PLASTIC FLOWERS ( k. bakugou )

chapter 28

' a dream is a wish your heart makes '

━━━━━

Dust streaked fingernails dig crescents on trembling palms, and a steady resolve washes over the silver grey haired girl, her blue eyes burning brighter than any flame. Yuko will, she has to talk to him, because those kinds of loneliness that she saw in Todoroki Shouto ruin people and relationships.

She will do it.

And when the match ends, all the battles buried in the past like Uraraka versus Bakugou, the heated battle between Izuku and Todoroki, Iida climbing to the top, Yuko feels a surge of admiration for everyone. Everyone is strong in their own way. Everyone fought and those memories would forever hold special places in her heart.

( And be inevitably forgotten. )

Yuko runs, not away from everything, but toward the boy who she cherished so much. Past the swaying trees and the colorful and cheerful bustle of people greeting her.

She sees his back.

"Shouto! Shouto! Shouto!"

And the aforementioned boy turns to her direction. "Yuko...?" he asks softly, eyes shone with wonder as to why the girl who was running towards him looked so distraught.

The moon is a pale full plate this time, illuminating the vast obsidian sky with a sickly white glow. Todoroki Shouto is still clad in his PE clothes, and that confused look haunting his beautiful face.

"Shouto!" Yuko screamed again and Shouto didn't see it coming. Arms wrapped around him, soft and tender. His eyes widen a little, but she holds on tighter and it's a fact that she knows that he's ice ( a cold cold aching boy ) and he chooses to reject the fire within him ( until the hero with celadon hair reached his arm out and broke the ice wall ). And Shouto is utterly and hopelessly confused, because when those walls broke down, he doesn't know what to be anymore. He doesn't know and it aches.

Who will tend to the embers the celadon hero ignited? Who will make the fire blaze?

She will take on the challenge of becoming his warmth. She will strengthen that fire. She will be his source of solace in this cruel world. Akihisa Yuko will be that.

"Yuko... what are you-?"

Moonlight basked pavements, trees swaying with the breeze, starlight guarding up above and two teens.

"I'm here," she whispers to him, because she is his friend and Yuko is a fool who sticks to close to people that will hurt her and tries to mend their shattered hearts. "Let me be your friend, okay?"

"Yuko..."

She closes her eyes and tighter. "I saw the match earlier," she said. "The one against Katsuki, the one against Izuku. I saw."

I saw your pain, your hatred, your loneliness, your despair, your hope.

"I saw everything."

"Please," she says. "Please. I don't want to say anything pretentious, because I've never been in the same type of situation, so for now all I can do is be your friend and urge you to listen. It can be anyone, it doesn't even have to be me. You can open up. I'll be by your side no matter how long it takes."

"I'm not enough," she says, "I never will be, but there are a lot of us that would care if only you let us. You have your sister, you have Izuku, you have the whole class. So for now, please..."