraraka’s neckline and yanked her backwards so she could stay out of the damn way because she didn’t know how to do anything else but stand in his way. When he saw that that damn witch was going to land straight on him, he dug his blade on the dirt and held his wrist straight up.

“This is gonna hurt like a motherfu–“ and he fired, rippling explosions driving through his skin until they imploded and exploded into the air fifty meters above them, fire bubbling in the air as a gust of wind rushed into the ground and slammed on the dirt loudly, making Asui actually stumble and fall into Iida’s armored hands. Uraraka held onto life by driving her staff into the ground, Kaminari holding onto her as well.

This foe though, she was no commoner. Her body dived straight through the explosion with her cloak riding the air, and the hunter had to leap back with a shriek her her scepter slapped the ground and made the soil crack under her feet. Then, she was up, head titled in amusement as her voice cackled in disbelief. “Fun trick, kid. You sure don’t fool around.”

“You…” Tokoyami stepped forward as well, standing by Uraraka’s side. A hazard of a shadow lurked behind his eyes, oh she could tell so well, and his hands were clenched in crossed arms, pondering the potential of this enemy. “you are one of those illegal hunters, aren’t you? From the Jirou family.”

“Ne, such a blunt statement from a bird boy.” she wiped something from the corner of her mouth, and Uraraka came tumbling into the terrifying conclusion that is was red, crimson blood. “Why say it so spitfully, boy? It’s not like we are the plague. And please, don’t make me feel related with that bunch of scruffy criminals. I have more class than that.”

Kaminari stepped in front of Uraraka and Asui, who looked troubled at the sight of such shady woman. “Not like you made that evident, jumping off a high cliff to attack some kids.”

“Never said it wasn’t an adventurous kind of class, blondielocks.” her eyes bled in blue purity into Uraraka’s ones, speaking of horrible death penalties for the sorcerer in her head. “Ah, this child. You sure ruined my little show before, I can get why your village is so damn scared of you.”

Her other hand rested on top of a black whip, nails long, black and dirty. Her uniform was torn in several places, revealing bunches of scarred skin and blood caked on her hip. This woman – Uraraka shuddered under Bakugou’s glare, who was exceptionally aware of what she was thinking – was dangerous. In a kind worse than Bakugou, worse than Shinsou, or darker than that man’s chamber at the mountain crevasse.

She was terrifying, and the thought made her take a step back until she was met with silence from the black-haired woman. Something was telling her to step back, something deep inside those eyes made her world fall into a ditch of statics and bugs, nagging thoughts of nightmares and blood dripping down her hands, heads surrounding her and rain falling on her neck again–

A jolt of electricity made those thoughts disappear until they were no more than a stain in her mind. “She’s toying with you. Don’t look into her eyes or she–“

“My, such a talkative boy.” snarled the woman, flicking her hair over her shoulder under the cloak. “Let me introduce myself, even though I doubt it’s necessary, right? Judging by your faces, I doubt it’s necessary.”

Her hand fetched her hoodie and tossed it behind, revealing a sharp, pale face with black glasses and pointed factions. That face… – Uraraka screwed her eyes shut, biting her lip as she thought back in days when she had seen that face, that victory and those dead eyes of hers that–  Uraraka gasped, and a mild rush of fear ran down her spine at seeing such a dangerous figure stand idle in front of them, in front of him.

“I go by the name of Midnight, referred as Hollow Despair by my peers and all those who survive me.” her voice was arrogant, but not in the way Bakugou’s was, again. She was in so many ways as mean as the leader was, yet it was easy to see he was just unreliant and brash. Yet, this woman… she was so much more than that. “Hey, brown eyes, see this staff? It’s way prettier than yours.”

Uraraka had the urge to spit on her and say it just wasn’t her cup of tea, because that scepter of hers held a deadly aura nobody liked. Black staff with bars surrounding a cracked skull, moss growing out of the ancient heirloom. It sprinkled some odd vibes off the scepter, smells like a cemetery, and the place is suddenly deadly silent for the moments to come, the voice of this mercenary filling the whole forest. “I am a necromancer, professional in the art of death and despair, and whoever who crosses paths with me is destined to receive a nightmare battle. No opponent of mine leaves unscarred. Nobody ever has.”

This makes Uraraka gulp, and hears the distant clinking of Bakugou’s sword being drawn out from the earth, and a chuckle. It is all so distant, why did she feel like this? Blood was plumping into her heart in a frenzy, rationality forgotten as her hands trembled on her staff’s hold. What the hell was going on?

“Necromancers are the antithesis of sorcerers.” mumbled Asui to her peer, who eyed the pharmacist with tired eyes. It looks like Asui was kind of exhausted as well. “Their energy naturally draws your energy and sucks it into their bloodstream. Our magic can’t do much against them.”

“Then, we are useless?” exclaimed she, frantic and desperate as the deafness only drew in closer. “We can’t do anything?”

“Pretty much.” Asui looked at the four warriors in front of them, and eyed Bakugou as he drew his blade in front of his guild mates loyally, which made Asui sigh in relief. “They won’t need us that badly. I wouldn’t worry much over it.”

The brunette had never felt this helpless in her whole life. This was the first time she remembered to have needed to lay down her weapons, nature too cruel and mean to allow her to fight. Her hands trembled in anxiety as the boys aimed for the woman, attempting to nuke her as hard as possible– but their attacks were futile against that agile woman who rejected their attacks with a swing of her damned scepter.

“What the hell, woman?” the leader held a hand up, explosions rippling, and slammed it to the ground as to make it tremble, knocking her back a few meters as it cracked and shook under Bakugou’s grasp. “You a look a lil’ shaken up! Why don’t you come and face us?”

His bravado was all but useful – mused Uraraka solemnly, gripping her staff with strength. A little breeze blew from behind her in the middle of the battle, making her nape feel relieved and her life start beating anew, renewed limbs and decision etched in her thin veins. Asui looked at that dangerous glint of hers, and grew worried for her friend.

“Iida, protect Asui!” called the brunette, making the knight spin to meet her eyes. “I will serve as support for them!”

The brunette treaded towards the fighting blur of colors and smashed the ground with her foot, a column of spikes rippling from beneath and running towards the necromancer, who broke them with ease with a swing of her scepter. Ah, so much for being sneaky, and Bakugou looked at her with exasperation at her for pulling such bland move.

“Oh, we have a newcomer here.” Midnight tossed a strand of hair aside and pounded the ground with her weapon. Uraraka heard Bakugou and Kaminari grunt, and they were clutching their heads when she craned her head to meet them. Her eyes grew concerned, but didn’t think much of it. “It’s good to see a little mage playing with the world as well. We sure are the misunderstood profession, huh.”

Her heart was tugging ever so slowly as Midnight stared at her intently, and her stomach lurched as something akin to exhaustion and awkwardness stirred deep inside of her, her brain racking with various facts that suddenly made her feel nervous, anxiety crawling and gnawing from behind as it pulled, pulled, and suddenly impacted on her.

The brunette was almost brought to her knees as energy was drawn from her, replaced with all kinds of negative thoughts that had her mind screaming to stop, weak and fragile, slow and burning. “Disposable.” snapped the necromancer, and tugged her hand up to make the ground quake beneath her, sending Uraraka flying towards the depths of the forest.

Kaminari screamed for her name, but was interrupted halfway when her feet scraped the ground and created cushioning spikes of stone and stopped the push, landing on her knees with a hand on the ground, panting. Bakugou and Iida blinked at her, and watched her brush a bead of sweat off her jaw. She might have survived that, but that woman was drawing energy off her too fast.

“You can’t die, huh? Miracle girl I shall call you.” snarky, egocentric and the pure evil, that woman was. The little sorcerer was able to stand up, and Kaminari instantly came to shield her, whip drawn out and sparkling with bolts. Midnight licked her lips at the blonde boy, who was frowning in a threat at the mad woman. “Don’t stare at me so hard, boy.”

She dug her scepter a bit harder on the ground, her smirk tightening as Bakugou and Kaminari this time doubled over in pain. They groaned a few curses, but still managed to stand. Bakugou dug his hand into his head and Uraraka saw him tug– wow, he was trying hard. “What kind of game are you playing, damned witch?”

Uraraka’s eyes then drew to the staff on Midnight’s hand, and watched the skull. Blood rushed to her ears and deafened for a second, a wave of displeasant wind thundering across the small clearing. It sent Bakugou and Kaminari to their feet almost instantly, but Uraraka was quick to bend the current and drive it back to her, sending the mercenary flying meters behind again.

“Fucking shit,” mumbled the leader, struggling to stand again now that the other woman was a bit further away, trudging towards Uraraka. “what the fuck are you–“

“She may be a necromancer and…” her legs buckled underneath her, but Bakugou made no attempt to help her stand as in, as he expected, she was able to sustain the swoon and manage to grab her staff for support. “all that. But that doesn’t mean we can’t use brutal force against her.”

Bakugou stretched his fist with his other hand and rolled his neck a little. “I can handle her, but your magic will only nurture her if you use too much of it. It ain’t wise at all to go into battle, Uraraka.”

The girl eyed him warily, an eyebrow quirked as she finally properly stood up. Midnight was starting to stand up, brushing some dirt off her neck, and Kaminari stepped to his peers again. “She ain’t backing off easy, huh?”

“Ain’t happening.” the leader was still kind of scored on, his legs were quivering in the meanest of ways, and he held his head on his hand. Still, the grimace of a challenge still gung on his face. That made her smirk a little, and his sword hissed in front of her feet. “Not like we can’t take that bitch, right?”

Uraraka dug into the ground with a defiant, meancing glint in her eyes, and Kaminari stretched his fists as jolts shot out of them. Still, the girl wasn’t sure if they would hold up for much longer. They were panting, willing to fight but their bodies seemed to have other plans. She did hold onto hope despite the circumnstances, and watched the necromancer get to her feet with a horrifyingly pissed expression.

Her head snapped to the cliff she had come from. “What the fuck are you losers doing up there? Get these kids!”

Bakugou already had a plan in mind, and flashed a glare at the bird man. “Bir– Tokoyami, Iida!”

“Got you, master.” Tokoyami was gone in a flash of shadows, and a screech that Uraraka had to cover her ears from. Iida was gone with the boy, and had left Asui to stride to her companions.

The enemy was gripping her cloak when Uraraka looked up again, and this strange, bleak smile broke free when she had all their attention. Her brow was knit though, showing a contradictory set of emotions. The sad, angry and ravenous vibe never wore off, and only started to wear thin on everyone. The more they looked in her eyes, the more the darkness drew closer.

Bakugou stepped a little bit forward, standing in front of the group. The woman wanted to laugh. She did. “Oh my, such mighty group sending two boys after my mercenaries. I hope you bid them good farewells before this encounter.”

Kaminari put Asui behind him in basic instinct. Uraraka, instead of being content with the arrangement, stepped forward as well. “You should be worrying about your people more, old hag.”

“What do you–“

A collection of pained screams issued from somewhere in the forest, along with the very same screech they had heard before but double in intensity, as if moaning in misery. It was heartbreaking, yet immensely powerful. Midnight turned at them in disgust after narrowing her eyes at the source of sound. “What even–“

“That must be Tokoyami sorting out the trash, ribbit.”

“Tokoyami…?” now that Uraraka thought about it, she didn’t even know much about him. As far as she had seen, he didn’t even have weapons with him. What the hell was his profession or skill if he even had one? “Well, that’s not the thing now!”

Mignight growled at the people who she saw as children, a nuisance, and pounded the ground with her scepter. “Silence!”

“GAH!”

Kaminari and Bakugou let out a loud scream of pain before limping onto the ground, trembling and crawling on the ground for dear life. Kaminari was out of comission in a second, his trembling stopping altogether and his breath haltering. Uraraka gasped and stiffled in a scream as some blood started pooling around the boy’s head, white and statics covering her mind as screeches, blood and rain mixed in a metallic pang of worry and panicking.

And above all, red. The red of Bakugou’s eyes, squinting at the necromancer as he crawled to her. It was as if gravity was pulling him down and not up as usual, his voice wasn’t edgy nor his muscles were tensed in emotion. This was raw, desperate Bakugou, crawling as Uraraka stared from behind.

“Y-You… fucking bitch…”

Moments of void echos vibrated in the zone, and the leader fell out of consciousness, reality leaving his thoughts and movements and he fell, shattered and stopped breathing. When Uraraka and Asui saw the very same crimson blood start falling off Bakugou’s closed lids, something snapped in Uraraka. The image came in waves at her, something about it being so so vaguely familiar, yet so very distant and out of reach.

Showered in far away, metallic awry rain, she watched the blood spill from his head, and then looked up at Midnight in pure rage. “What the hell do you think you are doing to my people, witch!?”

“I can’t really see the diff–“

“Shut up!” Uraraka flung her staff in front of her, ruffles of fire cascading down onto the earth, with lighting, making Midnight jump to a side and avoid the fire crackers.

Her staff touched ground again, and as she crossed her hands, an ancient spirral of chaos and destruction shone under her feet, contained in a white seal of thunder and rocks. “Accept your fate, nothings!”

When she released the seal, a big thunder wave of wind and lighting slammed onto the ground, shook the gravel and sent the brunette flying meters behind, trashing trees at her wake as she flew across the air and landed on a bigger tree, which resisted her push yet made her head hit the trunk pretty bad, clothes scarred and torn with burns on her skin. The area was ruined with a long hallway of broken trees and dust, making Asui frown her eyes at the murderer.

Uraraka didn’t get up yet.

Midnight looked at Asui with disdain. She couldn’t feel any magic in her, and that… thing wasn’t even human. She was a mutant. “I don’t know what you are, little thing,” with a hard thrust on a crack, Asui was flying as a rock pillar sent her out of the ground from below. “but I don’t think these kids will need you anymore.”

Asui tried her best to flail her arms around for some movement, but Midnight ended discarding her at the river that flowed behind them, and Asui didn’t surface from the dark waters either. The necromancer chuckled at the rich collection of decaying bodies in front of her, and saw them writhe a little as she moved. Her scepter articulated a chain with a gripper, that attached itself to Bakugou’s neck. It gripped his throat tightly, and as Midnight tugged at the chain, she smirked. Delicious blood dripped down his jaw as his nose bled as well, and she kicked his shoulder as she clenched the chain with her fists.

“Pretty little boy.” the tugged at the chains harder, and tried to dislocate his shoulder with another kick from her heeled foot. “Such a disg–“

A explosion was heard in the distance, and Uraraka was sent flying after Midnight as fire rippled from her palm, screaming at the top of her lungs. “WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!” and her body impacted with Midnight’s in a deaf sound, movement stilling before the woman was sent straight into the cliff, a cavity created as the necromancer unceremonously landed on the wall.

Uraraka hissed in pain and waved her hand with a little blow. She couldn’t understand how Bakugou did that crime on a daily basis without being handicapped for a while, because her hand would bleed and bruise after such compression and explosion of energy. Magic wasn’t supposed to hurt her that much physically, but this trick of his was a fucking suicide bomb.

However, Midnight didn’t take much longer to be getting up again. Uraraka looked at the river, and alarms rung all over her head, an annoying beep in her ears as the crash left the whole place silent. “Asui!”

But a clap of thunder tore the ground beneath her apart, and a huge shadow kicked her on the back as Midnight slammed the scepter into the crevasse. Uraraka rolled dangerously near the river, and the necromancer jumped to this side, snarling. “Disposable little thing.” she gave her another kick, and Uraraka was sinking into the waters of the stream.

Her eyes tried to blink open in the dark waters, and could differ some streaks of light stemming into the low ground below her as she floated deeper and deeper. Her hair waved around her like a halo, her torn clothes heavy and caressing her burnt skin, caked in blood and savage intentions that had left her dizzy, confused, and she was almost touching ground now. Luckily for her, the river was particularly still now, but it still carried her onwards little by little.

Uraraka finally fluttered her eyes open, and silence greeted her surroundings aside from occasional bubbling. She tried to make out her surroundings in the muddy waters and found out that some wounds were stinging her like bees, so she gripped her hand for dear life. Her back was throbbing as well, which wasn’t very good either.

She grimaced. That nasty necromancer was for sure doing bad things to the bodies of her friends, and she had been so fired up at the thought of having to celebrate a burial in such nice day. Her eyes had lit up, teeth clenched as an avalanche of disarrayed emotions whirled through her– only to die here, at the hands of muddy water and a laughing sociopath.

She looked at her bruised hands, then at the surface, and tried to flail a bit a move. Nothing. She kicked her feet around, nothing. Not knowing how to actually swim only came to her mind now, and she would have cursed loudly if it hadn’t been for the water making its way into her esophagus, ice and fire fighting as it burned, scrorched, and she clenched her eyes in pain.

Then, something frail and lukewarm enveloped her in the muddy darkness, and she let herself be taken.

Midnight kicked Kaminari’s unconscious body a little, humming in approval. “He would make for good fodder. I can use him as a delicious container, though… heh, so many possibilities for my people, to–“

A loud splash of water rumbled behind Midnight, and she turned to witness Asui enveloped ina massive bubble of water, Uraraka tucked under her arm as one of her hands was shot forward– and the pair floated in the ball of tides before Asui unleashed the currents onto the unsuspecting Midnight. “River Enchanting: Dragon Slash!”

The bubble disappeared into the shape of a roaring transparent dragon that screeched and pushed Midnight deep across the forest, creating a streak of havoc that threw the enemy out of the clearing, devastated trees and created a little earthquake when it smashed the necromancer onto the ground, throwing her to the dirt below.

Asui left an almost unmoving Uraraka on the ground as she effortlessly strode a bit towards the streak of destruction, no signs of pride showing whatsoever the moment she saw the wrecked, shaking bodies of her peers on the ground. The other sorcerer made an attempt to lift her head, and started coughing out water like a sprinkled as soon as she was conscious enough.

As Asui stepped nearer, she glared at Midnight like she had never done. “Don’t underestimate a little girl like me, hunter.”

Midnight hissed dangerously at the herbalist, crouched and wiping some dirt and blood clean from her face. “Not worth the pain, fucking children.” she tucked her head under the hoodie of her cloak and fled out of the scene, letting Asui breathe in relief while rushing to Uraraka’s side.

The girl was trying to spit all water out of her lungs, clutching her chest while grunting and grimacing at her blisters and cuts. “Are you alright, Uraraka?”

Cough, cough. “Y-yeah, just–“ she closed and opened her bruised hand, sighing in relief when there was no open wound that could have been polluted by the water. “– kinda peachy. the others though…”

Uraraka scrambled to her feet and hurried over Bakugou to slap his cheeks a few times, then shook him. The fallen leader only breathed a little bit, blood falling down his nose and trailing on his cheek. Uraraka craddled him on her arms while Asui checked on Kaminari. She wasn’t even thinking, all she wanted now was for him to wake up, just wake up, jus–

“Uraraka, stop!” she couldn’t understand. Why was seeing Bakugou hurt hammering so hard on her? Her heart wasn’t beating that hard, she wasn’t breathing heavily– no signs of distress, yet, why was she clutching his head so tightly?

Metallic thunder and rain clapped in another place, falling down on them in another story, another world, another time. It was raining somewhere else.

“Mother…”

“We must hurry!” the brunette eased one of his arms around her neck carefully, and wrapped her own arm around his waist, getting up. “We need to take them to the nearest village, quickly!”

Asui obediently tucked her own arm around Kaminari, who almost toppled over and crushed her with his weight. “Couldn’t you use your ability, though? We could take them there faster.”

“Impossible.” and Uraraka regretted saying this, because if she had spent more time training her skills rather than chatting around, she would be able to take them flying somewhere safe. “My ability gives me terrible nausea if I overuse it. I haven’t had enough training to–“ she adjusted Bakugou’s body on her side with a grunt. “–to actually develop it properly. Damn it.”

“We should manage until we get to our next stop, but we will have to make it a race.” Asui looked around her, searching for the right path in the midst of the forestal havoc around them. “We will have to make Iida sprint to the village and tell the others to give us a hand. Yaoyorozu is our best hand to play here.”

Uraraka took a cautious step, shrugging his body closer– then another. She could manage. “This guy sure is heavy, but alright. I gotta… be strong, and push on.” this last bit was murmured more for herself, mentally lost in the middle of a clearing of confusion, worry and searing heat around them.

But Asui smiled anyway.

When Bakugou came to, he felt like wherever he was, it was the wrong place.

His fingertips scraped the soft thing underneath him, tilting his head a bit when he was met with a soft blanket, rough at the edges, but smooth all the same. His head was on something bland, and his neck, bandaged and kind of tight. It was stitchy. His arms felt sore as well, and his wrist was pained, swollen much probably.

His mind did the kind gesture of backtracking a bit, then heard noises out of the place he was in. He clenched his eyes close for a second as light started filtering it, hinges sounding, and steps trudged around him.

“Bakugou?”

The leader woke up with a start when he saw Asui staring at him right in the face, not more than a few inches away from his nose. “What the actual fuck, frog girl!���

“I was expecting you to remember my name or at least call me by it. Whatever.” the blonde boy supported himself on his elbows and looked at her go to a little table at the end of his brown, orange and white room. There were a lot of medical supplies there. “Try to rest. You weren’t easy to fix.”

His eyes trailed down his abdomen, but no bandages rested there. There was nothing in his arms, excepting his hands, and then he had one wrapped around his forehead, something heavy straped on it. Bakugou let out a big breath of exhaustion as the events from last–

“How long…” Asui came to remove the damp cloth from his head and nodded. “have I been here?”

“Two days.” answered the girl quickly, and dried the cloth on a nearby bucket. “Midnight did a number on you and Kaminari.”

–right, two days since that stupid witch, a spawn of the devil, came to play with him. He felt impossibly weak after being so beaten up, and undeniably  weak and stupid. He wondered: what would had he looked like, laying half dead on the ground at the mercy of such a powerful enemy like that woman? The ground had cracked evenly beneath his muscles, pain rippling inside his mind– and suddenly, he was no more. The aftermath was rough, but so was the fall.

“Ribbit! Don’t burn the mattress, Bakugou!” smoke was steaming from his hands, and Asui had to slap them off before he had no bed to sleep on.

He frowned and attempted to sit on the bed. When Asui tapped his shoulder, he extended his arm obediently, stil fuming over his defeat. “I just can’t believe that bitch got me so damn good…” Asui quietly damped his neck and shoulder on oilments, and looked over his arm with critical eye. “Damn that Jirou clan… They are no good news.”

The girl gave his neck a final squeeze and retreated back a little to squeeze the water out of the cloth on a bucket. “She was overpowered, there was no hope for us to win. All Uraraka and I could do was knock her around a little bit. Thank god she got tired of us quickly.”

Bakugou frowned when that damn sorcerer’s name came into the topic, and hissed with deep hatred. She sure must have had the time of her life laughing at his decaying corpse while she nuked that necromancer. “Of course you were able to play with her.” he didn’t know who he was exactly referring to, but he was getting pretty mad at the image of him laying and Uraraka standing and fighting. “Fucking sure you could.”

“Sheesh, calm down.” Asui stared at Bakugou shredding the blankets again. Such a waste of bed clothing. “It’s fine. You don’t need to be the one stomping on others’ heads all the time. Does it really make you that mad we were the ones who got her to escape?”

“I don’t fucking care you were able to get her out of our tails. We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you girls doing something.” his grimace got so drunken in rage and regret that he had to close his eyes and seethe in silence. “But I can’t get over that damn midget–“

“Oh, so this is about Uraraka, even after all this time.”

The leader craned his head slowly to glare at the herbalist, who clearly didn’t give a fuck about his little grudges with her. “Don’t sass me either, you damn–“

“No, really. I can understand what you mean.” condoned Asui, a finger to her mouth. Judging by Bakugou’s surprised face, frown squished in wonder, she had all his attention. “We are all aware of what Uraraka is capable of doing. There will come a moment when she will surpass our own expectations, and she will step over us in power.”

“Yes, damn straight.” agreed he, slamming a fist on the ruined blankets with a snarl. “Finally, someone sees my point–“

“However,” of course, she had to ruin the little communication they had. “that doesn’t mean she is a menace to us. All this time, she has proven to us that she had a good heart in many ocassions. Do I have to remind you of how she still tries to talk to you despite your foul personality?”

Bakugou almost jumped out of the bed and knocked her to a better life, but decided against it because, after all, she was the one curing him. “I am a damn delight!” he slumped on the wall, arms crossed and pouted, nose wrinkled in distaste. “And it’s not like she is trying. She just doesn’t get the damn hint I don’t wanna be her friend, and if it was up to me, I’d fucking  have her head on a wall.”

“You still personally accepted into the guild, though.”

“When will you all stop rubbing that in my face!?” screamed he, but Asui still continued stirring some creams and treatments on a flask, herbs smashed on a little handkerchief. “Damn her, and fuck her cheeks, her staff, and her ass pity! I don’t need anything from her.”

“Stop sulking.” scolded the water sorcerer with a minimal scowl, disliking such childish displayal. “If you were an actual mature leader, you would have put this grudge of yours aside and looked at the situation with critical eye. I understand that you may not like her, but she has saved your ass many times now.”

“EXCU–“

“Listen,” she cut him off gently, like a little knife in fire cutting a solid cube of ice butter, her eyes soft and hands fidgeting beneath his eyes set aflame. “for starters, it was her who got up after a solid, killing blow and knocked Midnight out of the clearing. I was the one who ended up kicking her off, yes–“

“Again, it’s not like I don’t aknowledge her strength, but I don’t own her a–“

“–but she was the one who actually saved you” not Kaminari, not Asui, nobody else but him, and he could see that tint of insistance in the pharmacist’s eyes. “from probably getting necked off. When she saw you in such bad state, for some reason I can’t comprehend, she went berserk. Afterwards, she personally carried your ungrateful ass to the village, and helped me tend your severe wounds– wounds that, mind you, would have been worse if it weren’t for her.”

Such rush of information caught Bakugou off guard, and he actually flinched at the accusatory tone in Asui’s tired voice. Now that he noticed, she had bags under her eyes, her hair was unkempt, and her skin has several untreated wounds. Was Uraraka in such state as well? After saving his ass, after actually carrying him here, was she untreated and disarrayed like this snarky pharmacist was? The thought suddenly didn’t bode well with him, and something akin to shame panged at his heart. He swatted it away quickly though.

“Look, I know that you don’t like her, and you will probably never even be friends with her. Nobody is actually asking for such miracle.” Asui padded next to the leader, who glanced at her in thought. She had never seen so silent in her whole life. “But she doesn’t deserve this rage after going out of her way for you in these occassions. In the same way you think you don’t need to thank her, she doesn’t need to do anything for you – it’s not her obligation, it’s not necessary, but she still wants to help you out anyway.”

Out of the blue, his grudges were kept under the shadows and they just stopped nagging at him, stopped putting him on edge, and let him take control of the situation. It was true that the sorcerer was usually nice at him – well, apart from the times when she only went to him to pester and ask ridiculous questions, but that wasn’t the point. Uraraka was a threat, hell yes, she would always be one – but that didn’t really need to stay that way forever.

Up to now, all she had done was put his guild out of trouble when he was either too small or the situation was too big. She was undeniably powerful, had a strong will, and needed to bloom in so many ways. She was a sorcerer, a threat to humankind he needed to keep his eyes on– but things didn’t need to be that way. It was hard to stick to such beliefs, but now that he thought about it, it was more tiring to dislike her than just humor her.

He eyed Asui warily, giving up. He could try to be actively cooperative and stop taking steps back.

“And how am I supposed to be nice to her?”

The girl didn’t show any signs of relief or happiness, just nodded and flashed a little smile. “You could start by going to see her. She left a few hours ago, said something about studying, and scrambled off. Maybe thanking her would make her day a bit better after slaving herself for your sake.”

“Thanking her?” the concept seemed painfully foreign to him.

“Remember, Bakugou… she may one day tire of being nice to you. It may seem like a good riddance now, but trust me she is a keeper.” and he had been told about that a few times now. Kirishima and Kaminari had talked pretty well about her, and all he had done to condemn those opinions was accept her into the guild. He had felt like he had done enough with that, but it was seemingly too little of an action.

The blonde hunter sighed tiredly. In a way, her studying for their trainings, for his guild, after tending his wounds for being a wimp… it wasn’t really fair. He was a fair dude. He wanted justice in his guild. He could give her justice and try to make it all easier for them both– and his guild, remembered he with a grimace.

“Yeah, whatever. Just gonna get this over with so you guys stop giving me earfuls about her being a fucking miracle.” grunted an ugly breath of discontentment and dettached himself from the wall. “Can I walk, though?”

“Of course you can.” he sat on the edge of the bed, hands clasping the blankets with care. He would probably have to pay for those. “Your neck will feel sore for a while, and your wrist is kind of swollen too, but that should be gone in a day. For now, take it easy.”

Bakugou played a bit with both parts, twisting his wrist – it hurt – and craning his neck – that did, too, and he slammed a hand on it with a hiss. “Fine. Just give me some treatments so this nuisance is gone. Where is Uraraka at?”

“This is our room, but she didn’t want to be disturbed or disturb us, so she is taking an empty room for now.” seriously, who told her to be so goddamn nice? Bakugou growled a little. Was she trying to purposefully make him feel bad? He hadn’t given her a reason to do such things, just… “It’s the one at the end of the hallway, with the pot on its side. Try not to be too brash, alright? You just woke up.”

The leader brushed past her, fetched a simple shirt from the hanger by the door and hurried inside of it with enormous urges to get such mental burden out of the way. He had no time to deal with petty businesses like these: he needed to focus on RampAge, on the timeline, on saving it and saving his comrades. It seems like he would have to get Uraraka to feel like one to start with.

“I ain’t moody, frog-girl.” grunted he over his shoulder, biting back so many insults that, after some silent thinking, she didn’t deserve. “I’ll come back to get some painkillers. Pray for that brat’s safety.”

Asui was about to say something about it, but her voice died when the leader slammed the door close was left with heavy stride towards the damned door. He squinted and saw that the mentioned pot was red, giving him all kinds of bad vibes. Each step he took felt like a stab into his pride and all morals he had been building these years, like tearing a wall down brick by brick. She gave him that uneasy feeling of being defenseless in front of her straightforward attitude, how she was unaffected by his remarks.

He hat– no, he didn’t hate her. He didn’t want to kill her, either, he decided. She was worth keeping, but she didn’t need to make him feel bad about it. He hadn’t done anything to deserve such treatment. He didn’t owe her anything more than a simple thank you. He had already decided that she didn’t mean any evil by being so… like this, and all he could do was try to make it easier for her.

Bakugou just shut his critical part of his brain and acted as his fair heart wanted to. He couldn’t cut her off the picture anymore when she was so adamant on sticking by him. It annoyed him, yes, baceuase she felt like a liar, because he didn’t need it– but, apparently, his guild and him sometimes needed her. And for actually being there, she deserved the recognition. Even if she annoyed him.

Knocking on the door with obvious impatience, he have the pot a kick for the sake of keeping his personal tastes in check. He then knocked again, and again, but nobody answered. It came to him that the door was unlocked after a rather violent hit, and he opened it with uncanny precaution.

Bakugou groaned way too loud when he saw her slumped over the table, too many books and scrolls crowding the desk and her head tuked on her arms, on top of a book that seemed to be almost compeltely read– seems like exhaustion got the best of her and she had collapsed before reading the book and had, consequently, overworked herself to this extent.

Uraraka was too hard-working. It unnerved him for a reason, because she didn’t need to do this and instead she went on and did it. The world wouldn’t stop spinning if she took a rest after taking care of him, she didn’t need to make him see her worth so hard. Not like this after saving his ass. A small wave of new guilt came crashing on him, overwhelmed him for a second. The world faded, there was only her, books, bags on her eyes and wounds on her arms, blisters, burns.

She didn’t deserve this. The feeling overtook him before he whacked the chair she was on to silence his heart. “Yo, Uraraka, what the hell.”

The sorcerer didn’t even budge at his brash attempt, only snuggled deeper into her arms and mumbled something under her breath. The leader angrily kicked the table, which shook, but didn’t wake her at all. Talk about heavy sleepers. He gave her shoulder a little shake and silently seethed over how cold she was. Now that he thought about it, the room itself was abnormally cold.

“Damn it, Uraraka.” he tried to keep it in, but he never did good with unbehaving people. He slammed the table with his hand and made all materials quiver, including the sorcerer. “Fucking wake up already!”

Uraraka flung her head back with a start, almost hitting Bakugou on her side, and somehow resumed reading the book in front of her. “Sorry! Right, so, humankind tried to–“

He smacked her neck with a fist, angered at such careless attitude. “What in the world are you doing, Uraraka?”

The girl moaned and rubbed her neck with a pout, then yawned but stopped halfway, such gruff and hoarse voice so rich and vivid that she recognized it I a second too late. She turned her head to glance up at the livid leader, who had a hand on her chair. “Oh, Bakugou! It’s good to see you awake!”

The sorcerer blinked, some tears of sleepyness trailing down her cheeks, and yawned again. He grit his teeth and had this inhuman urge to close all her books and make her rest for a damn second. “What the fuck are you doing? Shouldn’t you be sleeping after being my nurse or something?”

He mentioned the issue so lightly that if she took it into consideration for more than a second, he didn’t notice. Uraraka turned to the books, then him. “Right! Well, I just had some spare time to finish off some books Yaoyorozu gave me, so I could go get some new volumes at the local library tomorrow, because you see, what I was given was kinda…”

She trailed off for a few seconds, holding Bakugou onto a line of broken dialogue, then she yawned and that was the last nail on the coffin for him. “I don’t give a fuck about it, go to sleep already. It won’t do any good for you to be limping around when we train.”

Bakugou then noticed that one of her hands was completely wrapped up in bandages, as was that very same arm. In fact, some medications laid around the room and he was starting to freak out over this woman. What kind of alien civilization educated her to be this crazy? All she was doing was straining herself. He didn’t give a fuck if she had a bad time while being rough on herself, he wouldn’t be crossing over that line anytime soon.

However, as much as he tried to stifle those thoughts, the excuse of this load of work being bad for the overall guild seemed kind of unfounded after all she had gone through because of him.  She didn’t really deserve that, but again, he couldn’t bring himself to care that much. Still, he gave her another shake when she started dozing off on him. “Oi, at least hold up until I leave the room.”

“Oh! You are… right.” the brunette rubbed her eyes awake and looked at him from lidded eyes, peeking. Exhaustion swam all around her, she had this nasty ability to transfix feelings so damn easily. “What did you need, though? There is no way you would come to check on me without a reason.”

One of his eyes actually twitched after what sounded like an accusation, but he didn’t verbally express it because… nah, it wasn’t worth it. “Just go to sleep already. It ain’t worth it anymore.”

“Are you–“

Bakugou got a handful of her hair and smashed her head – slowly, though, as to not break the books – on the table. “Yes, I am sure. Just rest for a while. That’s…”

That was the least she deserved.

“Hm?” she didn’t even make an effort to get up, and only looked at him as he turned around to leave her. Her eyes were closing on their own, submerging her into a field of flickering blackness and swimming, scattered mumbling. “What is it?”

“Tch.” Bakugou shook his head and went for the knob, and before he knew it, she was breathing evenly again. He turned to her again, and was proven right when her eyes were closed, mouth parted and chest rising and falling under his irritated glare.

His head snapped to a blob of reds on a chair in a corner of the room, and a part of him wanted to walk the extra mile and get that blanket and suffocate her so she wouldn’t feel the coldness of the room. After a minute of glaring daggers into the fabric, he gave it a rest and turned heel again. He had done enough already, no need to overdo it.

Yet, right before leaving, his eyes trailed over her slomped form and sighed, vexation finding itself into him again and he closed the door, softly, muttering something about this being useless, her being irritating… but he still decided that he would be giving her the message he had intended to.

She always made him feel so many contradictory emotions. He wanted to respect her and be nice, but she made it so very difficult by being so unbearably… hardworking, determined. He didn’t like admitting that Asui may have been right in most parts of her version.

Still, he didn’t care. Uraraka could go and sleep around all corners and cut herself an arm as long as she didn’t bother him. And this didn’t bother him.

Not a single bit.

Uraraka hadn’t rested. Against Bakugou’s ever so gentle orders, her head hadn’t found a drop of rest in the pages of this massive book of history. When her eyes fluttered open, about half an hour after Bakugou’s departure, a load of other volumes presented themselves in front of her eyes.

She glared pointedly at them, and frowned. It was a miracle she had managed to swallow so much information on a sole go after the battle with Midnight, or dealing with a Bakucorpse and the aftermath of it all. After being warned that she needed to train her abilities more to avoid situations like these in the future, she had gotten as many books from her bag and read as much as possible. The rest… it had rolled off casually, really.

In a moment, she had found herself wrapping a blanket around herself and padding to Midoriya’s dorm, which stood right in the other hallway of the little residence, and she had been given a clear response on the matter before she had even completed her request.

“No.”

Uraraka puffed her cheeks at Midoriya, who balanced himself on a chair. Lots of documents rested on his desk, unopened envelopes and maps, and she couldn’t help feeling like an intruder in his room. “Are you kidding me? Why not?”

“For starters, I don’t know why you want more books after Yaoyorozu gave a pretty reasonable amount of them. I don’t understand why you have decided to finish them off so quickly either.”

“Well, I just wanted to get things out of the way! After Midnight gave us such scare, I can’t go on without some kind of training. I can’t train with Bakugou having RampAge on the loose, not in ideal condtions anyway.” the leader shook his head with a bashful smile that made her hold her breath. “What’s so good about the situation anyway?”

“You and Bakugou are so alike sometimes… such a shame he will never see you in that way.” he sighed, but there was this kind smile he always had on despite being serious. This man was levelheaded and calm, smiling and kind. It reminded her of Todoroki in some ways, but Midoriya was clearly more outspoken than the other boy would ever be. “Still, I don’t want you go to overworking yourself any longer. You have other things to worry about.”

Uraraka crossed her arms, folding her hands on her elbows and tapping relentlessly. “I won’t overwork myself. It’s not like the situation doesn’t require some–“ she had him frowning straight away, so she had to instantly cover it up. “but still! I know it’s not healthy for me either! And it will hit the guild if I falter.”

Since she was lying a little bit, she even used Bakugou’s words for reference. Turns out she was using Bakugou’s methods and awful lot lately. Uraraka couldn’t make anything good out of it. “Please, Midoriya! I won’t overwork myself.”

“Can’t take the risk, Uraraka. You are also straining yourself too much by even being here so late in the night.”

“The sun just set.”

“Still.”

Both sighed in dejection, as they wouldn’t reach a meeting point anytime soon. Midoriya wanted his guild mates to rest idle and easy, Bakugou as well. Then existed Uraraka as an oppositing force that would do anything to fight and become a fearsome professional on her own. She had the will, she had the strength, why not let her stretch the gum a little more?

“Doesn’t matter, I guess.” breathed the girl in a whisper the other didn’t hear. “I will just go have a walk around the village or something. I don’t think I’ll be able to have a brink of sleep after all this.”

Uraraka bowed a little with a small smile, and turned swiftly to leave. Just as Midoriya’s chair scraped to meet the table again and focus on the matters at hand, Uraraka faltered in her step. “I don’t wish to be too inquisitive, but…”

Midoriya turns a little to regard her, his eyes interested on whatever business she is about to say. Again, this boy had this strange ability to make her feel warm and kind inside, always listening to her requests and cheering on her. Her mind was always at ease when she was with him, his words well intended and his attitude collected and nice. She now wondered why, somehow, she had ended hanging around Bakugou instead of him.

Fate was not on the same wavelength as her, for sure.

“Why is Bakugou so… perpetually on edge with you?” this seemed to startle him, and maybe this wasn’t the right mood in which to ask so Uraraka stumbled to explain. “I know this is a sudden thing to ask but… it’s weird to see two leaders be so distant from each other. Don’t mind me if I’m being a gossip and stuff but I just–“

“Please, Uraraka, it’s fine.” cuts he in, waving her worry off with this little shine of his eyes that was so sweet to her and endearing. “It’s an old story, no need to even mention it. He is just…” he measures his words, rolls them around his tongue and them lets them fall off in a trail of sad thoughts. There is senseless regret there, too. “let’s say he just doesn’t like me much for… reasons, personal reasons. We are working it through.”

“But–“

“It’s fine, Uraraka. For now, just focus on resting. Wander around a bit if that will help you sleep.” the girl had so many words inside of her to still say, but she forcefully swallowed them and gulped, a hand outstretched in shock. “There will be several fairs around town we will be attending soon, maybe you can check some out now!”

And she blinked– blinked because Midoriya had been so quick to raise the shield and silently kick her out before she said too much, asked too much. If there was something she knew right now was that this wasn’t her place, so she gave it all up and sighed, shrugging. “Yes, I will do that.”

Surprisingly enough, she didn’t sound edgy at all there was this scratchy knot in her throat from both exhaustion and the feeling of having this unbreakable wall in front of her that separated her from the nice leader, and having been so blunt about it seemed like lack of respect for him. In a bow of silence, the girl turned and left with a little nod of her head, leaving the leader to sort his business, which sure weren’t small.

She found herself slowly trailing down the stairs of the building, her red blanket trailing behind her with the swoosh of the night breeze. The weather wasn’t humid, wasn’t dry either, just lukewarm and pleasant. Still, probably due to her tiresome schedule, something was off about it. There was a mild disturbance in the air, something about her stride was too fast, and people around her minded their own business when they felt so far away from her.

Right before leaving the small building, she noticed that the main door had no knob to open it with. She turned to a maid hurrying around the lobby. “Excuse me, miss! Ex– excuse me?”

The blonde woman halted her frantic race to look at Uraraka, a basket of dirty clothes to wash on her arms. “Is there anything you need?”

“Well, I wonder how… I know this may sound stupid but,” she signaled at the door behind her with a thumb, smile bashful and the other hand clutching the blanket around her. She also realized her hat was gone. “how do you open the front door? Do I have to push it open? I feared it would–“

The maid arched an eyebrow at her after looking behind her shoulder. “Miss, I’m afraid there must be a mistake.”

She pointed at the door, and Uraraka was met with a silver knob shinning teasingly under the lights of the candle chandelier above them. Her breath staggered in her mouth, swirled and got heavy like lead, falling down her stomach and crushing any sense of tranquility inside of her. Her thoughts, her little antics and whatever spark in her doe eyes faded to black, and her jaw trembled, shivered and cackled against her upper teeth.

The maid wasn’t there anymore, only the feeling of being forcefully scraped out of the world and everything felt even odder than before, drearier, and all she could wonder was how the situation had gotten to this point. It had to be the timeline being messed up again – concluded she, gulping a big bubble of thick realization, eyes wide as saucers. The walls crumbled, the paintings fell and the maid disintegrated to flesh and bones, no more a woman, but a corpse.

This situation was… wrong. It was wrong in so many levels.

The sorcerer slowly touched the doorknob and finally released a load of relief when it didn’t bite her, or burnt her skin. She twisted it and she didn’t even bother looking behind her to watch the maid leave, just high tailed it out and closed the door behind her.

The small village was soaring to life, apparently. There was this small bonfire near her, at the center of the village, and some stands of warm food and little silly games were put around her zone. Her eyes drank from the orange flicker of the torches, ears tingling when she heard childish laughter – a few children came running near her, and she had to step away before they crushed her, all with a smile. The moon was high in the horizon, stars covered by some clouds, but it was beautiful in every way.

Her orbs roamed, her body idle, and when her eyes landed on a little tent, she snapped and her heart jumped. Some building away from hers stood a little purple tent, beady with crystals and lacking a door, just a curtain to let curious wanderers in. If she was insistent enough, a small quantity of incense could be noticeable.

Her feet made the way to the tent without the sorcerer really realizing it, and Uraraka found herself peeking from the curtain. Inside, there was only a little table, two candles lit with blue fires, and a deck of cards. The small breeze made her hair sway with the gentleness of its caress. She tucked a strand behind her ear before speaking out.

“Hello? Good night… I am–“

“Welcome, dear.”

Uraraka was near to smacking a hinge off the fabric tent when the woman made an appearance in a cloud of mist, her head cocked to a side after seeing the little girl so shaken. Darkness embraced her like a second skin, the lights wrapping around her clothes in a mysterious, whimsical aura of obiquity and deep intentions, covered by a veil. All Uraraka could make out of her was her infinite trail of black hair, impolite porcelain skin and a black dress. And the thought of the woman unconsciously hiding her identity only made Uraraka feel further away from this world, tucked safely on this very small tent where incense fleeted on a thick cloud of dense air, hard to pin down but still offputting.

“I’m glad you came.” again, it was like a golden thread of smooth silk touching her, that voice. It was enticing and pleasant to hear. “Not much people entrust their lives with oracles these days. Your eyes though… seem troubled.” she took a break before saying these words. “And exhausted.”

Uraraka tangled her fingers on the back of her head and rubbed, rubbed, because those eyes of hers were echoing so hard into hers, and the air was again, too thick. She couldn’t see them move, yet she could feel her as if she was an inch away from her. “Ah, well, I didn’t have much sleep tonight, miss. I was walking around here and saw this little place.”

“Tell me, young girl.” she reached out and lifted Uraraka’s chin up, and she didn’t put much of a fight. “What is it that troubles you?”

The sorcerer shuddered under her touch, and felt some kind of void when the woman busied her hands in shuffling the tarot cards. Whoever this oracle was, she had this power to draw information from her ever so easily. Her voice was soft and sweet like honey, but intentions and movements sharp like a razor blade. Still, the incense tingled around her, calming these feelings down.

“Well, I have been having these… weird dreams, nightmares. It can be any of both, really, but they follow the same theme, the same story.” Uraraka crossed her arms, trying to remember vivid images of it all. But all she could see now was a smiling girl, sunflowers in her hands and bloodstains on her dress. “I don’t know who it is about… I see it all as a spectator, as an omnipotent force who can do nothing but stare.”

“Dreams and nightmares, a classic.” the woman laid the deck on the table, and folded her arms beneath her chest. “If you are having these occurrences, it means that something is calling out for you. Tell me, could they be something akin to lost memories?”

“I… I don’t believe that to be the case.” despite that being the only likely scenario, Uraraka found herself ending up denying the possibility. “I never woke up with any sense of recollection, or bonds for that matter. The feelings fade from the memory fast, but they leave scars. I can feel it all,” she raised her shaking hand to the light of a candle, black swallowing her palm, and then closed it. No sense of completion got to her, so she mourned in silence. “but it’s all like a far away feeling… I get this inkling it all may have to do with my dreams.”

The woman had listened obediently and nodded, it was her turn to play her role now. “I see, I can understand the trouble. Do you wish to make them disappear?”

Uraraka recalled having heard names from people she knew in those wild sets of dreams, adding fuel to the fire. “I’d want to find out what they mean, and then get rid of them, if it’s possible.”

The woman chuckled, but it wasn’t an evil kind of laugh. “It is possible, dear.” her hands disappeared from the table, and Uraraka’s breath was again dancing inside her lungs, stuck, when she drew out an ivory knife, golden handle and black dots on the back. “I will need a droplet of your blood.”

She took the sharp knife with dainty hands, testing its weight, and Asui’s lessons suddenly came to mind. “Do you plan to create some kind of potion with it?”

“Not exactly.” the oracle hit the deck to even all the cards, and tapped it twice. “These cards shall tell what those dreams mean, for which I will need to identify you. Your blood is all I need.”

Used to specific information, accurate data and loads of nearby facts, somebody being this vague struck hard in her, and she found herself feeling wrong in this place. The smell of incense and tightness was squeezing her heart in a vicious clap, all swirling around her madly as she stood in the eye of the hurricane. It was wrong, but at the same time, what could she do in this situation?

The girl sighed, dedicated a last look at the oracle, and cut the back of her palm with the knife. Rich, crimson blood started flowing out of it steadily, and when the oracle pushed the deck near to her, Uraraka tightened her palm into a fist and a newborn drop fell on the deck. As soon as the blood touched the deck, it vanished into a little puff of burnt paper, leaving only two cards on the table.

“These two will tell you all information you need to know.” condemned the oracle, her eyes swirling around Uraraka’s– and god, she could feel everything in this room sharpening, making her feel light-headed, and somewhere along the way her recollection of even entering this place left her. “We will lift the first card, now.”

Her nails scraped the table, then flipped the card. Uraraka recognized it, and the view left her speechless for a second, a shadow setting behind her eyes as fear and horror soaked her whole.

“The Hanged Man.” spoke the oracle, solemnly. When the sorcerer didn’t even ask about it, she lifted an eyebrow at her. “No need to alarm. There are no cards that are directly negative, but since this affects your dreams, I reckon you should be paying more attention to them.”

“What…” her heart shrunk in her ribcage, eyes staring in disbelief at the glaring image. Her hand fisted the blanket around her. Uraraka only knew that the oracle’s voice had turned somewhat colder, only lukewarm, and heartfelt. “what is this supposed to mean?”

“A crossroad.” she took the card with two hands and showed it to the shivering girl. The image boomed inside the girl’s dampening mind, drunken in incense and high on clashing emotions that had her heart near an arrest. The fires lit up against the card. “A road that will have you make a decision. There will come a moment in your life when you will have to make a decision– an important one.”

“A… decision.” whispered Uraraka, her brow knit but trembling in confusion as danger thrived in a far away place from this, a very different time and very different circumstances. Her eyes drifted to a corner to not let this compelling sentence crush her, and the oracle nodded curtly. “What does this have to do with my dreams?”

“Your dreams are trying to guide you through your decision. They are posing different the options you may not see now, but you which you will see in the future. Someday, you will have to face a choice. And it may not make you happy, or others for that matter.” murmured the oracle, yet her voice blared in the other’s ears.

So she shifted her hands on her lap and let it all sink in slowly, letting the thread leisurely snap inside of her, letting bleakness and obscure colors sneak up on her. “I… see.”

The oracle checked on her for a second, then flipped the next and last card when Uraraka nodded at her to proceed. The view afterwards pleased Uraraka to an extent, but the feeling dimmed quickly when the oracle only stared deep in thought. When the oracle caught the sorcerer shifting her eyes between her and the cards, a long sigh escaped her lips and fanned the veil.

“The Hierophant.” judging by her solemn tone, that wasn’t good news. However, she was now avoiding Uraraka’s inquisitive irises, which were searching for clues in the oracle’s hidden expression. There was a ghost of a grimace in her voice. “It comes to affirm all I have been told to this very moment.”

Uraraka tiptoed around the topic carefully, and doubted about what to say next. She found her ground a solid minute later. “What… does it mean?”

“It means making a choice. A good, correct choice.” responded the oracle, her tone dripping with grieving and sheer disgrace. Despite this card being shinier and overall more positive than the last one, she was talking about it as if it was a pure curse. Her presence loomed over Uraraka as darkness peeked again. “It means stopping for a second, breathing and rethinking about which is the good choice.”

“As in, backtracking?”

“Kind of.” agreed she. The black haired oracle stared at the cards, now set on the table, then back at Uraraka. She let out a loud grunt after a while, and if the sorcerer could tell with perfect certainty, she would swear teeth were glistening underneath the veil. “You will be confronted with a very tough decision, which may be why your dreams exist in the first place– to guide you to the right decision.”

“But…” her eyes were shadowed by a sad frown and a slight descent of her plump lips, her face a ghost of the cheery girl she always was as a grim foreshadowing hovered over her head and settled over her shoulders, responsibility breaking her heart. “what is the right decision?”

“I’d say that’s up to you to decide. If the cards insist this much on this decision, it must be a very important one.” theorized the oracle, tracing the hem of the cards carefully. Uraraka nodded intently, her eyes flickering in intensity under the blanket of incense. “The cards seem to sense a relationship between your dreams and your future, so they are building up until the day this decision comes. Again, if the cards are so adamant on this… the world could very well be resting on your shoulders.”

Those last words shook her and it felt like a little knife brushing her skin, tender and slow, up and down, as it loomed around her for a surprise strike. Danger was always so close to her, showing its claws in oh, so many ways… yet, it would never present her with the reality that so many pointed at her. Everything… it all just looked like a dream, or a nightmare– she couldn’t decide, but it seemed like all she could do now was wait for time to come to her.

Not like it helped the situation, knowing that a responsibility she didn’t understand hung on her shoulders an unknown number of days, weeks or months away. It was all so ambigue and uncertain it left Uraraka wondering if she should believe all this woman was saying, but decided to stick to it as a burning pole, blistering her skin and bruising her but serving as a flashlight in the darkness.

“I… see. Then, they are important, huh?” the oracle nodded, and Uraraka tried to wrap her mind around this fact, because they were nothing but a hassle that didn’t seem to have anything to do with her life. They weren’t really making that of an impact on her yet: just a little girl, a village, then another. What did she of all people have to do with that? “I still can’t see the relation between them… but I guess they will come in time, right?”

The oracle was too busy to actually listen to Uraraka, but she nodded anyway. Her hands fetched for a little flask under the table. She made the transparent liquid dance a little inside the doe-shaped recipient to test its volume, then handed it to the girl with… haste? Her hands had trembled when Uraraka had brushed them, and the oracle had been quick to wave her off. “Now, if you truly desire to erase those dreams from your mind, you must leave and drink that potion.”

The girl got up with newfound excitement, eyeing the colorless fluid in the flask. It was as like creamy water on a legendary bottle, and it felt so exciting to both have such recipient and the possibility to get rid of those nasty dreams. If there ever came a point that she needed to choose in an important matter, all she needed to do was listen to her heart. There was nothing her heart didn’t know, right?

“Thank you very much, miss!” she vowed gently as she always did, a smile dancing on her now energetic step. “I hope we can meet someday!”

Before Uraraka could head out the curtains, the oracle offered her the fateful cards. “Take them, so you can remember this time. Save them as reference, they may save your life one day.”

The sorcerer blinked at the weird request, and didn’t miss the shiver on the stoic woman’s arm. She leaped to the table again and took both cards under the fire of blue, quiet lights, purple fabric covering them as a quiet deal was stuck. “I will take them then, if you may.”

The brunette put them inside one of her uniform’s pockets and waved at the oracle again, smiling brilliantly now that her problems seemed to be stepping down from their stages, little by little. Her mind was a pure clean slate of purity, no spikes or cracks of imperfection clouding her mind aside from the invisible floating loom of responsibility, but she would put it aside for now.

“Thanks, miss! I hope we will cross paths again!”

Uraraka saw the oracle wave at her from behind, and she pushed the curtain aside and stepped out, stopping once she was outside to look at the recipient and uncork it. Her feet were visible from inside the tent.

“I will take this now then, before going to sleep.” her head turned to look at the fair at the center of the village, which was starting to swarm with people. She shook her head with a smile of contentment, but inwardly disappointed at having missed the fair when it was mildly tolerable. There were too much people around for her, so she just decided to call it a day, finally, and looked down at the recipient, which gleamed to a torch’s fire.

Uraraka giddily brought the liquid to her lips, feeling the cold potion fall down her throat slowly, making its way to–

The second one drop made its way into her stomach, her whole body quivered and started stinging, shaking uncontrollably as an insufferable pain shot out from her head to all parts of her body, hurt and acid scratching her mind with fire claws, drawing blood from her brain and making it fall down her nose as Uraraka stumbled, and gripped one of the poles of the tent for support.

Her eyes filled with tears as her vision blurred and blood pooled on her arms. Within a blink and a pained, moaned cough, Uraraka’s knees buckled and she fell to the ground as blood still flowed out of her and started staining her cheeks and hairs. Her eyes were open, seeing the building where she slept so in her reach yet, as she outstretched her hands and tried to crawl back to the beaten track, her strength faltered and she gave up the fight.

Her eyes closed, and her body stayed limp in front of the tent for two seconds before the oracle came out of her little place. She shook her head at the being laying on her doorstep and squatted down to her side.

She rummaged through her pockets to find one of the cards she had given her, and stared at it before looking at the people of the village, too far away to notice the crime. The oracle took the card and stood up again, giving Uraraka’s motionless body a kick. It wouldn’t take much time before somebody found the body.

The flailed the card a little bit and frowned at the unconscious girl. “Destruction girl,” she spat right by her. “disaster sorcerer.”

A few minutes later, the tent was out of sight, as was the tarot card with the image of the Hierophant, burnt to ashes in front of Uraraka’s right hand.

“Lie her on the bed, now!”

Todoroki and Mina quickly laid the little unconscious girl on the bed as the others ran to the threshold, where Midoriya tried to keep them at bay. When Jack was denied the entrance, she frowned at the leader and banged the door frame with her trembling fist. “What the hell, let us in! What’s wrong with her?”

The knight sighed and trembled, stood and gulped to keep himself in check against the agitated crowd of people. Only a few members had been admitted into the room so Asui’s work wouldn’t be haltered, and it seemed like it would take them a little bit more than words to actually understand that. “We… don’t know. Mina came across her body a few minutes ago and we haven’t given Asui enough time to check her conditions. Please, go to bed and we will sort this out overnight.”

“Midoriya, you can’t be serious!” the leader looked at Iida patronizingly. As time moved forward and people started to jam-pack the corridors, the boy grew more and more irritated– and it was such a rare thing to see in the leader, a flash of vexation at the unfair situations.

Nobody knew what had happened, really. When Mina had seen a body laying on the now empty area, her first initiative had been to try and shake the body awake, thinking that it could be a drunk little girl taking a reckless nap– but then the hair, the smell of her skin and the color of her gloves, it all dawned on her, and she had let out a horrifyingly terrified shriek that had called Todoroki and Kirishima over, and they hastily carried the decaying corpse to the nearest room.

She could be dead for all they knew, and a chill ran down everybody’s spines when the possibility came into mind. Her body was so light, her gasps for air so sharp and frantic, and her hands would tremble now and then, and the loll of her head into a tragic angle of uncertainty that had everyone at the edge of their seats. The critical situation had left everyone in a state of loss and worry that was only going on crescendo as Midoriya blocked the door.

“Only us few will remain as to not collapse the infirmary, but we are sure it’s nothing severe.” and yes, this was a big fat lie, as nobody could really go that far and confirm such madness so soon. He heard busy chatter around him, which prompted the boy to grasp the knob to close the door. “We will inform you all of the situation next morning. For now, rest assured we will do as much as possible to sort this out.”

With that, everyone dropped their shoulders and Midoriya took that as his cue to close the door, and he lay on it with a bead of sweat running down his temple. Who had told him to go and confront the crowd had no idea of how nervous the boy grew with these situations.

“You look troubled, Midoriya.” commented Todoroki, sitting on a chair right next to Uraraka. One of his hands rested on the mattress, close to Uraraka’s in case she had a crisis. Asui sorted the potions with hurry behind him. “Do you think they will manage to rest with this situation in their hands?”

“The thing is, it’s not something they can meddle with now.” Kirishima helped Asui with the arrangements, searching for something the girl had requested as he spoke. “It depends on Asui to identify what the fuck happened to our little lady.”

Asui, for the first time in years, actually frowned at the redhead and took a little syringe from her bag. “Ribbit, don’t put more responsibility on my shoulders than what I have already.” she strode to her body and, after a few little touches on her forehead and checking her eyes from underneath her lashes, she took one of her hands. “She has a cut here.”

Mina checked on the torn skin with curious eyes, as did Midoriya who was next to her. “What a weird place to have a cut. It’s so…”

“Precise.” intervened the leader with a growl. “Could somebody have used her own blood against her?”

Asui was already extracting some blood from Uraraka’s forearm – all thanks to Todoroki who rolled up her sleeve – critically fast. Just as the crimson liquid started to flood the syringe, the girl frowned again. “No, the wound is not the issue here, nor is her own blood.”

Asui hurried to her table on a side of the room, and arranged a little bent paper on a disk. The girl pushed on the syringe and, as the first droplet fell, she knew something was wrong. The liquid climbed fast through the filter paper, to the point in which there was no blood remaining on the disk, it had all gone through the paper. The sorcerer gave it a little shake, nibbled on the wet edges, and threw it to the disk again.

“Hot blood.” announced Asui hastily, pressing her hands to Uraraka’s pulse. It was slow, but throbbed against the girl’s sensitive skin. “Her heart is having problems carrying it around her system, it’s thickening.”

Mina, having been around her lessons with Kirishima, was quick to identify the source of this problem. “Poison.”

The mutant nodded. “And whoever who poisoned her wanted her dead on the spot.” she coaxed the brunette’s mouth open gripping her jaw, and passed a gloved finger along her tongue. There was something slimy glued to it, cold. Asui had a faint clue of what this could be, but she wouldn’t be sure of what poison it was until she tested the substance.

The water sorcerer dipped her glove on a disk with water and saw the disk be infested with bubbles and oh, that very familiar purple hue. “A nitoria posion. Brash enough for a murderer.”

“You are joking, right?” Mina stepped to the table and gasped when the disk started melting on the edges. “Please, don’t tell me–!”

A loud moan of pain was heard across the room which had everyone getting up from their seats and chairs falling, as Uraraka’s body arched off the bed and her chest started panting with hurtful intakes of toxic air, her head trashing on the pillow while her head darted from side to side. Her brows were drawn to a painful knitted grimace.

Bakugou, who stood looking out the window, craned his head to look at the ruckus, and frowned wordlessly.

Asui, however, seemed by far less alarmed than her crew. “Nitoria poisons have antidotes, and as this was made to be apparently healthy and hard to notice, its effects are dimmed by the quantity of additives in it.” nobody understood a word of what she said excepting antidote and healthy, and their faces were mirrors of this fact. “I can cure her, no worries. In the meantime, restrain her from making too harsh movements. Convulsions are fairly normal at this stage of the intoxication.”

As easy as that, everyone but Bakugou cooperated on the operation, gripping her arms and legs to the bed no matter how much she trashed or crumbled under their steel grasp. The pharmacist was rushed by the alarmingly loud gasps of Uraraka, how her peers were struggling to hold her tight no matter how hard they bit on their lips, or how they muttered words of encouragement under Uraraka’s piercing little screams of pain– all under her unconscious, yet seemingly only slumber state.

“She’s regaining consciousness, Asui!” warned Mina, her irises starting to move too much in their sockets as something started racketing in that jumping mind of hers. “We need to find an antidote before she wakes up! The nitoria–“

“Yes, yes, I know!” exclaimed the other stressfully. If Uraraka reached consciousness before the poison was diluted in her bloodstream, it would devastate her mind beyond humankind’s imagination– additives as boosters for side effects, decreasing the degree of lethality yet reaching and branching through the sorcerer’s darkest corners of her mind. “I just need a second!”

Asui was sweating bullets by now, her hands trembling in the middle of the night to find a cure for this madness. Her fingers deftly worked through samples, substance that could render the poison useless in minimum time. She stroked fruits, mashed leaves with the help of Kirishima’s hardened fists. The convulsions on the dying body were fading away little by little, making the straining easier while Bakugou only listened and fisted his hands, stroking the fabric of his pants to bite in swears of stress.

Once the yellowish substance on Asui’s flask stopped bubbling, the girl let out a little squeal of hurry and charged the syringe with the cure. “Got it, ribbit!” she wasted no second on carrying her feet as fast as possible to the bed, swatting hands away to roll the sorcerer’s sleeves up and plump in the needle.

As the liquid entered Uraraka’s bloodstream, the convulsions died to only minor shudders and eventual twitches, which also disappeared within seconds and only left a sleeping, tired girl at its wake. Her hands limped, fingers heaving down, and her breath grew sturdy and regular under everyone’s pendant eyes. These very relieved members fell on the nearest source of support they could find.

Kirishima decided to limp on the floor and start chuckling to himself in success, and then laughed under his breath as heat flared on his face, heated from the rush of danger. He watched Asui crawl on the edge of Uraraka’s bed, right next to a sitting Todoroki. “You are a pure legend, Asui!”

As the herbalist tried her best to push her pulsations to a normal beat, breath heaving in and out of her lungs. The dual knight gave her shoulder a proud shake, the feeling evident on his smile as the herbalist nodded back, smiling in sheer happiness and relief. “Well done, Asui.”

“My god! That was a nerve-wrecking operation.” the pink archer eyed Uraraka, exhausted, and hoisted her whole weight on Midoriya’s back. “Will she be alright now?”

Still breathing heavily, trying to ride off the hurry and letting the strings of time go back to their place, she placed a hand on Uraraka’s moist forehead. “She may get a mild fever as her body tries to digest the poison, but other than that, she will survive.”

Everyone in the room let out a general breath of final allevation, giddy smiles directed at the tired doctor who only tried to recover from the rush. As a tranquil pace of united heartbeats and collective silence floated on the thinning air of midnight, a little question remained in between them.

“I’d suggest somebody keeps guard on our sick lady here.” Kirishima placed a hand on the girl’s forehead, and brushed off the sweat on his pants. “She’s soaked in sweat, and will probably need some aid if she wakes up.”

Midoriya’s first option to offer was Asui– of course, it was always her. The herbalist had always been a dependable person when days grew grim, when situations like these were critic and someone was needed to take the wheel other than the very able leaders, who were at a loss of what to do. This was a new member they were talking about– an important one at that. Having her fall under a illness and be left unattended would probably make this situation drag for longer than necessary. And that, right now, was a hazard where one could see it.

“I am not going to offer Asui for the job, and I hope no one dares to– because she is further than exhausted.” which was a point everyone agreed on. She had had to look after Kaminari, Uraraka and Bakugou in the same day, one of them actually twice, and rest off the exhaustion from the fight against Midnight. “And I know all of us are exhausted, but I–“

“I will take care of it.”

The small voice came from the window, where a very tense Bakugou stood and, when he felt all eyes on his ample back, he turned with a grimace on his jaw, teeth clenched.

“What the fuck’re you all gawking at?”

“You wanna…” his hands pointed at Uraraka, to which the fierce leader nodded softly, getting the point in the angriest version of a bashful pout. “take care of her?”

Asui and Midoriya blinked at the blonde, who was looking at a side of the room with his usual wall of unaffected emotions, controlled feelings and cautioned actions, all his blinks and heartbeats measured to a minimum so

they wouldn’t betray his true thoughts. He then glared at everyone in the room, including the panting corpse on the bed– actually, he practically glowered at her, because he always found himself either depending from her porcelain hands or saving her ass, and he despised that cycle.

He was more than bothered with this situation of owing something to her when he actually felt like he didn’t, so he needed to get it over with.

He felt Asui’s softened eyes on him, and then his eyes trailed to the other leader. “I owe this to her.”

“What do you–“

“She has been looking after me after the fight with that fucking necromancer, and I never had to tell her even twice to care the slightest bit about me. If anything, I gave her reasons to hate my guts.”

Bakugou strode to the center of the room and kicked a stool into place, slamming his ass on the wooden seat right before Uraraka. Kirishima smiled at his best friend with a gentle spark of pride in his eyes, seeing the brash boy he knew start tearing the walls of his grudges down little by little, and trying to show that he could be kind when the situation forced him to. And even when it wasn’t really that way.

“She’s strong for putting up with me and saving my life, more than once.” commented the blonde, staring at the girl’s closed lids absent-mindedly. “And this is my way of thanking her.”

Asui propped her head up to gape at the once stubborn, pain in the ass leader and only saw a close to caring leader, and it caused her to smile a little at him in the darkness of the room.        

“Little Nameless, this is something you must do for us.” assured a pink man by her. He didn’t squat – anymore, noted the little girl, as she had grown and she didn’t need those petty things anymore. They stood on the back of a room where a light breeze flew, sometimes toying with her cut strands. Light streamed down on her, sounds of people on their thrones waiting for her.

Chains sounded as well from within the tumult, which snapped her back into reality. “But papa, I don’t know that man!”

“Which is a miracle itself, considering what that man has done to our village with his knives and words.”

Shadows, shadows, creeping around the edges of her starlit eyes, galaxies dying on her heartstrung broken irises. Out of the edge of her mind, she was screaming to set these things back into rightness, but all she could do in such virginal state of ignorance was scream at the void like a fool, and feel something cracking at her fingertips. The whole world was swirling around her like a thunderwave, all spinning as voices mixed and chains clashed.

She was… so, so helpless. “Dad, why would you want me of all people to execute this order?”

The pink man did squat this time– probably to make her feel higher in the power scale, so she would feel mighty and confident enough to actually carry out this scarring task. “You are the only one who can do this, Nameless.” and she had heard this one time and another, plenty of times already. It was such a tiring charade. “You know this.”

“I…” she didn’t. “do.”

Because this power she had, it was all but normal. She herself was abnormal, kept as a treasure in her civilization but looked at as a monster from time to time, when the sun peaked in a corner of the sacred minds. Some would scream when her hands dig too deep into nature’s butter– others, they would let her be.

This time, they would not let her be, but encourage her to release the monster from the cage. “Then, go out there and face the court. You can do it, hon.”

The girl was given a little push, then taken steadily to the big room that was the court. The walls were crowded with staged seats, rampaging people pointing at the wonder girl as a man on the center of the room, staying on an ivory stage and tied with chains to a pole– he was screaming at a muffler on his mouth, then spitting on her from his silenced hell.

Her father stood near to her as the girl bunched the fabric on her shirt, nervousness crawling around her like the nasty monster she was. Words spiraled around her, something about her carrying out the right choice. Odd dots of pale colors– human colors, they splashed the room in bright diversity, yet she feared what this would do to the fragile bond between the races.

Her father tapped her shoulder, reality blurring around her as she tried to keep her thoughts at bay. This was like a band-aid, she knew, it was only a matter of tugging it off with enough force so it would hurt quick and short. Her hands were trembling when she rose her stretched fingers to the stranger, who screamed at her in pure agony.

“An…” Nameless panted, choked in disgust at what she was going to do, and withdrew her hand from the torture procedure. But, as sense of pride and duty flooded over her, she was able to call out the spell. Echo boomed from behind her, knocking some hats off their owners as she whispered the dreaded word. “Anihilation.”

Nameless twisted her hand with a pained grimace as the man twisted to her desire, his blood accordingly boiling and piercing his burning flesh as the humans on the room screeched at the display, hugging their families for dear life and hurrying out of the room along with some other people from her species, the smell of rotten skin and broken bones overwhelming her to a extent that the brunette gave into her knees, and fell to the ground in exhaustion.

“Good girl, Nameless…” he gripped her shoulder a bit stronger, her father, and ruffled her hair. She coughed a smile, nodding emotionlessly. “Good job.”

A blond, red-eyed boy watched from afar, eyes wide in terror as he stared at the broken girl with a shudder.

“Bakugou, Kacchan.”

The blonde leader snapped his head up with the gentle sound of Midoriya’s calling. He groaned in frustration as his head lolled back, and he let himself look a little bit vulnerable by scrubbing his eyes awake. He still played it off as if he hadn’t been dozing off. “What the hell, you scared the shit outta me.”

Midoriya, with an arm tucked around a big volume and a bashful smile on full display, rubbed his shoulder for some comfort and sat on the girl’s bed. “She’s still sleeping, huh?”

The green-haired knight removed an stray lock of hair off her reddened cheeks, his touch barely stronger than a caress. A small grow reverberated from deep within his chest. “Little witch here has been trashing around a little bit. She’s calmed down for now.”

“Well, if she’s getting better, that’s all that counts.” the boy realized the cloth around Uraraka’s forehead had been dampened, and Midoriya knew for a fact that nobody had come to switch guards yet that night. He smiled knowingly. “It’s good to see she’s in good hands.”

The knight gingerly took the cloth to cool if off, all while Bakugou stared at the girl’s closed eyes with a piercing glare of anger and frustration. “Better have her getting better soon so we can part, rather than me biting my own tail and being a dick to her. I am more responsible than that, bastard.”

Despite the insult, Midoriya chuckled from Asui’s medical table. The sloshing of the water was all that could be heard in the building, so late in the night. “Yeah, I know.” he turned his head a bit to watch Bakugou’s hunched position, and if he had to bet, he’d say he hadn’t gotten up from that chair ever since the last change. “Who was the last person who came to watch Uraraka?”

“Alien girl.” spat Bakugou, shifting on the chair to adopt a confident position: crossed arms, crossed legs, and his glare switching to the other leader. “And you ain’t gonna take the turn yet.”

“Shouldn’t you get up for a while and, I don’t know, sleep? If you don’t rest, you’ll miss the festivities tomorrow.” the hunter mentally swatted him away quickly, chuckling in denial while his bones ached for mercy. He was biting the insides of his cheeks for some comfort– the chair was uncomfortable, the situation worse and his body totally messed up. He hadn’t felt this mentally exhausted for a while. “Why take this business so far, Kacchan?”

“Don’t you fucking dare call me that again, loser.” moonlight filtered through the half closed curtains, bathing Bakugou in this light that was so enticingly perfect to fall asleep on the arms of the sick girl. He couldn’t lie: at the stage he was in, he could have fallen asleep on the mattress where she laid and not even think about later regrets. “I am her leader. And I owe this to her personally. I don’t really think none of you will take this serious other than me.”

“C’mon, that’s a blatant lie.”

Bakugou’s eyes burnt even brighter than before, his fangs gleaming. He would have gotten up if his legs were responsive enough– but they weren’t, and it was driving him up the fucking wall. This shitty girl was always troubling his daily life and he didn’t want to feel compromised with her, above all not in this way. He didn’t owe her anything, he had no reason to be there other than sheer responsibility.

“Don’t bark at me, it’s true.” Midoriya sighed, and turned to the leader to walk to them afterwards, his hands leaving the cloth on her forehead slowly. He stroked the blue fabric onto her forehead, eliciting a little groan from her. “You have never taken matters this far when it comes to any regular member, other than Kirishima.”

“She ain’t a regular member. Not in any way.”

“Not like you are trying to see her in any other way, Bakugou.”

This made the leader make an effort to stand up and go pound the living lights out of that nerd, but his knees buckled and he had to sit down again under Midoriya’s concerned gaze.

“I know what you are insinuating, and what everybody’s probably thinking, but I don’t give a fuck about her.” he forced his eyes on her, traced the curve of her little nose, and sighed grumpily. “Seriously, I don’t. But she has gone out of her way several times to actually care about me when I didn’t ask. I have said this before: I am thanking her for that.”

“But you still feel like you shouldn’t, right?” Bakugou glared at his peer from under his disarrayed spikes, night shadows crossing behind his eyes. It was silent warning. “Your voice is so strained, your back is probably aching. You don’t want to go through this, yet you are.”

The blonde allowed himself a sigh of tiredness, and blinked at him in unusual tranquility. Being so drained was doing unmerciful things on his mood, and it seems like Midoriya would take advantage of that until he snapped back into his aggressive old self. “I loathe feeling in debt for this bitch, because I shouldn’t. No one gave her the right to care about me, or put herself in danger. Now, I have to thank her, as a leader, and get her ass out of this trouble.”

“Is it really that? Just plain justice and the sake of being a leader?”

“Why am I talking about this with you of all people?”

“Because she has been like this for a whole day– more like two considering we are here past midnight.” his eyes found kindness in Uraraka’s relaxed figure, finally idle and breathing without coughs or heavy sweat. “You have tried to kill her, you have dismissed her– but you are here, Kac– Bakugou, watching after her. What changed from being a dick to her to now actively want to see her healthy?”

“For starters, my opinion about her remains unchanged at the root.” he was tired, he was letting Midoriya tug at the thread that got his thoughts stuck in a vicious cycle of autodestruction and doubt– but for a reason, he didn’t feel bad about it. Not a single bit. “I still think she is a threat, but it’s true she hasn’t moved against our currents yet, other than be stupid and overwork herself. Other than that, she can work in our favor, and even I can see that now.”

“So, you care about–“

“No.” snapped the blonde, red suns spiraling and changing under the pressure of this crashing tide. “I don’t think I can actively care about someone to this personal level. She benefits our guild, her being in good shape is good for the showdown against RampAge, and I owe to her. That’s all there is to it.”

“I still think you owe her much more than this, and that’s only for putting up with your remarks and stupidity when you feel like bullying her.” Midoriya would have been backed to a wall after such insult, but Bakugou was being silent, observing the girl with a clashing mixture of hatred and frustration. He was only listening to his companion unfocusedly, as he let all his petty feelings slowly sink in. “She has done nothing else but put up with your foul mood and actually fight you back. Really, she must be tired from resisting the urge to slap you on the face.”

“I don’t owe her any fucking thing in that regard.” snapped Bakugou, narrowing his eyes at the boy. “All she does is put me into trouble and try to be nice to me– I never asked for all that. She is attempting to–“

Midoriya bit on his knuckles as he stifled in a good earful on respect and kindness, something the leader could lack very often. “Stop seeing her kindness as a freaking attack, Kacchan. She just wants to be in this guild and be on good terms with you.”

“Stop it, it ain’t worth it to scream at me over this. Asui already has, in her way, and I am working on it. I am here, withstanding this hell so I don’t owe to her. I don’t owe her anything– I should never owe anything to a damn pest like her.” argued Bakugou, encasing himself in this bubble of hard ideals and a truth he couldn’t come to terms with, but it was there, in his hands. “I don’t wanna feel lied to anymore, I am working to fix this for the guild’s welfare.”

The anger in Midoriya’s eyes faded to a pale hue of surprise. “So, you want to try to trust her?”

Bakugou waited for a bit, rethinking his decisions with sharp eyes. Still, he had gone over it so many times already that the charade was getting tiring, and it was more worth it to actually try to be nice to her than find a reason to hate her after all she has done. She made his life so hard, sometimes.

He clutched the fabric of his shirt, right above his heart, where it ached worst. “I want to just get rid of this disgusting feeling of having to thank her for something I didn’t ask for. I wanna stop feeling this stupid, I shouldn’t even be here. She is a goddamn silly bitch who knows nothing else but trouble.”

The other boy blinked several times, staring at Bakugou’s tired shoulders and how his eyes would flicker ever so often at the girl in decreasing loathe, and more directed to worry for her wellbeing as a guild member he had acknowledged, someone he was starting to value as worth keeping. His hands could crawl their way out of his bruised heart, shadows casted on his lonely soul, but the rampage of thought and tranquility this girl had inflicted on him could be denied, but no longer ignored.

Midoriya could now understand why Uraraka shone so much. She was giving everyone an opportunity in the same one everyone was doing with her– and she never had a reason, either. She was embracing everyone’s threats, everyone’s glares, everyone’s doubts, and walking her way out of them with a loud parade. For that, he deserved the kind leader’s admiration, so a little smile was directed at her.

“I will taking my leave then, Kacchan. However,” he left the volume from before on her nightstand, gave it a pat of reassurance as he knew Uraraka would love seeing possibilities and barriers grow, and retreated to the door. His eyes shifted to the leaning leader, whose eyes were droopy and weaker than usual, but still held that passionate gaze into the devil’s eyes. It was so charming to see those fires dim for once, prompting these words. “you should know that she isn’t causing any trouble to you. She is the one willingly putting herself on danger’s way, receiving the throws, and getting into problems. That… shouldn’t affect you this much, Kacchan.”

And with that, Midoriya chuckled at Bakugou’s dumbstruck expression of ire and tiny realization, closing the door behind him while the other crashed his head on the mattress, right beside Uraraka’s twitching hand– because he was right, in a way, and it only dawned on him that his little slip may have made him look more sick and foolish than he already was.

He groaned into the blankets. “Fuuuuck.”

But he didn’t care. Not even a pinch.

“Nameless, there’s somebody I want you to meet!”

The brunette girl turned from the well, more like kicked a bit so she wouldn’t fall inside and then turned at Kirishima’s voice calling after her. His step was quick, his red falling spikes bouncing in his stride while a blur of blonde hairs and pale skin also neared her. It took her a little bit to recognize that face– that face, sharp at the edges and bland in anger at the center, drawn in red and all suddenly made sense.

“You…” the blonde boy stopped and gulped after her voice chirped in, but frowned regardless. “You are the golden boy from the river! What are you doing here?”

Kirishima slapped a hand on his shoulder and grinned again, showing her his shining pearly whites before the other boy slapped the hand away as soon as it touched him. “He jumped across the river and asked me to take him to the girl with magic hands!” the fact that he knew such fact about her had her gulping this time around. “So here we are!”

The girl with muddy eyes took a step back, taking her bucket of water to her chest. Once upon a time, she would have needed help to reach the well’s edge, but it had been so long since then. Her reflection shone on the water. “How… how do you know about my abilities?”

“My people gave me a description of someone they are looking for, from their nation, who was lost a long time ago. She was a… magician, as well.” explained the blonde boy, fixated on how her hands trembled around the bucket. “So I can recognize a magician when I see one. This.. town can do that, right? Magic, I mean.”

The redhead nodded hastily, and put his fists on his hips with pride. “Our race has vast knowledge about sorcery, right, Nameless?” she nodded curtly, eyeing her hands shortly. “That’s what differentiates us from you humans, we can do lots of stuff!”

While Kirishima boasted about the abilities of their race – a race they bitterly didn’t seem to belong to, at least physically speaking – the blonde newcomer took a step forward until he made the girl flinch, and outstretched a hand towards her without actually looking into her blown wide eyes.

“I saw you at the court a few days ago… and I knew I had seen your stupid face, a few months ago.” that made her stifle in a gasp of horror, as she had never wanted to be seen as such monster– but seeing how he was fighting back an excited grin, corners twitching, he was more than fine with her powers. “What’s your name?”

The girl left the bucket of water on the ground, and curled her fingers around her jersey for internal decision. The boy was… giving her his hand? Did he want her to take it or something? She was around twelve years old now, but she hadn’t been educated into these things. However, she remembered that her pink dad had done that stupid gesture sometimes, and she decided to give it a little shake.

“I don’t have a name. And if I do, I don’t remember it. I was born without it apparently, and never given one.” despite the inner tragedy and later irony of the situation, she smiled at him sweetly, eyes closed in bliss for making a new friend. “I go by Nameless. And he is Kirishima. My sister, Mina, is not around now, but she should make an appearance now. She has the regular looks for our species.”

The golden boy glanced around and was proven right about that. Everyone had pink skin, lighter hair, spotless black eyes with a golden ring, and high-pitched voices. Some of them had big claws on their hands, others didn’t. Looking at Nameless and Kirishima, it really looked like they were making leaps and twirls about developing camouflage strategies, as they could be mistaken by someone from his species without a doubt.

If he hadn’t seen her come from across the river, he would have thought she was a human, too.

“The name’s Katsuki.” replied the boy, grumpy as she gave his hand a shake. He reciprocated the gesture. “Please don’t blow me up.”

It took her a while, but she actually understood the little joke and giggled, her little fit then erupting into gross loud laughter. It had been a while since she did that.

It would as well be the last time, rain falling harder that day as blood bathed her knees, a figure looming above her and–

Uraraka’s back bounced off the bed with the start of a heart attack jumping from behind at her, claws sprouting from her brain and giving it another hard, lovingly scratch of welling tears that never fell, tension that never broke and images that never made sense, feelings and people that shouldn’t be there and, however, she felt heartless and boneless whenever she woke up.

The aftermath of these dreams, nightmares and all kinds of havoc left her scarred a little bit more violent the more time that passed– her breaths would grow more staggering, her hands would clutch her heart stronger and her eyes would dart more dizzily around the room. While the effects and emotions from the experience would wear off fast, faces and ideas sure didn’t.

The fact that she couldn’t see the face of that little girl monster clearly was so confusing as well for her, because she was probably the most important piece of the story. An innocent girl with a pure soul, yet terrifying sorcery used for ill intentions. Was this supposed to be a metaphor about her?

Also… why had, of all people, he been there with–

She heard heavy breathing near her, and when she was able to focus her sight on her surroundings, a mane of pale hair came into view, sleeping right by her stretched legs. His muscles, tense and tight, hair unkempt and light snoring vibrating in his ribcage. Her eyes almost fell out of their sockets when she realized who this was, thinking about pinching herself to wake up from this vision.

What was Bakugou… doing there? He was sitting on a chair, yet his whole body was leaning on the bed as his head rested nestled on his strong arms, probably already given up on her waking up. How long had he been there? And again, why was he, of all people, there with her? The first thing she thought was that he was probably taking advantage of his sleeping problems to take the night shift and watch her, but why would he accept taking it in the first place?

Her hand hesitated, hovered above his head until they took the monumental step of touching his hair– touching him, in a sense, and threaded his messy locks into place with a placid smile of tranquility. Her other hand wiped some sweat off her forehead as the moon gloriously washed over the dark room. While her fingers played with his hair and he slept calmly near her, brown eyes glanced out the window shortly.

There was ruckus outside – she thought, eyes aimlessly trying to see further from the bed – and she wanted to see more of it.

As to not wake her sleeping vigilant, Uraraka slowly shifted on the bed and placed her feet on the cold floor. Her toes relished at the feeling of the flashy temperature, because her body was overwhelmingly hot and she couldn’t wait to get a change of clothes. She didn’t even dare sniffing herself, she would sure be raking sweat.

As the sorcerer walked around the bed and brushed past Bakugou, she giggled a little to herself, but then concerned her eyes on the slumbering boy. Again, what business did he have with her? Why would he even bother come to check on her? It was sad to know somebody didn’t entertain your presence even while being on civil terms, and it irked her to think this way. Still, she had done enough already to make nice with him, the ball was on his court now.

Uraraka’s body was engulfed by the moonlight. Bells of consciousness rung the numbness to go away, and she was suddenly blinking openly to the moonlight that loomed over the big window of her room. The night stars were shy and sneaky compared to this big cheese, twinkling timidly as part-time companions of the white angel. A sweet feeling of a breeze escalating up her spine made her skin tingle in delight as some music blared from outside, fires going off as shows and fights occurred as part of the nighttime fair.

And Bakugou missed it… to watch after her? Her head craned a little to eye his sleeping form, frown knit in confusion. He disliked her – concluded Uraraka, looking at the moon and fair once again – he must have been pressured to stay.

It was then when Uraraka remembered what had gone down with the oracle, when she spotted the vacant space at the corner of the fair– she wanted to slap herself for being so naïve, illusional, for letting a stranger so shady like that woman trick her. She had been as foolish as to even tell her about her secrets, those hideous dreams and nightmares, when Todoroki had clearly advised her to be careful.

She cradled her face on her hands and rubbed, then rubbed some more. The feeling of weight on her pockets reminded her of the cards and the misty bottle, for which she rummaged. Her fingers came in contact with one of the cards, yet as much as she fiddled around, the other card was long lost. As she took the card of the Hanged Man out, to the moonlight’s shade, something strung wrong in her heart.

“Why this one… where is the other one?” she palmed her other pocket, and only felt the shape of the bottle, yet no other card was found. The hand holding the card trembled. “What in the world…”

“What are you doing up?”

Her hand hurried in a messy blur to keep the card inside her pockets, spinning to see Bakugou groggily making his way to her. Uraraka made quick work to hold the shield up and cross her arms, starting her usual defensive pose of unaffection towards the leader. Still, there was no hostility in her eyes, or in his for that matter. “I woke up and heard the music from the festival.”

“Then go to bed again, you still need the fucking rest.” grunted the leader, scrubbing his eyes again to wake up. “We gotta part soon and you aren’t helping.”

But the strained edge in his voice and the dryness of his throat gave one too many things away. “You aren’t in the best of shapes either, master.” mocked she with an arched eyebrow. At this, he growled with a sideways glare. Uraraka didn’t know why he got so angry at her for releasing the feelings he stirred on her– feelings of protection, shielding, holding her ground against this beast. “You can take the bed, I am not going to–“

Her legs unexpectedly gave up under her, but she swiftly grabbed for the frame of the window to hold her. Bakugou’s hands had flinched for this, and he had no fucking idea why when he had known she could take care of herself. Being tired had never been so infuriatingly difficult before. “You are going to sleep. If you don’t fucking take care of yourself there is no use in taking you with us.”

“I am another warrior from this guild, Bakugou.” attacked Uraraka with a frown of her own, facing him directly. “Why am I being scolded over doing an effort–“

“This ain’t a damn effort, it’s no more than a strain in your development.” he crossed his arms, his eyes glimmering beneath the moon’s cradle. His jaw was clenched, chin up, and he suddenly looked like he was going to say something, then kept it in for a little more. He shook his head. “You are constantly doing things that aren’t needed, and we– I don’t want none of it.”

The blonde had made it sound personal in a second and it worried her– so much that she actually asked.

“Is there… anything I may have done to upset you, Bakugou?”

A low growl scraped his throat and constricted his vocal strings painfully, his fists tight as he spoke ever so clearly and demanding, scary and resolute. “I don’t want anything from you, got it? I don’t need your protection, your business with being kind and the like– I don’t need it.”

The girl flinched under his sudden glower, but recovered from the blow hell fast. “What’s wrong with me taking care of you or actually looking after your protection?”

Uraraka asked it so patiently and kindly that his heart plummeted and left a soaring trace of hurt pride behind– and something dangerous, atrocity and violence, it all came in full force to his eyes as he turned to look at her, stepping close to her in a second. She shot up a little as well, their glares sparking bolts and daggers to each other while Bakugou jabbed her shoulder accusingly and she slapped his hands away from her.

She should have known that her kindness would backfire, and stepped back from it when she still had time, back at the campfire. But she had given in to her generalized personality and now this happened.

“I don’t wanna owe anything to you, got it? I don’t give a fuck about you, I don’t need you in my life, your magic or your goddamn glitter that chases me everywhere I go.” barked he, not observing how her posture suddenly softened and her eyes widened the tiniest way. Since only a few inches separated them, he really should have. “I don’t owe you anything– I have watched over your sick ass for more than enough, I have changed your cloth and haven’t complained! This is my way of saying thank you from before and–“

“You sure can mumble and mumble like Midoriya when you are riddled, Bakugou.” commented she with this shocked face he detested on her because she knew better– she always knew better and he was suddenly feeling lied to again when he didn’t want it.

“That’s not the damn point!” yelled he. His hands mindlessly searched for his sword on his waist. “Just stop being like this. Stop giving me unwanted attention, stop trying to protect me, I don’t need it.” Bakugou took a deep breath to calm himself down, too quick to anger when he was this tired, and sighed with exasperation. “I don’t want it.”

When she didn’t strike him with a quick comeback the very same moment he shut up and stopped spluttering so much bullshit, he dared to look at her. Those bubbling eyes of hers somehow remained unchanged, looking at him as if he hadn’t said anything, her skin still sweaty and her smell still gross– he loathed that about her. No matter how much shit he tried to throw at her to keep her away, she was resilient and either fought back or ignored the attack.

He needed her to stay away. He didn’t need her in his life, he didn’t need a terrorist in his life to taunt his sanity. Uraraka was stupid, careless, naïve, sarcastic and too sassy to his liking. And yet, she was there. And he didn’t want it.

After a little silence, she spoke up again. “Such a shame, Bakugou, that you feel this way.” he thought she would finally give in and leave him alone. “I sadly won’t let up, though.”

But she didn’t. When he focused on her again, her irises were shining under the moon’s gleam and her skin was clean, yet damp and ferverish. She herself was a damn illness he would never recover from, a maniac with the hands of a fairy that was supposed to be proving his inner fears rights and destroying the world– not there, alone with him and sticking to his thorny side.

The brunette stung his pride with a little smile of hers, that shaky one that held no emotion other than mockery for him. “Why can’t you understand? I know you don’t really give a damn about me– and not gonna lie, it sucks that the feeling is unilateral.” hell yes, she at least got that right. “Still, you are another of my peers, and I will watch after your protection. No matter how much you push me away…”

Her head turned to his, eyes closed in tranquility and spoke as this was a universal statement. He was speechless for the first time in his life, words stuck as moonlight bathed her. “… I will care about you, dumbass. Even if you want me not to. You gave me a place to belong, and for that, I will always be kind to you all. Even if you don’t deserve my kindness, I still owe it to you.”

The echo of her words oozed into his bloodstream– but it didn’t make his skin boil, his heart hammer with anger or anxiety for this situation. Instead, his whole body stood there, calmly, as her words sunk in deeper and deeper than a mermaid lost in the labyrinth that the sea was, swimming into the darker abyss that was his heart as his shouts, curses and violence were reduced to shock and utter silence. His eyebrows were knit in confusion, yet a line of heartbreaking realization and surprise was there– and it made Uraraka smile a bit higher.

“Why do you do… this?” his words literally fell off, low and whispered in almost fear for what stupidity she would come up with.

“Care doesn’t have an actual reason, it’s just a feeling.” answered Uraraka, eyes closed in peaceful contemplation. “You have protected me as well from Shinsou, defended me against the village. And even without all that, with given time, I would have grown to care about you a little, as I do now.”

“But I don’t, and I am sick of feeling like I owe the world to you when I didn’t–“

“Ask for it?” finished she for him, and he nodded with something alike to desperation crossing his irises, tranquil like a shooting star but fading away fast, like a broken light. “Nobody asks to be cared for, you just receive it. I can take care of myself, so I don’t mind if you, of all people, don’t give a crap. It’s not like I expected you to.”

She was saying it as if it was fine, but a part of him just knew it wasn’t fine. All she had done all along was protect his guild his peers, him from danger no matter how much it hurt her to do so. Then why had she been so preoccupied about him when he couldn’t do that for her, when all he had done had been ridiculous compared to her feats? Why, in the end, was he the one being affected by her feelings and not her by his lack of them?

It was wrong. She was wrong. She couldn’t care, it had to be a good joke or a big performance lie. He shouldn’t have to feel this– that throb of having done enough, yet feeling like there was much more to do. He didn’t like it, he hated it! Bakugou wanted to throw his heart out of the window or give it to her so she could just devour it and give it back ugly, but fixed.

She… was a sorcerer. It was fucking wrong for him to feel even debited towards her.

He… he couldn’t say it anymore. He couldn’t hate her after all she had done for him. And that’s why he hated her despite not really doing so– she had given him a reason not to hate her. She was giving him reasons not to hold back anymore… to embrace her. Uraraka had barged in, cared for him when no one asked, and pushed all his hatred back to pin him down and, suddenly, he wasn’t himself anymore.

He wasn’t full of hatred for her anymore. In its stead, there was this confusing set of annoying feelings, all contradictory and messy that he didn’t even want to touch, screaming his name in a tangled sea of names and tags he didn’t… he just couldn’t touch.

Bakugou stared at her a little moment. So, he didn’t.

That way, he didn’t care now.

Not that much.

“Guys, did you hear that?”

Jack had ran to a side of the road, whip in her hand as a menacing thunderstorm rumbled from high above, near a hill and by the river they were passing by. Uraraka stopped in her tracks to listen closely, but nothing could be heard aside from faraway thunder rolling at the end of the canyon. The guild was currently walking through a very narrow path encored on the rocky cliff, the river flowing deep below them in direction to the forests ahead, then the capital.

Mina stared a bit ahead as well, her eyes finding nothing else but the dark rocks of the cliffs in the night and the waters running crystal black under the moon’s blurry embrace, covered by the thick clouds of incoming storm. She shook her head and held her torch a bit higher. “I can’t see shit in the darkness, above all with the wind from up here. What did it sound like?”

Kaminari, who was at the head of the crew at the moment, stopped them all as he held his arm and sword. Even Bakugou stopped his match when he saw how serious the blonde had turned. “No, I heard that too. It came from a bit under us.”

Everyone peeked from the edge of the thin way, some squatting to not lose balance and topple over. Yaoyorozu shook her head, struggling to see anything else but some dry plants and bubbling water. “There are a few platforms of discontinued paths and the river. I can see some little hills as the canyon ends, but nothing suspicious.”

Bakugou lowered Kaminari’s arm, but knew better than to let his guard down. He let his axe out of his back and walked forward clutching it tightly. “Then, let’s going. A storm is coming and rain in the darkness ain’t pretty. Above all in the canyon.”

Everyone nodded in unison and took a few steps forward to hear the very same noise Jack had heard– except this time, it rung much clearer and louder than before, the screech reaching Uraraka’s ears so terrifyingly well, as if the monster was right–

A crash and a blow were heard and the walls that held the path clear started to crack, tremble, and a horrifying scream of agitation echoed across the whole canyon while a dark green monster with scales and claws started to surface from the depths of the river and crawled up the walls to the path, his eyes locking with Uraraka’s scared ones and letting out another piercing yell of territorial menace, his metal hands making the ground beneath the guild shake and start crumbling.

A panicked, petrified shaky intake of breath broke the confidence for a tranquil path, and Uraraka was suddenly frightened to death for this monster she couldn’t clearly see in the middle of the darkness– but the menace was there, its tail illuminated by the dim moonlight and she could feel him climbing closer, faster, his body making the canyon give in to its weight.

One of Asui’s feet gave in to the cracks, and she would have fallen down if Todoroki hadn’t caught her. “The path widens into an esplanade a few meters ahead where the canyon curves! We must hurry and take it down there, we can’t fight like this!”

Unable to find a better plan, the guild struggled to break from the shock and fear and ran forward through the path as it started giving up behind them and falling into the river. The river creature let out another screech and dived into the waters again, chasing them down while hitting the walls a little while beneath the canyon.

Once they reached the esplanade, Uraraka was ordered by Yaoyorozu to ensure a path out of it before the whole canyon gave up. The sorcerer nodded and pounded a crack of the canyon with her staff, spikes of rocks and solid minerals surfacing through the cracks on the path ahead and holding them in place. Still, the solution wasn’t permanent. “The path is a little fixer-upper, but this won’t last for long if whatever that is shakes it!”

Bakugou flung his war axe on his shoulder and immediately hissed after. His body hadn’t rested enough for a battle of this caliber, not after looking after Uraraka and having to part afterwards. He was tired, aching– but his mind was ready for any challenge like this, for he smirked. “Let’s take this little thing do–“

The beast surfaced again from the side of the big esplanade, making Mina and Midoriya leap backwards as the river monster blocked the way out of the portion of land, and swatted Uraraka’s work off to the river. As it crawled nearer to them, it let out another high pitched wail of anger as it frowned on them, its scales brightening after a flash of thunder and revealing a dragon with green scales, colossal tail and sharp claws, his teeth wet with blood and sweet water.

“It’s a legendary beast from the river!” screamed Midoriya into the night, to his comrades, as wind started howling them off the esplanade. “We can’t possibly kill it, all we must do is paralyze him before he moves too much!”

Even before the leader had finished his orders, Kaminari was completely involved in lightning and sparks as an uncanny smirk of pride wicked his skin. “Ah, then that’s sparky’s field of battle!”

He charged a handful of bolts into his palms, liting up the land around them before smashing the currents and sending it through the minerals of the canyon, running deep into the canyon through the cracks and zipping the monster that lay before them– but the monster never stopped shifting nearer to them. Uraraka took a hesitant step near to the edge of the cliff, and only stopped when the waters were heard too clearly.

“What the fuck is this thing!?” exclaimed Kaminari before charging his sword and adopting a fighting pose, breath heavy from the stamina consumption. “That thing is huge! How are we going to immobilize him with such fat weight?”

Uraraka would have done something about it if it hadn’t been for thunder clapping right beside her, the beast smashing his claw closer to her people and creating a crack across the esplanade. She let out a whimper of fright, yet stayed focused on the beast before them. She could have summoned a meteorite, called in a tsunami to wash the thing away, make the ground beneath him crack and fall, or warp him in a tornado of havoc and destruction.

Yet, she held herself in and charged up. The ground they shared was fragile, at the verge of destruction if the monster took another step as she could hear rocks fall to the river behind her, the surface giving in if the beast made it shake too much. And as everyone was being extra careful, she knew she wasn’t the only one aware of this limitation.

Todoroki wrapped his left side in flames and swung his arm straight at the beast from near Uraraka, flames shooting up and striking right on the beast’s eyes. While the monster shook at the violent blinding, Bakugou was able to charge at him with his axe and jump upwards, hunching and then spinning  to strike at the beast and slice a part of his skin. Blood dripped from the monster and it tried to slap the leader off, him unraveled from his attack and scraping the ground with his boots as he was pushed off.

Big stains of blood covered his naked chest, which he wiped clean as fangs relished on the thought of eating that huge motherfucker for dinner. Jack was next to him, swinging her whip around the beast’s neck and extending it so it would choke his grand, whole body, but the monster easily wiggled and broke her weapon, throwing her off with his claw.

Jack landed on her back dangerously near to the edge, but Uraraka had no space to focus on her, but pushed her away from there before running forward, rain starting to fall on her as she dodged members from her guild. Her staff crossed the thin air before a big jump, a seal appearing beneath her feat and shining before bigger thunder and lights flashed closely above, her form petite and high off the cliff as she had altered her gravity.

Then, lights and electricity came crashing on the creature as the girl dove through the air, driving the thunder right into the beast as she summoned her cast. “Divine Lighting Carriage!”

And the monster did shriek even higher from this as smoke radiated off his body, and his claws pierced the ground as Uraraka landed with scraping boots and her knees brushing the ground as she hissed, pushed away from the beast as well. She realized that the beast was poking holes too deep into the surface– claws digging into the solid rock like butter and creating fractures too deep into the canyon, and then, a big deaf sound beneath.

Half of the ground of the esplanade gave in and started crashing down into the river fast, the members that stayed at the last line started to fall down, crumble with the broken debris and precipitating themselves into the dark waters, meeting their soon to be demise. Mina stumbled and almost fell, but was able to grab onto the edge of the broken esplanade and quickly caught Uraraka when the sorcerer screamed and almost fell as well.

“Are you alright, sis?” her right hand was tightly clasped around Uraraka’s, yet her left one was slipping, and fast.

And the brunette, even in her state of agitation and unfathomable fear, could see this– she could see her hand so clearly. So many things were happening around her: the monster was still wailing at the guild, somebody had fallen into the river, and she could feel some more people struggling to hold onto the falling esplanade. She could see more rocks crumbling beneath her and crashing in the waters.

The portion to which Mina was holding onto would give up soon. And she would fall with Uraraka if the sorcerer didn’t do something about it. “Mina, let me go!”

“What?” wind made things difficult to be heard, but the archer still held her tight in the middle of the chaos. “No way I am–“

Another deaf crash vibrated nearby, and more rocks crashed. Sooner or later, Uraraka would fall into the river, meters and meters and meters of void fall pivoting her future tragedy. “Please, Mina! If you don’t let me fall, both of us will!”

“Uraraka,” one of her fingers slipped, and the pair was tugged a bit down. The sorcerer held her breath in, eyes widening. But Mina’s hold on her never lessened. “don’t be a pain!”

If she could, she would float the way up, but in this state of agitation and exhaustion from the run and the fight, there was no way she would be able to go up there again and stand straight. There was a loud gruff curse, a scream, and somebody else had fallen again. “Mina, you must trust me on this!”

This made the pink girl look under her, grimace at the pain this was supposing, and started pondering the thought. She was quick to shake it away. She would never let a comrade fall, not in her wildest dreams! If Uraraka fell down to the river, she would probably die from both the crash and the rocks that laid below them. Thunder clapped, rain started falling, wind howling in the middle of the thunderstorm, and Uraraka felt both of them giving up on their stone hold–

“Forgive me for this, Mina!”

Uraraka used her last resort to summon a little flame that burnt Mina’s hand scarcely, making the archer let go for a moment in deep pain– but then, Uraraka was falling down, her hands reaching out for her friend again as air was knocked out of her lungs, a scream of hers piercing through the storm as she fell down across the canyon, compassing the raindrops and nearer and nearer to the wild waters inching closer to her.

Suddenly, there was no feeling of ground anymore. Her stomach was sinking into her, her organs lurched as she desperately tried to hold onto something, anything in her way, not knowing where solid ground was but only aware of the music of crash and rumble, quake and death climbing up to her as her body only fell down faster and faster, away from the stars and moonlight she had once soared under.

In a second, her body splashed and there was nothing around her anymore. Silence surrounded her as rocks and debris crumbled into the water with deaf bursts of rock meeting ground, foam forming at her fingertips and strands as her body plummeted down, almost touching the deep ground before the current starts pulling her away– and she let herself be taken as the fall sunk into her and all pain and sudden notion of having stopped numbed her.

Consciousness and pain mixed, narrowing down to something sharp and full of grim colors she couldn’t see in the darkness, the only feeling that kept her alive actually trying to kill her. Water ran down her throat as she tried to breathe unconsciously, and all sensations crackled down to numbness and pain, all taking her down the trashing river.

Until, suddenly, something soft and nice enveloped her in the night, an insane cycle of destruction and agony stopping. Feet below the surface where it was darker, muskier and wetter, with a heartbeat where silence was all that bubbled around her again, and the warmth made her feel safe, like a child in a lost home of gray hues where a family once lived, where a child once lived.

And the last thought she had was... that is was so warm down there, in the dark, deep in muddy water, with him. It was so… nice. This place, she couldn’t feel scared here.

The image of a scattered young, blonde boy crossed her mind like s hooting star, crossed in between the strings of times and lost galaxies, fluttering out of space.

“Katsuki…”

[miraimisu]

These Stones We Skip | Chă̶̪͔̩̺̌̿̉ͅpter 1

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[Read at AO3.]

Summary: Ochako, as a newcomer to the most powerful guild in this forsaken village, had not only one, two; but three responsibilities: grow stronger until she was able to pin the world down, untangle the mystery that her past was and survive under the eyes of a crowd that watched over her as night chased the sun’s tail, the charade going on and on until the thread… suddenly snaps.

Rating: T because of obvious reasons such as Bakugou and swearing children. And it’s an AU. Medieval AU.

Word count: it’s fucking long get over it

Author’s note: i AM BATHING IN LIKE /checks almost 60 pages of fucking content and this is so hard because IT’S LIKE JENGA AND I HAVE TO LOOK OUT FOR PLOTHOLES AND I’M FUCKING OBLITERATED FROM THIS GALAXY OK. I am choking. Unchoke me pls :c

So I have to thank the people who actively support this???? somehow??? AO3 went kinda wild about it, and... FF.net too, for a reason. I’ll try to write another kacchako fanfic in the mean time. Idk. I could have written a novel with this length. Do you guys realize this is a disaster. Don’t kill me ♥ PLEASE DONT

Warnings: it’s long, it’s messy, OLD SCHOOL MIRAI :V It has them feels tho. Kinda. Tons of broshipping. And... some kacchako, finally?? maybe not idk

I’ll very likely have to edit this once I am over this chapter and repair any little plotholes I may have poked.

I just hope Mic. Word hasn’t munched nothing of this fic or left words out.

Yuuei was a weird place for Uraraka. No insults intended, but the second she had been officially introduced as an official member of the guild, nothing had changed.

In all honesty, she had expected some kind of warm welcoming, a party, or maybe a surprise token? but she didn’t get anything. From the most realistic standpoint, she should have expected this– after all, the battle against the rocky fireballs monster had been just a day ago, and people were still tidying the place up of upcoming foes.

The following two days after the battle, the whole guild had been imposed a ban from the council. As the sorcerer would later learn, that basically meant that the whole guild was forbidden to partake in violent events, organize for team battles or even do as much of a rock paper scissors competition. Turns out that the mission against the volcano boss was kind of too high for them, and it somehow made sense to her in the end: only she and Bakugou had been able to do significant damage to that son of a bitch.

When she tried to patiently ask the leader why they had embarked in such a counter-productive battle, he had unkindly explained with not much patience that it was a measure for later journeys, that it needed to be done, and that she shouldn’t meddle in business that didn’t affect her at all. Then he remembered that he had personally accepted her into the guild and marched off mumbling about her being a pain.

That was when Kirishima came rushing to her with a sheepish expression, and continued the events of the present day. “He’s too much of a short-tempered guy, don’t mind him.”

Uraraka had been going downstairs with her new uniform on, dressed in pink again after being marred in too many bandages after the last battle. Just the thought of the mental strain that the battle had meant brought chills down her spine. “Good to see you in shape, Kirishima. Is he feeling alright?”

If one listened carefully, it was possible to hear Bakugou and Midoriya arguing heatedly inside their office. Both let out a healthy chuckle as the redhead led her down the staircase. “Just Bakugou being Bakugou, no surprise.” and the girl seemed unfazed by this, which obviously surprised him. “And you don’t seem to have much problem with that.”

She shook her head as they arrived to the common room, where some people had lunch between loud chatter and laughter, all tables equipped with a vase full of three sunflowers. It was good to see the guild so alive after such harsh battle, so she couldn’t help but smile at her friend, and then curiously glance at the odd choice of flowers. “Once he stops threatening you with his toy knives, he’s bearable outside the battlefield. Not like he’s near being sane, but I can stop watching my step now. Step by step!”

He affectionately ruffled her hair with a little smile, and she puffed her cheeks in annoyance. Her hair was something extremely hard to deal with, above all with that habit of hers to ruffle it when nervous, anxious, or just plain observed. She threaded her hair back to place under Kirishima’s glance. That was when Uraraka noticed that he was noticeably taller than her. Actually, everyone was.

“I’m glad to see that you are still willing to give him a chance. Many people give up the first day when he screams for them to stop invading his privacy.” she allowed herself a sigh of exhaustion, remembering how he had been so adamant about her joining but had afterwards offered her a membership in the guild. It showed he was a tough one, but not invincible for that matter. “Oh, talking about people!”

Kirishima swung his arm around Uraraka’s shoulders and dragged her to a side, making the people on the tables look at the approaching couple. “Guys, have you met Uraraka yet?”

Of course, Uraraka couldn’t recognize a single face, for which she felt incredibly ashamed despite having no reason to, and the feeling of being observed by those analyzing eyes of theirs made go through ten seconds of self-consciousness and awkwardness. There was a blonde guy – he was a bit similar to Kaminari, maybe they were brothers? – another blonde guy, but this one had a much kinder set of eyes and he impregnated his glances with such softness, Uraraka felt instantly relieved. Her eyes travelled down his body to find him clutching his side in concentration.

“Guys, this is Uraraka, the volcano girl!” suddenly, a flash of recognition seemed to flash through their eyes, but it was short lived. Their shoulders went back down, and the very same skepticism returned in a moment. “She’s been resting till’ now, so be a bit easy on–“

“Wait, you are that girl!?” spoke someone with glee and a girly, excited tone, but Uraraka couldn’t see the person. Apart from those blondes, there was nothing else excepting food, the vase with sunflowers, discarded clothes, and gloves on the table–

“Holy shit!” let Uraraka out, rushing to the girl’s side, trying to make out her figure through her veil of invisibility. The nearer she got the more clothes she saw that outlined the girl’s figure. “You are invisible? How is that possible?”

The three other boys watched the scene unfold, and obviously no one had been this thrilled about invisible girl because they seemed hilariously shocked. The very same girl got up and showed herself to the newcomer. “I was jinxed when I was young by keeping my special ability on forever, until the very day I die.”

The soft looking boy glanced at Uraraka with, again, a very kind smile on. “She’s constantly travelling in recognition missions with us, she’s the stealthy boss of the guild” and no matter how much invisible girl was trying to deny it with flailing arms, the kind boy dismissed her. “You were lucky to find us in our resting day.”

Kirishima scratched his head, with an apology at the tip of his tongue. This was the most troubled Uraraka had seen him. “Man, sorry for not even asking about that. It’s been crazy here with the ban and fixing the mess after Pyrox.” the redhead looked at the brunette, sensing she’d be confused at all this new information. “What part didn’t you understand?”

“Pyrox?”

“The guy you basically cooled down back at the volcano.”

Uraraka let out an acknowledging hum, and one of the blonde guys, the one with this flickering passionate gaze, dig his elbows on the table. “Such an impressive feat, by the way.” the girl was startled by the praise, and he noticed this– and also winked, teasingly. “I’m Aoyama, please don’t forget my name like you did with Pyrox, pretty please?”

The invisible girl nudged Aoyama, and if it was possible to tell a pout would sure be present on her face. “Don’t tease her, Aoyama!” the gloves waved at her. “I am Hagakure! This is Ojiro.”

“It’s nice to finally meet you, Uraraka.” replied Ojiro, waving at her, and the sorcerer did the same with a little, shy smile. “We’ve been told about you by others, but seeing you with our own eyes is a bit clashing. You are so tiny.”

Kirishima crossed his arms after, again, ruffling the girl’s hair. It seemed like some kind of stress reliever. “She’s a tough cookie, don’t mistake her…”

Uraraka visibly jumped at such defensive remark, eyes twinkling and her hands flying to her heart. Kirishima had said those words with such faith and kindness that something hammered hard in her heart– warmth, tickles and butterflies at the prospect of being respected so much by the leader’s right hand. All she could do back that was minimally intelligible was smile. “Where are Sero and Shoji? Haven’t they reported back to base yet?”

Hagakure rounded the table to give the redhead a little scroll, all after some messy rummaging in her big cloak. “Sero gave this to me for Midoriya, and told us to meet at our base at Orange Forest.” Kirishima unhooked the paper and read the report as quickly and read everything briefly. “They have some successfully gotten into an illegal base, but we must let things work on their own.”

The redhead nodded, fingers tapping his chin. Uraraka didn’t really bother to follow the topic, as she’d sure not understand this mess. “Have you guys gotten any new information?”

Ojiro shook his head with resignation. “We haven’t heard anything from Sero from within the headquarters at the east. Shoji reunited with the others as far as I know up at the north, and we are supposed to meet where Hagakure mentioned.”

Kirishima rolled the paper and closed it with the bow, tucking it in his side bag. “I will go tell Bakugou as soon as he stops the bickering with Midoriya.”

The room casually fell silent, and a faint sound of crashing and roaring echoed in the distance of the offices. Ojiro laughed, then hissed and clutched his side again. Uraraka flinched and blinked at his poor pose. “Yeah, they sure are–“

The sorcerer was instantly fretting over him, had gone running to the boy and started pouring dewy, morning healing on his side. “I am not the best of healers, but I can help with that!” green lights started to patch the wound beneath Ojiro’s clothing, who looked at her with that impossible smile of understanding he seemed to always have. “Please, don’t move too much, or my magic may be rendered less useful!”

The blonde boy tried to swat her away as kindly as possible. “I’m overjoyed to see you so worried about it, but Shuzenji already patched this up and told me to–“

“But you clearly are in pain.” mumbled Uraraka, squinting for focus– the boy didn’t dare to interrupt her, as she looked stubborn as hell and by the look Kirishima was giving him… this was a given. “Besides, she doesn’t need to know.”

The redhead shook his head with a kind smile, scratching the back of his head with a mysterious glint in his eyes. “Man, and to think that Bakugou thinks you are a threat…” Aoyama looked at him in interest while Ojiro tried to calm Uraraka down. “Not completely harmless as I thought you to be, but man, you are a far cry from a monster.”

“But she’s still a threat, right?”

Uraraka’s healing halted, looking at the other blonde from the corner of her eyes. The passionate boy looked at Kirishima in vehemence and the most light-hearted tones she had ever heard regarding her professional status. “We still don’t know what she will do in the future. There’s no need to be so laid back about it either, right, Uraraka?”

“Huh!” her back was as straight as a tree, eyeing the suddenly menacing blonde who was looking at her piercingly– and it turns out that convincing everyone that she was trustworthy wouldn’t be as easy as to just get into the guild and hope that everyone would trust her. The faith they had put in her during battles, the littlest of trusts that Bakugou was putting on her when allowing her to roam around his peers as much as she wanted– it wasn’t enough. It seems like only time would fix this misconception. “Ah, well, I just hope I can make you all trust me, somehow!”

Hagakure pounded Aoyama on the head while Kirishima frowned at him for making his little pal so uneasy, and he was by her side in a heartbeat. “Aoyama, stop being such a creepo.”

“Apologies for being cautious, Hagakure.” stated he, eyes unblinking as he stared at the brunette. “She’s just so tiny, to think she holds such power… it’s beyond me.”

Kirishima had been apparently rummaging through his bag during the exchange, and Ojiro was up with Aoyama when he cleared his throat. “Anyway, go to Bakugou’s office with this scroll, and make him look it up so he can consider your mission concluded and give you some free days. I don’t think you guys should be off before Sero and the others report back.”

“Roger that!” exclaimed Hagakure, grabbing Aoyama’s arm as the passionate boy wrapped himself into more complicated thoughts that Uraraka wasn’t very pleased about. That guy seemed harmless a minute ago, why had he shown his fangs at her so quickly? Clearly, everyone was different in that guild, one way or another.

The trio was ascending the staircase in a loud exit the moment Mina came through the main door, her brows rising at the happy group of nerds. “Some people sure have some good breakfast.” murmured she before her black eyes were set on Kirishima and Uraraka, a smile shooting up to her round features as soon they looked at her. “Oh, my eyes have been blessed! Good morning, guys!”

Kirishima padded to her with a grin, and Uraraka waved at her while walking less enthusiastically than him. The redhead sure was a goof bear despite his tough exterior. “Good to see you around today, Mina! Any luck at today’s practice?”

The pink haired girl sighed, shoulders sinking in disappointment and the sight was so unsettling for Uraraka, somehow. There was something so irritating about seeing such a cheerful girl so sunken– the image was stirring something weirdly terrifying in her, and all the sorcerer wanted to do was hug those droopy eyes away. “It was a bit meh. No lucky shots or good preys to catch. Midoriya and barbarian would sure be disappointed with my performance.”

And Kirishima’s hands came to rest on her deflated shoulders, which perked up at the soothing gesture, and it brought a little smile to Mina’s face as soon as his calloused hands were rubbing her shoulders– and Uraraka didn’t know with all certainty, but Kirishima seemed to relax as soon as she was fine again. Light streamed around the pair, making it all look more heavenly to her. It made her heart squeeze comfortable in her chest, and the brunette smiled kindly at the exchange.

Her neck started sweating grossly, but it wasn’t an unpleasant feeling. Sparks of complicity flew and cracked from the pair’s fingers, ignited the ground beneath Uraraka and lifted her up in a trip to another world, all the world fading away, her included, and tainting it all it reds and roses, the color of his eyes and the blush of her cheeks. The world seemed simpler, their breaths dancing across pages of her life in blurs of iris, and it all felt familiar and warm to her.

She was suddenly wondering if Midoriya was also like this seeing how soft he was, or if Kaminari could smile like that too, or if Bakugou used to be this endearing before becoming such a beast. Not like she minded, though.

“Take it easy, though.” said Kirishima, finally, voice as soft as silk and his eyes bright. However, his brows were a bit furrowed. “I know how you all tend to overdo it when bad days go even worse. I don’t want to have you hitting the bed before dinner.”

“Ah, I’m going to rest for the rest of the day. I had thought about heading to the alchemist, then go downtown for the Sacred Sanctuary.” it sounded like assurance, but Uraraka couldn’t find what rest she would do in doing guild chores. All she did was smile with a shake of her head, which prompted Mina to look at her and grin. Everything was alright in the world, suddenly. “Wanna come with, Uraraka? There are some people I think you haven’t met yet!”

Before the brunette could even answer, the archer was already dragging her out of the main room until Kirishima stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. “Wait, can you do me a favor and take this scroll to the Sanctuary? Yagi will sure be happy to see we already have the zone swept for them.”

She removed her backpack to open it and put the scroll in. Uraraka could tell with a little glance that this woman was not a commoner archer, as all items she had seemed pretty damn hard to get. The moment the scroll was in, the inventory was closed. “I’ll try to be quick. The library at the Sanctuary will be jam-packed with people at evening.” her hand was on Uraraka’s elbow a second later as Mina waved at Kirishima. The sorcerer was being dragged so ruthlessly that all she could do was hum a farewell to the hunter.

While they walked through the plaza, Uraraka was slapped to reality when a crack on the ground called her attention. That was from when she used the ground spikes against Bakugou – she recalled unwillingly, and her face tensed when memories of the fateful battle swarmed in her brain, swum in her mind and drowned her in a sense of dread and, again, determination to get better the next time she trained with Bakugou.

“Don’t get worked up over it!” Mina patted her back as they neared an adjacent building. “Everyone at the alchemist will sure love you to bits!”

Yeah, well, not like that was what was going through her mind at the moment, but that would do. Uraraka nodded and let herself be guided to the alchemist, all troubling thoughts forgotten when her nose came in contact with what could either be an awful medicine or a wonderful poison. However, the room was cozy and warm, divided by a counter that crossed the whole room. There were two tables at the sides and bookshelves with books, flowers, and bottles full of pebbles and devices that were foreign to her.

The windows by the door provided with shedding sunlight onto the floor, making it glow in radiance and this familiar feeling writhed in her heart, a feeling similar to smelling fresh bread, or burying your face in the fluffiest pillow. There was a big cauldron at the end of the room, a bit hidden at the darkened ends of the room, and someone was moving around there.

When Mina closed the door, this very same person came running to them. It was a girl, green hair with big, doe eyes and a neutral, scientific look in her face. Her hair was tied up in a large bun, but was irremediably long no matter how much the girl tried to tie it. She shot a hand up to greet them, polite. “Good morning, Mina. This must be new girl, right?”

The archer hummed in agreement, and wordlessly handed a sheet of paper to her. The girl behind the counter read it slowly, eyes carefully examining the ingredients asked of her, and Uraraka was assured right there that this woman was a skilled professional. “The usual, I see.” she searched under the counter to get a seal and mark the sheet. “I’m Asui, by the way. I’m the chief herbalist of this guild, and also main alchemist. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

When Asui offered her a hand to shake, Uraraka gingerly corresponded the gesture. “Yes, I have heard of you as well. You must be a valuable member of this guild.”

A small, purple dressed man came to Asui’s side, face of a kid but clothes of a full-fledged adult. The herbalist gave him the sheet and guided him behind so he’d start working on it. “I am a fighter, as well, but I am specialized on potions and gems. This region is fertile and rich in minerals, so we are always coming up with new improvements.”

Uraraka nodded in awe, eyes sparkling at what could mostly be defined as a pure brutal hard worker. Mina nudged her with a mischievous glint in her eyes, but her smile was pure and genuine. “Guess what? She’s a sorcerer, too!”

Uraraka was quick to slam her hands on the counter, making the wood shake and papers crumble, and her words came out excited and overwhelmed. Her shoulders were shaking as her chords vibrated in glee. “Y-You are a sorcerer!”

Asui wasn’t affected by her happiness, only nodded with a finger to the mouth. “Always been one. It’s only natural since I was raised in a lake.”

In a lake? – when Uraraka turned to Mina, she only nodded slowly in consideration, then turned to the head alchemist. “She can only use water based magic.” Uraraka still seemed clueless, maybe because she hadn’t seen Asui’s whole non-human complexion. “She’s a mutant.”

A second passed, then two, and the girl was unresponsive. Before the brunette could flip the counter upside down, Asui chided the archer. “Please, Mina, don’t be so blunt, ribbit. Watch how you are talking about the person who makes your daily potions.” the pink haired girl shrunk a little, and Uraraka was stunned that such a stale, collected and calm person existed in such unkempt guild. “My family was cursed before my birth during a battle, and had to exile. I am mostly human, but–“

“Asui,” the small man came running again. “who is that cutie–“

The alchemist’s large tongue slapped the man back to work, and he whimpered back to the cauldron while blood drained from Uraraka’s face. Mina didn’t mind the little show. “–as you have just witnessed, I have frog-like abilities. I can also blend with the colors of a room, and breathe underwater. However, due to my slim, porous skin, I can’t handle fire magic. Other elements just bore me.”

“She’s a part of the exploration team too, with Hagakure and the others.” explained Mina, and Uraraka nodded stiffly, still shocked by Asui’s slap. “More than valuable, she’s just a mad woman. Midoriya accepted her so fast that Bakugou had no way to deny him. Maybe it was because of her handicap that Bakugou ended up accepting her, but that’s beside the point.” the archer smirked coyly. “You sure have been spending time with Midoriya ever since, right?”

The ever so phlegmatic girl, who had been blinking at them without a trace of emotion exploded into a small blush, cheeks dusted in pink. “He makes for a good companion when days are rainy. You will have time to talk with him as soon as the ban is over, I’m sure.”

“That will make tomorrow much easier for Bakugou.” commented Mina airily, hand on her waist as a hand racked behind her mane of pink locks. “He can’t handle being still and idle for more than an hour, let alone another day. That guy…”

“Give him a rest, Mina.” surprisingly, it was Uraraka who said that, a comprehensive smile gracing the view. “After all, we made a favor to the Council by defeating Pyrox. I can understand why he’s so annoyed with this situation.”

“It’s so weird to think that you are that girl who stood her ground against him. I was told all about it, and it’s a shame I wasn’t there to see the spectacle you made at Magma Volcano.” Uraraka was torn between feeling a bit offended and blushing for the compliment– but look, everyone had regarded her as tiny, but still a powerhouse, so she couldn’t complain, really. “I still reckon you have tons to learn, yes?”

“Now that I think about it,” Mina scratched her cheek – Uraraka noticed that she had a minor scar there – and looked at her newest friend. “I heard that you and Bakugou would be training, yes?”

Uraraka jumped at what had been presented to her as a secret, but seemed to have spread like wildfire. “Oh, do you have a knack for masochism, ribbit?” she jumped again. “You have such pretty skin, what a pity.”

The brunette knew she shouldn’t be as spooked as she was, but her peers’ behavior was frightening. The idea that they had of her sparring sure sounded different than what Uraraka thought. Asui and Mina were probably used to the barbarian they had as a leader and they were most likely disregarding him out of habit, thinking it would be just Bakugou being Bakugou– except it wasn’t. That man could kill her if he so desired, so nobody should be so aloof about such a threat.

“Hold on, it’s not a matter to be taken lightly!” exclaimed the sorcerer, hat dancing as her head shook in denial. “This is not going to be a walk down the forest! He is a mad monster with nothing else to offer but pain.”

“But that’s what you want from him either way, right?”

That made both archer and sorcerer look at the alchemist, who was neatly noting things down on a sheet of paper. “I mean, you can’t really ask for much more other than that. Bakugou isn’t going to change much no matter how much you try to hammer him into shape. He works in another more complicated way.”

Mina blinked at her for a second before glancing at Uraraka pensively. “She’s right on that. You are going to spend some more time with Bakugou as long as he trains with you– which he kinda actually ordered you to, right?”

Something clapped inside of her, as if her heart had orbited out of existence and all she had left was the thunder hammering of her heart against her chest, but it echoed out of her, as if it had ran a mile and was hanging on the hands of another person– another man. He had clutched her heart in commitment, punishment and obliteration, condemning her to a life full of wounds and interrupted healing. Somehow, her eyes would never heal from seeing him survive a meteor shower– but she’d cope and learn how to go against him.

Yes, that feeling of dread everytime the thought of sparring with him– it was so vibrant now, because he had directly given her the directions to walk, every single day, into a death flag. She was overcome with the same feeling of being thrown into a black hole with a blindfold, unconscious, and waiting for the fall to bend her broken.

“Well, yeah.” gulp. “He did say he’d impose his training schedules on me, which doesn’t come as much of a surprise, but still…” her hands reached out for her neck to mess with, but Mina held her wrists down with a pout. “… not gonna lie, he may be easier to deal with now in terms of speaking, but a one-on-one sounds like a bigger deal.”

“That’s what he wants you to feel.” butted in Mina again, planting herself in front of Uraraka. “He plays a lot with psychology, but gives himself away with the little details. When he called you roundface, he was mentally integrating you with the rest of us. I’m alien girl,” Mina pointed at Asui with her thumb, grinning. “she’s frog girl, but he respects us all the same. And the fact that he privately accepted you into the guild… he does respect you as a fighter.”

Somehow, the thought of Bakugou actively respecting her sent her heart into an override of confusing feelings, namely throbbing anxiety and crippling warmth that was so sketchy and edgy, all sticking to her lungs and constricting them in a deathly hazard of suffocation, because heat was issuing from her nonblushing cheeks and god forbid her from blushing at the mention of something as common ground – or at least, should be common ground – as respect.

“But you still are a universal threat.”

“Yes!” agreed Mina, and Uraraka deflated considerably, the high from the fantasy popping like a balloon. “You are still dangerous, and while most of us are open to trusting you, he will either never open up, or it will take a while. Asui was handicapped, but you sure are not.” insert humorless giggle and a blink from the herbalist. “See him as a toy, as a tool, get all you need to from him, and then quietly leave.”

“Does that mean I’d never make him be at least friendly or civil with me?” her tone was desperate, graver than intended, but reflected the worry she had intended to show.

Asui and Mina shared an unintelligible message that Uraraka knew to be a thing in this guild– man, it made her feel so out of context. Asui spoke up. “Kirishima made it happen, so I don’t see why you wouldn’t– but you are a sorcerer. So skipping the profession barrier is a tough thing to accomplish.”

“You guys shouldn’t brainwash her like that– you’ll only get her into trouble with grumpy nukes.”

The two clients spun to meet Kaminari at the doorway, who shook his head at their startled looks. Asui casually shrugged off the fact that the boy had been there for a pretty long time. “Sorry I didn’t properly greet you, ribbit. We were having some quality talks here, I didn’t want to interrupt them.”

“S’kay, Asui.” he kicked the door shut, arms busy and heavy with what appeared to be harvests from the forest, colorful fruits and leaves peaking from the bag. Uraraka wanted to help him with the burden, but he seemed to be handling the charge with those good arms he had sure worked hard for. “Sorry for taking so long with these. I just couldn’t decide on which ones to pick.”

The herbalist gathered a bunch of contents from the top of the pile and spread them on the table, pointing at them to teach some medicine basics. “This red one is used for kids’ medicines, as they are sweeter than regular herbs. It has no more use than its taste, used as an additive.”

Mina quickly grabbed it – she sure had a sweet tooth for fruits and sugary products – and munched it. “Yummy! How is it called?”

“It’s a variant of regular strawberries, called sterolia.”

Kaminari raised an eyebrow while Uraraka tentatively tried one as well. “Sounds tough work, all the naming stuff.” Uraraka spit the sterolia out– too much sweetness for her.

“This leaf here is poisonous, so I hope you were– ah, thank goodness you carried gloves with you.” indeed, the blonde had a very worn out pair of gloves with him, stained and unsown in some parts. “Touching them carelessly causes horrible stitches, and the wounds from scratching the stung parts attract lots of bugs. Not pleasant.”

Asui took the dark brown leaf and dipped it in a glass of water. Purple splotches of ink started to steam out of the leaf. “Bugs are in love with this thing, so we here use it for strategic purposes, to make enemies come out from their hideouts.” she wiggled the glass a bit in front of them, the liquid spilling gracefully from the container and the other three took a step back. “Drinking this is horrifyingly painful for your stomach, but it has a bittersweet taste and smell, resembling a health potion. Iida once mistook this with a stamina potion and… well, it was rough for him.”

Uraraka grasped the edges of her neck ties with concern and shock. “Who would have thought it! Did he have much trouble to fight it?”

The boy chuckled as good – should be bad – memories resurfaced from the bottom of his mind. “I remember once, he woke up mumbling something about a fight against aliens and him being super beaten up by them. What a weird guy.”

Before Uraraka could embark into a solo voyage of a worry rampage, Asui cut in. “It is hallucinations too, it was only natural he had those visions. This is a pretty good sample of nitoria. You did a good job, Kaminari. I might ask Midoriya for an allowance to hire you permanently.”

The job mustn’t have been easy or funny, because Kaminari paled at the prospect of doing the job again. “I’ll have to politely decline the offer, Asui. I’m of much more use at the battlefield.”

“You sure are, sparkles.” he tensed at the casual use of such dreadful nickname, and Uraraka and Mina giggled. Asui meant her words as a praise, but she doubted that edge had fallen their way. “Either way, there are also some other ingredients here for painkillers and sensorial enhancers. Mina, you had some ordered here, right?”

“Positive!” after a vigorous nod, Mina glanced at Uraraka, who was still observing the leaf let out the toxins deep into the water. “My Uraraka, you sure seem to like herbs and that stuff.”

Kaminari also looked at her in wonder, eyes drifting from the purpling water to Uraraka, time after time. “I don’t know why that surprises you so much. I had always thought sorcerers knew a bit about herbs and alchemy.”

“Excuse me,” the brunette sorcerer leant back from her watching pose and narrowed her eyes at him, trying to look as venomous as Bakugou would in a nice day. “I do know a bit of all that– after all, I know how to do potions and stuff, but just the basics.” her eyes wavered to Asui’s unblinking ones, as she scanned her over and over. It was all kinds of awkward when one caught her glance like that. “Would it be too much to ask for some practice now and then, Asui?”

The green haired pharmacist shook her head. While she walked to a shelf to get some flasks, Kaminari started setting some other things on the table. “Not at all, Uraraka. I bet Bakugou and Midoriya would accept me giving you some lessons. All for training’s sake and survival.”

“Thank you very much, Asui!” the girl vowed dramatically until her forehead touched the floor, and Kaminari pulled her back by the hem of her uniform’s neck. “I’ll try to come as often as possible.”

“Talking about lessons and nerdy stuff…” Kaminari tugged at the sorcerer’s sleeve so she’d stop rambling about her future lessons with their high-level herbalist. “Yaoyorozu came to me earlier and asked about your whereabouts. She said she needed to speak to you privately.”

Uraraka’s back tensed right after mentioning the knight’s name, and her eyes shone in anticipation. She was quick to jump in front of the blonde and start firing him with unspoken questions, all summed up to this: “Do you have any idea about what she wanted?”

“Nope.” but her eyes didn’t waver in intensity, her hands never let go of their tight grip on her chest’s fabric, and her smile was brightening with each passing second. No matter how many “She’s with Todoroki– necking, probably, discussing stuff at the library.”

The brunette nodded with eagerness and her feet quickly scrambled to the door. Giddiness was taking over her body as her frantic steps neared the sunshine outside the alchemist’s. “Thank you so much, Kaminari! I’ll see you later at dinner, guys! Please Mina, do take care of yourself.”

As soon as Uraraka was out of the room, Mina chuckled. “She sure is full of energy this late in the–“

The door was slammed open again. “HOW COULD I FORGET.” making everyone jump a yard back, she screamed at them for answers. “Has anyone seen Jack around? I need to have a little talk with her.”

“Last time I saw her, she was heading to the library downtown.” he scratched his chin, backtracking all the way back to the very same sunny morning that had turned slightly cloudy and grim without Jack, then had opened up when Uraraka decided to drop by. “She has been missing ever since.”

“Ah, I’m gonna head to the Sanctuary’s library right after getting my stuff from Asui.” and yes, Uraraka remembered that– also how Kirishima seemed to shine whenever she was close, and the way his tense muscles had softened around her shoulders, and it somehow felt like such a Yuuei-ish thing, making people so squishy and light inside. Uraraka’s heart leaped out of her chest whenever she remembered that she was a member of this family now. “Is there anything in specific you need from her?”

“Nothing in particular apart from a talk we need to have. If you see her, remind her of this.” the door was closing again, but no without a cheeky girl waving behind her. “Take care guys, see you later!”

When she was gone again, everyone let out a sigh of contentment. Kaminari looked at the archer while Asui sorted out the received items in a further shelf. “She’s always running around– kinda reminds me of you in your earlier days, Mina.”

The pink haired girl pouted and crossed her arms. “I am not a potential powerhouse threat to my peers, thank you so much. And I’m not in the best terms with Bakugou, but he at least hasn’t tried to kill me.”

“He did, once.” commented Asui from afar, her words reaching meekly and as unemotional as ever. “Remember when Kirishima almost dropped hunting practice to tend your sore ankle? He sure is an angel.”

There was a whole minute of silence in which the only response Mina gave was her left eye twitching, hands quivering, and as much as Kaminari did to wake her up from the trance, nothing was working.

When a shove didn’t work, he looked at the unfazed herbalist with a narrowed, pointy glare. “I think you just broke Mina.”

“Serves her right for calling me a mutant.”

Uraraka’s steps up the endless staircase of Yuuei’s main building were a nightmare scenario of blood red carpeted steps with golden strings, holding the secrets of the very same guild hanging from a thread, an inch away from her nose and making her chase after those demons with even more determination than before, the strings wearing thinner and thinner until, someday, the fibers would give in to their.

Sparkles of jars full of sunflowers and roses blurred at her sides the more stairs she flew upon, her rhythm long forgotten and given in to the frantic beat of her heart, the crossed and uneven gasps that escaped her mouth and how the clouds beneath her lungs transcended and transcended until she was breathless, hopeless, and falling into another place far away from there, away from the violence, the disturbance and the disarrayed stream of peace that shot out from each of her peers’ hearts.

“I gotta make it to the top…” her shoes stomped harder on the carpet, hands flailing in front of her as the end reached her eyes. “important matters await me there!”

Because Yaoyorozu screamed patience, understanding, intimacy, power and this dreadful sense of danger behind ever corner she had to turn, as if her eyes were always searching to corner hers into an alleyway of unfounded grudges that she clearly didn’t desire to hold, yet she did because no matter how good one tried to be, rumors would always prevail over human faith. And Uraraka knew this. She had seen the same phantom behind everyone’s seemingly innocent eyes.

But the brunette knew that while walking down this river, stepping on the wrong stone would have her meeting a fierce leader’s sharp blade, fueled with bravery and desire. No matter how good-intended her beliefs were, popular opinions would always squish her little hopes into nothing if she ever dared to show her teeth too much.

So, when she opened the door to the library. it was somewhat surprising to see the two knights talking animatedly, with no care in the world– and even when she came into view clearly, that little spark didn’t change. “Fancy meeting you here, Uraraka.”

The sorcerer closed the door behind her and nodded a greeting to Todoroki, who sat on the table by his female counterpart, who had aimed for a chair. “I’m glad Kaminari told you to come by, otherwise I’m not sure if you would have made it in time before dinner.”

“It’s fine, you know I would have come by sooner or later.” Uraraka decided not to sit down, and eyed some books with interest. Titles as The Sword and the Sun flashed in front of her like a bird crossing the horizon, briefly and in a blur of confusing colors. “Is the matter of such emergency that you had to get a messaging dove for it?”

Todoroki chuckled and beckoned her to get closer to them, which she did with a meek glance at them. “It’s good to see you in good shape after the events of last two days. I don’t think a classical commoner would have withstood being stabbed, being almost stabbed again by a bloodthirsty maniac and then defeating a monster almost on their own.”

The knight chuckled as well, but shaking her head at the boy and then looking at the confused sorcerer. “That’s Todoroki’s congratulations for… I guess not being a commoner. Don’t look much into that.”

Uraraka sighed, but it didn’t sound as relieved as one would have expected. “Yeah, it seems like people only know me for being ‘the kamikaze who put off a volcano’. Not that I’m ungrateful for the praise, but I just hope to grow a name out of my own personality, not battlefield victories– at least, for now.”

“So, you wanna yield a name?” Yaoyorozu looked up from her book to look at her friend, who nodded vigorously with her hands to her chest. “Interesting. You have so many things to do here, and you seem resilient.”

“It’s not like you have little things to do, either.” commented Todoroki with slight traces of both disdain and teasing, to which she responded with a little pout. “Besides, she’s new in here. Of course she’ll be busy, and even more while recovering and training with Bakugou.”

Uraraka’s brow twitched as she looked at the pair, who continued reading their books as if they hadn’t said anything of particular importance. “Why… do you all seem to know about the training thing? Are you guys spying on me… on him?”

She didn’t want to include the idea of an us because that would be awfully misleading.

“Information here spreads fast. I just hope Bakugou doesn’t know about it, he’d sure throw a monumental tantrum over being spied on.” complained Yaoyorozu. Uraraka felt a bit flustered at the idea that they had been spying on their last conversation, while she had been fixing his fingers– ugh. Some pink now sure had made its way to her cheeks and she didn’t know why because nothing of special relevance happened. “Either way, there are some things I wanted to show you.”

The knight let her book on the table – Todoroki slipped a finger on the last page she had been reading with a sly sway of his eyes, making Uraraka smile at the little act of complicity. Then, her eyes drifted to the girl scrolling her eyes for a specific book. It must have been one of those dusty ones if she was struggling so much to find it. Books at the top seemed dusty to the naked eye, big fat pages engrossing the eyes of the interested reader in hours of silent learning. Others seemed lighter, covers thinner, and some of these were piled up at the bureau at the back, mixed with some thicker ones.

Uraraka approached the bureau with curiosity under Todoroki’s veiled but short stare, and picked up a random book. This one specifically talked about metamorphosis, and as she eyes the first pages, it turns out like it was something she herself could do with practice. “Shapeshifting.” it came as a murmur that only Todoroki picked up, but he was now too busy reading his things to bother answering. “The art of material shifting.”

The knight was quick to slap the book away from her hands, as if Uraraka was a child and she was a mother, looking out for her. “Don’t you even dare go near that thing.”

The sorcerer frowned and squatted to pick the book up– her hands traced the spine of the book delicately, aware of its decripit state. “Why not? I bet this would help me train for a bit by learning new stuff, even if it’s side skills!” her eyes scanned the first pages of the book quickly while the other glared. Hard. “Well, this seems complicated– ouch, that can hurt like a– I can transform into wate–?!”

Yaoyorozu snatched the book away, frowning down at her. It felt like someone had cut down a rope that the sorcerer was climbing right before reaching the peak of the mountain, and now she was falling down to an abyss, her head full of questions as the knight left the book right on the top shelf where very few people could reach.

“Off limits, Uraraka.” spat she, not meaning to be unkind, but coming across as defensive and angry. “We do want you to expand your prowess, but there’s a limit to everything. What’s the first rule of sorcery use?”

A second later, Uraraka sighed and pointed out her index. “Never try or wield spells or moves that are high above your capacity, lest they will backfire on you.” listed she in a monotone deadpan. The knight nodded, and Uraraka instantly started to complain. “But that’s not fair at all! It’s not like I’m going to go around shapeshifting when I’m wary of–“

“But are you aware of what you can handle, really?” Todoroki flashed the other knight a warning glare, which Yaoyorozu blatantly ignored with a frown of hers. “Remember when you clearly consumed all your energy during your fight with Pyrox? Despite the fact that you kind of saved our lives back there, we can’t let you adopt to that habit. Sorcerers have great habilities, can usually pull off any level moves they wish for– but they can backfire dramatically.”

“I know the basics of sorcery, I know about level barriers and all of that.” the burn from the other day with a simple candle was the first example of how aware she was. Big things could be done with small bodies, but it would always backfire in catastrophic ways. It would always depend on how much energy you had and your capacity. “But I am pretty sure I can start learning the basics of high level stuff while I make my way–“

“That’s not it, Uraraka.”

“Then?”

Yaoyorozu locked gazes with the other knight, who seemed to be having trouble with focusing on the book and biting his tongue at the same time. His knuckles started to rub his thigh, a clear sign of distress– the knight hissed as she stared harder on him, as if telling him to either shut up or speak up, but stop making a fuss over it. It’s not like she usually had the upper hand on him, but this time, it looked like he’d let her maneuver to her liking.

Yaoyorozu was back to acting slightly worried about the handful she had in front of her, who blinked an alarmingly amount of times in confusion. “Power is a double edged sword. And in your case, it plays more to your disadvantage than it does in your favour.”

Uraraka glanced at Todoroki, who was having an internal crisis regarding how vague his companion was purposefully being, and then blinked back at the other female. “Care to elaborate?”

She sighed and sat down again on the chair, rubbing her sore eyes with fervor and enthusiasm before facing Uraraka again. “You are a sorcerer, a powerful one. Having you develop such high level skills at an early stage will only attract attention from people.”

“In other words,” cut in the other boy, without looking up from his book. “they will want your head faster.”

The notion fell on her like an avalanche shaking a tree, stars twinkling behind her eyes and her ears starting to deafen the more reality dampened her in fueled determination, but also doubt and everlasting dread of, again, that nauseous feeling of having a thousand eyes looming from above– and it all and it only made her wonder, wonder if there was no easy way to make them all realize that she wasn’t evil. Her eyes dropped to the ground, existentially decades away from the very moment when Todoroki felt a little bit of pity for that little girl. Because of course he was skeptical, but he hadn’t seen her do anything bad either.

“I don’t really see what’s the problem with me learning some basics…” her face was crestfallen, lips drawn in a thin line as she spoke. “But I guess I can understand your standpoint to a certain extent.”

Lights went on in Yaoyorozu’s stern glance, that had grown soft under Uraraka’s surrender, and she flung to a side of the table to gather a pair of books. “That doesn’t mean you can’t check some of these books out.”

Todoroki took the books from the knight and handed them to the sorcerer, but he still wouldn’t look up from his books. The brunette looked at the volumes in sheer happiness and excitement, like a little girl with a lollipop or a set of new crayons, and eyed the titles of the rather big volumes, all covered in leather and metallic intrincated patterns, rough to the touch but expelling wisedom and magic all over their surface. One of them seemed to be a basic guide into elementary sorcery and summoning, and another into basics of other side techniques.

It all screamed rookie, weak, and she didn’t really like it– yet, she reluctantly took the books to heart and nodded to the knight. The little snippits she had read touched on subjects she already had knowledge about, but it was a bit like mathematics and astrology: things she definitely knew about, yet she never gave them much use. Uraraka was more ambicious than to dive into the known seas of principant sorcery, expected exciting things to happen to her now that the Baku-deathflag was out of sight.

But she could understand that they needed to keep her a bit down to earth for the time being. Doing some basic training like this would open her doors more, make her rethink a little bit her choices during battles. Perhaps Bakugou was right and maybe – her hands clenched their grip on the books, making their existence and weight more relevant and vivid –, just maybe, she could improve by boosting some basics.

A minute or so after – when the black haired girl had sat down again, apparently for real this time, a tiny bulb lit up on her avid imagination. Her fingers threaded through the various pages of index references, eyes skidding over the words like water on ice, her eyes fixated in a single word she was struggling to find.

“Is there…” her voice trailed off for two seconds, giving the other two guild members to look at her, as she switched books. “is there any appendix on… dreams and the like?”

Their reaction was as she had predicted: surprised, albeit not completely shocked. Todoroki finally looked up from his volume – now that the sorcerer inspected it in a closer look, it was even dirtier and older than hers. “Dreams.” he tasted the word in his chapped lips, and then she nodded. “Are you interested in oneiromancy or something?”

Her head was going to shake in denial before she mentally took a step back and contemplated the word, appearing in glistening lights and a cloud of fog, trying to blur her thoughts until she snapped and nodded ever so slowly. “Yeah… kind of.”

“Well, I don’t think there is anything akin to oneiromancy here.” Yaoyorozu looked at the ceiling in wonder, gesture that somehow seemed so typical of her to do. “If there was, I certainly don’t know anything of it. But there are always oracles to go to.”

Uraraka left the books on the table, took out a very uncomfortable looking chair to sit down on and gawked at the knight. “Oracles?”

Todoroki carried on with the explanation. “They are usually old women who live in small villages, usually in exile. They often can practice oneiromancy, but,” his hands shot up to stop what was going to be a beaming interruption, her eyes dulling a little bit as her words were stopped. “it’s a bit dangerous to rely on a stranger for issues that involve psychology. If you ever encounter one and decide to consult her, be careful with what lies she can tell you.”

“Most of them don’t charge you for consulting them,” she said, thinking that Uraraka would be relieved to hear that – which she wasn’t, because gold wasn’t something she really cared about. “But it’s true that some people still leave their chambers in a worse condition than before. They are a tricky business to meddle with.”

Uraraka’s expression twisted into a sour frown, her hands now cluthing the book harder as she looked through some pages hesitantly. Ever since those dreams had been hunting her, her mind had woken in a haze of unchasable chains of events, something she felt close to her, but was somehow tearing her apart. Both her hands were stretched, two threads pulling her in opposite directions towards where home was supposed to be, yet she was feeling undeniable torn apart despite her general contentment.

In a sense, her mind wasn’t completely settled, it hadn’t wrapped around the facts that had been happening around her– and it was driving her insane. Everything around her was unknown, a foreign space where stars shone in a distance too far for her dainty hands to reach, and the void somehow grew bigger and bigger as flashes of people, smiles and sunflowers passed by. Her steps through the streets would feel ghostly, as if she had forgotten how to walk yet was managing to stand and survive, and not knowing how was eating her alive.

If her fingers stretched into the distance and screamed for her memories to come back, they wouldn’t. There was nothing there for her. They had never been to start with.

“I guess you have been having trouble sleeping, then?” wondered Yaoyorozu casually, but still addressed the matter with care, her reading slowing down to hear what she had to say.

Her head snapped up, and her fully white grin was back on full to grace their day. Uraraka scratched her cheek with nonchalance. “You could say that.”

“Then maybe Asui can give you a hand on that.” Todoroki grunted, his book already closed, and hoped off the table. “Anyway, duty downtown calls me. Do you need anything from there?”

“Wait!”

Uraraka abruptly rose from her chair and slammed her hand on the table to call his attention despite him being still in the room, looking at her with expectation– and her eyes trembled their way up his blue vest, padded up the porcelain skin at his neck and fixated her irises on his cold ones– which had little stems of concern in his eyes at times, but it was always short lived, and all she wanted was for everyone to bear with her a little longer than that.

But, again, something snapped inside of her the minute her eyes bore into his too far, as they got entangled with the miseries that heart of his must be enduring, and she felt worthless under his unpurposed glare. The words she had meant to say sunk down hell fast, trespassing her stomach and twisting her gut awkwardly.

“I just wanted to thank you for your assitance while I was dungeon hunting the other day!” her head was vowed a little bit, hat shadowing her flushed expression. “I am so sorry you had to go out of your way and look after me!”

The boy’s eyes fidgeted when looking at the bashful newcomer, then fluttered to rest on Yaoyorozu’s stare. Judging by her bored expression and how quickly her eyes had shifted back to her book, the same thought had crossed her mind. He waved his hand at her in dismissal, to which she only titled her head in disbelief. “There is nothing you need to thank me for.” he approached the door to leave the room, but looked at Uraraka and softly added something in the last second. “That’s what guildmates are for.”

When the door closed, a charge of meaningful feelings and newfound significances fell heavy on her shoulders, tingles of positivity and acceptance crushing her alive, so she smiled, grinned because someone seemed to be outwardly giving her a hand by giving her a chance– but Yaoyorozu had seen the way her mood lifted, and was quick to cut it short with her all-seeing eyes, the welcome slashed in mid air.

“The guild will be having dinner soon.” commented the other, aloof, as if not giving it importance. Uraraka twitched a bit, aware of how serious Yaoyorozu sounded and only being able to hear the busy rustle of pages being turned. “Leave your books at your dorm and go down with the others. If anybody asks, tell them I’ll be skipping dinner today.”

Uraraka turned to this, ready to give her a very ironic lecture on alimentation. “But–“

“Uraraka.”

The sorcerer fully turned to the knight, who was still pretending to read that very thick book, more intimidating than the ones she clutched close to her chest. Before the soorcerer could muster as much of a response, Yaoyorozu’s eyes had turned as cold as Todoroki’s frown– which was not visible, but was mentally craved on Uraraka’s head, eyes dull in menace.

“You didn’t mean to ask such petty excuse of a request to Todoroki, am I right?”

Such dour voice shook all muscles of her being, making her look at her books to just minimize the impact of Yaoyorozu’s future implications. The words rattled for minutes in her head before Yaoyorozu considered the silence as a very good answer on its own, and her eyes landed on Uraraka’s shaken up stance. Eyes black, dark glare, stared at her in a frightengly invisible threat.

“Don’t you ever dare pull again another move like the one you did back there with Bakugou.” pages still rustled. “If you do as much of a trick similar to that one, we will have problems. I am willing to accept you,”

–There was a pause, and Uraraka could feel her breaths consume her sole existence with anticipation and dread. –

“but I will never condone cursed magic in this guild. And I am in a stage that I could either hug you or gladly give you a beating without having very few doubts about it. Trust me when I say that not many people on here would even care to give you a proper burial.”

Her shoulders shifted, feeling how her words plunged all kinds of irrational fears and successfully took out all sense of acceptance and resolution she had ever held. These people were open to trusting her – she remembered, this bitter taste filling the room in white noise and backtracking, hope trembling again underneath Yaoyorozu’s pinning eyes – but they were also willing to kill her if she dared to do a single wrong move out of their eyes.

“I am more aware of that than what may seem.” spat she out without giving it much thought, words flying out of her mouth before she could take them back. “But I am going to show you all that I am trustworthy enough.”

“I am not saying that we are all spying on you.” her eyes softened the tiniest bit, making Uraraka remember that yes, Yaoyorozu was fierce, but she was also kind. “We are aware that there are people who are starting to trust you already– I myself find the heart to do so. But if you ever dare take our hands to then eat our whole arm… we will have problems, alright?”

“Again, I know that I can’t expect to be fully embraced the first day. You guys are… generous, kind. But I also know that being open to a risk doesn’t mean you are going to be fully reckless about it.”

She could feel Yaoyorozu shifting, feel her heart beating as fast and out of cadence as hers, lungs constricting and finding it hard to breathe under the looming, silent risk of having a potential terrorist in her headquarters– but still trying to find the heart to accept her and put their lives in her hands like they had done many times before, but risking a whole universe in the process.

“This is our last warning, Uraraka.” deadpanned the knight– but it felt like everyone was talking to her at the same time, their hands hovering over her throat with a plastic knife–, clothes crumpling in the distance and her voice thin and frail like a stray loose hair in a thread. “If you take things a step too far from now on, you’re over. So you can either stay or leave now.”

Uraraka shuffled the two volumes to her neck, knuckles white with so much pressure in them – the weight of maybe killing somebody, of maybe killing an entire nation and then, eventually, maybe killing a whole universe – the whole notion of blood and despair in the body of an innocent man flashed in front of her eyes, and flickered to disappear when Uraraka turned, mild frown wrinkling her features.

“I was personally invited by one of the leaders to stay for what I could create, not destroy.” one of her hands grasped the door as the other almost crushed the books on her chest. “And for the little amount of faith you guys have put on me, I will make it a worthy investment.”

And with that, her dress swayed out of the room with the soft thud of the wooden door, and Yaoyorozu finally let down the façade to lean back, smile and sigh in relief.

“And I shall welcome you here, Uraraka.”

“Who was at the kitchen tonight?”

Everyone sitting on the table turned to look at her while Uraraka minded her own business, drinking straight from the bowl of soup. This elicited a hearty laugh from her, wiping a stain of soup from the corners of her mouth. “C’mon, don’t look at me like that; this was pretty good!”

Kaminari, who sat straight in front of her with his over the top leather jacket– wasn’t he hot in that? – puckered his lips in focus at how happy she seemed with just a warm cup of soup, nose wrinkled in disgust. “It’s Asui’s explorer quick soup. Turns out somebody didn’t know how to shop around town right.”

Funnily enough, he was mocking himself, and it seems like making that soup was some kind of punishment for him. Asui, who sat with Uraraka, slapped his hand away from the bread. “You were unlucky it was only us three having dinner now. Things would have probably been different if it had been more of us here.”

“Speaking of…” Uraraka looked around the common room, where no other people other than those three members stood. The chattery guild had turned into a pale shadow of itself within the passing of busy hours, people coming and going out and in. “where is everybody?”

“Ah, this is the usual.” Kaminari drank some water to let the water cleanse his withering throat, feeling the bitter taste of the soup be washed away. “Since us all have different occupations and tasks, it’s fairly normal to have mismatched schedules. Asui and I are usually with Jack and Mina today, but last days’ events have shaken our schedules up a bit.”

“So you never have, like, family dinners?”

“We do, but it’s very unusual.” pointed out Asui, stealing her friend’s loaf of bread away. “It only happens after guild battles or during special festivities. Sometimes, mixed professionals have it easier to coincide with others, but there are very scarce examples of that.”

“Mixed professionals?”

“Todoroki, for example.” Kaminari drank more and more water the more soup he ate. “He can fullfill minor sorcery quests and S-class knight quests. Mina, also, can fullfill S-class archery quests – well, maybe that’s a bit of a stretch, she struggles a little – and some minor hunter ones. She can swing a hammer like a beast.”

“Some people usually tag together for quests like those. This guild doesn’t take in that many anymore, mainly because we don’t really need the extra gold with all these expeditions we partake in on a regular basis. We’re more busy with guild management more than anything nowadays, but this guild used to be buzzling with activity the first months.” added Asui, and Uraraka just listened intently, hearing Kaminari gulp all the water in a sole intake.

The sorcerer was starting to feel a bit thirsty, so she blindly reached out for the jar of ice cold water, only to feel it empty. “I can’t believe you drank it all in one go.”

The blonde scratched the back of his head, taking the jar from her hands with a guilty smile sketched playfully on his features. “Asui’s soup is a real killer!”

“Please, go fill it in.” he didn’t budge at first, but then Uraraka fluttered her eyelashes at him despite the blatantly obvious fact that her hands were sparking with a very troublesome looking yellow fire. “Now.”

And the boy dashed by them, only to be stopped by Asui’s tongue on his elbow. “With lemon.” and she let the boy hurry to the kitchen. Uraraka stared in wonder at the alchemist. “I like it refreshing. Hope you don’t mind. Besides, it will make the taste of the soup fade away a bit faster for him.”

The brunette turned her head to the kitchen, where Kaminari desperately searched for lemons on a big fruit basket. Then, a little giggle. “It’s alright. There was no need to be so hard on him for picking the wrong ingredients for dinner, though.”

“Don’t sweat it, Uraraka. He sometimes hesitates with which ingredients to buy, or just plain forgets about it.” the little girl craned her head a bit, and her eyes narrowed as he racked around a bag of goodies for lemons. “He is one of the very few that can’t stand the taste of the soup, others being Hagakure and Midoriya, ribbit. It’s very healthy and quick to make, so it’s what we usually eat during expeditions.”

“Sounds like a good deal for me.” Uraraka toyed with the spoon on the bowl, eyes imagining the vivid colors of a fire against the oak trees, owls screeching in the distance as members told stories while eating this soup, maybe Kaminari puking in a faraway bush. A dreamy sigh escaped her lips. “Yeah, definitely good.”

“So, what were we talking about, again?” Uraraka woke up from the daydream, looking at her friend while Kaminari approached them from behind. When the jar was set on the table, the sorcerer took the glass container with a smile. “Ah, yes, schedules and dinner.”

“It’s not like having dinner in small groups is a bad thing.” chipped in Kaminari, his arm draped across the bench. His eyes were focused in a far away memory. “I can’t remember the last time I had dinner with Bakugou and Midoriya, and it’s not something I’d be looking forward to.”

Asui nodded. “Agreed. Dinners with Midoriya are delightful, he’s always talking, almost like Uraraka… but Bakugou is either silent or moody.”

Uraraka had been busy with muscular rehabilitation all morning to even notice that she hadn’t seen Midoriya ever since she woke up the night after Pyrox’s defeat. “It’s been long since I last saw Midoriya… and Bakugou.” there was a trivial need to add the barbarian leader too, because now that she thought about it, they hadn’t talked much about their training sprees. Her eyes looked at the glassy glow of the bown under the candles. “Must have been busy.”

“They are sorting out some business at the Council, they should be here soon.” the herbalist offered Kaminari the jar of water, which he denied with a shake of the head as he spoke. “Doing paperwork at the office is absolutely dreadful, lemme tell you. Reports and the like are the worst part of sweeping off an area.”

“But it’s not like it was a quest, right?” asked the brunette, pouring some water on her glass. “As far as Todoroki told me, it was only another regular enemy on the way to an important path.”

“…which is correct information.” remarked Kaminari. “But it was not an authorized mission, therefore we are dealing with a ban. This village only authorizes business inside its borders, and the moment we meddle with enemies that are not only above our level, but also out of our barriers, we get a ban.”

“Then, why did we have to defeat an enemy out of our barriers to go to a path that is also out of our barriers? I guess there must be something important out there if Bakugou and Midoriya were so hellbent on going there, right?”

Asui and Kaminari blinked at her full load of questions, and discovered that she was way too quick to tie knots without enough information. Not like she was mistaken, anyway. “It’s a complicated story.” answered Asui, munching some bread quietly. “You should better ask Bakugou, who was the one leading the operation.”

“Yeah, I obviously did ask him as soon as I was told that we had that ban issue on our heads.” spat she, eyes narrowed and hands grasping the glass of water impatiently. Her fingers clenched around the glass when his insulting voice came to mind. “Told me to mind my own business. That insolent jerk…”

The blonde chuckled, eyes flickering in affection for the girl. Somehow, she had such warm spirit and sunny demeanor that seeing her so fixated on despising their leader was hilarious, and she had survived the tale after having Bakugou confront her. He couldn’t help but feel attached to her. “It’s fine to hate him at first. Trust me, I did at first too.” the girl looked at him, head titled and eyes sparkling against the molding candle light. “Not like I don’t dislike him now, but we all respect him as a leader.”

That statement did weird things to her twisting thoughts, and it clashed with a dangerous edge of her whole conception of her guild mates. “I’m always hearing you guys speak about Bakugou in terms of respect and, in a degree, fear – but Midoriya is another leader of Yuuei, and you guys almost never refer to him as such.”

Asui frowned at the statement, but didn’t disagree on this very right notion. “Their personalities are too clashing to wrap your mind about them being leaders. Bakugou is much more serious about it in the outside, while Midoriya… he works much more than he should. After all, mental effort counts as well.”

“We do aknowledge him as a leader, but he doesn’t give that vibe as much as Bakugou does.” Kaminari was drinking water again, and had also successully got himself some bread. “I bet you think the same.”

“Sincerely, I had already talked about this with Jack the day I fought Bakugou. Midoriya doesn’t seem as powerful as Bakugou is, but that may be because I have never seein him in action.” Uraraja clasped her hands under her chin, eyes shut as she tried to remember any image of Midoriya fighting during their encounter with Pyrox. “But if he’s a leader, I can only think he is powerful.”

“First, don’t think that a leader must be by force of occupation the most powerful member of a guild.” Asui’s words shut her mouth, speaking as bluntly and earnestly as usual. “And second, Midoriya is powerful, but he doesn’t let it shine too often. He is still a bit small in power, but I bet that with time, it will blossom.”

Blossom. The off choice of words made the sorcerer briefly wonder about what exactly were Midoriya’s skills in battle, but she decided to make a mental note to address it later to the leader. For now, she only drank water and tapped her fingers against the glass. “I just hope they aren’t doing too much stuff at the Council. Who knows how much patience one can–“

The door swung open with a loud bang, almost falling off its hinges as the charismatic leader triumphantly made his way into the guild’s common room. “WE ARE FINALLY FREE, DAMN IT.”

Midoriya, who was shyly trailing behind his cape, beamed at the trio of startled members, that were on the edge of their seats after Bakugou’s entrance. Uraraka’s eyes lit up at the comic duo. “He’s been screaming that just after we left the Council.”

“Dude, did they finally lift the ban?” asked Kaminari in his ever lasting laid-back voice, head lolling backwards to meet the hot-headed leader, who only snarled with a dangerous shadow on his eyes. “Does that mean you can already go around stealing kids’ candies?”

Bakugou’s hands wrestled Kaminari out of the bench and started grinding his fist against his blonde mane. “Who are you calling a bully, sparkles!?”

Midoriya ignored the ruckus and took Kaminari’s empty place with a placid smile. Uraraka also tuned off the noise of grunting and swearing to focus on Asui’s words. “I am glad we can finally go hunting. I don’t think Mina and Kirishima would have lasted another day without eating meat. And don’t get me started with the practicing straw dummies.”

Midoriya sighed, barely missing the jolts of electricity that Kaminari was defensively issuing to paralyze the beast that was overpowering him. Uraraka grimaced both at the beating and the hinder of those silly fake foes. “Yeah, I heard Kirishima moan about those. He sure doesn’t like idle enemies, huh.”

Bakugou finally let Kaminari drop to the ground, who was letting out nonsensical moans and cracking jokes with the floor he was licking. The ashen blonde only swore at him and shook his arms for some tension relieving, voice breathy. “Fuck, I truly needed that.” his eyes scanned the table and all around it, eyes finally landing on Uraraka, who was shaking with anticipation. However, the leader’s eyes were not as hard as usual, still bleeding in anger and violent discordance– but they were so, so clear now. “Shouldn’t you be doing muscular recovery, sleeping, or whatever suicidal sorcerers do?”

Her breath quivered a little when his lips drew down and down until he was frowning at her, either because she was being reckless – news flash: she wasn’t – or because she was existing in the same room he was. None of those options made her eyes back down from his digging ones, that pierced her chocolate eyes for answers and trying to make her shake a little.

Her heart was doing weird things out of intimidation inside her chest, beating to the rhythm of a crazy dance of chaos, and she could feel confidence skating on the surface of her fingertips like everytime they spoke or fought, and the stars that loomed high above the roof and the world sighed in unison to the erratical cadence of her little, throbbing heart. That guy was dangerous, made her feel too intimidated and so very angry at times, yet she felt the need to still stick relatively close to him, albeit just enough so they wouldn’t clash too often.

In the end, she just ended as far as a stranger– but her hands, those eyes of hers that lingered on his with determination, they all wanted a bit more.

The words slipped naturally, bones idle and her thoughts falling off her thin lips. “Shouldn’t you apparently be ambushing little kids for sweets?”

A count down was going on his head, fuse at the verge of ignition. His reaction was inmediate, and Midoriya had to calmly stop his companion from slaughtering her in the spur of the moment with a hand to his front. Kaminari’s words echoed right behind Midoriya, behind the bench, and a hand shot out from there. “Well done, Uraraka!”

“You little–“ Bakugou kicked his peer on the ribs, but not as aggressively as one would have expected. Asui was already up, ready to heal him, and the leader was quick to boss her around. “Heal that fucker and make sure he gets some rest.”

By the looks of it and surprisingly enough for Uraraka, seeing how there was this regretful corner on Bakugou’s eyes, he didn’t go beating his comrades very often, which was somewhat calming and smile-worthy. So, she smiled at him under Midoriya’s curious eyes. “You at least had the decency to let him be healed.”

The green haired boy took a sharp breath. “Urara–“

“I am not that kind of scum.” spat Bakugou, slowly rounding his way to her. His hand slammed the wood between her glass of water and the edges of the table, making the water dance at the brims. “They are members of this guild, I don’t go around beating the shit out of everyone I see, y’know. It’s conterproductive for our activity.”

“That’s true…” murmured Midoriya, amused by the way Uraraka wasn’t unfazed by that murdering glint he had on his eyes when he got too close for one to notice, and how Bakugou was internally screaming for not being able to scare the hell out of her. They were an interesting combo. “He’s strangely respectful to us.”

The ashen blonde made a sharp turn and his frown deepened, if that was possible, fists flying dangerously close to Midoriya. “What the fuck are you implying, greenielocks!? You calling me a wuss?”

The other leader gulped nervously, palms raised in defense as he inched away from the towering figure. The brunette sipped from her glass, eyes shifting between the rowdy mess and the more collected leader. “It’s not like that, Bakugou!”

The hunter leant back and his head snapped back to Uraraka, who eyed him with that soft, naïve spirit of hers that Bakugou absolutely despised, because he knew she was a fucking duplicitous sorcerer that had that veil of purity and cuteness, but was a beast on the inside– and he felt tricked, felt like she was lying on his face. Her eyes were always doing that thing that turned everyone to goo, was always letting out sparkles and butterflies like she was some goddamn fairy.

It did weird things to him. She was a liar, and it sent his heart on an override everytime she came to him with that cutesy acting when he had experienced her other face. “Whatever.” his eyes were peeled away from hers with the very same annoyed shine in his sunset eyes that defeated any traces of pardoning for the girl. “I’m going to bed. Don’t go making any fucking mess while I’m gone.”

Her head snapped up to see him making his way to the staircase, and was quick to chase after him seconds after his form had left the room. She got up as fast as possible, feeling a bit light-headed, and dashed after him. “Wait, Bakugou!”

And even after she closed the door behind her, not paying attention to Midoriya’s call, Uraraka could hear the angry steps of the short-tempered boy thumping on the polished carpet of the corridor, and her pace increased until his hunched form was visible to her on the staircase, him ascending to his room on the last floor.

“Bakugou.”

He was halfway through a step when his muscles tensed the tiniest bit, and his walk stopped alltogether to the sound of her irritatingly pitched voice. There was a little hiss, then he turned to look at her. He was always on top of her, him stoic and proud while she was a mess of breaths and pants floors and worlds beneath his reach and disruption, nice and tdy where he could watch her. They didn’t belong to the same world, him being a powerful hunter and she being a potential enemy.

He didn’t like that – and he frowned at her as she spoke, probably saying something stupid, as always, about nice things – he didn’t like having the enemy at home. Yet he had promised to stop whining and threatening her, so he would try not to.

“I just wanted to ask how you were feeling… but I see you have healed nicely.” his fingers were no longer bandaged, twitching in stiffness for whatever loss of time she would be saying now. “And just ask about the training you were so enthusiastic about. I didn’t put up with your mood swing that night to have you avoiding it.”

His hands scraped the fabric of his pockets, then fisted them and turned to her a little bit more. She wasn’t panting like he had expected, or breathless or struggling to stand. She was still there, looking up and expecting him to answer without fear in her little bland eyes, unprepared and raw intensity– oh, he hated her so much, sometimes. Never meeting his expectations.

He couldn’t decide if that was a good or a bad thing, so when he blinked, his eyes were torn in between ire and peaceful displeasure. “Do I look like I care about it? Yeah, I know that you are gonna train with me, but I’ve had other things in mind other than your fucking stuff.”

That made Uraraka jump, but not in the way he wanted to – no negative emotions flowered in her: no anger, no sadness, no defeat. It was only empty surprise that made her hands fly to her front and her shoulders rise in shock. “Right. I’m sorry for being so impatient. The ban has me a bit uneasy too, I guess.”

A senseless, breathy laugh danced out of her mouth, blowing on Bakugou’s ears and vexing him to no end. She was always being this nonsensical, stupid, impatient, innocent and fake– she seemed to want to deceive him so hard that it was sometimes hard to believe she was an imposter. He was still learning to draw the line between them, so little by little, he would someday be able to block her.

For now, he had to suck it all up: the hate, the ignoration, the whirlwind he felt everytime their eyes met. It was all but positive. “Is there anything you need? or can I go to bed already?”

It was worded kindly, yet spoken brash and impatient. This made Uraraka deflate a little, and she retreated to the exit of the wing. “I don’t think so. Just speak to me as soon as you have a plan… and please, do sleep well!”

When Uraraka had turned to leave, Bakugou hadn’t still moved. Her flowing shape was becoming no more than a fading thread of footsteps when he called out her name, making her turn around, ready for an earful or something. But then came his almost hurried, whispered sentence.

“I will probably be at the clock tower’s balcony, knowing myself.” he then did something so contradictory that it made her feel mentally dizzy, yet warm nonetheless, despite all the coldness he carried with him. “Don’t come unless you gonna have something to say.”

And then he restarted his pride stride upstairs, Uraraka lingered on the sport – under him, as it would always be – while looking at him from afar, her hands looming over the doorknob to the common room. His back shifted under the lights of the candles, his body never bending no matter the stairs he walked on, the enemies, the heads, or the corpses he stepped on to reach his goal. Fake, invisible dust and blood mixed on his skin, and all she could do at that moment of silence was wonder who that man was… and why she was so fixated on him during late sleepless nights.

A gentle smile shone on her lips for brief seconds, and then she left to the common room. Uraraka was met with a panicking Asui and Midoriya also trying to tend to her, the whole room screaming anxiety and distress the more she looked into the situation.

“Kaminari… he’s just spluttering like a nerd. I think he’s gone over his voltage limit.”

“He has what.”

Uraraka had had doubt before her feet had quickly padded their way through the corridor, up the clock tower, and finally reached the door. When it had been time for her to call it a day, she had seriously intended it to stay that way: a day ended, night destined to peaceful slumber. However, no matter how much she rolled, wiggled, snuggled and tried to bounce on the bed, she would end up screaming in rage at her pillow.

A corner of her embroiled mind had swallowed Bakugou’s offer a little too hard. In fact, she was feeling choked up, her hands trembling because she knew that the fearsome leader was half waiting for her, half hoping she wouldn’t show up– but he was up there, and the fact that she even knew that little bit of information was driving her insane.

Her eyes had fallen shut for a few minutes, blackness welcoming her– but as if hands were shooting up from the darkness to squeeze her dead, her eyes would snap open again. Trepidation sneaked up behind her tense back, shattering her resolve to ignore the leader to peaces, and her plans were suddenly crumbling to nothingness as well. Uraraka stared at the ceiling, wind howling outside, stars in her eyes.

She could go, meet him up the clock tower.

But she really, really didn’t have the need to.

All traces of determination, all traces of feeling and rest that had been whirling all in between her bones, her muscles, making her heart soar– it all plumetted to the ground deep below her restless eyes, drew her eyes to a darker hue and made Uraraka fist the sheets in agitation and pure outrage. Confusing feelings clashed all over her, surfaced in front of her wide awake corpse as she stretched a hand, trying to make all determination and composure come back to her so she’d feel complete again.

Those fingers of hers fell on her chest, clutching her beating heart. Bakugou shouldn’t affect her this much, but a part of her knew why he had told her about his plans, knew that they had some stuff to talk about and that she had some questions for him. Despite all those very valid motives, a fraction of her conflicted mind had regarded them as stupid and trapped her on an empty bed, so focused on those intimidating eyes of his that

That was the moment when she put on some shoes, grabbed her dear shawl to put around her sleepwear, and thoughtlessly wandered around the corridors, lingered on each stair a second longer than necessary, and finally got to the door. Behind that very same door stood the leader– and she knew this.

Fear anchored her backwards in the very same way that it had done the first night. Hands trembled, afraid of what emotional rampage he would throw at her this time. But then she remembered, remembered that she was not going to do anything good down at her bedroom, and her hands clasped the knob and twisted as slowly as possible.

Moonlight shone on him like a mother looking down at a child, lovingly and gracing the leader with this calm, relax and light halo of purity and heaven. Her knuckles were paling the tighter she clutched the shawl and the more she looked at him, her presence probably undetected as his eyes twinkled underneath the pale dots of the starry sky, darkness enveloping his back and cape while milky light bathed his skin, moved his hair, and tied him down to a very heavy reality that was her sole existence and the demons she carried within.

The planets in orbit around them lined up to see her look at him, eyes gleaming under the precious satellite of light and nothingness as the midnight breeze clocked and blew the seconds, minutes, away. She didn’t know how long she stayed there, looking at him breathe in, looking human for once and knocking some sense of numbness and grace onto her.

After what seemed like minutes, hours, decades and eternities of air and pink supernovas blasting high above them, his feet turned to look at her. He looked painfully surprised to see her there, but his cold wall was back up a second later. “Took you long enough.”

Uraraka only stared up at him, shifting the shawl around her shoulders with unease as his eyes only scrutinized deeper into her brown pools, lukewarm contemplation crashing with his hellish irises the more air swayed her tresses, the more her eyes shone under the pearly moonlight– and his heart did that double clap, stomach lurched, warning him that this woman was dangerous, that he shouldn’t  contemplate the idea of normalizing her stay at the guild. Dangerous but cute, deceitful and currently driving him insane, that was who she was and he couldn’t condone a single swat of her witch eyes.

Because she was anything but normal, she was terrifying in her own private ways. And he was a monstrosity as well, but his ways were more outspoken and irking than hers for mostly everyone. And the fact that Uraraka was an enemy, an enemy that nobody was considering– it put him on edge. Still, he found the heart to forget his tantrum for a little moment, heart clenching in thriving disgust that was reduced to a spotless aknowledgement and he turned to look out again, gaze cast on the ghost town below them.

She took this as some kind of permission to step nearer to him, nearer than she had that day he almost suffocated her with livid bites, and her steps sounded faint and too light for a deceiving being like her. He eyed her from the corner of his vision, hands deep in his pockets as she spoke with that pitched, yet now smooth trail of words. “I take it you must like astrology, yes? I could teach you some bits someday.”

“Astrology?” without looking at him, she smiled and nodded with that bright shit she had going on with her. He scoffed. “What the fuck. I don’t like none of that.”

At least he hadn’t insulted her yet, that was an improvement. Uraraka shrugged and took a little step closer to the stone railing. “Well, it sure feels nice here. If you aren’t coming for scientific business, it sure must be good to take a breather up here before going to sleep.”

“I don’t know what’s this small talk for, but I ain’t gonna play the game. I seriously hope that’s not what you came up here for, Uraraka.”

Her form recoiled from the railing and she took a step near him this time, making him take a step back in surprise too. No way she was going to invade his personal space now. “I do have questions! I just wanted to be nice!” her cheeks puffed, head turned to look at the town that lay under them. “Christ, give me a break. Can’t you at least bear with people being polite?”

His eyebrows furrowed in annoyance and hands fisted tight, he grunted a blunt response to her stupid words. “Not if they make me lose my damn time.” Uraraka sighed. “Make it quick: what the hell do you want?”

The brunette watched him blink at her with those thirsty eyes of his that could sure make nations crumble under his stares, make hordes of enemies shiver with a sole glance, and his skin was wrinkled in distaste at her, making her wonder what was the point on coming if he was probably going to be rude at her. She could see the threatening sharp blade of a thousand knived being pointed at her, grazing her skin tentatively as all she could do now was move forward or back down to her dorm.

And there was no way he would let that man shrink her so much. “You never answered me.”

He was clearly expecting something better from her from the way his arms crossed and his eyes looked plan red again, no longer aggressive. He sighed, making emphasis on his voice being scratched over in resignation. “Answer what?”

“I asked you about the ban, the other day.” both could recall that moment. “All you did was push me away.” yeah, they could remember that, too.

He looked at her, pointedly, his eyes narrowed and teeth showing under a grimace. “It is none of your–“

“Except the fact that it actually is, Bakugou.” remarked she, smashing his words into nothingness as her frown grew deeper, more severe and a different spark emerged in her chocolate eyes. “I am a member of this guild who had no prior information about it being an illegal mission– yet I went there and sorted out part of the business.”

“I don’t know if you are trying to be fucking humble for the sake of saving face, but you did pretty much everything.” before she could jump at his throat with some bullshit about cooperation, he growled at her. “You did, end of story. And it’s not like you would have made us stop when we were in the middle of the battle, we are not some wuss losers.”

Her arms crossed on her chest, and he felt a little bit mocked because it seemed like she was mirroring him, but in a smaller scale. “True.” condemned Uraraka, eyes squinted in accusation. “But I still would like to know why I ended up cooperating in an unauthorized mission.”

“Some fucker must have been feeding you lots of data if you are so nosy about it now.” murmured him, more like spat to her, but her posture didn’t falter a single heartbeat. His eyes still held the same anger and disorder as always, and hers were as strong, yet brilliant as always. “And I am pretty curious to know what they exactly told you to make you even doubt that our decisions, as leaders, are the best for our guild.”

Bakugou referring to the leader team as an us made her heart flutter in pure awe, because it seems like the only one who respected Midoriya enough as a leader was actually his sworn enemy. Again, all she did for now was push it aside. “They just told me it was for the greater good of an important mission, but that’s something that I don’t know about, either.”

The ashen blonde shifted under the moonlight and was reminded that, again, she was no stand-by member, for better and worse, and he would have to deal with her meddling around as long as she belonged to the guild. This thought caused his next sentence. “I don’t know why you assume you will be partaking on the mission. You are in no condition to put up a decent fight yet.”

He was so vigorous and obnoxiously disgusting to the human ear that she flinched at the venom aimed for her, and mentally dodged his spears. “I will always take part in whatever important voyage this guild has to do, handicapped or not.” he could have spoken right then, denied her all rights to even proclaim herself an incorporated member as she was too new, fresh and dangerous for them– but somehow knew her rebuttal would come in anyway. “So since I will be going with, I would like to know what we are facing that made us get a ban on our heads, and how it was worth it.”

“Don’t you dare be sassy with me, because remember that I fucking rule this guild, Uraraka. One snap of my finger will have your head chopped any second I wanna.”

“But it’s not like you’ll lose a valuable– powerful member of your guild, right?”

“Do you think I’m stupid or anything?”

That was Bakugou talk for a bland refusal, which she could easily read. Yes, she was a threat to them, but also a valuable asset for them as he himself had very well said when they met. For now, all he could do was be patient with her until they could get that boulder off the road.

“Then answer me.”

Bakugou looked at her, and even though he was clearly towering over her and aware of her knowing this– it all made him respect this woman maybe a tiny bit more, but this time as a person. Her perserverance in the battlefield, while reckless and stupid, was evident and worth praising. Still, it’s not like he would be giving her the pleasure of giving her positive backup when she still lacked as a guild member. He had invited her to the guild– but it had been only done to measure her and keep her under watch.

Yet, that Uraraka… he had this terrifying inkling that it was only matter of time until she was a full-fledged member of the guild. Her skin was thin as porcelain but tough as steel, and while she was made of the same materials as him, they were faces of a varied planet, separated by the moon that hovered over them and the sun that slept under the night’s tombstone.

The whistle of the silent, peaceful night only made his focus on her be sharper, and all he wanted was for her to be dead, gone, out of his sight– yet another part of him was curious to see what those hands of hers could do with given time.

Bakugou sighed on defeat, and stepped to the railing, leaning over on his elbows. “Yaoyorozu must have told you all about the timelines and all that stuff.” there was no need to look; he could tell by that stubborn hum of hers that she knew all about it, maybe even more than he did. “I also hope she gave you some warnings about the whole ordeal. It’s a fucking mess.”

Uraraka didn’t copy his pose, but stood looking over the railing with a determined frown, but it was curt and weak. It didn’t take long for her to sigh. “Yeah, it was all a bit messy. But she did tell me she believes it ties to a single mastermind behind it all.”

“She’s pretty fucking crazy to believe that, but I shamefully believe the same.” explained he, making these weird signs with his hands that only showed how deep in shit he was about that particular issue. “We have been chasing after what we believe to be one of this fucker’s tools, or peers, or however you may call it.”

“So, there is more than one person behind it all, then?”

Bakugou sighed and rubbed his face with stress, muttering curses to his hands. “See, this is why I didn’t wanna do this with you, because I have little fucking patience and you are damn slow.”

“I am new here, go out of your way to understand the struggle.”

Three exact seconds passed before he was able to crash the block and talk again without sounding too annoyed, hassled, or before letting out an explanation heavy in curses. He wouldn’t drop that low and pollute her naïve fairy ears. Bakugou had no patience, and giving such information was always Midoriya’s role– he never, ever, had to do these things, and it turns out he would have his first go with the most despisable person on the guild right now.

Or maybe it was because he was too tired to even be comprehensible. None of that mattered now, all that he could concentrate on were her sparkling eyes and the traces of another earful on the tip of her tongue– and god, didn’t he hate her for feigning to have the upper hand when she was no more than a fairy with the heart of a madman.

“There is this monster called RampAge, living at what we call the corner of the civilization – a place we don’t really know, but we are starting to cross out some damn stupid options that other shitheads have been offering.” he looked at her to see if she was following the explanation, and she seeemed good this far. “It is what we deem to be causing some temporal disruptions among with that fucker who is doing the time travelling thing.”

“So, there are two enemies involved in this.” Bakugou glared at her furiously, thinking that being proven right was all that mattered now for her. She stiffled a laugh in. Yet, a part of her had been coated in trepdidation for this terrifyingly sounding monster– it would only catch up with her later that night. “Sorry. But yeah, I get it. So apart from this major enemy, we have RampAge to deal with as well?”

The ashen blonde sighed. “Again, took you long enough. I didn’t know that you sorcerers were also slow apart from fucking terrorists.”

Uraraka fumed in pure exhasperation at him, hands on her hips with her nose wrinkled in disgust– it seems like that out of nowhere remark had cut deep in her, but Bakugou didn’t feel that proud about it. “Drop the act already, Bakugou.”

“I thought it was clear that it’s not an act.” he turned to look at her, a hand resting on the stone railing. His nose was also scrunched in pure hatred for the girl who he couldn’t still accept in the guild as a proper member. No way he would accept her so fast. “You are no more than a tool for me.”

“For fuck’s sake.” he was impressed by her avid use of insults, even if it had been directed at herself mostly. “I don’t know what to do to actually make you accept me in– and I don’t mean physically, but I just hoped that after inviting me over you would give in a little.”

“I don’t see the difference between RampAge, that fucker out there causing all this mess, and a probable future you.” he jabbed her on the forehead, teeth showing as he hovered over her with his arms now crossed, chest puffed– and damn her for thinking he looked terrifyingly male. “I can at least tame you under my hands, now that you are here. But trusting you is another whole story.”

A little hum of displeasure came out of her squeezable throat, one he had almost sliced that day– yet, he hadn’t, and he sometimes regretted that decision. “I still don’t see what I can possibly do to make you accept me as one of your peers. Why would I stay here if I knew I would be under watch? If I were so evil, don’t you think I’d be out of here?”

“For starters, you are still damn basic for a sorcerer. You know your basics well, and trust me I am aware of how much of a minx you are in the battlefield.” clouds rolled by on them, but they didn’t hinder the bloodlust in Bakugou’s eyes as he stared down on her with a piercing grimace. Everything regarding her degrading role as a sorcerer escape his lips hastily, yet there was a newfound feeling at the tip of his fingers. “And that’s exactly why I wanna train with you– a wimpy ass, but with potential.”

“And that was another question I had for you.”

A hand slammed the stone by his side, and his head was an inch too close for her liking. His smile was wicked, yet it had no glee or meaning behind. It shook her bones and chilled her to the deepest core of her being. “You sure are asking shit tonight.”

Uraraka pretended not to be affected by his proximity, and leaned a little bit back to mask the shake of her eyes. “Maybe because I am curious as to why you would wanna make a little sorcerer like me grow into that very same role of a terrorist.”

Bakugou pulled away a little, the thrill of menacing her long gone as she posed that important contradiction. In retrospective, asking that question was all but favorable to her, but it also made him realize that she knew what she was to others’ eyes, and it only made him think more about what was going on inside that stubborn head of hers.

“Because I am willing to shut my mouth about it and give you a half-assed chance to prove yourself.” he instantly regretted those words and wondered why he always regretted every decision he made regarding her. Bakugou saw her eyes light up in hope, and he would admit It wasn’t an ugly thing to see. “It’s not like I’m gonna give you my trust, which I sure think won’t be happening, but I at least wanna see if I did well when I invited you over.”

“As in,” he dug his hands in his pockets as she stared into the infinity, putting the pieces together. “accepting me?”

“I seriously don’t wanna do it.” he didn’t. A pair of minutes ago he was in the very same spot, three times less vexed than now, thinking straight and not willing to accept that damn sorcerer into their lives. “And I swore to myself that I wouldn’t. But you protected my people back there, and that’s something I can give some fucking credit to.”

Her pure, brown eyes melted against his still ones, swirling and embracing the embers of his incandescent coals, eating her heart like a wolf and still referring to her as an equal on some degree, yet stomping on her dignity like an avalanche. Both worlds were turned upside down in distress, discord and utter chaos at the sight of the other, his muscles clenching in menace and hers clenching in anticipation and horror for his teeth, those fangs that sucked her blood and drank from her misery.

Every time she blinked, a tornado of fury devastated his heart, and made him wonder, again, why that slut was still alive. “You still basically put me on the same level as RampAge and time-travelling foes.”

“Because I do think you can do the same harm at those bastards, therefore you are in that very same stage as them for being a misleading bitch.” she should be surprised at his bold choice of words, but couldn’t really find the words to lash at him because he was right on some degree that she could be named as such. “So when I say acceptance, I say that I am willing to push that stuff aside for the sake of both my people and my guild.”

Her eyes widened as saucers, blown wide and seeing how something as automatic as rushing to her companions’ side had somehow awakened a human side on him, and galaxies of gee and hope bloomed on her beady eyes. A little smile curled on her face as she clutched her shawl. “Are you… really?”

When he heard her warm up so quick when she should always be terrified of him like his people were– something snapped. He wasn’t to be considered kind or gentle, but rash and a fucking beast, because he didn’t do things smoothly and he’d make her walk through hell and back to show her so. “That ain’t mean I am gonna forget about it. It means that instead of considering you a fucker, I will consider you more of a sucker like the others. But I think that the terrorist tag will still hang on you– all I gotta see is if that will play in our favor or if you will end up backfiring on us.”

Uraraka nodded in comprehension. It turns out that all she had to do was find a way to flip that hard, rusty switch over to make him see her in the true colors some people were starting to see in her. Bakugou gave her the feeling that if she found the way to make him realize the good she had in her and her intentions, the whole guild would embrace her as well. Acceptance– that was her challenge and game now.

“Right.” condoned she, looking at his relaxed leaning form and how the cape rode the air that danced between their bodies. “And when will we be starting the bonding training?”

And there he was again, tense and irritated as he was by force of nature. “Oi, don’t give it such a misleading name, Uraraka! All we gotta care for is your growth now that the final showdown against RampAge is coming.” she nodded, again, and her hair bobbled with every move of hers and it was driving him up a wall. “I’ll be going to a dungeon tomorrow. I’ll let you tag along for this once.”

“Thanks for the blessing, mister.”

“What did I say about being sassy?”

Uraraka giggled and looked at him one last time. Her irises blinked on his unfocused ones, and then those red lights of his found their way to hers, and they shone in curiosity for her as hers did for him– and it sparked something weird in him. He hated her so fucking much, that damn midget. His breath always grew overly angry whenever she was near, and his brain would break down in ire if she passed by him an inch closer than necessary. Her world would sometimes get too mingled up with his, butterflies mixing with bats and spiders, and somehow, her sunshine would always prevail over the solitary moon of his heart.

And it seems like her sun had dug its way up the tombstone of his heart, too. Uraraka retreated from the balcony, grasping the thin fabric of her little shawl. “I think it’s time for me to go to sleep.” she would have patted his shoulder goodnight, but it would have meant taking boundaries too far. “Sleep tight, Bakugou. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Her soft words were taken away by the wind, by the deaf swing of a door shutting close, but there he stood– and the moment her presence faded away, the meaning of the promises of acceptance he had made came crashing down on him, and it dawned on him that It was too late to take them back.

Because, somehow, the moment he accepted her into the guild, he was growing weak for her– a terrorist, the person he hated the most in this cursed world of unfairness and violence. Yet, she was there, standing in the rain like it was nothing, and he couldn’t stand the fact that the world spun madly around her without making her dizzy, fazed, or that she seemed invincible to the naked eye of a dark boy, isolated in the darkness of his own untrust. He absolutely despised that fake innocent girl who could pin them all down with her pinky, yet pretended to be a child who knew nothing about the atrocities that this world held.

He hated liars.

He hated her.

Yet, a part of his heart had been too weak tonight. And the moment he started giving in, he knew there was no going back.

“Hey, girl, get back here!”

The little chubby child ran all the way to the awaiting adults, who held silver buckets full of water on a stone well. Her hands flew wild above her head as she squealed all the path to them, and stopped on her tracks to glance up to them from under her lashes. “I am here, sir!”

One of the men knelt down by her, clawed hands messing with her hair as they usually did with a smile, which had ended up making her giggle. “It’s father, child.” she titled her head a little, then remembered. “I am your father.”

It was obvious this man was not her father– his skin was too pink, eyes too black while her skin was fair, hair messy in brown and eyes a slain clean chocolate. Still, her toothly grin as she nodded brought satisfaction to her adoptive parents, who handed one of the buckets to her. “Take this to that house,” he pointed at a stone and golden house, to which the little girl nodded. “and bring the bucket back to us as soon as possible.”

Her hands reached out for the well, and tried to pivot herself up the stone structure mutteirng a little “giddy ap!” that she recalled to have been an inspiration when she lived… somewhere, a far off memory of scattered faceless people until her parents, these parents, had come to rescue her, months ago. One of the adults laughed and grabbed her small body until she touched solid ground.

“You sure can’t control your impulses yet, Nameless.” the brunette pouted, but smiled again brilliantly when she was handed one of the buckets. “Take them over there. Hurry, honey!”

The girl took some steps back before dashing off with the bucket grasped on her head, giggling with wobbles of her head, water splashing around her as it danced disorderly out of the brims. Her run came to a halt as she found a familiar red head sulking at his doorstep, so she let the bucket down and waved at her friend.

“Harold!” the boy looked up and grinned at her, running down the stairs to meet her. “Harold, gimme a ride, please!”

The young boy knelt down and wiggled his hips so he could hoist her up. “It will be a pleasure, ma’ princess! Your horse Harold will give you a ride!”

Nameless took the bucket full of water – correction, not so full anymore – and put it on her head again, screaming in childish joy as the boy ran with her on his back around his house. “Harold, take me to house number four!”

“Your words are orders for horsey Harold!” the red head raised his fist and shifted her behind him with a roar. “To house numba’ four!”

The two children ran their way to the neighboring stone house, a few blocks away from horse Harold’s residence. Most houses were small, modest, almost prehistoric and primal, but everyone had a roof to rest under when skies were gray and days were warm, placid, breezes pushing the rain away from the sun as children laughed under the sunshine of blooming sunflowers and fluttering butteflies of youth.

Harold and Nameless eventually reached the house, and he carefully let her down from his back as the brunette spotted a friend of theirs and ran clumsily to her, dodging stones and making water fall over. “We are here!”

The pink haired girl, one who was clearly a descendant from this village of a foreign species unlike Nameless and Harold, who clearly weren’t– she smiled brilliantly at them, rushing to their side. “Thanks a lot for the water! Come check this out!”

The other two children squatted before the little mount of soil that their friend had done. “I’m trying to plant some seeds here, like my parents told me to! I bet lots of flowers will bloom from this!”

Nameless and Harold gawked at the mount, waiting for the plant to blossom with excited smiles and blinking irises. The other girl coughed and eyes them warily. “Don’t be weird, they will obviously take long to flower! I’ll show you inside!”

The red head dashed after the girl, but the brunette only stared at the planted seed until, eventually, she snapped out of it all with a rub of her eyes. When she looked up again, the alien girl and Harold were waiting for her, and Nameless laughed as she ran to them. “Wait up,” she breathed in and giggled while reaching out for the door. “Mina!”

“Uraraka, stop following me already.”

“I’m not following you.” pouted the sorcerer behind the leader, eyes glistening with malice as he glared behind. “As you put it last night, I’m tagging along.”

“You’re so fucking determined to make me regret every decision I make these days, aren’t you?”

The brunette looked around her, and the scenery didn’t seem as towering and menacing as it had been some days before. The forest was, by nature, green and humid, crusts of dead wood fallen on the ground and crunching beneath Bakugou’s mad boots, and there were great possibilities for an unlucky encounter with bandits camping around the wilderness. Still, the ashen blonde walked straight forward, shoulders heaving as he heard her pestering a meter behind him– he knew the way to the nearest dungeon and if there was anything he needed in that moment, was to plunder some caves and haunted refuges.

Her presence had sparked unease in him. The many responsibilities that hung from her heart and lashes were too many to count, carrying that heavy aura of importance, terror and yet sheer glitter with her. He knew it shouldn’t irritate him so much that she had decided to go hunting with him, as he had stated that he would try to get used to her, but it was so damn hard to keep that oath with the heavy rain she brought with her. A blaring terrorist banner hung on her back and it was inked in her fair skin, a so smooth skin that sure held many bruises and self bites beneath the layers of innocence.

His eyes blared behind him to see her falling into step with him, looking around her with wonder and that placid smile of hers that he couldn’t bring himself to get used to. She herself was abnormal and stupid– stupidly powerful, stupidly deceiving, and such a bitch. Still – this was a reminder he did to himself everyday in a mental note about why he shouldn’t kill her – she had protected his people, protected the installations of the guild, and just… taken responsibility. That was the only thing that kept her alive now.

“Say,” started she once he had looked away, and Uraraka watched him slash some vines out of the way. She had to clumsily brush the remains away. “when you meant training and tagging along, you sure didn’t mean to trash me here and hope for me to survive, right?”

Bakugou stopped for a second and turned his head to look at her, red flashing in front of her as his teeth shone under the trees’ shade. “Oi, what kind of scum do you consider me to be? Not like it would be a wrong riddance, mind you.”

Uraraka smiled kindly at him, but he could clearly see how mischievous her intentions were. He continued walking forward, and the girl found joy in seeing the spots of sunshine take shape along his disarrayed mane. “You tried to kill me the very second day.”

And the leader smirked, because it wasn’t something he really regretted doing and, while he ended up giving her the mercy she perhaps deserved, Bakugou had sure enjoyed those moves of hers. At least, most of them. “It’s not like I fucking regret the fight. If you were just a bit less of a wimp, your shoulder would be fine now.”

“Whatever.” condoned Uraraka, and he could picture her crossing her arms like the little child she was. The blonde snickered, and swatted the vines away again. “Where are you taking us?”

Bakugou jumped over a tree trunk, making Uraraka want to do the same for the sake of imitation and making a decent impression. The moment her feet touched the ground, her soles slipped on a polished stone and almost fell over, but the short-tempered boy paid no heed to her clumsy shoes. His back had tensed upon mentioning their objective, the hairs of his neck snapping as his boots seemed to stomp harder on the mistreated soil.

“There is this dungeon around here that those fuckers from Grinning Blade take pleasure on pillaging.” explained he, licking the memory of catching them all in the act and relishing on the future prospect of seeing them suffer his wrath. The sorcerer saw how vicious his tongue had flickered those words, and an uncomfortable sense of danger ran down her back. “It has pretty damn good resources, and I will just have a fun time taking it away from them.”

Bakugou leaped over a small stream of water, trying not to wet his boots lest they slipped later with the polished pavement of the caves. Uraraka shamelessly stepped over it, boots splashing and the blonde wanted to curse for her lack of precaution. Yet, she beat him to the chase. “Sounds pretty legal from you, to conquer other people’s zones.”

“Watch the sass, Uraraka.” threatened he, eyes glaring at her briefly before focusing on the path ahead again. Birds chirped above the leaf ceiling of the forest, casting some shadows on Uraraka’s eyes. She looked up to the clear casket of trees and sighed to put herself together. Every single time his eyes loomed over hers so heatedly, her stomach would shrink in trepidation for what tricks he would pull out– the feeling had been lessening little by little, but it remained in an intricate chain of chilling emotions. “They have done this many times before, it’s almost like a tradition.”

“Yeah, I had guessed your relationship with them wouldn’t be so healthy if–“

Bakugou was quick to clutch the big, wide sword on his back with a mid turn of his body, grimace curling his angular jaw into a clenched unsightly beast. Turns out she had touched a soft spot in him and this was the first and last time she’d really regret it. “Don’t assume we are not civil with them even if we are fucking champions of the village. We have been plenty kind with those losers.”

Talk about kindness while insulting them– such a nice thing of thing to do. “That’s not what I meant to say.“ he was still grabbing the weapon, ready to smack her with it if her words weren’t quick and intelligent. “Jack and I crossed paths with their leader– Shinsou, was it?”

Wrong choice. Bakugou started to take the sword out of the ropes on his back, and the sharp edges of it grazed the ground in horrifyingly precise gentleness. His feet worked their way near to her until their bodies were close enough for him to be hovering over her shrunk, impatient and stupid body. “You’re wearing my patience damn thin. You have been seeing that bastard?”

Uraraka felt her eyes widen, take in the sight of a maniac with a weapon looking at her with narrowed eyes, red knocking chocolate out of the stratosphere to only fall through her stomach and make her take a little step back, smile apologetic and hands up. Those sun cores of his soul, such a royal mirror of his swirling rage… her heart pounded to the dance of his flames. “No, no! That guy looked scruffy as hell, no one in their right mind would hang out with him. At least, that’s what I feel.”

The weapon lingered around her a bit more– and his eyes still flickered between a wide catalyst of emotions as the steel touched the leather, brushing her boots until he finally put it back in place, on his back. But his eyes still felt erratic and wrong to the rookie view.

“Yeah, well.” Bakugou coughed, eyes roaming around her outwardly unfazed expression – it made good work to hide the trepidation she felt inside of her – and, after he was fed up with seeing her so damn resilient to hold her ground against him, he recoiled from her space. “That guy is an asshole, and probably near your class.”

“Class as in, profession? Or do you mean my super terrorist crew of criminals?”

The sarcasm was so heartfelt and offensive that he couldn’t find patience enough to snap at her without killing her in the spot. He then remembered that she did actually realize his struggle, and the feeling of unease felt a bit lighter. “He is a borderline, potential criminal. A sorcerer that seems to know where his badshit crazy priorities lay. You at least try to hide it.”

Air was knocked out of her lungs as soon as those words made their way to her ears, drilling and drilling in a very uncomfortable way knowing that there was, apparently, someone with ill intentions who managed a whole guild– a runner up, for that matter. And no one was stopping him. “Do you mean–?”

“Yes, Uraraka, yes.” he was mentally calling her all kinds of intelligence-degrading terms and Uraraka managed to feel offended when she saw the snarl of his face, the scowl of impatience. This man managed to flip her switches – from anger to annoyance, then intimidation and sudden peace, sometimes. Uraraka absolutely hated that effect of his. “He has some gruesome methods to change the fates of our fucked up timeline– y’know, like fix it or something.”

The brunette could see where the path was leading, and was afraid to pry on the subject any longer. Still, her heart tugged for her to ask more, so she did. “And what’s so wrong about that?”

The unknowing play of her words made the boy stop walking, but he didn’t turn to look at her. It was the very first time Uraraka saw him idle and so conflicted about how to put his thoughts into words meticulously, like he had the day before at the top of the clock tower– but this time, this seemed to hold more weight on the long run, so he tasted the metallic truth before spitting it out like blood in a tough battlefield.

“Rumor has it he has been seeing rogue bandits in search for time travelers, to seek time bending. He may plan to play with the chords of time or fucking twist them like the bastard he is.” yeah, judging by her face, the notion of danger floating a few months away, or maybe only days– it had dawned on her too. “I don’t trust that guy. He is the nearest thing to a criminal I have ever had the displeasure of meeting, and he apparently doesn’t give a shit about anything else.”

“You feel he intends to… destroy the timeline for the sake of being powerful?”

The boy grunted his response, anger shivering in her steaming eyes even more passionately than ever before. “I have no fucking idea of what is beyond timelines and stuff, if there is some kind of heaven or a black pitch for sinners like him.” so much venom in his words blinded Uraraka, who stepped a bit nearer to him albeit hesitant to even breathe the same air as him. “But I’m sure that all these disruptions with our timeline will end when we defeat RampAge and the fucker that is behind all of it.”

“Wait, hold on.” he didn’t. His step only quickened under the pressure of her impatience. “But is this all about Shinsou being a criminal official? I don’t mean to be rude, but it’s not fair to accuse him of being something he isn’t.”

No weapons were drawn to her throat, but his eyes pierced daggers on her stronghold heart. “Are you saying you relate to him?”

Uraraka frowned at him, disbelief written in her eyes. “Of course not! It just surprises me that such terrible rumors are spread so carelessly.” that made sense in his mind, so he let her carry on. “Hasn’t it drawn the attention of the Council?”

When she hurried to his side, instead of kicking her out of there, Bakugou just glared at her from the corner of his vision. “Do you even know what the Council is?”

The girl blinked a few times before smiling guiltily at him, for which he sighed with impatience. She sure was a hassle– forget all he said about not being uneasy around her shitty glitter stupidity. “Well, I saw this– Yamada, was his name. And this person called Yagi that belonged there, too? I just have this vague idea that it’s a round table of some sorts.” again, the blonde, groaned. “Christ, no need to be so vocal about your hatred towards me.”

“That’s not it.” his steps slowed down at the little inch of vision he had in the mist of the vast wilderness, then heard a noise that made him immediately stop and shoot a hand up to stop her behind his body. “I hear something.”

The sorcerer tiptoed to his side, still remaining behind his stretched arm. Bakugou had clearly heard this, after all he surely spent lots of quality time around the forest– but Uraraka had to make a little effort to distinguish the noises ahead of them from the brush of leaves, birds chirping and a river flowing nearby. When she finally focused enough, eyes closed and nose wrinkled in disbelief, there was chatter, maybe a grunt–

A piercing screech was heard ten meters ahead of them, at what Bakugou would reckon to be the entrance of the dungeon, but he didn’t flinch as much as Uraraka would have expected him to. The brunette was stiff in fear for whatever foe waited there, staff readied in her hands as words flew clumsily out of her mouth, dry and loose. It had been a pitched scream, grazing the limits of danger and fear that didn’t only boom across the trees, but it also stabbed Uraraka’s confidence. Such scream could only come from a bloody corpse, full of fear until it had been shattered, shredded to rotten pieces of meat with broken–

“Stop freaking out, bitch.” his words were rash, but effective to interrupt her crippling, escalating fear of whatever foe lay ahead. “It ain’t anything you should be losing your shit over.”

“How can–“ the leader slapped a hand to her mouth, narrowing his eyes to her to simply shut her up, signaling to the source of trouble with a lazy nod. Her voice lowered a few notches as his hand came back to pull his sword out. “How can you be so calm? We have to go help them!”

“Uraraka.”

“That was no regular scream!” she tried to round her way around him to walk on, and tried to make out any shapes that could give away the identity of the offender– but there too many vines in between them, the path to the clearing hidden by a maze of lianas and leaves. Her eyes tried to make her statement clearer, but it was to no avail as he still regarded her lazily with irritation. “C’mon, stop standing there and help me–“

The moment she tried to go past him, his sword was drawn in front of her, blades daring to slice her stomach in half if she dared either cross the path or interrupt his next orders. A shadow came to cast his eyes into a deep glare that craved all kinds of atrocities in her. “Can’t you be a little bit clever for once?”

Uraraka put a hand on the blade – softly and gingerly as to not cut herself, sparking a moment of surprise for Bakugou as she pierced her decisions on him. “Lower this thing down.”

“Fucking listen for once.” the blade inched closer to her, as he locked a sideways gaze with her. Her orbs trembled once, twice, until she blinked and sighed, hand coming down from the weapon. “You don’t live here, nor know these fuckers’ ways. Shut your mouth and listen.” Bakugou let the sword drop down once she nodded and stepped back, but the sword was still in his hand as both a warning and a measure for caution, just in case anybody decided to ambush them. “Those losers from Grinning Blade enjoy making human traps so people just run to their sides for some half-assed rescue. Kirishima fell for that shit once.”

“Kirishima?” his silence was enough response for her, his arms tense as he rewinded the sharp memory of an injured companion going on and on about what ways they had against him. It wasn’t a pleasant memory, and only Uraraka could be enough of a bitch to remind him of that. “Did he get hurt?”

The boy chuckled with no humor, eyes frowning at her from a side as she stared at the path ahead, something along the lines of flaring caution, a bit of fear and bravery covering it all– it all engrossed him into a mental lecture of her eyes, the way she got points across with a single glance, and how she was somehow failing to hide a little crack in her armor from him, dense and slow with emotional shit. The fact that the picture of an injured pal had affected her spoke volumes about her.

Again, he was torn between deeming it to be a good thing or a bad thing, but that discourse was to be taken care of any other moment than this. “Kirishima is, luckily, no wimp ass. He took care of the matter damn fast, but the scare was still there.”

Uraraka nodded, gritting her teeth at the mistake she had almost done. She would have to learn from these little things and grow some patience before jumping into conclusions quickly. A point was clear though: Grinning Blade was a whole different ballgame to a joke. And Bakugou was more aware of this than anybody. Was this maybe why he was so adamant on hating their leader?

The sorcerer focused on the road ahead, the touch of cold steel under her fingers reverberating with more vigor than ever as the thrill of what awaited for them behind overtook any feeling of distress. Regardless, a pinch of worry was well hidden underneath that mask of innocence and crumpling stone. “Then, what should we do?”

Bakugou took some steps forward, Uraraka staying behind this time in wait for a cue. “I’d say we are good to go.” the blonde waited for her to catch up. Her step was more hesitant than before, hands shivering ever so slightly, but her eyes were fired with bravery. It was an unnerving display to watch; she had never shown any traces of a faint heart before, so what was she shaking for?

Uraraka was too focused on keeping up with the leader to even realize that he was seeing right through her. Her mind was lost in a cloud of doubt, anticipation and trepidation for what kind of person would be waiting for them– if it was the leader of that damned guild, they were in serious trouble. He was a sorcerer as well, one with more skills and knowledge than her, and his ideas didn’t seem to be remotely close to sanity. Upon closer inspection, the man beside her was pondering this thought as well, as he was outwardly agitated.

However, something was wrong with the picture. Uraraka guessed that he must have easily assumed this chunk of information, or had either come to terms with it long time ago. Thinking about it, considering his hatred for that leader, this rumors were old and already glued to his mind, leading his stride to the place to be agitated, feisty, enthusiastic. Regardless, his eyes held an unsettling tranquility crowned with a frown of decision, his head titled forward– and she could already see it, the blood running down his arms as his chest heaved back and forth in front of a victim, heart soaring for the beast he had become and–

Her step haltered, breath hitched and jumping awkwardly inside her chest. Her deft fingers clutched the neck of her uniform as the dead images, stationary feelings of dread and fear attacked her heart aimlessly, eyes clenched in confusion as those sharp unwanted flashes threw her off a cliff to a sea of poking tragedies, unresponsive body spinning against the current as voids of emotion filled her throat, drowned her, and made her head squish in commotion.

The girl was overwhelmed, blinking to focus on the back of that man, blade of his gigantic sword twinkling under the shade of the high trees, sun looming above and throwing uneven smudges of orange on his scarred skin. His calmness, the recklessness against an international threat, his fatality, the fire burning from his fingertips far away from her ice cold ones– and suddenly, the abyss was intolerable, but she walked forward nonetheless.

He truly was a monster, wasn’t he?

Bakugou slapped some leaves away with his sword and hands, peeking some clearance around the entrance of the dungeon. His step was assured, filling the enormous place with his dominant scent and presence, so similar to the one of a lion or a bigger foe than Pyrox had been back in time. His eyes sharply turned to meet hers. “The path’s clear. Don’t go tripping on thin air, got it?”

They stepped out of the wilderness to be met with a clear spot in the forest, the only thing standing there being a little stone building, two floors tall, decrepit, with vines swarming its walls and debris decorating its creaked steps. Silence hung low in the air, the only thing that was heard was the crunch of Bakugou’s boots smashing pebbles to dust, and his cape flowing with the afternoon air. Uraraka fixated her eyes on his neck, trying to ignore the bad feeling she got from just standing in such bleak spot.

The blonde noticed her unease and turned, one feet on the first step of the dungeon. “The dungeon goes on underground. I ain’t gonna look after you like some babysitter, so watch your fucking step.”

The sorcerer breathed in deep, recovering all senses of bravery she had in her, and marched forward with her chin high. “I don’t need your assistance.”

The sorcerer breezed past him. The might that esteemed off every inch of her skin and notch of her voice coaxed a grunt out of him, but the prospect of having an entertaining member with him made the experience overall much more appealing to his incandescent eyes. He smirked at her waiting stance at the gate of the dungeon, went up the steps and brushed past her in the very same way she had done.

The moment she aimed to join him inside, her intentions died with the first step. “Oi, what’s gotten into you?”

“I’m… not entirely sure.” Uraraka turned around to face the clearing, stark naked of unwanted presences. No eyes were on her like her neck had registered, nothing pressed at her back or enemies glaring at her. The sorcerer rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Just… nevermind. It was nothing.”

Bakugou crossed his arms, leaning on the doorway to the ancient passage. The girl took the chance to look around. The place was devoid of furniture, cracks adorning the floor and walls, with bars closing the windows and dark plants climbing up every inch of wet stone. Her boots could feel the instability of the building with a single step, and when she approached the closed door to the insides of the dungeon, it came as no surprise to see it almost crumbling down.

She looked at the leader, who still leaned smugly on the threshold of the blocked entrance. He stared back at her expectantly. “What the fuck are you waiting for?”

Uraraka’s eyes flared in intensity and exasperation. Her eyes then scanned the stone gates, which sure could be opened with some kind of switch or spell, and gave it a small push to test the waters. “Why am I supposed to open the gates? Do you think I can smash it open?”

“Can you?”

“I can.” answered she, and his shoulders raised in surprise. “But that’s not elegant– or intelligent, for that matter.” the blonde waited for her to go on, and the brunette sighed again. “If we leave the entrance blatantly open, enemies will come in freely and can ambush us easily.” he didn’t look that surprised, which made her raise an eyebrow. “But you already knew this.”

“You’re talking about it as if it were the smartest thing to say, but I’ve been a fuckton of times here. Don’t come with the sass if you ain’t gonna handle a comeback.” Bakugou growled under his breath and pushed her aside with a harsh shove. “I’ll be a damn gentleman and let you choose: you smash it or I smash it.”

Uraraka crossed her arms, staff swinging while she gave him the stalest glare he had ever seen. “Give me a reason to waste my stamina on such a measly thing like a switched gate.”

Bakugou pounded the ground with his sword, cracking the floor with a twitching eye. His patience was running out the more snarky remarks she came with and he couldn’t stand slow business when it came to dungeons. This was the reason why he most usually did plunders alone, so no smarty pants companion would go and question his methods. “First, because I am ordering you to do so. And second,” he took an experimental step towards her, just to see how she’d react now against direct authority. He jabbed her forehead with his free hand, words full of frustration. “because this is your damn training and I’m not gonna do all work myself.”

Uraraka realized his proximity when his words rung too close to her ears, when the violent shake of his threats reached way too close to her heart. She could hear and feel his breaths, and if she only reached out, she could grab his sword and stab him, leave him bleeding as a payback for their prior battle and flee. But pouncing would be giving him the pleasure of knowing he was above her, that he could berate her anytime he wanted, and she would never allow that.

The sorcerer turned swiftly to face the gates, her voice filling in the gap of his mistreated pride. Feeling obviously ignored, the leader growled again, gave her a withering look. The fact that she was willing to ignore him infuriated him, and he hated that. He hated her.

“You’re right, I guess.” Uraraka took a few steps back, and feeling the danger she supposed and inwardly acknowledging it, he did the same. He stood on the side of her line of attack, arms crossed with irritation for that little bitch. Not only was she a terrorist, but when she was given the opportunity to actually use it for his advantage, she refused. At least she was starting to give in a little. “Back off.”

“Don’t go shooting fireworks at me, Uraraka.” spat he. She turned to glare at him. “And don’t give me that fucking look. You aren’t an ally of mine, you are not much different than a fucking villain to me.” Uraraka shifted when he said that, poison shooting through his clenched jaw. “Don’t take your confidence too far.”

When he finished speaking, Bakugou was pleased to have made her react to his words, eyes a bit shaken and her pose less confident than before. She was no more than a fucking criminal to him, another one like Shinsou, a beast– but then, he remembered that, again, he had promised to change his ways towards her for the sake of the guild. However, his hatred for her wasn’t like a switch: it couldn’t go from a hundred to zero with the snap of a finger. She would have to work herself through it as well.

Bakugou was at least making the effort to not kill her. She could at least show some respect for him. Mischievous little pest she was, fuck her. His glare broke into her staff as she swung it around, as if she was stretching for a long run. The hunter started tapping his arms, impatient. “Oi, you gonna do anything?”

“I can’t go around nuking a whole door without making the building fall down. I attack from far distances to wide areas, not the other way around.” her face was constricted in a dangerous warning. “I am the only one who knows this struggle. You don’t know me.”

“For fuck’s sake, Uraraka.” he padded to gate, leaving Uraraka far behind him. Bakugou left his sword leaning on the wall as he gripped his right wrist. “Watch the professional doing your fucking tra–“

Something vibrated from within the dungeon, meters away from behind the stone gate. His hands faltered and ended up lowering until he was able to confirmate who was behind the door. “Bakugou?”

Yeah, he knew that voice. “Fuck.” Bakugou quickly took his weapon and stomped all the way to Uraraka, who jumped at his horrifying glare of disgust– but for once, it wasn’t really directed to her. He took her arm forcefully and dragged her to the entrance of the building, dropping her behind a fallen pillar. “You fucking stay here where you won’t cause me trouble.”

“But–“

“Just shut up.” he frowned harder at her, gripped her shoulders and made her squat behind the debris. “You ain’t good for this fucking situation. Stay there until I come back.”

Her eyes stared into this with intention, brow wrinkled in disgust at his bossiness and lack of attitude, how ruse he was being and the blood boiling in those troublesome eyes of his, wrinkled back at her in a silent warning. Death was marring his intentions, looking at her the same way he did back in that rainy night of empty threats and silent seething– but this was different, it was pondering mixed with annoyance and stars crashing with her seas of innocence and wonder in a devastating mix of sparks and hatred for the other.

This time, it was Uraraka who conceded him to take the wheel. Her head turned to avoid his glower, and he silently thanked her for cooperating this once when things were critical. Uraraka was keen on cooperation and being helpful, but Bakugou had this capacity to nullify all her good traits and twist them in a violent manner that only made her mind sink deeper into its hatred for him.

This very same man made his way into the building again, sword drawn out and having it secured by his side in full knowledge of who he was facing against. His eyes came to meet Shinsou’s bored purple orbs on him. Bakugou slowed his pace just to pour as much hatred as possible in one single stride. His enemy stood right in front of the now open gate, gloved hands shoved into his black pants, unimpressed at Bakugou’s undesired presence.

“I can’t believe you are still coming around this area.” muttered Shinsou, tone unmasked as he stared at the blonde. “What’s the point on coming to a pillaged area?”

Bakugou smirked humorlessly, teeth shining confidently at his opponent, who had one of his hands out in case Yuuei’s leader wanted to act funny. “Cut the crap, asshole. You know what interesting business is down around here.”

“All I know is that you are no more than a coward coming to an area my people have already cleared.” his tone was clear, deep but much more poor in life than Bakugou’s, whose fuse was being consumed the more shit Shinsou spat at him. “I’d be very thankful if you’d stop dropping by. And I wouldn’t like to have a fight in here, in such decaying place.”

“Ha.” the hunter’s sword was flung to his side, cape riding the waves of movement behind him. Light filtered behind the bars and shone down on his cape, gleaming and sliding down his muscular body like water down a polished stone. “Do you think I’d give a shit about wrecking a lousy building like this? I thought you knew your enemies better, purple.”

“You sure are searching for trouble today. Was this day difficult for you?” Shinsou calmly took a flask of water out of his bag and took some sips from it. The leader discarded it far behind, and the crash seemed to boom among the echo of the deep dungeon. “As you wish.”

Shinsou snapped his gloved fingers, and a fierce rain of steel arrows came to pierce his guts at amazing speed, surprising the blonde boy who had no time to cut them in half– and the tiny missiles would have made a number on him if a green shield hadn’t stopped the arrows, which were stabbing the makeshift barrier as both leaders turned to the entrance.

Uraraka stood there, on the steps, hands clenched in focus as a hard twinge of danger danced in her chocolate pools. “Such a sneaky attack. Sorry for being a nuisance, Bakugou.”

“Oh?” the barrier faded in thin air, and the arrows stumbled down with a clatter of wood and feathers. Bakugou smashed the darn goodies to pieces and he didn’t know if he should be glaring at her for being sarcastic or actually admiring the way she had basically sneaked up on them and protected him. He decided the latter, because Shinsou’s gasp of surprise was no better than his actual reaction. “And who is this, Bakugou? Have you gotten yourself a sidekick?”

Uraraka neared them, staff clutched in her hands with decided step and a changed direction of her heartbeats, escalating up the roof and soaring high above them as Bakugou regarded with a different gleam to his endlessly ire-driven lights. When she looked up, his heart also started twitching the tiniest bit– because she had protected not only his people, his guild, but also him as well. She hadn’t even let her be trustworthy before she had gone and slammed a shield right in front of him.

It turns out Uraraka wanted to prove a point, as well. “I’m Uraraka.” spoke she, tone gentle but wary of her opponent. “And I am far from being his sidekick, or a mere ally. But I belong to his guild now– his and Midoriya’s guild.”

“Yeah, your face seems familiar.” the brunette gulped nervously, but held her piercing glare pending in front of the other leader. “I saw you at the market with Jack– yes, the clumsy girl. I can see now why she’d be admitted in such worthless guild.”

“Fucking excuse me.” Bakugou pushed Uraraka behind again with an angry shove. That woman sure was a life saver at times, but she could also be a great hinder– and she did nothing good near Bakugou, who would start chopping Shinsou to pieces if his dirty tongue got close to spitting on his damn guild.

The blonde sneered at the man in front of him. “But our guild ain’t first for nothing, loser. Most of your people isn’t more than standby extras filling up space.” he taunted the stone ground with the sharp blade of his sword, voice loud and clear, savage, smirk growing more wicked than before. “I still can remember you losers kneeling before us for mercy, praying for us to not cut your damn limbs off. You got no right to shit on our prowess when you can’t even reach our ankles.”

Shinsou looked over Bakugou’s shoulder to see a still standing sorcerer behind, her staff settled on the ground between cracks as her stare was fixated on his eyes– and it was all the weirder for her, since this man had been spoken so highly of, yet his eyes were so dead, hard and emotionless. They didn’t betray his fortitude or strong ideals, but the fact that they didn’t express any power like Bakugou’s did, or that they were so dead and focused on her all of a sudden– it terrified her. The wall separating his heart and eyes was too thick, and if this man dared to make a breakthrough and make a display of power, the debris would be thicker and the impact, unfathomable.

A little chill escalated her delicate spine as his dark, musky tone dug into her ears. “Yuuei must be desperate if you guys are accepting sorcerers. The epitome of evil and disgrace, that pest you were so resolved to eradicate­– but look, there she is.” Bakugou’s breath hitched because Shinsou was attacking a foundation that he and Uraraka didn’t even have, but he was most importantly questioning his decisions as a leader. The blade rose a bit higher, realizing that he himself doubted himself as well, sometimes. “Doesn’t look that weak enough. The better for me, I guess.”

“What do you even mean, you fuck–“

Uraraka’s hand trembled up to touch his shoulder and he instantly froze at the feeling of her gloves on his skin. A part of Bakugou wanted to scream because was was hellbent on believing she had casted a super fast spell on him, something that would kill him the moment he took a step in any direction and she’d be laughing at his corpse, something so she could take over the guild and, later, over the world– but he let the thought die wordlessly as she came to stand by him again, and her hand was gone with the wind.

“I don’t know what you even mean by me being useful to you.” stated she, eyes closed for a second as she thought on how to place her words to win that bastard off the building. “But I can assure you that I will never join in whatever dubious schemes you have behind the village’s back. I will never tire of saying that I will never break to that point.”

Shinsou narrowed his eyes at her, tone alive now as he spoke what he thought to be obvious to the common people. “You are a sorcerer– a beast made to take over and rule the world with a single thumb.” unlike the first time her power potential was tampered with, she didn’t even flinch. “You were born to change the fates of this world, not to watch it all pass.”

“I know.”

“We are destined to fight for power, we are destined to change the course of times and fix what’s broken.” his words were passionate, yet dead and meaningless in Bakugou’s ears. Judging by Uraraka’s pensive expression, she was taking them in as he had the first time, and, deep inside, he prayed for her to be swatting them away. This investment he was making on her couldn’t go to waste. “It’s in our nature to create great things. Everybody knows that, including Bakugou.”

Uraraka looked down, dejected, and the blonde tightened his fists because he should have fucking known he shouldn’t have put the tiniest of faiths in that little minx who would be biting his lungs off when she got tired of pretending– pretending to be weak, to not want to achieve power by bending time. When did he even began to believe her–

“He will never trust you.” added Shinsou, watching her squirm in deep thought. “No one will ever trust you. And you know that.”

Uraraka’s heart was beating fast– she had never thought that, in this time, space and day she’d meet somebody who spoke so deeply about power, about how focused his aims were while seeing worth in her, wanting her to change the world by his side in an unspoken manner. It made her grit her teeth as a tiny thought placed itself in her head, one she hadn’t even considered.

What if he was right? What if his ways to fix things were actually right? What if by destruction he– he– she felt choked up as facts and conclusions pounced on her from behind, eating her and drenching her in cold, invisible sweat that made up for the hot anger she felt that overtook any thought in her head, and burnt all traces of doubt away.

“I know who I am– I know what most people expect me to be doing. I know what you, Bakugou and even the people from Yuuei expect me to do.” this once, her talk wavered, quivered and thickened as the heavy weight of her thoughts and truths came to chase her enemies back, determination consuming her being. “But I don’t give a damn about being able to bend time, to kill civilizations, or to drive people crazy. I don’t aim to be the terrorist Bakugou fears me to be in the future. I know he will never trust me–“ silence, deep breath, and Bakugou stared at her in well masked surprise and patience. “as long as I can trust myself to go down a good path to find a solution to this mess with my peers, then nothing matters to me.”

Shinsou let out a heavy breath, a sigh of boredom and hopelessness escaping through his lips without him really wanting to sound so let down. And the way Bakugou was eyeing her– in respect, starting to swallow her whole persona little by little, it made it all worse. “You’re chasing your own tail then, but you’ll understand my point with time, Uraraka. Now if you’ll excuse me.”

Uraraka saw a flash of negative colors invade her whole vision, focus tunneled into one point that where his dead, unfocused eyes as the world swirled and all she could see, hear, or feel was a cold, dreary and looming voice whispering things to her ears, her feet scrambling into a world of roses and blues while lights flashed and blinded her, purple prevailing as the words were whispered over and over in a madness of echoes and colors–

Then, she felt hands on her shoulders and something slapping her hard on the face, which made the fuzzy colours fade to Bakugou’s blood eyes screaming at her, her head wobbling as he shook her in anger and disbelief because Shinsou had fucking brainwashed her and he wouldn’t have that fucker imprinting sensitive material into her little peachy brain. When he saw her blink, eyes no longer small and looking straight into him, he took the liberty to give her another shake.

“What the fuck, Uraraka? Did you seriously let that mother–“

“Did you just slap me?” Uraraka wiggled out of his hold while rubbing her cheek.

Bakugou snarled hard at her unaffected twinkle of eyes, arms crossed. The brunette saw that the psychotic leader looked relatively calm in the outside but his eyes were screaming otherwise– disruption, anger, irritation, unnamable feelings of madness and impatience. Also, it seemed like Shinsou was gone. “You were deep into that fucker’s ability. I could have stabbed your shoulder again, thank me I was gentle enough.”

Uraraka frowned at him as she rubbed harder on the reddened spot. “Yeah, thanks for being a real softie and not stabbing my insides out, such a hero.”

“Don’t make me slap you again, Uraraka.” Bakugou turned to look from the open gates, prompting Uraraka to do the same. The darkness inside the dungeon seemed infinite, wind blowing from inside to tickle their courage. Bakugou found himself shaking his head in disappointment. “Yeah, this dungeon’s taken for the week. Tough luck that guy got here earlier.”

Uraraka’s mind finally landed back in time as the notion of falling into a pitch, pain in her abdomen and water dampening her fingertips– the sudden notion fell away to nothing as she blinked to look at his retreating form, who was advancing out of the dungeon without throwing a single glance behind. Uraraka rushed to meet him at the stairs.

“I still don’t understand… anything.” muttered she, afraid of what remark about her intelligence he’d come up with. “Why did he use the scream bait at us if he was going to be so quick with the plunder and we wouldn–“

“Again, you’re not seeing the big picture.” commented he infuriatingly fast and sharp. “He probably saw that the dungeon had been cleared and decided to get the hell out before we even arrived, so he tried to delay us.” she blinked up at him, and he could hear her heart thumping a meter away. “And I bet that brainwash was just a little remembrance present.”

“Brainwash.” she didn’t question it, just welcomed it with a statement because Uraraka was sure they’d be seeing that guy again. “Well, it was not a pleasant present.”

As they went down the stairs to the clearing, Uraraka heard a rope being tightened in the distance, making all those feelings of being observed wash over her once again. Her step slowed down, as did Bakugou’s in pure instinct. “I hope he didn’t imprint any nasty message in that sucker brain of yours. There’s no need to make you a worse terrorist than you already are.”

An empty smack of air rushed to Uraraka’s ears, who instinctively took a leap to Bakugou’s back and deflected the arrow directed at him with a swing of her staff, cracking the arrow with a might swoosh of power. The trail of power chased the trajectory of the arrow up the building and slammed its pressure on both the building and the ground below them with an empty smash, ground snapping to quake after the hit. The defensive counterattack had been too improvised, chaste and hurried for Uraraka to control.

The gust of dust and sand along with the deaf smack of magic beneath his feet made him turn around and see not only the broken arrows at the sorcerer’s feet, but also a mysterious figure standing on top of the stone dungeon. Bakugou readied his sword again for a fight against this impertinent enemy, who was only staring at them once his plan to kill the leader had backfired. “Oi, who the fuck are you now? Be decent and show yourself!”

Uraraka stepped to the blonde’s side, mouth in a tight line. Meanwhile, the attacker only stood and watched them, members of Yuuei quiet and ready for whatever attack that could come from this archer, but also whoever that could come from behind. The figure’s silhouette was framed and hidden by the glaring sun, and the shade was gone with the wind as the offender took a step back and ran away, jumping to the forest with a busy rustle of leaves and branches.

“Who in the world was that? We can’t let whoever that was escape!”

“It ain’t worth it.” muttered Bakugou, a mixture of anger and frustration eliciting a growl from him. Letting a foe off the hook so easily wasn’t in his murderous unmerciful style, always efficient when it came to taking enemies out of the way. This time though, he let it fly. “There may be a whole gang of them deep in there.”

Uraraka blinked at the sun in order to decipher how this person had fled into the forest from such a high building. The leader eyed the remains of the arrows suspiciously. “I guess you are right on that.” the blonde knelt down to see the little projectiles with more accuracy. “What are you even doing now?”

“Tch.” he was on his feet again, eyeing the arrows with this nasty glint of his that could drive a whole army off a cliff if he so desired, as if his hatred for the pieces of iron and wood were his worst enemy like Uraraka had once been– or most likely still was, after Shinsou perhaps. “We gotta get back to the guild. I’ll have to report all this shit– fuck my life.”

Uraraka couldn’t read what his eyes spoke about, his words too vague and her too drunk with information and a new sense of emergency hanging on the clear ceiling of the sky, a sky they shared with countless criminals, Shinsou, and a whole universe of timelines, entangled complications and the everlasting question of the sorcerer’s loyalty, her morality and if the spikes of ice beating inside her writhing heart were real, dangerous, and if Uraraka would remain by everyone’s side. The more Bakugou looked at the arrows, he felt angrier, sicker, mind surging until he basically snapped.

The pieces of broken wood were burnt with a small bubble of fire, and the boy tasted the smokes with his fingertips as his frown only deepened. The sorcerer trailed behind the leader, eyes following the shadows of his cape as she thought that – maybe, just maybe, that person was the very same one she saw at the market the other day – but it somehow sounded too far stretched and sketchy, an association too strained to be true.

Right? The pieces of the puzzle were scrambled on the floor, and it somehow seemed like the only one to solve the riddle would be her.

Her head shook in complete denial as Shinsou’s last words to her, whispered to her soul in a private embrace all the while he left them without a single word spoken out, yet slapped on her with abrassing fire, a very same fire that beat inside Bakugou’s eyes, his glare and all the trepidation carried with those little dropped words.

You’ll understand someday, fairy with the clipped wings.

It turns out they didn’t even have time to rest Shinsou’s exposition off, because the moment they stepped into the village again, it was as empty as it had been the day Uraraka had first appeared. The feeling of rain falling on her was gloomy, as if stars had started falling down the sky and had shattered the mental ground she was in, remembering the grim bitterness of being soaked to the bone, yet still alive but with no life purpose or a place to belong in.

Yuuei had given her a reason to stay in that village– the leaders, the members, the sun and the moon had given her a place to stay. But when Uraraka saw that there was no one in the streets, a part of her resorted into an abyss. It was in the air, written in the skyline, hanging from the rooftops and slimming down every sewer and pebble stone. Irregularity and silence with a tinge of bleakness and blind danger drowned the buildings, its inhabitants, killed every flower and chirping bird.

This was no village. It was the very same ghost town that had stayed under the covers of the night during her talk with Bakugou, during every restless night in her dorms, watching the faraway rain fall and drench her heart in a tight embrace– vivid nights of loss, ubiquity and confusion. Aftershock would plunge itself deeper and deeper as it slammed unrecognizable feelings of oddity and darkness– it was all dark around her, foreign feelings harboring down into a remembranceless sea of bubbles, silence and dark steep abysses of so many questions left unsaid, unspoken, unanswered.

All feelings were blending together, mixing, twisting, until that was left in front of her was a thread of lost streets with no people, no soul– just the skeleton of a broken body. The rain… it was always so familiar, yet so foreign.

“What the fuck is this?”

And in the middle of it all stood this ghost town, bricks missing from buildings, houses full of dust, cannon balls imprinted on some walls, trees falling apart– haunted memories of irregularity and despair that Bakugou was starting to realize with a start of a run, starting to hear noises and crowds banging on doors the more they ran to their guild, the nearer they got to the gates.

Right before they turned to the main street directing to the wall and gates, he pushed her to a side and changed directions, speed increasing. “If they see you with the village in this state, they’ll think it was your damn fault.”

Uraraka didn’t argue his point, but was still torn in between trusting his measure to be good intended or thinking he was going to throw her into a dumpster. “Why should I trust you in this?”

“The real question is why should I trust you with anything? You could take the opportunity to corner me into an alley, disarm me and tear my organs apart for some witchery sneaky business of yours.” spoke he bluntly, breathy as he struggled to remember which alternative path led to the guild’s secondary doors. “A part of me is fighting against it for my people’s sake.”

Yeah – she understood that – and a part of her was trying to put all his murder, blood and ire aside to try and see what hid behind those thick, heavy curtains he had around his weak heart. She was terrified of even peeking, afraid of being burnt with his death glares or his viscerous remarks and measures to keep her in place– yet, wasn’t he afraid too? Afraid of the monsters she hid inside her closet while she was also intimidated by the destruction he carried with him, afraid of being blistered beyond repair.

“Thank you, Bakugou.” the spiky boy turned to look at her, brows for once neutral when her smile came to view– and even if it was a small one, it was a step in the right direction. “For trying.”

“It ain’t gonna mean a damn thing until you actually show us you are valuable. Don’t go around making misleading conclusions.” because it wouldn’t be easy, but the fact that he was going to at least try to not murder her was… nice, in a way. It shouldn’t be so surprising, but Uraraka found herself smiling nonetheless.

When they finally exited the labyrinth of messy old houses and wet, dark streets, they found themselves running to the big barrier of the guild installations, the wall shining in all its glory with no disruptions to be seen, sunshine reflecting in every smooth corner to glorify the blessed territory. Uraraka squinted during their race to see a little gray door waiting for them.

“It’s an emergency door. Only you would make us use it for such petty issue as a crowd.” the leader gave it a good push with an ease that Jack sure hadn’t displayed some days earlier. He  went through first and waited for her to get in before closing the door behind them, and hurried to the center of the guild plaza.

All members of the guild stood at the entrance, making the two remaining members rush to see Kirishima struggling to keep the mad crowd at bay. “Please, calm down! We are still fixing to check all damages done around the area, be patient!”

Uraraka stopped her run by Yaoyorozu, hidden from the crowd by Tokoyami as the leader stepped forward to face the angry mass of people barricading at his damn guild doors. “What the fuck is going on and where did you all pop up from?”

Midoriya looked at his peer and mused on the fact that his hands were reddened, bruised, and that Uraraka had just arrived with him. His eyes pierced his heaving chest, the irritation– but there was a little spark there, in a deep pitch of his endless galaxies of anger and disturbance. Something was clouding the aggressiveness off his glare, and replacing it with just exhasperation and impatience, now looking at Midoriya to find an answer that wasn’t just senseless screaming from the villagers.

“Disruptions have started appearing–“

“I know, dumbass. I saw it all with my own eyes before.” he then took out his sword again and flung it in front of the mass of crowds attempting to cross the threshold, successfully making them all step back as he pointed at them with a sneer. “What I don’t understand is why everyone is here and not whining to the Council.”

An elderly woman appeared in the middle of the line, eyes clouded by a gray fringe of disheveled hairs. “The door to my house is basically disintegrating! It’s being bitten by something and it will sure be long gone by the time I get home!”

Another voice boomed from the back, hand shot up to point to the village at their backs. “Tons of blades have appeared on my restroom, and water has drained from the well at my neighborhood!”

Uraraka looked at the restless crowd of people as the listed off all their problems, some blurry in her ears as worry settled in. She heard Yaoyorozu hum in preoccupation, eyes glaring at the back of their animalistic leader. “This timeline… is growing weak. This must be RampAge’s doing.”

Yes, RampAge, the angry monster waiting for them at the end of the world while he was slowly eating all bits of the timeline and tangling everything with his slimy hands, waiting for the truth to crash on Uraraka was she just stared at the danger before it was even in front of her, but the feeling of being cornered by fear and– just the feeling of being small, the problem being too huge and her being just so, so tiny and useless. As another lost star in the horizon against the blaring sun of the morning, her spark faded away slowly, the burden was too heavy on everybody’s shoulders.

People wouldn’t see her as the solution, or a part of it– they’d see her as the fucking problem herself.

Tokoyami realized that she was behind him and took a step aside, arms crossed. The moment she looked up, her eyes met the dozens of those who stood in the frontline, and when they saw the wooden staff in her hands… disbelief fell down on her like a tsunami on the destruction fall. A man was first to call out on this fact. “H-Hold on, that’s a–“

“A sorcerer! It’s a sorcerer!” Yaoyorozu dedicated Tokoyami a fierce sideways glare, to which the bird boy only shrugged in defeat. “This must have been her doing!”

Kirishima was the first one to tread forward and chide them for such quick grudge. Uraraka saw then a variety of knives tucked in his pockets and a very fancy looking one pinned on his back. “Nobody here is allowed to badmouth anybody from our guild, sorcerer or not.”

“How can we not do so!?” the elderly lady from before spoke up again, fists tight and her face scrunched in a frown. “We can’t let that vixen get away with this crime! She’s responsible for destroying our homes!”

It was not true. It was not true now, not before, not in the future, not in another place, not in another story – Uraraka would never attempt to destroy families, nations – but the mere accusation with such sharp edges and venom had her knees trembling, lip quivering as all she could hear was Shinsou whispering those words to her again while the whole world spiraled with their accusations, everything blending together to the rhythm of a parade with her head in their hands, blood splashing on the ground as they stepped forward and cornered her rotting corpse.

“She’s no more than a scoundrel!”

“All go for her head, she’s a witch!”

“No sorcerer shall–“

“SILENCE!”

Bakugou drove his blade straight into the ground, blade stabbing the stone like butter and cracking the pavement under his feet, making all his people’s clothes sway with the wave of the impact, but Kirishima’s knives were still out, Midoriya had the handle of his sword clutched as well– only Bakugou had lost his temper way before it was due. His glare was constricted, dreary, and incredibly defensive of these accusations that were directed to a member of his guild.

These guys– good for nothing losers were telling him he was wrong for inviting him over– a belief he was fighting against but people still wouldn’t let him get over with. He took a deep breath, unaware of having Uraraka staring at him with her brown eyes blown agape at his fierce interruption, the heave of his shoulders and the way he was struggling to keep his cool against such accusations not only against her, but indirectly against him.

“You fucktards have no right to say anything about who I admit in the guild. For starters, she had been under my watch all the time, and I can assure you that if she had gone and done anything risky, I’d let you have her head to be impaled.” he extracted the sword from the stone slot and directed the blade to the innocent villagers, who again recoiled from the enormous beast. “I won’t let you doubt my expertise as a co-leader of this guild, which has saved your eyes countless time. We ain’t stupid and we know when to cut off an investment.”

The mob of people went silent for a pair of seconds, and the whole guild held in their breaths. They knew who they were dealing with, and this crowd was no easy group to handle. Another pissy villager was quick to speak. “But the fact that you are even calling it an investment is worth noting! Making blind investments on a future enemy like her is a reckless move to make in such critical moments!”

“He’s kinda right on that one.” Tokoyami sighed, eyeing the girl from the corner of his vision– and the sight left him a little petrified. Her head was titled forward in a new, more courageous way that had just immediately surfaced when she had needed Bakugou– her sworn enemy, the most terrible of thunderstorms, to rescue her from the vicious hands of a blob of unknown faces, their words cutting like knives but he had this time shielded her from them– shielded his guild from the accusations.

“We can’t let this continue!”

He clearly had more to him than just simple anger to the world that dared push him down, so she took a step forward, and forward, closer to the people, closer to her enemies– eyes crunched into a venomous glare of defiance as she positioned herself just behind Bakugou, Kirishima and Midoriya.

“Look at her though, such a small thing.” commented a woman to another, a man standing by snickering at the harsh truth. “One can blow her away with a little breeze.”

“I can’t believe the leader of this guild has let a traitor in!”

“This guild must pay for bringing the devil closer to our–“

“I think Bakugou has told you all to stop talking.”

The three guardians turned to look at her, people’s mouths falling shut as her eyes narrowed at them in distaste. Bakugou crossed his arms at her, ready for whatever trick she’d do to either screw up or knock those asses off their knickers. “I don’t know where these biased opinions come from, but whoever that finds it suitable–“

The tip of her staff hit the ground with a hard slam, waking the dust from their slumber on the ground and blowing dirt away among with any loose pieces of clothing. “–shall come and prove themselves!”

“Oi, look at this thing being so pretentious and mighty!”

“Yeah, I bet I could take her anytime, man!”

Knowingly, the boys let Uraraka step nearer to the gates. Kirishima smirked at what he had called little lady when he saw her first, and hoped for her to prove him wrong again. Uraraka frowned at the crowd of people, chest puffed out and small lines of teeth showing behind those thin unharmed lips of hers. “It’s fine for me then.” her staff touched ground again, but only to make her statement clear as she put all her power and bravado in a single shot. “If all of you are so against me being here, so skeptic about my power, I challenge you all to fight me.”

“Is this girl craz–“

“I said,” her staff was risen to the heavens above, and thunder clapped on the death of a clear day of sun, shadowing her eyes for a dangerous moment of menacing bestiality. “fight me!”

The crowds pulled away from the powerhouse with renewed fear sinking their expressions to a pale shadow of the smug shame thrown at her that she had not only annihilated, but also returned to every single doubting civilian. They still stayed, but at a safe distance, which made Bakugou step forward again to the wooden bridge with his blade in front of him. Midoriya accompanied him on the stride as his frown deepened – a gesture out of character for him.

“We won’t repeat ourselves again: don’t dare come to shame on our members without being ready to face consequences.” Bakugou nodded curtly, nose wrinkled at them as Midoriya finished the discourse with a sharp response. “We will part as soon as possible to identify the source of this dilemma. Go to your houses and fight the war on your own for now, shall peace rest in your hearts.”

Kaminari and Yaoyorozu quickly closed the doors as Mina took a pretty shaken Uraraka into the faculty, the poor sorcerer recovering from the high of such mighty confrontation. The ashen blonde glanced at the fidgeting sorcerer, eyebrows scrunched in meditation over the show she had put out.

Maybe... just maybe–

"Bakugou, we can't stand still now." the aforementioned turned to look behind and see Midoriya standing by Asui, and that was when he realized that everyone was pretty much looking at him in anticipation, desperate for something– a reaction, some kind of order to carry them out of the stump. "I think it's time to make a move. Delaying this won't make this any easier."

The hunter hissed, eyes closed in thought. The sword was put aside again. "Yeah, I'm aware."

"I don't know if it's my place to say," Yaoyorozu approached them, fingers twitching on her chin as she went through all the information to the day. "But judging by the current state of the village, it's highly probable that the decay will go further. We can't go on like this. Stretching the damage in this timeline will only make things worse."

Uraraka's glance flew from the knight to Midoriya, then to Bakugou, who was the center of all eyes, darkness twiling around him until there were no lights floating, no more air– and suddenly, the world was underwater, the trepidation and anticipation for an incoming avalanche of danger suffocating her, hands shooting from those dark corners and suffocating her in a loving hug.

And again, there he stood, in the middle of it all, having to carry the burden of a guild along side another man, stood Bakugou– this man who was starting to at least be civil with her, who had sort of, kind of, in a way, defended her back there. He hadn't haunted her, tried to suffocate her. Now, he had a burden too big to even notice her. He had told her the night before.

She couldn't bring herself to hate him so much when such big things were coming and he was still there, proud and strong. Yeah, there was no way a part of her couldn't respect him both as a fighter and a leader. Her hand tried to reach out, yet curled back and fell limp on her side, eyes down as Uraraka was helpless, useless, and no more than another face in this place.

But somewhere deep inside of her, something screamed, flew up her torso, flew up her vocal chords as the limp hands clutched on the knot tying her uniform's neck. "Are we ready for this though? Can we really pull this off as confidently as we are putting it?"

Bakugou boredly looked at her as some guild members backed off at the implicaton. Uraraka didn't understand the offense until the ashen blonde strode to her in a slow pace, spikes swaying as ashes danced on his face.

"You can't go around as a new member throwing shit at us." his hands were stretched, fingers curled as his smile went downhill with a disapproving grimace. Yet, his fingers never dared to reach any of her as they would have done so recklessly before. He knew who he was talking with this time. "Don't understimate us. If you aren't letting anybody do that to you, don't let your shitty mind play tricks on you."

"I am not, by any means, implying that you guys are weak!" the girl looked around to see everyone paying attention to her, but their expressions weren't disappointed at her, or mad. "What I'm trying to say is that RampAge doesn't seem like a foe to be taken lightly–"

"Uraraka is right about that." interrupted Todoroki, sensing that the girl was about to step on a blind spot. "We should have a plan before even thinking about heading off into battle so recklessly."

"It's not we'll have a straight-away encounter with him." retorted Midoriya, his eyes unfocused as he displayed a mental map of the whole kingdom. "We'd have to cross a town in the Frost Way, then advance to the Capital. That would take us a minimum time of two weeks, but we can try to be faster by maybe crossing the river? But even that would–"

Asui smacked Midoriya on the shoulder with her tongue. "Quit it. You look creepy."

Midoriya looked at the pharmacist with a little blush of apology as Mina sprung back up. "It's not something we can't do, I bet. I am mostly worried about how we will know where this guy even is."

The redhead, who was currently trying to supervise Bakugou in case he snapped out of his train of thought, shook his head. "Midoriya and Bakugou have him vaguely located. It shouldn't be so difficult to pinpoint him in a mildly large area. Supposedly, he is not specially small."

"Playing with suppositions will not take us very far." Iida cleaned his glasses, then gave the cloth back to Yaoyorozu. "We can't risk such an important fact like actual situation. RampAge may move the moment we step out of the capital, for all we know."

Midoriya staggered a bit to find an answer, so Bakugou had to once again respond while so side tracked. "The area he is in is basically like a massive hollow mountain. It's fucking impossible for it to actually change places like you do, four-eyes." then, he rubbed his face with both hands. "Which means I can't take Amelie with us either."

Jack, who had seemingly popped out of nowhere, swiftly debunked that setback. "Amelie wouldn't have done much more damage than our best fighters would have done." the black haired girl looked at the brunette, who stared back in wonder. "Group in which I very gladly include Uraraka."

The ashen blonde found entertainment on seeing little Miss Terrorist explode into a mad blush of aknowledgement she wanted to deny, but Midoriya spoke before anybody else could refute, agree or interrupt the statement. "Now that I think about it, what's your opinion on this?"

She jumped a bit to look at Midoriya, and the guild stared in wonder. "My opinion?"

"Well, you are a newcomer here, but anybody's impression is welcome." the freckled boy smiled at her kindly, and the sorcerer was instantly relieved for an unknown reason. It came from deep inside her heart and it was driving her insane. "Besides, new opinions aren't biased, just raw and fresh."

"Oh!" gasp and wide eyes, fingers fidgeting with her sleeves as her arms crossed, then she stood still as her answer was clear, had always been from a start and it had taken her too much to figure it out. "In that case..."

Uraraka cleared her throat and spoke up. Bakugou watched her from slightly afar, brow wrinkled as a warning. "I believe that our leaders would never take us through the wrong path. If they believe in our power and believe in the path they have traced, I don't know why we wouldn't trust them." and this time, Uraraka fully faced Bakugou by staring right into his eyes. "That's what a leader stands for."

The boy's eyes widened with a disbelieving frown, her eyes solid brown and no longer swiming in emotions and brewing with mechanical schemes, ideas, or even hesitant. Todoroki smiled behind her, a knowing little smirk showing through that no one but him would understand.

"Hell straight." Bakugou stretched his arms, flexing his muscles for both a show of power and might, condemning the following measures to be followed. "We will start moving tonight while light is still out, and camp for the night in the way to our first stop."

He seeked Midoriya's eyes for approval, and he nodded with a solemn grim frown. "We should divide into groups to make travelling easy, and in case of an ambush we will be able to maniobrate much easier. We'll need a healer in each group, and as diverse class-wise as possible."

"We can talk that out when we set off later." the ashen blonde moved his cape aside and advanced towards the main building. "Move your asses and start packing, take only necessary battle items, just light package. You are dismissed until sunset, be quick."

“Uraraka– Uh, Uraraka?” Kirishima opened the door to her room a little bit more in pure shock after seeing the madness she was stuffing into her backpack. “How many books do you think you will be able to take?”

“Oh, Kirishima! Um…” the girl hesitantly took them out with a hand and slammed their weight on her desk, prompting the hunter to approach the pile. “I thought they’d be useful to have as an addition to basic training with Bakugou… and that way I can also have something to read if ever have to make guard!”

The boy leant back from the volumes and grinned at her. “No worries lil’ lady! Having your shoulder in such state will probably save you from the guards. Bakugou and Kaminari offered to do your guards until we get to the first stop.” the sorcerer titled her head, blinking as the thought of Bakugou actually going out of his way to help her started to sink in awkward places, still odd and out of character for him. “By the way, you’ll be going in Bakugou’s group– said something about watching you, so I’ll see you when we get to the first stop. Such a shame. Also, why is Edgar so… down?”

Uraraka padded to her shelves to gather some spare potions and scrolls, not surprised by Bakugou wanting to keep her under his hook. Her eyes then drifted to the sleeping form of her eagle, and sighed. “Little buddy here had a sever intake of ashes from the fight with Pyrox, as he flew around the battlefield for a while. I can’t take him with us, but he’ll come to me when I need him to. By the way, I take it you’ll be going with Midoriya, then?”

“Yeah,” the redhead picked up a random book from her desk. “with Yaoyorozu and Mina, good company. I’ll sadly have to deal with Todoroki being around as well, he is such a baby during expeditions like these.” the brunette nodded with a little airy laugh, letting Kirishima read the titles of her sorcery books. “Wow, all this stuff seems complicated.”

The girl approached him to finish packing up, but before she could take the books back, Kirishima lifted it out of reach and read the title from below. She tried to grab the volume with clenching hands and chubby fingers, but the redhead still held it in the air. “A book on chemistry and… magic law?”

Uraraka jumped and got her book back, almost tearing Kirishima’s arm apart. “Well, there are lots of things I haven’t had time to ask Yaoyorozu about this kingdom’s laws. So I need to learn if there’s anything specific I can’t do in certain places.”

The brunette clamped the bad shut with a huff, the potions clinking with the metal details of the books and various other items of good use. Kirishima opened the door for her so they could finally proceed to the exit. “Well, I bet you were already told the basics, right? About dungeon hunting, the libraries, the ice mag–“

The door fell shut as Uraraka jumped to Kirishima’s face. “I never got closure on that one!” Uraraka started to mess with her hair again, eyes darting all over the place. “I was given this creepy vibe about ice magic, like the fact that it’s considered a cursed magic– but she never told me why! Jack sure seemed bothered about it though. Oh, and she also showed me–“

The hunter slapped his hands on her shoulders, and rubbed softly. “Take it easy, roundface. Midoriya’s mumbling thing sure is rubbing on you easily, what a pain.” Uraraka slapped her cheeks, eyes wide, wondering where the heck that ramble had come from. “Well, first, our guild has protection against ice magic, so using this kind of magic is actually possible, but it weakens the body of the user spectacularly.”

The brunette nodded, adjusting her bag on her shoulder as Kirishima gave her an explanation. His scarf was tight on his neck, vest scraped to his chest and hands rummaging through his pockets, maybe checking to see if he has everything with him. “Ice magic is…” he gave an approving pat, then looked at Uraraka as they walked onwards. “out of the elemental circle. It’s a mystery how one can manipulate it, and too dangerous to deal with. There is water, wind, earth, fire– those are the main elements, then there are other side techniques that I’m not that aware of.”

The brunette gave him an endearing look of both surprise and pride. “You sure know what you are talking about.”

The other boy tried to shrug it off with that warm, humble demeanor of his. Still, the compliment took over his heart, and the very same emotion was reflected back in his eyes. “I spent some time with Asui at the infirmary after a raid gone wrong, and she told me all about it. She’s especially wary of this magic, considering she can only use water magic.”

Kirishima and her passed by the lobby in complete silence as the brunette thought her next question, and was able to pronounce it once they were half way through the corridors to the main doors. “Still, why is it so bad?”

“It’s just mysterious, and people fear the unknown in the same way I guess they fear you or Shinsou at Grinning Blade. My knowledge can’t reach that far, you should ask Asui about it.”

And of course Uraraka was going to ask her about it, because it turns out that she was feeling colder than usual, the fierce reminder that Yaoyorozu gave her still fresh in her mind– the way her eyes had flared with warning, how shocked Bakugou had looked when he saw his axe get knocked out of orbit in that wild winter frost. Bakugou knew, Yaoyorozu knew, but the only one who didn’t really know what was going on with this magic and its danger was Uraraka.

“Oi, what the hell took you damn losers so long!?” screamed Bakugou the moment they exited the building, waiting at the gates with horses and the whole guild gathered. The two remaining members shook their heads and ran to them, remembering the reason behind such rush. “We have stuff to do!”

“Bookworm here wanted to pack a whole library of books.” the blonde scowled at her in deep reprimand, but Kirishima was quick to defend her. “She did it for a good cause, though!”

Out of nowhere, Kaminari tapped Uraraka’s shoulder and made her look at him with a little tug. “C’mon, we’re sharing a horse, and we better get going before Bakugou here blows our asses up.”

“Hold up, Kaminari.” before the blonde could help her on his black horse, Bakugou forcefully gripped her arm and carried her to Kirishima’s horse. “You are a clumsy rider, no way I’m gonna involve more people in your damn disasters.” because it’s not like he cared for her– that definitely was not the case, but he wasn’t willing to have more casualties than necessary before the real war had even began.

Kirishima chuckled and took Uraraka’s arms. “I guess we will have to share horse then. My pleasure to comply, master!” the blonde glared at the two brainless idiots who he sure hoped would crash into the nearest cliff and disappear. “Hold on tight, miss!”

“Everybody up their horses?” called Midoriya, Asui behind him as she set all her potions and ingredients in her bag for a quick reach.

“Wait, I am not–“

“Kaminari, what the fuck. Hurry your ass up the damn horse.” Jack looked at the screaming leader and shook her head at Kaminari’s clumsiness when it came to riding. He sure had been practicing, but it’d take him a long time before he got used to it. Mina, grabbing her from behind, laughed freely. “I take it you all are ready.” there was a loud hum of agreement, and Kirishima handed Uraraka a big coat for her just in case she got cold. The sorcerer realized then that most people were wearing it as well.

Seeing that Kirishima was actually giving up his for her despite wearing less clothing, she politely rejected the offer with a shake of her head. That guy was impossibly kind to her.

“Pay attention, please.” Midoriya’s voice was clear, loud, commanding, similar to Bakugou’s but in a less dangerous way that filled the entire place, but in enthusiasm and diligence. “We will head to the Frost Way as a whole group, then head for the forest so we don’t make ourselves too noticed, and split up in groups. We should be there close to midnight, and meet again in a few days at the nearest village. Any questions?”

Uraraka had been giving this idea lots of time to go away– really, lots and lots of time. It was a crazy thought, a possibility that would be rejected the same moment it was spoken outloud. She gripped Kirishima’s vest for dear life, forehead cuddling with his scarf, and bit her lip. Yet, the words were escaping, floating into the skies of her brain until they couldn’t go higher, and instead dropped to the air below in quick sentences of anxiety.

“Why don’t we…” Kirishima now noticed that she was close to tearing his vest apart, and gently craned his head to look at her. “why don’t we ask Grinning Blade for help?”

“No.”

“But–“ nobody interrupted her, but they were obviously agreeing with Bakugou’s refusal by the way they glared at her. “they are up against this very same issue! They may be great help with different sets of–“

“Go to them.”

Kirishima, Uraraka, Bakugou and basically everybody looked at Midoriya, who didn’t dare to look back at his guild and instead focused on the road ahead. “Kirishima, take her to their headquarters and then head to the Frost Way. We will wait there.”

Bakugou almost went off his horse to chop his head off. “What the fuck do you think you are doing!?” his hands went wild into the air, little explosions rippling from his palms. “We can’t go ask for help from that good for nothing purple hairs! Who even–“

“I have the very same right as you to make these decisions as you have.” the green haired leader turned his head to look at the seething hunter, who then leant back in thought to think things through. “We are in no state to be picky… Kacchan.”

Bakugou didn’t make a fuss this time about the odd change of nicknames, only frowned heavily and gripped the bridles of his horse as hard as ever. “You got no right to call me like that, greenielocks.” Uraraka blinked at the exchange from behind Kirishima’s tense shoulder, and shook a little when Bakugou turned to look at her. “Be quick or we’ll end up delayed by those motherfuckers, so go on ahead of us. Be careful on the way.”

“Gotcha, master!” Kirishima whipped the bridles and the horse took a step back to then speed up across the bridge, stride clopping against the stone pavement as they rode into the sunset, turning at some houses and speeding up at empty areas.

Uraraka gripped Kirishima’s torso with a hand and held the hat on its place with the other, a grateful smile softening her round features. “Thank you for this, Kirishima! I would have never thought Bakugou would agree to this!”

His voice was hushed from the winds leaping at their sides, but it vibrated inside his ribcage and made her felt at peace, bathed in the sunset as the guild’s aroma carried their winds along. “He looks like a wolf, and actually fights like one, but he can’t deny help we need. And I’m just hoping Grinning Blade will agree to help us!”

“I bet they will, it’s not like it’s not their problem.”

Well, the real issue started when they were met with Shinsou’s tired and bored dead eyes staring right through Uraraka as she voiced her concerns with earnest frantic glances, hands clenched around the neck of her uniform, travelling everywhere and there was a moment when she gripped Kirishima’s sleeve for mere relief, her words being spat faster and sharper than ever. Her hair bobbed, arms shaking, and she finally shut up.

Shinsou only stared for a second, sipping from his drink, and gave a blatant answer.

“Not interested.”

Kirishima and Uraraka jumped five meters behind to only come rushing back to his side, Kirishima speaking as loud as possible. “Man, what the hell? This is an issue of vital importance!”

“I don’t give a damn about vital importances and what gets in your hairs. Nobody asked this guild for help, therefore I will never put my people on the line for others who haven’t asked for it.” Shinsou’s eyes travelled from the gaping redhead to the other sorcerer, whose eyes didn’t seem as surprised as one would have expected. “I guess you were already expecting this, clumsy girl?”

The hunter was startled to find that these powerful sorcerers knew each other, above all considering how ill Shinsou’s intentions. Kirishima hoped Bakugou knew about this and had found a way to be alright with it. The sorcerer spoke up, mouth grim in a line of disappointment. “I can’t deny that, but I sure was expecting to be able to see you cooperating.”

“Then we don’t need to speak anymore.” the leader did a double take when turning to close the door, and stared at Uraraka with analytical eye. He seemed to observe how the sorcerer was holding herself awkwardly, a hand gripping her side with strange delicacy. “Is there anything wrong with your side?”

“Ah!” the girl jumped and smiled awkwardly at the other sorcerer, who was still looking at her right side with a pointy glare. The brunette felt too observed to her liking, so she unbuttoned the lowest part of her shirt to show the ugly scar to the leader. Kirishima was internally raging over the display of skin she was offering so recklessly, but he guessed it wasn’t such a bad thing. “I got a pretty ugly wound when I first came to Yuuei.”

The hunter stepped forward to check the scar. “Woah, it sure healed ugly and big, lil’ girl! Does it hurt?”

She shook her head while still holding the shirt apart. Shinsou didn’t seem so fazed by the new information, but a spark in his eyes betrayed his appearance. Only Uraraka noticed. “It’s alright. It only hurts when I push hard enough, but really, it’s as if nothing had happened. Shuzenji sure is a miracle!”

“So, you got that in a battle?” the brunette shrugged while buttoning up her shirt, which only made Shinsou ask more questions. “You don’t know?”

Before the sorcerer could shake her head, Kirishima gently spoke first. “She’s got amnesia.”

“Amnesia, huh.” both outsiders nodded at the same time, Uraraka still lost at the huge meaning that word had in her life now. It was like a big, hideous stain had damped her life and there was no way to wipe it clean. The boy in front of them tapped his chin, eyes swinging from side to side in deep thought. He then stepped inside for a second, and was back with a piece of paper. “We may not be willing to help, but perhaps old man will actually help out somehow.”

Uraraka gingerly took the little note and read it with shock still imprinted in her easily molten eyes. “Old man?” the redhead looked from her shoulder, but didn’t bother to finish reading the note. “Are you gonna take us to some kind of elderly wise man?”

Shinsou flashed them a little private smile, but it was full of intentions and raging thoughts. “You could call him that. Just go to him and ask for his aid.”

Uraraka arched an eyebrow at him, but was elated to see him helping somehow. If this was his way to help, she would welcome it the first. “I am glad you are willing to help us indirectly, but how can we know if we can trust you?”

Shinsou chuckled at her endearing innocence and turned around. “Trust me, clumsy, I get nothing from helping you guys out. If I’m gonna go out of my way, I’ll at least try to be civil.”

Kirishima drove her with an arm around her shoulders towards their horse. “Thanks, I guess. Talk to Hatsume if you guys ever wanna help out, and she’ll make it work somehow. Good luck while we are gone.”

The door was closed behind them with no further ado, and while Kirishima led her to his horse, Uraraka reread the note with trembling hands. “You sure we can trust this guy?”

“I sincerely… am not sure.” her voice trembled at the end, but her eyes were focused and resolute. They had no other choice but the hard choice. “We have no other option but accept this little nudge. As Midoriya said, we are in no state to be picky.”

Kirishima hoisted her up the horse and adjusted the bridles in a second, not many changes needed. “Where do we have to go though?” Uraraka handed the piece of paper to him, and he had to read it a few times before he could actually recall where the location was. “Gotcha, it’s in our path to the Frost Way. I just hope I can find such accurate location.”

The hunter got on the horse and snapped the bridles to make him run out of town, all the while Uraraka read the note over and over again, eyes squinted at the smudged calligraphy, hugging Kirishima a little bit tighter the more she read into the note. “The Mountain’s Chamber. Sounds creepy.”

“It actually is creepy, if I do recall. It’s a place under a big mountain full of snow. There’s some big fog around there, I just hope it doesn’t hinder our arrival.”

Uraraka was worried about everything but that. Her hands scrunched the paper and held it tight to her chest, heart beating off a raging tsunami the further they got from the village, nearer to their only source of aiding and away from her short-lived home, away from her dorm, and away from safety. Shinsou’s words trumpeted deep inside her mind, where only deep husky voices like Bakugou’s arrived, provoking all sorts of little chills covering her spine.

“Yeah…” her face was buried on his scarf, fresh and old with use. Smelled like rain, smelled like home. “I really hope so, too.”

“Lil’ lady, this place sure is fucking creepy.” his head shot up from the foggy cover as the horse stopped, Uraraka seemingly seeing right through everything as she was blinking and looking around just fine. “I can see the entrance from here though. Looks dark.”

The sorcerer looked up to the sky and frowned slightly. “It’s cloudy now. Sunset must be over by now.” the girl took a leap of faith, brave despite what could lie beneath her feet, and luckily landed on safe ground. “I’ll go talk to him.”

Kirishima immediately got down from his horse, chasing after her little steps. “What? If that man is an acquaintance of Shinsou, he ain’t good news!”

Uraraka stopped her stride to turn and lift the hem of her shirt. “Shinsou only decided to give us some help when he saw this scar. Maybe if I show this man I am tough, he’ll believe we all are, as well.”

But the boy didn’t give it up. “Uraraka, if something happens to you out there, Bakugou will have my fucking head.”

There were a few seconds of silence in which Uraraka didn’t budge from her place. Instead of going forward, she let out a little laugh, humorless and her expression afterwards was kind of sad. “Like he’d even care about a terrorist like me. Despite being a member of the guild, I’ll never be more than that.” Kirishima was about to say something crazy to deny that truth – something with little foundation that could somehow make things better between them – but the girl spoke up again. “Besides, it’s ok. I can handle myself and flee if that man get’s feisty with me. Just watch after the horse.”

Kirishima raised his hand in protest to only have it meet the fabric of his combat pants. “Whatever, just be careful.”

Uraraka nodded eagerly and watched the man go down the little hill before she ran with big leaps up the little hill and towards the cavity on the mountain. There was some snow under her boots, crunching on her soles, humidity hanging low on the air as little stars twinkled behind a curtain of clouds above her bobbling head, which shook with every step she took closer to the hideout.

Her steps halted when she reached a regular door plastered on the cavern walls, where she knocked as soon as she got there, to get rid of the tension hanging in the unfallen snowflakes of white heaven. Uraraka heard steps behind the door, as swift and smooth like a leaf falling from a tree, and the door was opened slowly, cringing as it revealed a scruffy black haired man with a sand scarf on… that much she could tell from the darkness around them.

“Excuse me, mister! I hope I am not disturbing you.”

The man stared at her in silence, tousled hair covering a pair of eyes that rivaled the deadpan of Shinsou’s. “… who are you?”

“My name is Uraraka, sir. I belong to a guild called Yuuei, top champion of the season at the village we reside in… and my guild is fixing to go against a monster called RampAge, that lives far away from here!” her hands started fidgeting with the back of her hair again, twiddling and mixing with the lost strands of uniform. “Anyway, Shinsou gave us your address to seek for your help!”

At this, the man blinked and held out a hand. “Shinsou?” the girl nodded in response, frowning with determination. “Can I see some proof?”

Uraraka gave him the wrinkled paper, and the man read the letter carefully and slowly. Whoever this man was, he made her feel extremely uneasy. He looked scurffy, messy, darkened by the lack of lights and his eyes were devoid of any happiness, illusion or even anger. It was like watching a jar of water freeze over and to never melt again, his hair so unkempt and his scarf giving her a sense of humbleness from this man. Still, his hands were deeply scarred, marring his fingers, and it suddenly gave her a feeling of intimidation as this man… he was powerful. Maybe even more than Bakugou– her whole being agreed, heart thumping against her chest in sudden fear for what this man could do to her.

She was met with silence when he gave her the note again, and her fingers started to play with the folds of paper. “I just hope we are no hassle for you! I just felt like we needed to get more help in case out total prowess doesn’t suffice and… I’m just hoping to get people over because–“

The man raised a hand in the air in front of her, making her mouth clamp shut with a single movement of his. “I can’t help you. You aren’t strong enough.”

This made Uraraka come back at him like a boomerang, her face trying to get close to him for emphasis– something she did too often that she should really stop doing. “Wait, but I just told you that we–“

“I don’t give a shit about Yuuei. I am talking about you, Uraraka.”the man eyed her, glare narrowed as she blinked at him. “You don’t have the necessary knowledge to ask for my help. You are still weak.”

“Hold on, mister!” she tried to get him to not close the door on her face, which he ended up not doing. “I am not that weak! I almost took out my leader and Pyrox–“

“I don’t care what you did. I only care about what you can do in the future.” he shook her head at her, not a single trace of pity roaming his pale face. “I can’t help you yet. There will be a moment when you will really need to seek me, when the lights die and you are lost– then, you will find me.”

This kind of foretelling statement left her lost, empty, paling and eyes widening as dread settled in her heart and started quenching, gripping, squeezing, something venomous and poisonous filling her eyes to the brim with colors– but they were dark, shadows, ghosts of something she couldn’t see, but she could almost reach out to touch and feel the remorse, the pain, the wholehearted loss of a future she could almost taste in a metallic rain of blood.

Her mouth almost hit the ground when she tried to reach out for him, so he wouldn’t close the door on him, urgency rushing to her hands as they weighed on her. “What do you mean, sir?”

His shoulders heaved down in distaste as he eyed her one last time. Chocolate pools reflected his death charged abysses, and his hand clutched the knob once again. She wasn’t ready yet. “You can’t come to me.”

And the door closed after he roughly spoke his last words.

“You don’t know the meaning of death yet.”

[A/N]: define a mistake

me: shows you dis /giddy ap!