Protecting You (Katsuki Bakugo x Reader)

Chapter 84- Follow Me

You felt like your heart was going to stop as you cradled Hawks' injured form with one arm and positioned yourself to defend him with the other.

"What are you doing?! Was this all from you?!" You called out to Touya who seemed disappointed that Enji was still standing, raising his fist in the air to show that it was he who remained victorious. Dabi's black eyebrows narrowed at the man who had yet to see him, but he couldn't seem to pry those cerulean eyes off of you. You were injured from the fight with the lesser Nomu, but still strong enough to hold your own without really using much of your quirk at all. What was impressive to Dabi was your use of golden energy; he had never quite seen anything like the chi you manifested. 

"Is yes not the answer you wanted to hear, babygirl?" He smirked at you with his spiked onyx hair and chiseled jaw outlined by deep purple scars. "I have to say though, I've never seen anyone kill a Nomu the way you did...you have some other secret tricks up your sleeves, hm?" His smile was teasing but it was clear he was on edge. You weren't supposed to get hurt...Endeavor and Hawks were supposed to be dead...there were far too many variables that changed from his original goal. You clicked your teeth, enraged and almost heartbroken by his betrayal.

"I-...I thought we were going somewhere Dabi. I thought we were making progress...were you really stringing me along to use me for your benefit?!" You yelled out to him with your voice cracking from the pain. The bleeding cuts across your body weren't even registering in your mind as you centered your entire focus on the villain in front of you.

"I'm a villain, sweetheart. Do you really think a few pleasant words and a couple of hugs are going to change my goals and ideals? I know you're not that ignorant. I've wanted to kill Endeavor for years so if you think that I wasn't going to leap at the opportunity, then you really are an idiot." Touya once lived for the moments he came face to face with your rage...when you actually truly let go of the heroic pleasantries or surface-level intentions you had masked while at UA. You had a good heart and a genuine soul, but blood-stained your hands and fueled your fighting spirit in a way that heroes just didn't have. But now...everything was different for him now. He hated seeing you look at him that way...and he hated seeing the fact that it wasn't just anger in your eyes...it was grief.

"You betrayed me Touya," you muttered lowly as your chest ached. "But maybe that's my fault. I really believed...I-...I had such faith in you that maybe things would change..." You choked down the rocks that built up in your throat as you clutched onto Hawks a little tighter, using the last remaining feather he had as a blade to replace the ones you lost. "But I guess it really does come down to you and me."

"I'm not fighting you (y/n). If I did, you'd be dead before you could reach me. You aren't the same as you were and my flames are much hotter than Shoto's and Endeavor's." Dabi stalked forward and his eyes weren't the same vicious blue that they were when he first met you...they didn't hold that same pleasure in your pain as they once did. 

You realized that when Dabi turned his back on Endeavor to reach his hand out to you...like he was calling for you.

"Come with me. Come with me and I'll walk away right now. I'll let them live another day...but you'd have to join me. I'd keep you safe...and you'd never have to pretend to be someone you're not ever again. Just you...and me..." 

Touya extended his hand out to you...and there was a part of you deep, deep inside that yearned to take it. Not only to save a brutally injured Endeavor or a broken Hawks...but because there was a tiny piece of you that truly desired the type of life that just vanishing away could give you. You'd never have to worry about deadlines...about public face...about fixing the destitute streets of a city that never loved you.