Pin of Heroes, Pin of Love (Katsuki Bakugou x Reader)

Preparing For the Worst Possible Outcome

We're starting to diverge from canon now, so this chapter may seem shorter than the rest.
⚠Please see the note at the end.⚠

The more days that passed, the more time (F/n) spent locked up in her room.

It got to a point where her classmates didn't even see her outside, as she only came out of her room at night like some nocturnal animal. Needless to say, some people were becoming extremely worried.

"Bakugou, where's your girlfriend been?" Denki asked one evening. "She's not in class and she doesn't hang out with us... Is she on another super secret mission or something?"

In truth, Katsuki wasn't sure either. (F/n) had explained it to him- that her mother was the head of some cult on the dark web- but the information was too much to get through his head. Besides, even if he did know, like hell he was telling anyone else.

"It's none of your business."

"The girls are worried, too," Denki continued, ignoring Katsuki's short response. "Apparently they haven't seen her eat, and she won't answer the door."

Katsuki wasn't exactly shocked, but it was still concerning- now that he thought about it, the teachers hadn't commented on her absence either. Did she sneak out? Did she get kidnapped?

Now worried like the others, he pulled out his phone and sent a quick text.

U good?

If she didn't answer this, he was going to have to tear shit up. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on who thought about it, she answered.

Yeah.

...Except when the answer was one-worded like that, it didn't exactly alleviate his worries. Plus, she used punctuation- that was a huge red flag.

Ur worrying people

Oh. I've just been busy.

This was definitely out of the ordinary.

I'll break ur door down if I have to

Please don't. I'm fine. I just need to finish this. I'll explain it all in a couple days.

Katsuki could practically hear (F/n)'s voice through the text, and it was the same voice he heard when she became serious about something, or when she was close to figuring something out.

Fine

She sent him a smiley face, and he sighed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A couple days later and true to her word, (F/n) was hanging out in the common room again.

Katsuki would've expected her to look rumpled and worn out- bags under her eyes, hair frizzy, all the other symptoms associated with overworking and sleep deprivation.

But no, she looked like she had just walked out of a photoshoot.

"There you are, (F/n)-chan!" Ochaco called, plopping down next to her. "We were wondering where you've been..."

"Just working," (F/n) answered, tilting her head and smiling. "Hero stuff. Nothing particularly interesting."

She may have looked fine and sounded normal, but Katsuki knew better. He narrowed his eyes, trying to inspect his girlfriend- except observing had never been one of his strengths, and he wasn't figuring much out.

"Oi, Deku," he grumbled, nearly punching Izuku's shoulder. "Look at (F/n)."

"(F/n)-chan? Why?" Izuku asked, furrowing his brows.