SO YOU DONT GET CONFUSED: Thereis a flash-forward in this chapter that takes place during parallels (the sequel), but then the current storyline continues after that. Oki bye <3
You didn't look afraid.
The reckless shadows still calming from the fight they just witnessed morphed as you and All Might emerged past the smoke.
Katsuki had already stood, pushed himself off Midoriya. Even if he'd won the fight, his injuries were far more obvious, far worse. The degradation in his mind and body both were far worse.
You had no trouble seeing that as All Might held you under his arm.
You didn't look afraid, but whatever you were feeling was indescribable to Bakugo. You were just looking at him. Utter shock in the eyes as your tears mimicked his.
What mortified him was the most wasn't even that you'd seen and heard him fight Deku.
It was that you heard everything he said.
The second All Might spoke, his footsteps nearing, he turned around. Shifted his weight till his back was to you and All Might both, his chin tucked to his chest. Anyway to hide himself in a way that didn't seem weak he took.
Deku stood cautiously, the rubble victimized by explosions scraping against his shoes.
"I didn't notice before." All Might said, watching them both. "How much you were still thinking about all this... I should have."
"Too late," Bakugo muttered, just barely throat turned rough and broken as the ground he stood on.
"Young Bakugo," All Might rubbed your arm up and down as he felt you shaking, saw the way you were so desperate to just run to him.
When someone you love is in that much pain, raw and unhinged, it can be both terrifying and induce so much guilt you can barely bring yourself to move.
"Deku was powerless," All Might explained, Katsuki's hands balled into fists at his sides, his face still hidden from view. "He was weak. But he was heroic. That's why I chose him. I decided he should have a chance to stand in the ring."
"But now you know I'm weak too," Every time Katsuki spoke, it broke your heart to hear just how much he was still holding in. "I just wanted to be like you," he went on. "Which meant being as strong as possible. Being able to protect the people I care about- but look what I did," The fact that his voice cracked at the end, that he was just too exhausted to keep anything in, it tore at your will to just listen anymore. "Because I'm not strong enough."
"This is not your fault young Bakugo- none of it, is your fault-"
"Katsuki," you whispered, walking forward and out of All Might's hold, slowly, with awareness.
At the sound of his name, Bakugo's shoulders started to shake as his muscles tensed even more, his entire body trying so desperately to not let him break again.
He breathed in a hissing sort of breath, shut his eyes so tight, bit down on his lower lip.
You just wanted to reach him. To let him know more than anything that you were present. That you were there.
"Katsuki," you said again, this time your voice full, brave, holding so much empathy and want that a small whimper escaped him.
He heard the slow movement of your footsteps, the careful way you approached him. It was the same worry radiating off you now that he held the night before standing at your back.
You shook just as much as he did, but without any fear, without any inhibition, you gently placed your hands against his shoulder blades.
Again, he had to hold his breath, the feeling of your hands, their tenderness and their affectionate connotation almost too much to bear. And just as he thought he was about to pull away again, to run away to hide so he wouldn't have to imagine those hands going limp and cold and seeing them covered in your own blood-
