ii.
At the Point of Ignition
"In the life that hides behind you, what are you, the fuel or the flame?"
The first thing Ochako did with her newly free, tingling arm was grasp at his shoulder and press him tighter against her, emotions running high and this small victory leaving her with a momentous feeling of accomplishment.
She did it before she could stop to really think about who he was.
"Now what genius?" His voice was tight, pained, and shame washed over her when she remembered he had metal jammed into his back.
"Sorry!" She whispered, jolting him again as she let go only for his hand to swipe hers up and pin it to the floor.
"Just- hold still for a fucking second." He snapped with heat and teeth like a cornered wolf.
She did. Utterly, deathly still, taking in the smallest of breathes as her every movement was pressed into him.
His overheated palm squeezed over hers, fingers and all tucked into his much larger hand.
"It's in my shoulder." He finally admitted lowly into her ear. Her relief was immediate and consuming, a tension she hadn't realized was even there uncoiled from her spine.
He wasn't bleeding into his lungs then.
Bakugo felt her relax incrementally, as intimately close as they were, and his hand squeezed her palm once more in a motion she thought she understood but didn't because it was Bakugo.
"How do you want to do this?" He grunted next, and her mind stalled for a moment as she tried to work out the mechanics.
"If I use my quirk to remove your gravity you'll be able to control how quickly the bar comes out as I move past you." She said slowly, thinking out loud.
"Okay." He said again, but this time it seemed like a loaded 'okay', like he was expecting something else. She had no idea what.
There wasn't enough air in here to think anymore. It felt like every inhale was taking in Bakugo's exhales, every new breath expanding more and drawing in less.
Her right hand twiched against his arm where it had been comfortably resting, her finger pads smoothing against the exposed skin there as she activated her quirk in a purposeful five-finger touch.
His weight became nothing and she struggled not to gulp in much-needed air as she knew the rise and fall of her ample chest would only further impale him on rebar; weight or no weight. It wasn't like a deep breath would mean more oxygen either.
The solid mass of stone pressing into both of her shoulders suddenly reminded her that now she had nowhere to go but down.
"Oh." She realized, face turning a thousand degrees across the bridge of her nose, and was it just her or was Bakugo's hand on her cheek getting even hotter?
"There it is." He rumbled into her neck tiredly, the sound had a shade of humor to it, and maybe even a bit of his own embarrassment if she wanted to go digging.
"Do or die Uraraka." He reminded her quietly but not lacking his usual flat, this-is-how-it-is quality.
Ochako thought the common idiom was morbidly literal all things considered. She pulled a face, banking on the fact that he couldn't see either and completely, willfully, ignored the fact that his hand was on said face.
She took a breath and held it like a diver about to break a depth-record.
She wiggled her hips, testing the amount of give Bakugo's weightless body would allow and he grunted in a way she was going to ignore and never think about ever again.
"Sorry!" She squealed again and he released her left hand, which found a perch on his other shoulder immediately as she continued to try to shimmy down his body.
"Just get it over with." It sounded strange, like he said it between clenched teeth, and suddenly she felt terrible. She was probably hurting him.
"I'll try to hurry." Ochako reassured before she could think better of it, and his head lifted off her neck as she managed to get another inch of distance.
"Watch it Round Face!" He snapped a moment later when she pressed up on his shoulder without meaning to in a bid for more leverage. She snatched her hand away like he'd burned it, which with Bakugo was always a real possibility.
His palms left her skin then, landing flat on the ground with a smack above her head.
Her own hands shifted along his sides, and then the ground, and alternating to whichever gave her more space to maneuver, which was neither option really.
Her head turned to the side, her nose scraping concrete and her ear pressed to his abdomen.
He held himself as still as possible, tension riveted through him like a suspension bridge cable.
Ochako paused, her belt snagging on what she could only assume was the uneven ground but lacked any semblance of room to move her hands to check.
She must have said something colourful because Bakugo grunted that same sort of low, pained laugh again before hissing through clenched teeth.
"Hurry up." He ushered, and she could only imagine what this was like for him, having to keep himself up onto the rebar that impaled his shoulder with arms that had been shaking with only a few moments of effort earlier; at least her quirk would do most of the work for him this time.
"I'm trying." She assured in a rush. "I'm stuck on something." She admitted with another wiggle of her hips.
"On what?" He snapped like it was her fault.
"What does it matter, just give me a damn second!" She snapped right back, lifting a leg all the way up and slamming it back onto the ground in frustration.
AN: This chapter is disgustingly short. I'm so sorry, the next few will be much longer I promise.