empty crown // bakugou x reader

Chapter 22

"Oi guys!"

Bakugou had arrived to his village and found his friends gathered around a small fire outside their cabins and tents. As soon as they saw him they all got up and hugged him tightly, happy to see that their leader had come to visit.

"Bakugou! Did the Princess let you come here?" asked Kirishima, handing him a cup of water.

"No, she doesn't know I'm here."

"You're gonna get in trouble." chuckled Mina, slapping him on the back and making him spill half of his water.

"What happened here?" he asked.

"Some guards came here and told us to move elsewhere because apparently this land belongs to someone named 'Monoma'."

He grit his teeth and looked around, realizing that one of his friends was actually missing.

"Where is Sero?"

His heart fell to his stomach when nobody answered so he entered Sero's cabin, his eyes landing on him struggling to sleep from his bandaged wounds.

"He tried to stop them from destroying some of our stuff.." murmured Kaminari, entering the cabin with Mina and Kirishima following after him.

"Did the Princess have anything to do with it?"

"Of course not. She was being harrassed by him too."

"The guards did mention something about the Prince marrying soon. Could it be-"

"No." he interrupted, not wanting to hear another word regarding that.

After some hours of catching up with each other and trying to fix most of the damage done around the small village, Bakugou prepared his horse for the ride back to the castle.

"Wait, one of the guards dropped this." said Kirishima, giving Bakugou a small envelope.

"Ah, I don't think he dropped it." he smirked, looking at the black sealing wax.

Hopping onto his horse, he rode fastly towards the castle so that he arrived before sunrise. On the way, his thoughts got consumed by Kaminari's words. Was she really going to accept Monoma's proposal? Well, she got some proposals yesterday, one of them might've been from him.

He shook his head and focused his gaze forward. Surely (y/n) wouldn't agree to something like that. But eitherway, he was in no place to doubt her. As soon as he arrived outside the castle, he got off his horse and asked the stable man to take care of it, and after jumping through a nearby window he rushed to his bedroom so that he at least got one hour of sleep.

(y/n) on the other hand had a hard time sleeping. When she woke up, she got dressed and prayed that Bakugou would be waiting for her outside her room as usual. But to her disappointment, he wasn't there.

"Goodmorning." she spoke, approaching the guards that were outside the castle. "Have you seen that blond-haired idiot?"

"He returned to his room earlier this morning, your highness." they bowed. "Shall we get him for you?"

"Leave him. And don't tell anyone about this."

She fixed her posture and straightened her crown, making her way to the throne where she was supposed to be from the moment she woke up.

Sitting down, she crossed her legs and tapped her knee with her gloved pointer finger. She had more important things to do rather than stress about the fact that Bakugou snuck out but she couldn't help but think about it every time she tried to focus on something else.

To her surprise, the doors burst open earlier than she had anticipated.

I should start making bets with myself.

"I apologize, your highness." he bowed deeply.

One thing was certain. If looks could kill, he would surely be dead by now.

"It's fine. Everyone should get a little more time to rest, am I correct?" she spoke, her loud voice echoing through the hall.

Bakugou noticed her distress but chose not to question her since he was in no position to, so he sprinted towards her side and lowered his head while she spoke to her servants about the stuff that she had planned for the rest of the day.

Talk with visitors, wine testing, dress fitting. She surely couldn't wait for her coronation day so that all of this could be over. So that she had more time to spend with.. him. Why wouldn't she question him? She didn't want to put him in a tough spot. She trusted him, of course, but a little voice on the back of her head kept telling her that it was more than just sneaking out. What if he was in any kind of danger? Or rather, was she in any kind of danger?

"Your highness?"

She gasped and found herself staring into space, or rather, she was trapped inside her own dark thoughts. Grey was all she could see for a while before her vision turned back to normal.

"Should we visit some other time?"

She looked up, her eyes meeting with the ones of her visitors, and she flinched when Bakugou touched her shoulder.

"O-Of course not! I apologize, I got distracted by my own thoughts." she said while moving away from his touch, her body trembling for a split second. "Shall we start again?"

...

"Are you okay?" he asked, following her to the dinning hall for the wine testing.

"I'm fine."

"I know you're lying."

She sighed and grabbed his wrist, pulling him towards a narrow corridor that was dark enough so that people who passed by wouldn't really notice them. His eyes widened as soon as she embraced him tightly, tears threatening to fall from her eyes but she did her best not to let him see.

"Can we stay like this for a little?"

"As long as you want." he replied, wrapping his arms around her and resting his head on top of hers after kissing her forehead tenderly.

"Why did you leave the castle?" she reluctantly asked, her voice hiding a tint of sadness.

She could feel his body tense up as soon as those words left her mouth, and he leaned forward, resting his head on her shoulder.

"I wanted to visit my friends."

"You should've told me! I would let you go."

"I'm sorry."

"I thought you left.."

His eyes softened at her words and only then did he realize how much she feared being abandoned. He put his thumb on her chin and tilted her head backwards so that their eyes met.

"I won't leave you. I promise."

He leaned forward and kissed her soft lips, her deepening the kiss further while wrapping her arms around his shoulders. His fingers that were caressing her red-tinted cheeks felt the small teardrops that had managed to escape her eyes and he looked at her surprised, only for her to turn around and walk out of the corridor.

"I shall never let someone see me in such vulnerable state." she chuckled, rubbing her cheeks quickly with the back of her palms.

"Is that a Princess code?" he teased.

"Maybe."