She's going to save your life…
The words from the old lady rang in Bakugo's head long after they were spoken into the universe. Four days had passed since that day and he was still thinking about it. How could this be?
He didn't doubt Uraraka's strength or her abilities at her job. He almost had his ass handed to him and that was back when they were 15 years old. Seeing as how far they had come since then, Uraraka could more than handle herself in the vicious profession of heroism. But even with all of that, how was she supposed to save his life? He was in no danger and even if he was, what did she have to do with it?
But there was a part of him that was grateful for the distraction. If he could concentrate on what kind of danger might be ahead, then he wouldn't have to think about that other word…
Soulmates
He couldn't even bring himself to say it. But maybe if he could shove it out of his mind and into a deep, way deep, locked corner for long enough, he would be able to move on and explain it away as a fluke. The lady's quirk was bound to be wrong at some point, right?
With the implications buried away, the red string had become another part of his daily life in the last few days. Instead of taking his attention with flashes of red in the corner of his vision, as it did that first day, he had learned to ignore it and even expect it. It was there when he ate, when he fought, even when he took showers. What started off as a baffling annoyance melded into something he expected to always be around.
That night, it started to do something new and unexpected so Bakugo couldn't help but notice it. He was lounging in his sweatpants and muscle-tee when the string strained on his finger and slowly started to rise up, pointing through his window and towards the clouds. Uraraka must have used her quirk on herself to float her body up.
He figured 3 minutes must have passed since she started her ascent into the sky. That might've been impressive in high school, but with her enhanced hero costume, she could easily clear three times that now.
But why? And at this time of night?
The string was now almost completely perpendicular to the ground, disappearing as it went through the ceiling. Bakugo figured she must be right above his apartment complex now. As it neared 90 degrees, the string pulled at his finger. But it wasn't a simple tug like before, but a frantic, undeniable call for help. The force of the pull was faint, but relentless. It was something urgent.
Bakugo rushed to his window to see if he could get eyes of Uraraka's position and situation. At the angle she was at, he had no choice but to slide the glass pane over and punch out the screen to crane his head up. And that's when he spotted her.
Uraraka was floating upside down in her sleeping clothes with the backdrop of the moon illuminating her. The only thing that tied her down to the Earth and prevented her from wildly entering the stratosphere was the string that connected Bakugo to her. But that's not what made his heart drop into his stomach.
She was bleeding and blindfolded with her hands tied behind her back.
Blind and paralyzed, she was relying on Bakugo to bring her back to safety.
"Uraraka!" Bakugo yelled as he jumped out the window and let off a series of blasts to help him reach the roof 6 floors up. Without the help from his gauntlets, he knew he would be sore the next morning, but that was hardly a concern. He absolutely had to get up there.
After almost 5 minutes in the air, battered and bruised with the adrenaline of a fight wearing thin, Uraraka was on the verge of dropping like a rock. She was visibly shuddering as her whole body tensed and willed itself to stay afloat. Bakugo didn't know what she thought would await her on the ground, but anyone who could rough her up like that must have been a worthy opponent.
The moment his feet touched the roof of the apartment, Bakugo wrapped the red string around his hand and pulled desperately. As she drew closer, he could see a green and purple mottled bruise on her face and angry, red handprints imprinted all over her arms. Rage coursed through his body and rooted him in his goal.
"Bakugo?" She called out with a strained voice. Her body lurched from quirk overuse. She was still about 15 feet away.
"I'm here!" God, he hated how his voice cracked. 12 feet away.
Her head turned towards the direction of his voice. "Can't… Hold on much longer..." 8 feet.
"I got you! Let go!" 6 feet.
Fighting the urge to hurl, she twisted in the air to touch all 10 pads of her finger tips together and whispered what Bakugo assumed to be 'release'. He rushed forward as Uraraka's body went completely slack and hurtled towards the roof with no motion to catch her fall. His arms were outstretched, perfectly cradling her body as he was brought down to his knees by the force of impact.
Ignoring the pain in his kneecaps, he ripped off the blindfold and started to work on her duct-taped wrists when he recognized the pale, sweating look on her face. Uraraka rolled off of him just in time to retch onto the roofing of his apartment complex rather than all over his shirt.
With her hands still tied behind her back, she was hunched over awkwardly and uncomfortably. Bakugo reluctantly gathered her hair, matted with sweat, and held it back as she continued to empty the contents of her stomach. His nose automatically wrinkled at the smell of bile.
"Thank you" She croaked through her sore throat. Bakugo wasn't sure which part she was exactly thanking him for, but he wasn't going to go and fish for it. Instead, he went back to working on the binding that left her hands immobile. He had to pause when she retched and dry-heaved a couple more times.
"Did they follow you?" He was itching to get a better look at the ground to see if the perpetrators were approaching, but he was not about to leave Uraraka without her best defense.
"I don't think so. They all had physical quirks, the three of them, so I don't think they would've been able to cover the distance between our places, much less track me here." Frustrated by the lack of progress, Bakugo tore through the tape with his teeth and freed her hands.
Rubbing her raw wrists, Uraraka continued. "I managed to throw my couch and other stuff at them before I shattered a window to escape so I'm sure my neighbors would've called the police by now. I doubt the people who tried to capture me will risk looking for me now."
"Well, you're not going back to your place tonight."
"No, I'm not. I'll probably stay with Tsuyu or maybe-"
"You're staying with me." His outburst was met with wide eyes of surprise, but to his relief, no protests. "We can't risk having you run into one of them out there, especially in your state right now. No hospitals either, they'll expect you there." He hastily added, worried she might misinterpret his decision.
"Right." The lack of argument slightly concerned him. If there was one thing he could always rely on, it was her strong will and insistence upon having her own independence. But then again, she just had a hell of a night and it wasn't even 9 o'clock yet.
Getting a better look at her face, he could see her left eye beginning to swell shut. There was one long laceration on the side of her calf from the window she smashed through, judging by the glinting shards sticking out of the wound. The handprints on her biceps and forearms were starting to turn purple at the edges with half moons dotting her skin from the attackers' fingernails. Her clothes were wrinkled beyond belief along with smears of blood against the light purple constellation pattern on her shirt. She didn't have any shoes on, the tips of her toes turning white from the cold.
"You can take a shower once we get inside. I have a first aid kit too."
"Thank you."
He grunted in acknowledgment as he walked ahead of her to the door into the building and over to the elevator.
"Seriously, Bakugo. I don't know what I would've done if it weren't for this string. I was really lucky to have had you on the other end."
Bakugo could feel his face turn red against his wishes at the memory of what the string meant. Or more specifically, its color. The confinement of the elevator didn't help his nerves either. "You threw furniture at them. They're lucky to have escaped you." That earned a chuckle out of her.
Exiting the elevator on his floor, Bakugo only then realized he didn't have his keys to enter his own apartment.
"Damn. Wait here."
He hated to have to do this, but there was no other choice than to knock on his neighbor's door. It's not that he didn't like the family next door, the kids were well-behaved enough, he just didn't like knowing the lady was in cahoots with his mom. They had never explicitly said so in front of him, but his folks always mysteriously got wind of things and he eventually pieced together that she had asked Mrs. Kobayashi at 9-D to keep tabs on him. She didn't seem to realize he was already 20 years old, that old hag.
"Hello, Bakugo-san. How can I help y- Oh." The middle aged woman noticed Uraraka and her state mid-sentence. "You're Uravity, aren't you? Are you alright, honey?"
"H-hai!" Uraraka hastily tried to use her hair to cover the worst of her face and tugged her sleeves down. "Just a nasty villain. Nothing I can't handle!"
"I'm locked out of my apartment, but my window's open. Can I use yours to get inside?" Bakugo got straight to the point. "I'll come back and pop the screen back in." A look of understanding passed over the woman's face, she must've heard the yelling earlier.
"Of course! And don't worry about the screen. I might not be a hero like you kids, but I'm perfectly capable of putting the window back together."
After a well-placed jump and a couple of blasts, Bakugo reappeared from his apartment. Uraraka apologized to the woman for interrupting her night and joined him inside.
The apartment was well-furnished, but far from excessive. There was a plush grey couch set in front of a large tv in the living room, complete with a coffee table, ottoman, and armchair. Only a striped rug and a clock on the wall served as a minimal form of decoration. The kitchen counter seemed to be stocked with plenty of gadgets- a toaster, convection oven, blender, and rice cooker in various sheens of silver. Even the pans and pots hanging above the stove were metal.
It was a stark contrast to her cozy studio apartment. It wasn't just the difference in pay, as Bakugo did get paid more by a noticeable margin, along with a higher insurance payment, while she sent a good chunk of her paycheck home to her parents every month. It was that her walls were covered in pictures and art and dried flowers. His were void of any personalization.
Bakugo emerged from around a corner, where Uraraka assumed his equally boring and modern bedroom would be. He was holding a big, fluffy towel with some clothes folded on top.
"I started the shower before grabbing these so it should be warm by now." He handed the goods over to her. "There's a toothbrush in there too that you can use. I don't have any conditioner, though, so don't come out complaining."
Uraraka blinked at the sudden barrage of information and took a moment to register what he just said. "Wow, Bakugo. Your girlfriends must've left quite the impression on you if you're going on about not having any conditioner."
He made a face of disgust. "I can hardly stand my parents being here, what makes you think I would let anyone else use my shower?"
They stood in silence in the middle of the hall, both acutely aware of the fact that Uraraka was about to do that exact task.
"Well," she cleared her throat nervously. "I don't want any more of that hot water to go to waste. I'll try not to take too long." And with that, she walked around the corner and into his bathroom.
Once he was sure Uraraka was out of earshot, Bakugo let out a groan. What was he thinking? He swore the old fate lady needed to go get her quirk checked because there was no way the string wasn't responsible for messing with his mind.
Trying to move past that awkward encounter, he walked into the kitchen and opened the medicine cabinet to grab the almost comically large first aid kit. His parents made sure it was one of the first things he had at his place and, although he would never admit it, it came in pretty handy from time to time.
Speaking of his parents, his mom seemed to choose that exact moment to call him. Bakugo let out another groan. He really didn't want to deal with her nagging right now, but he knew it would only get worse if he didn't pick up.
"What do you want?"
"Are you sure you're my son?"
"What the fuck kind of question is that?"
"I gave you almost a whole week to come clean about that relationship rumor, and you still haven't called your mother? Not even a text?"
"Well, you'd have to be a complete idiot to believe those tabloids."
"Who do you think you're calling an idiot, you brat?!"
"What, you going deaf too, you hag?"
"Don't you get all smart on me! I know she's there with you right now!" Ah. His neighbor must've updated his mom about Uraraka being at his apartment. Damn. He thought he'd have more time, but it looked like he may have underestimated old ladies' penchant for gossip.
"You stay out of this! It's nothing!"
"Nothing?"
"That's right!"
"That poor girl has the misfortune of getting caught up with villains and having to deal with you all in one night!" Bakugo could feel a vein in his forehead pop at that one. "How did such a sweet girl like her get pulled into a relationship with you? You better be treating her well!"
"She can handle it! And I literally told you there's nothing going on, woman! Do you not hear a word I'm saying?" As he paused to take a breath in the midst of yelling, Bakugo realized the showerhead wasn't running anymore. "Look, mom. I really need to go now."
"I heard she was hurt. Is she alright?" He had never heard such a soft tone from his mom before.
"She's fine, she's strong. The crazy woman actually threw a couch at the attackers."
"Looks like she won't have any trouble dealing with a shithead like you, then." Bakugo scowled and was about to start yelling again, losing sight of his objective of hanging up, when that gentle tone reappeared. "Go take care of her, Katsuki. Call us later." And with that, she ended the call.
What a strange and useless conversation.
Uraraka stepped into the kitchen looking a little livelier than before. It probably helped that she got the stink of vomit and sticky blood out of her hair. Now, it was damp and dark and soft and so incredibly startling as drops of water fell from the ends and onto his shirt. It was an old shirt from high school that almost didn't fit his broad shoulders anymore. It was soft from years of washing and stopped right at mid thigh on Uraraka's smaller frame. She had to roll the waistband of the shorts he provided her to make sure it didn't fall off her hips.
"I didn't realize until the water made them sting, but I have some cuts on my back from the glass. Do you think you could help me reach them? I can take care of the rest." She motioned to her leg and face.
"Yeah, sit here." He turned a chair around in front of him so she would be hugging the backrest and giving him clear access to the hard to reach cuts. As she lowered herself down, accompanied with wincing, he grabbed an icepack from the freezer and wrapped it in a paper towel for her face. She accepted it gratefully and pressed it to her eye.
With her other hand, Uraraka lifted her shirt and unhooked her bra to reveal the myriad of cuts starting to bead with blood once more. Bakugo carefully dabbed antiseptic on them with a cotton ball and Uraraka encouraged him to continue when he hesitated from seeing her tense the muscles in her back and hiss in pain. When he finally finished the torturous task, he then cut out a rectangular piece of gauze from a larger sheet to cover the majority of her back. Rather than plaster on dozens of bandaids, which would look ridiculous on top of forcing him to touch her back unnecessarily, he figured it would be better to cover them with a larger bandage.
Once that was wrapped tightly, which ended up being a group effort since he wasn't going to risk touching her inappropriately, he slid the kit across the table for Uraraka to take care of the rest of her wounds. She pulled her shirt back down gingerly, trying not to aggravate her wounds any further.
"I'll get the couch ready for you to sleep on while you finish up." She smiled up at him appreciatively and then refocused on slathering ointment on her calf.
It took a good half hour for Uraraka to account for every injury before she settled on the couch and Bakugo was able to turn the lights off in the living room. The clock read past 10 o'clock when he finally brushed his teeth and slipped into bed. He should've been irritated at the fact he was going to sleep late, and he was, but not at her. The concern persisted as distressed cries came from the other side of the door.
Bakugo recognized that sound. He would never admit it, but it took him 3 months before he could sleep regularly after he was kidnapped in the first year of high school. He knew what it was like to be alarmed by every change in the shadows and question every miniscule sound in the night. He remembered the dread of closing his eyes and fearing he would wake up tied up and alone again.
Trying to not scare her further with his footsteps or voice, he started by turning the lights on in his room, then the hall, and the living room last. Just like he expected, Uraraka was trembling on the couch, wide awake.
"Come on." He held his hand out for her to take.
"What?" She propped herself up on her elbows and squinted, adjusting to the light.
"You're never gonna get any sleep alone. And you're gonna need the energy to find the bastards that did this."
"You sure?"
"Am I sure that you need your rest?"
"No, you idiot." It was amazing how she always managed to insult him, even when she was scared out of her mind. "Are you sure you're ok with me…" Sleeping on the same bed as him. The gossip column would have a field day if they knew.
"Would I be here if I wasn't?" That seemed to do the trick because she took his hand, habitually not using all five of her fingers to keep her quirk from activating, and let him lead her to the bed with the spare blanket and pillow under her free arm.
Uraraka tentatively laid down on half of the bed and made herself comfortable as Bakugo turned off the lights once more and then walked over to his dresser to grab something he hadn't used in years. It was buried deep towards the back of the drawer, his old quirk resistant gloves. After pulling on the thin black material, he slid into bed and took Uraraka's hand that was closest to him.
She flinched in surprise, but didn't make a move to pull away. Still laying on her back, she turned her face towards the man next to her.
"After I was… rescued from the League of Villains…" He spoke in a low voice. "I kept thinking that was the dream and the moment I fell asleep, I would wake up back in that basement."
His words didn't just resonate with Uraraka and her experience, it felt like he was sharing a precious piece of him.
"So now when you wake up, you'll see me and know that those fuckers didn't get you. You outsmarted them and they failed." Every instinct was telling Bakugo to shut this down and shut up, but he knew this was more important than being embarrassed. Still, it didn't stop him from adding, "Tell anyone any of this, and I'll kill you."
That made Uraraka break out into a brilliant grin and shift her body so she was now laying on her side. With her whole body facing him, she grasped his temporarily quirkless hand with both of hers and closed her eyes to finally give in to sleep. The string lay still in the space between them.
Bakugo soon found himself being lulled into slumber by the sound of the slow, deep breathing coming from the woman lying next to him who was clutching his hand close to her steadily beating heart like a lifeline.