𝓝𝓸𝓽 𝓗𝓸𝔀 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓢𝓽𝓸𝓻𝔂 𝓖𝓸𝓮𝓼 | Katsuki Bakugou x Male reader

Chapter 13

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(M/N)'s body reacted before his mind did and he was running out the door, across the lawns of the Victor's Village, into the dark beyond. Moisture from the sodden ground soaked his socks and he was aware of the sharp bite of the wind, but he didn't stop. Where? Where to go? The woods, of course, he was at the fence before the hum made him remember how very trapped he was. He backed away, panting, turned on his heel, and took off again.

The next thing he knew he was on his hands and knees in the cellar of one of the empty houses in the Victor's Village. Faint shafts of moonlight came in through the window wells above his head. He was cold and wet and winded, but his escape attempt had done nothing to subdue the hysteria rising up inside him. It would drown him unless it was released. He balled up the front of his shirt, stuffed it into his mouth, and began to scream. How long that continued, he didn't know. But when he stopped, his voice was almost gone.

(M/N) curled up on his side and stared at the patches of moonlight on the cement floor. Back in the arena. Back in the place of nightmares. That was where he was going. There was no way President Nezu wouldn't put him in that arena, even if it meant rigging the name drawing at the reaping.

(M/N) had to admit he didn't see it coming. He saw a multitude of other things. Being publicly humiliated, tortured and executed. Fleeing through the wilderness, pursued by Peacekeepers and hovercrafts. Marriage to Katsuki and their children forced into the arena. But never that he himself would have to be a player in the Games again. Why? Because there was no precedent for it. Victors were out of the reaping for life. That was the deal if a person won. Until now.

There was some kind of sheeting, the kind they put down when they paint. (M/N) pulled it over himself like a blanket. In the distance, someone was calling his name. But at the moment, he excused himself from thinking about even those he loved most. He thought only of him. And what laid ahead.

The sheeting was stiff but held warmth. (M/N)'s muscles relaxed, his heart rate slowed. He saw the wooden box in the little boy's hands, President Nezu drawing out the yellowed envelope.

Is it possible that this was really the Quarter Quell written down seventy-five years ago? (M/N) didn't believe that. It was just too perfect an answer for the troubles that faced the Capitol today. Getting rid of (M/N) and subduing the districts all in one neat little package.

(M/N) heard President Nezu's voice in his head. "On the seventy-fifth anniversary, as a reminder to the rebels that even the strongest among them cannot overcome the power of the Capitol, the tributes will be reaped from the existing pool of victors."

Yes, victors were the strongest. They were the ones who survived the arena and slipped the noose of poverty that strangled everyone else. They were the very embodiment of hope where there was no hope. And now twenty-three would be killed to show how even that hope was an illusion.

(M/N) was glad he won only last year. Otherwise he'd know all the other victors, not just because he saw them on television but because they were guests at every Games. Even if they weren't mentoring like Shota, most returned to the Capitol each year for the event. (M/N) assumed a lot of them were friends. Whereas the only friends he had to worry about killing would be Shota or Katsuki...

(M/N) sat up straight, throwing off the sheeting. What was he thinking? There was no situation in which he would ever kill Shota or Katsuki. But one of them would be in the arena with him, and that was a fact.

They might have already decided between them who it would be. Whoever was picked last, the other would have the option of volunteering to take his place. (M/N) already knew what would happen. He had already guaranteed a spot in the Games, so he'd be picked first, in one way or another. Then Katsuki would ask Shota to let him go into the arena with (M/N) no matter what. For (M/N)'s sake. To protect (M/N).