Love and Loss

16

As we walked down the street, Bakuguo was swaying back and forth a little. He nearly fell a few times. I grabbed his arm and wrapped it around my shoulder, holding some of his body weight on mine.

"Ye know you d-dont have to do this. I-I'm perfectly fine." Bakuguo said. I laughed.

"Sure you are Bakuguo, and besides I don't mind. We're almost there anyways." I looked down at my phone that had the address typed into it. Before long we reached his house.

It was a pretty nice house. Pretty big for only one person living there. I grabbed Bakuguo's keys from his pocket to unlock the front door. Once we were inside Bakuguo rambled out directions to the living room.

It wasn't very hard to find since the house was pretty open. Once we got there I helped Bakuguo lay himself on the big couch. He said thank you. I smiled and told him not to mention it. I was about to leave when Bakuguo's hand grabbed my arm. I turned back to look at him.

"Wait, before you go I have to tell you something." Bakuguo looked more sober now. I sat back down waiting for his explanation. Bakuguo sighed. His face almost looked sad.

"Do you remember earlier tonight when I said helping you is the least I could do?" He asked. I raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah what about it?" He sighed once more.

"Hero work is dangerous. You know it, I know it, Todoroki knew it to. I'm not sure if you knew this, but Todoroki worried about you a lot."

I sat there a little confused. What is he getting at here?

"What do you mean worried?" I asked.

"He was always scared his hero work would come into his home life with you. After we graduated, I didn't see him as much as I should have. When I did see him however, he always seemed so happy. You were the only thing he would talk about. Looking back it's hard to believe I didn't recognize you at first sight when I saw you in that bar." Bakuguo smiled a little. On the other hand I was in the brink of tears.

"Around the time of his death, hero work was as dangerous as ever. Villains were getting more creative and dangerous. About a week before his death, we met at a bar to catch up on life. As always he talked about you, but our cheery conversation turned serious. He mentioned how bad the villains had been getting. I could tell he was very worried about the situation." Bakuguo stopped for a minute and slowly blinked. My guess was to hold back tears, as his eyes had turned quite glossy.

"It seemed as though he was doubting his own skills, because he made me make a promise that night. He made me promise that if anything happened to him, that I would promise to protect you. At the time I was confused why he would want me to make a promise like that, nevertheless I did promise."

"When I heard the news of his death I wasn't sure how to react. I shut down for awhile. Heck I didn't even go to his funeral. I didn't want to believe he was gone, and along the way I must have forgot that
promise I made to him. That was until I met you.

"Once I learned who you were, I remembered that promise I made. After that I decided to carry out that wish he made to me. It's my way of honoring him, so from now on I will do everything in my power to keep you safe."

When Bakuguo finished, tears were on the brink of falling down his face. He looked over to me, I immediately wrapped my arms around him. He hugged me back immediately as well. Tears slowly slid down my face as I hid my face in Bakuguo shoulder.

"You're a great friend Bakuguo. Again, thank you for everything. I know Shoto would be happy with what you've done." I said into his shoulder. Bakuguo rubbed my back. His sniffled once before speaking again.

"Thanks y/n. I promise I won't let you or him down. No matter what."