K.BAKUGO X READER (Cover art by me)
In a life where I'd be safe in one moment and on the brink of death in another, I realized that he was the only force that could ground me. Of all the people in the world. My volatile co-worker. My menacing rival...
AN: in case you're confused with the timelines and to refresh your memory, refer to parts/chapters:
★ 8 (after drone sighting, when they reach the river)
★ 3 & beginning of 4 (leading up to/start of bear chase scene)
★ second half of 2 (when he invites her to his place after work)
★ beginning of 2 (how they met... <3)
★ beginning of 11 (she mentions her past)
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part nineteen
━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━
On the laboratory tile, sitting in the wet, sticky, yellow puddle of conception, surrounded by shards of glass and flecks of my partner's blood, I was reminded of the river. Loud, and rocky, and broken by slices of ice. The one we'd run into during our search through the forest after we'd been hounded by drones. The river I so desperately wanted to cross with the hopes that we'd finally find the lab.
Bakugo had spotted the boot prints, coated in a shallow layer of snow.
I insisted we follow them. But he grabbed my arm in retaliation.
"Are you stupid? We're going back!"
"But they're here! We're so close to finding them!"
If only I knew back then that his hesitation stemmed from his buried, unsettled feelings for me. Now, I could see his worry clearly as day. The insults and teasing and sharp-tongued too-honest words were all from the fear that he'd lose me too soon.
Instead, I'd been left with the burden of losing him. So focused on being useful, on completing this mission because it was the right thing to do, I didn't take the time to live for myself, to live the life Iwanted. Finally, I was beginning to understand the anxiety he'd been so desperate to hide.
After giving him a stubborn front, he dropped the gentle act. "Quit talking that crap! I'd rather kill you myself, you goddamned moron! If this wasn't a stealth mission, those monsters would already be blown to shreds! I'm following the stupid rules of the mission, which means you better keep your word and quit acting like a suicidal maniac!"
She didn't keep her word. She turned away from him, unwilling to face her partner as she disregarded his worry. To her, this mission was bigger than the future she saw in him.
