Chapter Forty-One: Goodnight, Bakugo

"Not happening!" Katsuki yelled, for the hundredth time that evening. He'd been in the clearing hitting trees when someone decided it would be a great idea to bother him. The fucker must have had a death wish or something, based on the shitty look on his face and the idiotic question he shot at Katsuki like an accusation. Plus, he'd gotten in between Katsuki and an attack on an oak tree that should have murdered the guy, but too bad for him because that idiot threw up a giant wall of ice right before the impact could blow his face to smithereens.

"I'm not asking for your hand in marriage," Icy Hot grouched, dual eyes blazing like fire. He looked more like his old man than ever at that moment. Eyes cold and hard, body rigid with anger, the red in his hair flaring out in the breeze like flames. He hated the resemblance almost as much as he hated the boy himself.

"And I'm not asking for you to talk to me, but here we are," Katsuki shot back as he laid into a tree with his fists this time. His anger had been getting the better of him lately, and he often found himself out here training until the sky turned to black and missing curfew was a real possibility.

"I think I've been fairly civil about this whole matter," the idiot was saying. "You hurt her. You broke her heart, and I didn't even kill you for it like I wanted to. You deserve that much, I think."

This time, when Katsuki hit the tree, he felt his flesh rip and blood pool onto his fingertips. He was heaving for breath, but this time it was rage pooling inside of him.

"Shut the hell up," he hissed through clenched teeth. "You don't know anything." How many times had Katsuki been forced to defend himself over Aisla? Of course, everyone would take her side—she was sweet, perky Aisla Haru, whereas he… Well, he was the class asshole whom they were all afraid of. Of course, they would all choose her side.

"I only know what she's told me," he affirmed, voice losing some of its hardness but still shitty as hell. "Aisla said—"

"I don't give a damn what she told you!" Katsuki exclaimed, hitting the tree again, then again, ignoring the pain in his bleeding knuckles because at least that hurt less than the burning inside his chest.

"Okay, then why don't you tell me what happened," he suggested. "What happened that night between you two? If Aisla's side is so 'wrong,' then what's your story? Did she say something you didn't like? Disgrace your 'bad boy' image or something? Well?" Todoroki was starting to look deranged, showing more emotion than Katsuki had ever seen from him before. His arms stretched out wide as if in a challenge, as if baiting Katsuki to hit him or worse—to talk to him.

"What the hell did she do that was so bad you'd let people call her a whore behind her back? What kind of person lets a girl he was supposed to care about be humiliated like that? Huh?!" He gripped his shirt above his heart, as if he was the one hurt by her humiliation. It was a bitter reminder of how much Todoroki cared about the girl who used to be Katsuki's. "Don't you have any idea how hurt Aisla's been? She's barely eaten in days! What the hell went so wrong that night that you'd do this to her in return? Tell me!" Todoroki was shouting by the time he'd finished his tirade, but Katsuki couldn't bear to look at him, uninterested in his emotions while he was wrapped up in his own churning mess of feelings.

"Aisla Haru's a whore."

"I heard she's slept with every boy at this school!"

"My friend told me she's been with a few teachers, too."

"Well, I heard she's into chicks, too."

"She's nothing but Bakugo's castoff now; used goods."

"SHUT THE HELL UP!" Katsuki bellowed, dropping to his knees and clutching the sides of his head between his hands as he rocked back and forth. "SHUT UP! I DON'T CARE! IT'S NOT MY JOB ANYMORE! I DON'T WANT TO HEAR ANY MORE! STOP TELLING ME THESE THINGS!" Tears fell from his eyes and dripped onto his knees but he paid them no mind. "Not my problem… not my fault… not my words…not my girl!"

"Hey, wait…" Todoroki tried, his voice cautious, like he was realizing that Katsuki was a feral animal he'd provoked. Katsuki wasn't hearing any of it. All he wanted was to be left alone.

"You don't know how hard this is for me, too, you piece of shit!" he hollered. "Do you really think I don't hear what people are saying about her?" He smacked the ground with his palms, getting dirt into his wounds. "I do…" he said, quieter now. "I hear every fucking word. Every time someone makes a shitty comment about her sleeping around, I want to kill them."

Todoroki was quiet for a long moment while Katsuki tried to catch his breath. When he spoke, his tone was back to that calm, curious nature it normally had. "So, why don't you?"

"Because she doesn't belong to me anymore!" he cried, then softer, "Because it doesn't matter what I say."

He heard the other boy's resigned sigh echo through the trees. "Alright, Bakugo. I still think you're being a huge idiot, but I guess I see where you're coming from. Still…" He paused for a moment, and Katsuki ground his teeth together as he waited for the final blow to strike. "I think these rumors are getting a little out of hand," he finished. "Perhaps it's time that we do something about them before Aisla does something to herself. Something worse than forgoing a few meals."

Katsuki flinched at the insinuation that he might be the catalyst that drove her to do something drastic. This thing between them, this breakup or whatever, was nothing compared to how terrible he felt when he heard those guys talking about Aisla. When Monoma first came up to him and accused Aisla of giving herself to other boys, Katsuki wanted to do far worse than hit the guy in the nose. He'd wanted to blast his face in and watch it burn.

"I can't," Katsuki finally choked out. "If I tried to do anything…" Images of faces bleeding and burning from his blasts made him shudder. "I'll kill them. I won't stop at threats."

"What do you want to do about it, then?" asked the other boy.

Katsuki shrugged, feeling exhausted now that all the anger had seeped out of him. "You take care of it. She belongs to you now. Go…defend her worth. It's not my place to interfere."

"You know that she's not mine, Bakugo," Todoroki reiterated his words from the other day. "She doesn't love me, not like that. She probably never will." Katsuki didn't miss the "probably" tacked onto that sentence. Todoroki was making it clear he still clung onto some kind of hope they could be together. Katsuki could have been pissed at him for it, but…well, he wasn't the only one clinging to that same pointless hope.

Katsuki said nothing to this—there was nothing to say. Aisla's life no longer had anything to do with his own. Todoroki would have to be her knight in shining armor now. Katsuki… He was a stranger in a sea of identical people, all with the same meaningless existences. He didn't want her to suffer, not if he was being honest with himself. He'd never truly wanted that. But what right did he have to ease that suffering? What place could he possibly have in her world after everything that happened between them and everything that kept happening between them? Every day and every shitty interaction led him even deeper into that sea of obscurity as far as he was concerned. He was rapidly becoming a stranger to Aisla Haru.

"I don't know what I want," he whispered to himself. But someone was still there, taking a seat next to him silently while he contemplated his existence, being there in a way only she'd ever been for him. He didn't hate it as much as he wished he did—the existence of this other being. He didn't feel the same type of comfort or solace he used to whenever Aisla sat with him, but there was a familiarity in his presence that Katsuki kind of…maybe…sort of…appreciated in that moment.

It's nice to not be so alone for once, he thought as the two boys continued to sit in silence. For so long since his breakup with Aisla, he'd been completely alone. Sometimes this was by his own choice, but usually it was the startling fact that no one wanted to be around him. He'd been so angry, so bitter and cold that none of his friends could stand him. So, even though he still hated Icy Hot, and there was a part of him that believed he was definitely going after Aisla—whether or not she reciprocated his feelings—he felt alright with him by his side.

The sun soon dipped behind the trees, casting eerie shadows around them, and still neither boy moved or said a word. Finally, the sun disappeared, replaced by a sky as black as ink, and a stillness in the air that was almost palpable. No birds twittered, no creatures scurried along the ground, no breeze ruffled the leaves of nearby trees. The only sound that remained was that of their even breaths.

Todoroki didn't say a word. He rose to his feet, looked down at Katsuki, and offered a hand. An unspoken agreement passed between them as he let the other boy pull him to his feet. They wouldn't speak about this, and each of them was returning to his side of the division that separated them now—the rift that put Aisla so far away from him. They were walking back to the dorms, but also…Todoroki was walking back to her side, and Katsuki back to the side where he would stand alone.

When he finally got back to his room, Mr. Aizawa was standing right in front of his door with a scolding look. "You're late," he commented dryly, then his eyes flicked down to Katsuki's bleeding and scabby hands. "And you've been fighting again, I see. I told you if I caught you fighting again—"

"He wasn't."

They both turned at the unexpected voice. Blue eyes trained on the floor, blonde hair tangled between anxious fingers, and that lip clamped between teeth…

"Miss Haru?" their teacher said in surprise. "Do you have evidence of this claim?"

She shook her head, causing strands of blonde to hide her face from view. Katsuki fought the urge to reach forward and push it out of the way—he hated it when she hid behind her hair.

"I don't have any proof, sir," she admitted softly. "I just…know he wasn't fighting. Those injuries," she gestured toward him with a shaky hand, "they're scraped raw, like he was hitting something rough, not skin. A tree, maybe, or stone."

She's defending you? he thought in astonishment. Why would she do that after how he'd treated her? He certainly hadn't come to her rescue when she'd needed it. He simply let the rumors continue to float around them and ignored them with a steel heart.

"She's…not wrong," he muttered lamely. The anger inside of him was still dormant for now, leaving him feeling like nothing more than an empty vessel. He was too tired to argue with Mr. Aizawa or fight with Aisla. He just wanted to collapse into bed and never wake up again.

"Put some bandages on it and go see Recovery Girl in the morning." Mr. Aizawa turned and walked away, leaving Katsuki alone in the hallway with the girl he'd been avoiding for weeks.

For an immeasurable amount of time, they stood there in complete silence. She was standing so close—close enough to reach out and brush that silky golden hair that he used to run his fingers through. And yet…she was also the farthest from him that she'd ever been. The rift between them was a chasm. Was it possible…? If he said the right thing or reached out… Could he leap across to her? Would her hand be waiting?

He didn't get the chance to find out.

"Goodnight, Bakugo," she murmured before striding past him and disappearing into her room without another word.

Bakugo… he thought as he closed his own door behind him and pressed his back against it. The word echoed across the vastness, and he watched with dread as the divide stretched farther, walls crumbling on each side. That's not what you call me…

Katsuki woke up angry. Whatever demon or yokai or whatever that had possessed him last night had chosen to leave his body, bringing him back to his normal, irritable self. As soon as the sun peeked in through his blinds, his eyes flew open like he'd been shocked by one of Kaminari's bolts of electricity, and he instantly felt like he wanted to pummel someone.

When he put on his uniform, a button broke off on the jacket, leaving a weird, lopsided hole in the center. He didn't have the time or the knowhow to fix the thing, so he just left the jacket in his room and decided he probably wouldn't be suspended for not wearing it if he explained the problem.

At breakfast, they served rice and nato, which was one of the only foods that made Katsuki sick just from smell alone. He went green in the face and gagged when the tray was handed over to him. He pushed it back and held his nose between two fingers as he bolted from the room.

"Detention," Aizawa ordered as soon as Katsuki walked through the door during first period. The pro hero hadn't even bothered to look up from his paperwork to deliver the blow.

"What the hell for?!" Katsuki demanded as he balled his hands into fists.

"That's two detentions now. Keep talking and I'll make it five."

Katsuki scowled so hard the space between his eyebrows pinched in pain. He stomped to his desk, ignoring the blonde girl who did not look up at his approach. For some reason, that bothered him. Sure, he was doing the same damn thing, and it wasn't like she hadn't been distancing herself from him for weeks now… But a part of him thought that after she'd defended him last night, she might have decided to talk to him again.

"Goodnight, Bakugo…"

That was right. There was no point in hoping.

He huffed as he sat down and slumped in his seat. Of course, she wouldn't talk to him. She'd called him by his surname again, that thing she only did when she was really upset with him. That one simple word affected him more than it should have, considering no one besides Aisla—and sometimes Kirishima—called him by his given name. It wouldn't have been as much of a shock as it was, if he didn't know for a fact that she was doing it to hurt him.

You don't deserve to hear her say your name, he thought angrily. They weren't a couple, and as of right now, they weren't even friends anymore. Of course, she wouldn't call him by his given name.

Loneliness crept through his veins and pulsed in his heart, bringing with it a sense of burning agony that had him clutching his shirt in a tight fist to try and stop the pain. He wasn't the type that needed a lot of friends, and he definitely never wanted a girlfriend, but after meeting Aisla and spending all of his free time with her, he was starting to realize—now that it was too late to matter—that he'd taken his relationship with her for granted. The way her face lit up whenever he came into a room, or the feel of her hand holding his, the eagerness to challenge him, even when she knew he'd probably beat her. And the way she said his name, so soft and sweet and full of emotion—not the cold, empty way she'd uttered his surname last night.

Now, Katsuki had none of that. He didn't see her in the halls or talk to her between classes. If she was drawing, he no longer got to watch the sketch progress into something awesome. He missed the times when they'd sit at the breakfast table and she'd let him suggest stupid little details that she probably hated, but she'd add into the picture anyway because he was the one to ask for it. And when Aisla would crawl into his bed in the dark of night and curl against him, her body so warm and comforting… Katsuki missed that most of all.

He let out a frustrated sigh, loud enough to earn him an arched brow from Mr. Aizawa across the room. He scowled at his desk and pretended to take notes while class continued.

He noticed that, much like yesterday, Aisla wasn't taking notes either. This came with the realization that she hadn't been doing that for a while now and Katsuki just hadn't noticed. Well, he obviously had noticed, subconsciously, but he hadn't given it much thought until that moment. She always took extensive notes on every subject—though arguably less than that damn nerd, Deku. Even so, Aisla sitting through class after class without recording a single word for days just wasn't like her at all.

"She's barely eaten in days…"

Shit… he thought, recalling Todoroki's words from last night. Katsuki had been a fool for thinking she was okay this whole time. She didn't show up for classes, and when she did, she sat there like a robot and refused to participate in anything that wasn't deemed a requirement by their teacher. He hadn't seen her in the dining hall since their fallout, either, but he knew Todoroki—and sometimes a few of the girls—would bring food to her room. Apparently, though he'd been unaware of this fact until a few hours ago, Aisla hadn't been eating the food brought to her. It hurt in a weird way, thinking about Todoroki offering Aisla comfort in her sorrow, even though that was how it had always been. Katsuki was always making her run into the arms of that bastard. After sitting with Todoroki last night, he didn't really believe they were secretly a thing anymore, but if that happened… Katsuki would have no one to blame but himself.

Once class was finally over for the day, Katsuki jumped up from his seat and made it halfway to the door before Aizawa had him wrapped up in his capture scarf.

"Detention," he barked.

Katsuki groaned.

"Sit down and start writing me a paper on what makes a successful hero," his teacher commanded as the other students started filing out.

Katsuki's eyes drifted to the right without permission and followed Aisla's retreating form, watching as she robotically gathered up her things and stuffed them back into her bag before slinging it over one shoulder. Her eyes stayed glued to the ground as she hurried out of the room, only to be stopped by Mr. Aizawa calling out to her.

She stood stiff as a board in the doorway, neither turning to meet their teacher's eyes, nor running away as Katsuki wished he could do. He wondered if maybe Aisla was getting detention, too, since she'd been skipping a lot of classes, but he knew better. Someone like her or Deku, who had pro heroes as their mentors, didn't get detention. It must have been nice to be someone's favorite.

"Miss Haru, please wait for me in the hallway. I need to discuss something with you before you leave for dinner."

"Don't I get dinner?" Katsuki grumbled as he dropped into his chair again.

"You can eat after you serve detention," Aizawa told him in an evil tone, eyes blazing like he was angry. Katsuki paled a little bit and decided that was a good time to open up his notebook. "I'll be right with you," he added in the direction of the door.

Katsuki heard no reply to this, but a moment later the soft patter of footsteps left the room, leaving them in complete silence.

Kill me, he inwardly moaned. Writing a paper wasn't the worst punishment he'd ever received, but he was feeling extra anxious today and needed to let off some steam. He wanted to go workout for a while and eat dinner, and maybe, if he was feeling brave enough, he'd find Aisla and let her know what he'd been thinking about all day in class.

It's about that note you gave me, he silently practiced. I just wanted to let you know that I've been thinking about it, and I've decided—

"Bakugo!" Mr. Aizawa snapped harshly, pulling him out of his musing. Katsuki shook his head and turned to find his teacher standing by the door. "You'd better stop spacing out and write your essay while I speak with Miss Haru. I don't want to find you sulking when I come back." Then he left, shutting the door behind him as he did.

Katsuki kind of wanted to just say to hell with the whole essay, but decided the sooner he got the damn thing over with, the sooner he could get out of there. He couldn't say if he was ready to face Aisla just yet, but he no longer wanted to avoid her if she happened to be around. If they ran into each other for some reason and they were alone… maybe he'd tell her what he thought.

Maybe I can try… If the rift between them got any wider, there'd be no recovery, would there? He'd be forever stuck, alone on his side of the chasm without even a friend to rely on while Aisla healed with Todoroki by her side. If there was some small thing he could do to prevent that, then maybe…maybe something…

"Goodnight, Bakugo…"

He broke his pencil at the unbidden thought just as Mr. Aizawa came back into the room. The pro hero let out a tired sigh and walked to his desk, rifled through a drawer, and produced an entire box of freshly sharpened pencils. He deposited the whole thing on Katsuki's desk.

"Don't think that breaking your pencil will get you out of detention," he warned. "I have two more boxes in my drawer you can break if you really want to try and test my patience."

Katsuki felt small under his teacher's steely gaze and had to force down a lump in his throat before taking another pencil from the box and setting it on the paper.

Two and a half hours later, Katsuki had finished the two-page essay. Mr. Aizawa looked equally annoyed and impressed that Katsuki had managed to write the whole thing before curfew forced him to stop. Aizawa allowed him to leave, and Katsuki made no hesitation in booking it out of there before his teacher decided to scold him for anything else.

His plan had been to go to the dining hall and get some cold dinner before making his way out to the woods, but for some reason the idea of food unsettled his stomach. So, rather than wasting time shoveling down food that had been sitting out for hours, Katsuki grabbed a granola bar and set out for the clearing he used to practice in with Aisla.

It was already well past dark, even though curfew was still a few hours away. Most of his fellow classmates would be inside—playing games, watching movies, or studying. Very few, including Katsuki, would dare leave the safety of the dorm to practice in the dark. Katsuki liked the added challenge, however, and he also appreciated that no one would be out to bother him this late. Deku usually kept his training to the front lawn, and anyone else would probably stay where they could still be in the boundaries of lights and sound.

Katsuki felt a smug satisfaction flood through him at the thought that he was one of the only students at UA brave enough to train in the dark. He really was one of the best hero course students. Everyone else could learn a thing or two from him.

A sudden, random image of Kirishima and his disgusting relationship with that hair chick made Katsuki's lips twist in irritation. That boulder had been with Rainbow Hair for a while now and they were still going strong, yet Katsuki and Aisla…

He shook off the thoughts and continued on his trek to greatness. He had to brush up on some of the moves he'd been neglecting for the last couple of weeks if he didn't want to risk forgetting them all. Not that he would—he was Katsuki Bakugo, after all—but it still didn't hurt to brush up on old skills.

Katsuki was just turning the corner into the clearing when the sounds of grunts and then a piercing shriek drifted over to him, stopping him dead in his tracks. He knew that shrill sound; he'd heard it countless times in this very clearing, had the sound memorized in his head like one of his own.

Aisla.

Katsuki's eyes widened in fear—fear for her. In his mind, he watched her body get hit from one of his explosions and slam into a tree, an incident he'd never truly gotten over since it had been all his fault. Then, he was reminded of the provisional license exam, when Aisla had plunged from that great height, and he'd been helpless to do anything.

"Aisla…" he tried to say, but his voice broke on the word and he wasn't able to get any volume behind it. His whole body was frozen to the spot, and he couldn't seem to remember how to make his legs work—to force them to move forward and go to her. Rumors were one thing, but that scream… That was terror in her voice. He needed to save her, needed to tell her that he l—

Giggling interrupted his thoughts and shocked his body back into reality. He gave a jerk of surprise, followed by a confused frown as his legs shook with the effort to move. Finally, he was able to put one foot forward, then another, and another, until he pushed through the last few remaining leaves barring his view from the clearing. When he did, he felt his whole body burn with some emotion he couldn't name at that moment. It was all consuming, tearing through every other feeling he had until all that remained was it.

Aisla stood in the clearing, but she wasn't being seriously injured like he'd assumed. No, she was tied up in one of Aizawa's capture scarves, except their teacher wasn't the culprit this time. That brainwashing freak was pressed chest to chest with Aisla, both wrapped up in the scarves as if Aizawa had captured them that way. But Katsuki had just been with his teacher, so he knew the pro hero wasn't around just then. Whatever had happened here was a product of the two of them training…alone.

He might have decided it was a freak accident and brushed it off—that happened sometimes during training, Katsuki was proof of that much—but then he saw Aisla tilt her head to one side and give Shinso a soft smile. It lit up her face, giving her an ethereal beauty under the light of the silvery moon. She was still giggling, too, and Shinso, even in darkness, was obviously blushing and flustered. The genuine happiness that radiated from her made his stomach twist into knots.

He slowly backed away from the scene before anyone noticed he was there.

Katsuki silently cursed Todoroki for being an idiot as he made his way back to the dorm. He'd made this huge speech about how sad and lonely Aisla was, yet here she was, throwing herself all over some other guy who wasn't even Katsuki or her precious Todo! She was smiling and happy, and didn't seem bothered in the least about rumors or breakups. She didn't care about anything. She didn't care about him.

"Of course," he grumbled aloud. Aisla didn't need him—not as a boyfriend, or a best friend, or even as a hero. She had Shinso as her boyfriend, Icy Hot as her best friend, and Eraser Head was her hero. Katsuki was nothing to her, and that was exactly how he'd always been destined to be. Being with a girl like that was nothing more than a pipe dream.

Katsuki wanted to believe that Aisla needed him, that she was the one person who did. He thought that he offered something to her that she couldn't get from anyone else, something that was meaningful and important to her. When she'd called him her hero, he'd thought that meant something more than just empty words—the onyx ring he still wore seemed to be proof of that. But that was a lie. Aisla didn't need Katsuki when she had so many other people around to take care of her. Katsuki was just extra baggage. No one needed someone like that.

Fortunately, no one tried to talk to him as he made his way up to his room with heavy limbs. He thought he might collapse before he even reached his door, but somehow he managed to get up the stairs and lock himself inside the safety of his own room. He stood in the spot just inside the doorway for a long time as he looked around the empty space. There were no pictures of him with his friends, no gifts he'd been given or notes he'd been slipped. All that was in his room was the reminder that he had no one. He was alone, something he hadn't realized until his conversation with Todoroki the night before, and when he saw Aisla in the woods with that asshole.

Wider. That divide was even wider, and now…? There she stood, so far beyond his reach that he knew he couldn't leap to her. Surrounded by friends, mentors, people who loved her and didn't try to hide it. And there was Katsuki on the opposite side without anyone. Without her.

Why do I even care so much? he wondered as he slipped out of his uniform and dropped it onto the floor without bothering to change into any sleep clothes. He walked into the bathroom in just his boxer shorts and stared at his reflection for a while, trying to decide what about himself he hated the most. It wasn't exactly a surprise that people didn't like him, but some deluded part of him had believed that Aisla was the exception. Clearly, she wasn't.

Katsuki continued to stare, but soon the image in the mirror took on a taunting look. He scowled back at it and flipped off the light before sulking back into his room. Homework was something he'd been putting off for a while now, but he was feeling too sorry for himself to do any of it, so he just crawled into bed and told himself that he'd probably get to it tomorrow.

I'm such a pathetic loser, he told himself. Pouting over some girl's rejection had to be the dumbest thing he'd ever done. So, what if she wanted to be all wrapped up with that general studies freak? It wasn't like she'd made some vow to Katsuki or something.

He twisted the ring on his right finger, then clenched a fist as anger replaced the melancholy of his mind. She'd given him this ridiculous thing for Christmas as…what? Clearly, not some promise. Of course, that wasn't what he'd thought when she first gave it to him, it had just been something weird Aisla would do. But the more he wore it, the more comments he received about his 'promise ring,' and the happier Aisla got when she saw him with it. She would purposely hold the hand wearing the ring and spin it with her thumb, then smile up at him with that heartbreaking smile of hers—the one she was giving Shinso just now.

Katsuki blew out a frustrated breath. He was spending way too much time dwelling on this Shinso thing. He just needed to go back to how things had been and live his life. Aisla was accepting their breakup fairly well, so Katsuki couldn't start acting like a little girl in return. She'd moved on to something better—someone who treated her well, paid more attention to her, and didn't get so angry all the time.

So, what if he had to be alone? That was how it had always been before he met her and became grudging friends with Todoroki. He could go back to that. He'd be fine…

Katsuki twisted the ring once more, then slipped it off his finger and studied it in the moonlight filtering in through his blinds. It winked back at him, reflecting the silver inscription on the inside of the band: Dynamight. #1 Hero.

He felt a crushing weight settle over him as he recalled the moment she'd given it to him, and the hope in her eyes as she waited for his reaction, ever eager to please.

"Do you like it?" she'd asked.

"I love it," he should have said.

"Sure, whatever," is what he'd muttered instead.

"She doesn't need me," he murmured into the darkness as he contemplated the memory. "The problem…is that I need her. And there's nothing heroic about that."

A/N: He gets it, folks. He's finally starting to realize what he's done by being all embarrassed about a love confession. Now, he knows that he really does care, more than he thought he did, and what that means for him. There's also this "divide" that they have unintentionally created between each other, neither one willing to close the distance. Will it get bigger until there's no hope left? Hmm. Theories, please!

Reviews:

MeMyselfAndI82907: Hahaha, I feel that on a personal level. I struggle writing for guys, as I am a girl XD. I try my best, though, and I hope it all seems natural and realistic! I just try to keep them in character as much as possible, and if it's an OC, then I use real-world knowledge to help me out, and read other fics for inspiration! Also, your comments always crack me up. Thank you for that! And for sticking around this long! It is much appreciated!

blasttyrant: Lmaooo RokiRu and ShinRu, oh no! I had a feeling there would be a few RokiRu shippers out there during this time period XD. ShinRu was also something that was brought to my attention as a possible ship. While I hadn't intentionally done anything to create that, I was told that their dynamic was wonderful nonetheless. People are going to start ganging up on you, Katsuki XD Better run, boy!

Beta: yellowchikadee

—Thanks for all your help with this fic! You're awesome!