𝔱𝔴𝔢𝔫𝔱𝔶-𝔰𝔦𝔵

word count: 1688

i'm not sorry for doing this to y'all

Midoriya POV

I managed to numb my hurt enough to get myself home and make up a lame excuse to my mother, but as soon as I retreat to my room, I lose it.

Tears flow down my cheeks unchecked, accompanied by loud, ugly, gulping sobs. Why? Why would Kacchan do this?

Fuelled by a jumble of emotions, I grab the framed photo he gave me a hurl it at the wall. It dints the plaster before falling to the ground, the glass shattering. The action offers no relief, though — I only cry harder.

I sink on to the floor and reach for the photo frame. A shard of broken, jagged glass slices my palm. I gasp in anguish and cradle my hand to my chest as sobs wrack my body.

"Why?!" I demand of my bedroom ceiling. It only stares back, white, plain, and silent. Unforgiving.

—

I don't know whether it's been hours or days, but I don't return to school yet. I can't.

My mother checks on me regularly. I see her through bleary, puffy eyes. She murmurs something into my hair as she tucks me into my bed.

My skin burns up, yet my blood runs cold. I'm feverish. I throw up countless times.

My mouth tastes like something crawled in there and died about a thousand years ago. My eyelids are almost glued shut from crying.

But now I cannot cry anymore. My tears have run dry.

—

Bakugo POV

It seems surreal that I felt amazing about my life just days ago. Now everything has crumbled to pieces. That Icyhot bastard.

Conniving.

Deceitful.

And he planned it perfectly.

I feel like a piece of shit, but I haven't even done anything wrong. It's insane.

I don't want to go to school but I have been persevering for the last two days. Deku hasn't shown up.

I've tried to call him multiple times, but every one has gone to voicemail. Every text I've sent has been labelled with 'read'.

Another day of classes end with my brain having absorbed nothing. I'm just... numb. Classmates speak to me but I don't hear.

It's like an out-of-body experience. I can almost see the shell of myself sitting at my desk each day, there but not really anywhere.

On my way home from school, the old hag texts me and asks me to pick up some bread and milk.

I haven't told her about what happened. I've just stayed unusually quiet.

I don't think the reality of it has hit me yet.

At the grocery store, I'm grabbing milk out of the refrigerated shelves when I see a flash of candy-cane hair pass by.

I abandon the milk and walk after him quickly. "Icyhot!"

He turns around, sees me, and snubs me by turning back to face frontwards.

"Wait," I call.

When he continues to ignore me, I grab his shoulder and pull him to face me. "We need to talk."

He folds his arms. "I hope you're sorry."

I stare at him in disbelief. "Have you made up so many lies that you're starting to believe them?" I ask incredulously.

Lifting his chin defiantly, he replies in a low voice, "I have not. But that's the story Midoriya believes, and I'm sticking with it. That's what is good for him."

"You think making him hurt is good? Are you a fucking sociopath!?"

"When this all passes over," he says evenly, "and Midoriya is with me, it will be worth it."

"You're so fucking in love with him that you don't care if he's in pain? You'd let him go through this just so you can have him?"

"You wouldn't?" he asks coolly.

"Hell no!" I cry.

"Then if you wouldn't do anything to be with him, do you really deserve him?"

I falter for a moment, but recover. "You're a conniving little shit, you Judas. You have to let Deku go!"

"If you wouldn't do whatever it took, then maybe you should let him go!" his calm facade cracks as he raises his voice.

"Do we have a problem here?" a gruff shop attendant asks us, their tone warning.

Icyhot stares at me for a lingering minute, before turning to them. "No, we do not." He says it with an air of finality. Turning on his heel, he leaves.

My shoulders sink in defeat.

"Lovers trouble?" the attendant asks sympathetically.

My vision blurs crimson and I ball my hands into fists so tight my circulation stops. I feel my entire body start shaking with rage.

Now it hits me. I've lost Deku. I lost the love of my life to a sneaky bastard.

I swing out blindly and my fist connects with a stack of soda cans. "What the fuck?!" I scream to no one and everyone. I knock over a display of toilet paper rolls.

"Okay, call security," the shop attendant mutters into his headpiece. "This guys a nut job."

A beefy security guard appears literally out of nowhere and plants a firm hand on my shoulder. "Son, you need to stop."

"Fucking make me," I snarl, wrenching myself away from him.

Security Guard and Staff Person exchange a glance. Security Guard makes another move to subdue me. "Back the fuck off or I'll blow you to bits," I hiss.

"Right, son, if you keep this up, you'll be taken into custody."

He reaches for me and I slam my shoulder into his chest. His eyes widen and he swiftly grabs my shoulders, forcing my arms behind my back and roughly shoving me forward and out of the shop, where wide-eyed customers watch me.

I spit at all the parents and oldies watching me. A handful of extras whip out their phones to snap pictures of me.

The security guard thrusts me over to the back of his police car. He makes me sit in the back seat. I attempt to thrash against him but he forces my head down.

I glower at the back of his fat neck for the entire ride to the police station. When we get there, he practically throws me into an empty cell and locks me in.

Through the bars, he says, "Ready to play nice, son?"

I glare at him.

"We'll need your guardian's phone number to call them to pick you up and fill out some paperwork."

Like hell I'm getting my mother to come out here. I clench my teeth and stay mute.

"Alright, then." He pulls my phone out of my school bag that I thought I'd abandoned at the supermarket. "Let's see..."

I wish I put a damn password on my phone.

He's scrolling through my contacts. "'Old Hag'? I'm assuming that's your mother." He punches the number into the station phone and waits for her to pick up, keeping one beady eye on me warily.

"Hello, ma'am. This is officer Tanaka." He nods. "Yes. We have your son. Don't worry. He'll be released after you fill out some paperwork. Its— ma'am, please stop screaming. Okay. Yes. Yes. See you soon, ma'am."

He shuts my phone. "Well, your mother will be here soon. She sounds pretty livid."

I jut my chin out at him and say nothing. I'm practically burning a hole through the bars with my flaming glare. He shifts uncomfortably.

The old hag flies into the police station in a flurry of anger. "Oh my fucking god, Katsuki! I send you to get milk and you end up in fucking jail? What the hell is wrong with you, boy? You think you can just destroy stuff whenever you damn want to? You're—"

"Ma'am," officer Tanaka puts his hands up in a way that fails at being calming. "Please refrain from yelling. You have to sign a few things and then he can go home with just a warning."

"This little shit needs more than a warning!" she shrieks. "Gimme the paperwork!"

He looks appropriately terrified as he hands her a few leaves of paper and a pen.

She shuffles through them. "What the hell did he even do?"

"Disruption of public displays, attempted violence and threats to myself..." he scratches his neck. "We can let him go with a warning," he repeats. "If he had used his quirk, things would be different."

She signs the papers angrily, and he unlocks the cell door.

"Don't try anything like that again, son," he warns. "Have a good evening, ma'am."

She practically drags me to the car. The scariest thing is that she's gone silent.

But not for long. As soon as we're on the road, she flips out. "What the hell were you thinking, Katsuki? You could've messed up your entire fucking career as a hero if you got a criminal record! Oh my god, I can't believe you!"

"I don't fucking care!" I scream, pounding my fists on the dashboard.

"Katsuki!"

"I don't..." my voice cracks pathetically. My throat feels like there's a gigantic lump in it. I don't even know if being a hero matters anymore," my voice is a whisper, an echo.

She takes her eyes off the road to look at me. "What?"

I manage a shaky-shouldered shrug, my bottom lip quivering.

"What happened to you?"

As she parks the car in the driveway, I cave in. Shuddering sobs wrack my body as I replay the hurt look on Deku's face over and over again. I've fucked up.

"Oh my god, Katsuki," her voice turns soothing. She reaches over the console and hugs me awkwardly. "What's wrong, baby?"

"I- I love him," I howl.

She rubs my back as I snuffle into her shoulder. I ugly-cry hard, big hiccuping gasps of breath in between un-decipherable words.

I don't know if I get the words out to to tell her what happened, but after I've cried what could be the next Noah's Flood, she guides me out of the car and into my room.

My eyes feel like shit — swollen and bloodshot. I must get into bed, because the last thing I remember as I fall asleep is her saying, "It will be alright, Katsuki."