In Bloom (Reader x Bakugou Katsuki fic)

Finally; you're going on a date

Once you got back to the dorms, things felt normal.

It was suspicious.

You kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. Something to go wrong again.

But, as the days passed and, gradually, you and everyone involved in the rescue were able to remove more and more bandages, you felt your anxieties ease. With each pealed plaster and roll of dirty gauze tossed in the trash, it was more than your physical wounds healing.

The first weekend back, the class threw you a small welcome-home party. You're not sure how much the rest of the class knows, and honestly, you no longer care. You have nothing to worry about. You were safe, and you were loved.

There were still some things that had you on edge. Particularly that nothing felt like it had changed with Katsuki. Sure, you didn't stop from touching him anymore, lingering fingers, taps for attention, leaning into him at class movie nights. And sure, he seemed to make up every excuse under the sun to spend time with you. But you hadn't kissed again, hadn't talked about a "relationship status," and with nothing but "normal" school going on, you couldn't help but worry, without the allure of a secret, the lack of adrenaline, no more life or death situations, that he was regretting it all now. 

Your phone buzzed beside where you lay, staring up at the ceiling from the floor. You turned with a lazy hum to grab it, expecting more memes from Kaminari or Ashido, eyes going wide when instead you saw the notification.

As if summoned by your worried thoughts, Katuski had sent you a picture. You swiped up on your screen to open it.

You weren't sure what you had been expecting, but a zoomed-in photo of a tiny spider probably would not have been high on the list.

MurderKing 💥❤️💥 :
[insert image]
Come here or it's getting murdered.

You snorted, curling your knees under you as you moved to stand.

You:
he's innnocent!

To that, Katsuki just sent another photo. He was holding a shoe in the foreground, the speck of a little spider just noticeable in the background. You suppressed a smile as you rushed over to his room, ripped notebook paper clutched in your hand. He liked to keep all his books pristine and would make a fuss if you tried to take any paper from him.

He opened the door before your knuckles could even hit the wood.

"Where is the little guy?" you asked, trying to act normal as you stepped inside and swiveled your head, searching for where the spider was based on the little bit of his room you could see in the photo and not think about the fact that this was the first time you'd been alone in his room together since everything.

He pointed, shutting the door with a gentle click, cheeks a little red. Maybe he was thinking about the same thing as you? You were being too hopeful again.

You made quick work of catching the spider. You'd thought about making it take longer so you'd have an excuse to stay but there wasn't really a way to do that without the risk of losing the bug inside Katsuki's room, and you were sure neither of them would much appreciate that. You stepped back inside from his porch after placing the spider as far away from the door as you could. Nose stinging and probably blushed pink from the cold, even if you were only out for a second. Katsuki kept his room warm; maybe you could use that as an excuse to stay a little longer?

"That all?" you asked instead, shifting from foot to foot, definitely failing to act normal now that there was nothing else to keep your focus.

Katuski shrugged his crossed arms, met your eyes, then quickly looked away and bent his head. He shifted, uncrossing his arms to scratch the back of his neck. You could just see the twitch of his jaw, teeth probably clenched.