Protecting You (Katsuki Bakugo x Reader)

Chapter 66- Ground Zero

TW: Mentions of various forms of abuse

Despite your blurred yet slowly tangible vision, you still felt weak and lonely thanks to Eri's absence in the cell. You constantly thought about the young girl and if she was okay...but now that Dabi was the one who brought you all of your meals and accompanied you to the bathroom just across the cell, you couldn't even ask one of Overhaul's cronies if she was okay. No matter how awful this all was though, you couldn't believe how dependent you've become on Dabi.

The scarred Todoroki heir was there with you as often as he could spare and you looked forward to each moment you could spend with him. You never would have thought this would ever happen...to have a villain be the one you looked to for guidance, support, human connection... He was the only one keeping you sane. As fragile as you were, he carried all of your broken pieces with grace and a part of you started to really adore him for it. It was as if all of your history with him before this moment had been erased...but the guilt of allowing him to be so close to you remained.

The cat and mouse game you once played with him had changed. You would sit on your cot, barely rocking back and forth as your anxiety would build up...and then you would see him with a small viper-like smile and a relaxed frame with food in his hands. Naturally, you would curl into him as you ate and the stench of cigarettes and ash started to become comforting. Despite your constant chase for someone stable...for any moment of affection...the guilt would always come for you when you were alone.

He massacred your village...how could you let this happen?

Dabi burned people alive in their homes. Parents just like yours...children just like Eri...

How could you let this go?

And lately, due to your tendency to lay against Dabi just to feel something aside from the nearly cement cot, you felt a different kind of guilt.

What would Katsuki think?

Part of you was softer on yourself. You were captive in a cell with no vision for the first few weeks and only now are you starting to be able to see shapes and colors. You were starved, beaten, bruised, stabbed with needles over and over again...you went through absolute hell and the fact that someone in the world made your inprisonment livable each day was all you had. Were you really going to try and guilt yourself for having something during your life in hell?

Who were you kidding, it wouldn't be torture if it was easy.

The only reprive from your waking nightmare was the fact that The Doctor was no longer calling on you for experiments...but that didn't stop Overhaul from doing his own. While Dabi was gone during the day, Overhaul had you strewn about in different experiments from before. He would withdraw your blood for testing, inject you with different things, and the worst was when he would make you do physically laboring tasks with a broken body. Everything hurt all the time. You were spotted with bruises and sore spots from the needles...you were a mess.

But today would be the day that would all come to an end.

"Hey sweetheart. Snuck you some extra food today. That Overhaul dickhead is so scared about you that he thinks doing this will keep you locked in this cage," Dabi spoke as he unlocked your cell and walked in with a small tray of food similar to what Eri's used to be. The thought of the little girl brought tears to your eyes...and you started crying as you sat on the floor to eat the pieces of chicken and green beans. Dabi's own cerulean eyes narrowed in hidden concern as he watched you silently sob...but this wasn't necessarily out of the usual. You cried more than ever before while locked up...and you just wanted to see Katsuki's smiling face and Eri as a healthy little girl. It's all you would ask for...but instead you got a supervillain standing across from you while another one kept you as a pet.