#3: Isolation

"Figure out where the hell they are, and now," Keigo barked at the poor intern who walked into his office with his morning coffee. Of all his heroes, Uraraka and Bakugo hadn't been seen or heard from in three weeks, and no one knew what happened to them from the last day they left the office. Keigo had heard from Tsu and Midoriya, who were on their way back to Tokyo finding nothing relatively dangerous going on from where they were stationed, and a team had been sent out to retrieve Mina and Kirishima upon learning that their candidacy was valid enough to result in extreme experimentation, moreso on Mina than Kirishima.

With one team back on the way, another in critical condition, and another completely off the radar, Keigo was stressed beyond relief, spending every night at the office searching for them, waiting for any sort of information to come back. The tracking devices that had been placed in their arms read at their apartments, and he had been led to believe that they were discarded upon the pair's disappearance.

Unknown to Keigo however, the tracking devices were still implanted in Uraraka and Bakugo, still working, and still accurately displaying their location. He was right, their location was reading at their shared apartment...

Miles below it.

Uraraka woke up first.

It was dark, it was quiet, and it was still.

Too dark, too quiet, and too still, if she had to be honest. She felt sticky and sick, like the life had been sucked out of her and slammed back in suddenly. Seconds after assessing she was indeed awake and not still dreaming in an endless blackness, she tried to stand, her weak arms and legs failing her. After hitting the ground with a soft thud, she tried to speak, but found that her voice was too dry, her throat was too numb to even do so.

The idea startled her a bit, but the eerily silent darkness frightened her more.

It wasn't like she was afraid of the dark, she had done a sensory deprivation activity once years ago and found it very relaxing, it was just...she could actually sense what the deprivation tank took away. She could hear her breathing increase, feel her heart rate surge, taste the dry feeling of her dehydrated tongue, and smell the stench of stale bile she had probably coughed up the last time she was awake.

Then she remembered the last time she was awake.

He was there.

Well, he wasn't entirely there, but seeing him for two seconds absolutely losing his mind was more than enough. The thought of Bakugo swelled through her mind, and the tears she didn't even know she could muster up pooled out of her eyes. With nothing else to see, hear, or feel, all she could do was focus on him, the memories of him playfully insulting her at work, covering for her on patrol, the memories of him holding her hands gently on their fake dates, the deep and soft sound of his laugh during their scheduled interviews. Sadly, the memories were replaced by ones of his beat up stance after a rough day at work, or the sound of his voice cracking in despair when he argued with her that one night. The memories of his dull eyes when they came home to a love-sick Keigo in her apartment, the awkward elevator silences as they went to and from work after that.

It didn't stop there, and Uraraka tried to force herself on something else. But it didn't work, and she sat there alone and empty, the last man she saw the sole proprietor of her thoughts.

The way he talked to her, smiled at her, laughed at her, it all seemed like a long fever dream in comparison to the way he yelled at her, pushed her away, and hated her. The more she consciously allowed herself to dissect it all, the more she came to the conclusion that he hated her more than anything else.

And while she finally accepted her positive feelings for him when the happy memories swirled around, her dry cries were more telling of her doubts as she screamed in darkness.

All alone.

He felt so alone.

Bakugo was used to living a pretty solitary lifestyle, if one had to ask. He'd never lived with anyone besides Camie for the duration of their 2-year relationship, and even then, he was never home long enough to actually be considered living with her. He was always by himself after their break up, always eating for one, sleeping alone, and keeping himself company as the years past.

Then she showed up.

More like she was assigned to him. Remembering the first day he ran into Uraraka snapped him out of his endless dream, and he remembered all over again where he was and what happened the last time he was conscious. He panicked for a little bit after waking up because the silence was deafening, and because he remembered how broken and beaten Uraraka looked the last time he saw her. She looked nothing like the woman that ran the extra mile during gym time at work, he wasn't even sure she was capable of ever giving him that big, dumb, goofy smile only she could pull off after a corny joke she told.

It made him wonder for a brief second, How the fuck did we end up here?

One mission assignment, one measly job offer, one stupid call to Keigo's aid got him here, that's what. He'd never imagined this job would be the reason he saw Uraraka all grown up, and he never anticipated missing the way her small hands guided themselves to touch him whenever they went out together. He couldn't believe she'd look at him like he was the only man alive when he took her on those fake coffee dates, and he was surprised he loved to pose with her and some kids whenever they were recognized in public.

For a fake relationship, it all felt so real.

It felt as real as the heartbreaking snap of his heart when he saw her nearly lifeless before him. It stabbed him in the chest when he knew he couldn't immediately help her, and reliving that pain all over again caused him to fidget around on the floor in agony until his anxiety turned into anger.

He was alone as he punched the ground over and over.

Alone as he yelled into the empty darkness that seemed to swallow his voice.

Completely alone as his mind strayed further and further away from any sense of rationality.

They had been like this for nearly a week, making it 3 weeks since they had been missing.

It was a cycle. They woke up, readjusted to their surroundings, and began an intense fit of overthinking so severe they'd send themselves into panic attacks and fall right back asleep. Because they were completely isolated however, it felt like one long day dragging on, no food, barely any water, and absolutely no human contact.

Every once in a while Uraraka saw the flash of his explosions from the glass window separating them, though she wasn't even entirely sure they were real. She'd clamber over to the glass, press her hands against it, and count the 5 little flashes of light until the darkness swallowed them up again, leaving her imagination to wonder if she had actually seen anything at all.

Every single time, she'd sit there against the glass, telling him, "I know, Katsuki, I know..."

And then her mind would lose all sense of reality, and she'd fade away again.

Sometimes Bakugo could see the little pink flashes from her fingertips when she attempted to float herself out of another panic attack, and that was what sent him to fire 5 little blasts to let her know he was there. Sometimes, he could barely make out her hand against the glass, and one day he swore he put his up near hers in solidarity, but everytime he caught a glimpse of her disheveled figure, he'd fall to his knees with a broken scream and vow he'd get her out of this mess.

One day, really, the seventh day of this agonizing torture, the Doctor decided she'd had enough, and she'd been gathering her little surprise long enough to reward the heroes for putting up with her insane trials. After watching the little pink light and the 5 flashes for the last time, the Doctor sighed to herself, muttering to herself about true love, and then she pushed a few buttons.

Those few buttons saved Uraraka and Bakugo's lives that day.

They sat there in bright white lights looking at each other from that moment forward, now with nothing separating them besides their own hesitation. The weird thing was though, as badly as they had missed each other...

Neither of them wanted to make a single move.