Thanks for 80K <3
***
"Looks like the rain won't stop for a long time," Todoroki said.
He walked with his head downcast, water beating the earth as it had been for days without a shred of mercy. His hair was soaked, clothing heavy on his body.
The weight wasn't only from the weather. It lied too in the gray that overshadowed the earth and the anxiety of your absence. The seemingly endless path he walked in such torrential downpour only accentuated how uncertain he was; Of where he was heading. Of where in the world you'd disappeared off to for so long.
No one had seen you since you left with Aizawa and All Might. That was nearly forty eight hours ago.
"Are you worried?" Todoroki asked, suddenly reminded that along with his footsteps clacking against near flooded concrete, another pair followed at his side.
Bakugo's hair hung heavy too. It drooped over his forehead, nearly casting shadow over color lacking eyes. His shoulders slouched, hands in his pockets, not a shred of rush in his gate. Not even the power of the rain made him squirm or shield himself. If anything, it contributed to the lifeless look on his face.
Todoroki swallowed at the sight, shuddering from the cold and the realization... You wore the same face almost everyday now. It was like he adopted it for himself, an uncanny resemblance to the emptiness you once felt replicated in his soul.
The boy he walked with wasn't worried in the slightest. It was like he knew you'd vanish. Like he cared, but knew there was no point in caring.
"This was a long time coming," The boy muttered, for the first time ever letting Todoroki take the lead as they walked together in the storm.
When they left the dorms, it wasn't nearly this bad. But given the situation, neither really cared to notice.
Shoto walked down stairs that morning to find Bakugo sitting on one of the couches in the common room all in his lonesome. Peering over a small sheet of paper, he read the words over and over:
Bonds break easier than bones in the wake of hate.
Loyalty keeps them linked past the scars.
Come to the place we left our hate behind.
"How did you know?" Todoroki asked now, thinking of that message left in the center of the common room for all to find distinctly in your handwriting. "That is it was me she left the message for and not you or anyone else?"
"During the festival," Bakugo began, like showing his work for a problem solved on some exam.
He thought back to that day, the trying and beautiful moments in it fraught with so much more that sparked you and his relationship from the fire of your altercations. It was too painful to involve past emotions now that you'd left him this long without so much as an explanation. So, in the midst of the harshness nature bestowed onto him, Bakugo chose to focus on finding you instead of wallowing in anger and fear.
"Your bond with her was broken by your dad's hate- the hate he fostered in the two of you." He went on. "In the end it survived, was put back together because of your loyalty. Means the message was for you. Means the place you left your hate behind- it's exactly where we're heading."
To the stadium. The one now empty, like a colosseum abandoned by its gladiators and public alike. Whatever you needed to say to him and Shoto that you'd ask for them to come to a place deserted 364 days a year? It definitely wasn't light. The uncertainty frightened boys enough that much of their walk was spent in silence apart from the thrashing of the storm.
