Everything was in ruins, debris falling all around her. Buildings were decimated, cars smashed, and roads torn apart. Everything was covered in smoke and flames, the thick fog surrounding and permeating her lungs. The far-off screams of civilians rang through her ears.
She looked left and right, searching for signs of life. Her eyes darted here and there, her breath growing more and more rapid by the second. Each thing she saw caused her to breath harder. She didn't know whether the tears in her eyes was due to the smoke, her fear, her sadness, or a combination of all three.
Bodies…So many bodies…
Izuku…Mei…Kirishima…Fujiyoshi…Todoroki…
Even her other classmates and her homeroom teacher.
They were all there, lying motionlessly on the ground among the rubble, blood pooling around them.
It was especially chilling that they were all face-up. Their desolate eyes staring straight at her.
She tried moving towards them, but her body wouldn't listen to her mind. It was like she was surrounded by water. She couldn't move like she wanted to, and air was becoming scarce.
She quickly shut her eyes, unable to bear looking at their lifeless bodies any longer. Suddenly she realized that somebody was missing from the piles of dead bodies.
Bakugou Katsuki
She opened her eyes again, stomaching the bile that was rapidly rising. Her head snapped from side to side, desperately trying to find a head of ash blond hair, yet also not wanting to find him at all.
An explosion went off nearby. She knew that sound from anywhere. It was one of his.
Unlike before, her body actually listened to her. She still moved much too slowly for her liking though. Dodging around all of the falling debris, her lungs started to burn from all the smoke.
She couldn't give up now. Not when he was so close.
Finally coming to her destination, she was instantly struck with a wave of relief. It was short-lived, however, as she saw how battered and bruised he was.
He was clearly outnumbered, facing against the entirety of the League of Villains by himself. She immediately rushed towards him to help, but was stopped by an unknown force. Just like before, her body wouldn't listen to her. It was like invisible vines had wrapped around her body, preventing her from moving any further.
She screamed, hoping to draw their attention to her for even a second so that he could have some sort of opening against them.
It was no use though. None of them had heard her. Not even him. It was like she didn't even exist.
She screamed and struggled, refusing to believe she could do nothing.
Even Bakugou's fighting prowess was useless against the sheer numbers of the League of Villains. Several of them were pinning him down, each of his limbs restrained.
The blood drained from her face as she saw Shigaraki Tomura slowly making his way toward the blond, his hand outstretched.
She struggled even harder, fearing the worst.
As the villain hovered his hand just above Bakugou's face, his head turned towards her. She froze, a chill going down her spine.
There was no severed hand covering his face. His manic smile was in full view. Her eyes focused on his moving, dry, cracked lips. She read them carefully, her expression growing more and more desperate as his fingers touched Bakugou's skin, quickly degrading it.
"KATSUKI!"
Ayano woke up with a shout. Quickly sitting up, she gasped for air. Her skin was drenched with sweat, but her body was completely devoid of warmth.
She placed her head in her hands, trying to calm down. Her breathing was quick, showing no signs of returning to normal. She could hear the erratic beating of her heart as it thumped heavily against her chest and pounded through her ears.
With her breathing still a little fast but now somewhat manageable, she looked to her right, towards her desk. One of Bakugou's grenadier bracers laid on the surface.
Flashes of her nightmare went through her mind. She shut her eyes, hoping to force the thoughts out.
She looked anywhere besides there, but the rest of her room was shrouded with her creations. Each one eliciting a painful memory.
Her breathing was increasing dangerously fast. She quickly got out of bed, pulling the covers with her.
She couldn't be in this room any longer.
Bakugou laid on his bed, just staring up at the ceiling with his hands behind his head. His face held its typical scowl, although it was a bit more prominent than usual.
His mind was focused on Ayano.
She had agreed to improve his costume, but it was with much reluctance.
The pain in her eyes. The hesitance. The shame. They were things he never thought he'd see in her. Things he never wanted to see in her.
He was frustrated. More frustrated than he's ever been before. Boy, would he like to punch something right now and just let loose.
Suddenly, he sat up. He could've sworn that he heard his name just now.
More importantly, he could've sworn that it was her voice.
He bolted out the door and immediately ran to the girls' side of the floor. He reached Ayano's room in no time, grateful that they lived on the same floor.
He had planned on rushing in as soon as he could but seeing how quiet everything was, he hesitated. The hallways were entirely empty with mostly everyone being asleep. Everything was tidy and not a scratch was to be seen.
He stood in front of her door, not hearing a single thing.
Was he mistaken? Had he just imagined it? It was her voice though. He knew it was!
He debated on whether or not he should knock on the door when he heard her footsteps inside. Slightly panicking, he ran down the hallway to hide behind the corner. There was something wrong, but there was no way she would tell him if he appeared so suddenly like this.
Ayano opened her door. She was still wrapped in her covers, taking small and slow steps. His eyes followed her as she moved down the hall and towards the elevator. Where could she be going?
He stared at the wall above the elevator doors. The markings showed that the elevator was going down from the current fourth floor. Each number lit up as the elevator passed that floor, eventually stopping on the number one.
He took the stairs to be less noticeable. He reached the first floor, a sense of unease flowing through him. All of the lights remained off. He walked slowly through the halls, careful not to bump into anything while he let his eyes adjust to the darkness. Fortunately, the first floor had many windows to let the moonlight shine through.
He looked out one of them to see if Ayano was in the courtyard. No such luck.
He passed through the rest of the floor, searching the mess hall, laundry room, and others. He even silently waited outside the girls' baths and bathrooms, listening for any sounds. They were unoccupied.
He was getting more antsy when finally, he saw the back of her head. Her characteristic, uneven, brown hair just visible above one of the couches in the lounge. From the moonlight, he could see wisps of steam rising in the air above her.
She couldn't possibly be working on something here, could she?
He slowly walked in her direction, coming up behind her. Looking from above her, he saw that she was sitting wrapped in her covers and holding a mug filled with some white liquid. "Warm milk? Really?" He asked rhetorically.
Unsurprisingly, Ayano was not surprised by his sudden appearance. "Drinking warm milk can help one's body to relax, which aids in the sleeping process. It also has tryptophan, the essential amino acid for making serotonin that gets converted to melatonin, which is the hormone that aids in maintaining our sleep cycles. Although, a regular serving of milk does not have nearly enough tryptophan to produce a notable effect on sleep. So, I added some supplements to the beverage. Would you like some?" She asked, motioning to the small kettle placed on the coffee table.
Bakugou ignored her question, choosing instead to comment on her habits. "You've never had sleeping problems before." It was a well veiled and subtle accusation.
She took a sip from her mug. "…I suppose there is a first time for everything."
His eyebrows furrowed. She still hadn't turned to look at him, so he took a seat next to her. He left a little bit of room between them on the couch.
He stared at her profile, seeing just how tired she looked. He started at her hair. It was unkempt, revealing that she had just gotten out of bed and hadn't bothered to fix it.
The skin beneath her eyes was darker than the rest of her, revealing how little sleep she was getting. Her eyes looked so empty.
His eyes travelled further down, resting upon her cheeks. He just barely saw the tear stains on them. Upon closer inspection, he saw that her cheeks were slightly hollowed. She had been losing weight, and a significant amount too, it seemed.
His concern for her only increased, but now that he was here, he had no idea what to do. What could he do? The two of them sat in silence with Ayano quietly sipping at her supplemented warm milk.
"I had a dream…or rather, a nightmare." Bakugou's eyes widened, not expecting her to be the first to speak. Especially not about something like that. She wasn't supposed to be the type to have nightmares.
"It took place here…well, not here as in the dorms…but here, as in Musutafu." She explained, referring to their current city. Bakugou's eyebrows furrowed further, never seeing her thoughts so disorganized before.
"The city was in shambles. Everything was broken…burning…and I was at the center of it all. The screams…the cries…I heard all of it, but I could do nothing." Her hands tightened on her mug, preparing herself to say the next part. "The next thing I knew, there were bodies all around me. It was our classmates. Our teachers. Our family. All of them were on the ground, beaten and bloody."
She visibly shuddered. "Their eyes…they were dead, but they were all looking at me. Staring. As if I were to blame." Bakugou wanted to protest at that, but she clearly wasn't finished.
"I noticed that the only one missing was you, so I went searching. I heard your quirk in the distance. I followed it, rushing through the broken buildings and the flames, passing by more and more of our fallen classmates. Each and every one of them staring at me as I ran towards you. I found you fighting the League of Villains by yourself. All of them."
She took a deep breath. "I tried running to your side to help you, but something stopped me. Like an invisible wall, or something. My body just would not move. I tried screaming to distract them, but it was like I wasn't even there. Even you could not hold that many people off by yourself. They caught you, and Shigaraki Tomura was preparing to kill you."
"Right before he did…do you know what he said to me?" Her hands tightened even more on the mug, and Bakugou heard a crack. Looking at her hands, her nails and knuckles were turning white from the pressure she was exerting. At this rate, the mug wouldn't stay intact. He quickly grabbed her wrist, tearing the cup away from her before she broke it and hurt herself from the glass.
Looking straight at him, she continued without acknowledging his actions. "He said, 'Thank you for your cooperation.' He thanked me." Bakugou stared at her frantic face. She looked just about ready to cry. "He thanked me…" She repeated, more quietly this time, as if she were in denial.
Her breathing became more rapid, on the verge of hyperventilating. She ripped her arm from his grasp, her hands gripping at her hair. Her shoulders were shaking. "He thanked me…"
Bakugou grabbed her, each hand on her shoulders. Forcing her to look at him, he gently yet urgently shook her back and forth to snap her out of it. "It was just a dream! You would never work with scumbags like them! You'd never make support items for them!"
"I didn't make support items for them!" She shouted back, confusing him. "I didn't make support items for them…but I didn't make any for you either." She looked down, ashamed of herself.
"Everyone died because of me…because I stopped making support items…weapons. Nobody had anything to defend themselves with. It was all my fault." Bakugou's hold on her tightened as he prepared to object to that. She stopped him before he could.
"Before you say it again, I know it was just a dream! But it could be a very real possibility. One that I am deathly afraid of." She shook her head, as if to get the possibility out of her mind. "I tried to make myself work on your costume after I woke up. I was so scared that I wanted to prove my dream wrong immediately…but I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it!"
At this point, Ayano had started crying again. "Even after all that, after all of my fear, after everything…I still couldn't do it! I'm so weak!"
She turned away from him, furiously wiping at her eyes. "I don't even know why I'm telling you all of this! I can't believe I'm crying in front of you again! I'm so pathetic!"
She was suddenly pulled towards him, her face pressed up against his chest. She felt one of his hands wrapping around her waist, and the other one behind her head, pushing her against him. His head lay on top of hers.
"Who's crying, huh?! I don't see a single damn person crying here!" He yelled at her. It was a blatantly obvious lie, but it was also technically the truth. He wasn't directly watching her cry.
This rough action caused Ayano to cry even harder. It was such a simple thing, yet it comforted her so easily.
After a moment, her crying eased down to sniffles. Bakugou cleared his throat. "Look, I can't help you with this. I want to, but I can't. You don't even need my help in the first place! You're not weak. You're not pathetic. You're the complete opposite of those things, and that's why you can get through this on your own. And if you think you can't, then you're wrong! You're already back to making support items. Who cares if you aren't making weapons, yet! It's progress!"
She listened carefully to each and every word. It was so unlike him to hand out compliments like this. Was she really this broken?
"And who said I couldn't fight the League of Villains by myself!? I'm not so weak that I'd let a bunch of fourth-rate villains beat me! You think it's because you couldn't make me support items!? What a joke! That's not gonna matter because I'll become so strong that I won't even need your gear to blow them up!"
She almost laughed at his nearly unfounded confidence. Was this pep talk for her or for him?
"I'll become so strong that I won't need your support items…" He repeated. "…But…I wouldn't mind having them…So get better already!"
He was never the best at words. Even now, when he was trying to comfort her, his speech was so rough and so brazen.
They were the same type of words he always used since they were children.
"W-Well, I already said a great hero could do that by himself…but…I guess I could help you…test them out…"
"Th-That's right! I'll definitely be the number one hero! And the number one hero wouldn't need any support items because I'm already amazing by myself…but…I guess I could…hold onto this for you…"
"I told you that I don't need your costume or your help…but if you don't need it…I guess I could…hold onto it for you."
Those familiar words comforted her more than anything ever could. At the core, he had never changed. Never stopped helping her. Never stopped supporting her.
That fact only made Ayano cry harder. Her tears of relief mixed in with her tears of sadness.
He was giving her hope when she thought she had none. He was so strong, and once again, she decided to lean on his strength. It would still take time, but he was right. She was making progress.
The combination of warm milk, sleep deprivation, and consistent crying had tired her out. Still pressed against Bakugou's chest, Ayano gently smiled, mentally thanking him.
She let the rhythm of his heartbeat lull her to sleep.