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Shouto could still hear the taunting words on the back of his mind, the ones that had triggered his downfall, their downfall.
He knew his friends had no ill intentions when they had uttered them. His logical side knew that there was no way Midoriya and the rest could have ever imagined that their night would end up like this.
There was just no way.
Yet…
It’ll be fun, they had said.
This wasn’t fun.
This was horrifying. Sick. Twisted. Perverse.
And worst of all, Shouto was helpless to help him.
“K-Katsuki…” he whimpered, tears running down his face.
The love of his life didn’t move nor showed any signs of having heard him. Katsuki was lying on the floor, unmoving, resting almost peacefully on a pool of his own blood.
One of the monsters that had done this to them slapped Shouto across the face as another turned the camera toward him.
“Look, look. Look how pathetic the other one is. So much for a pair of pros.”
Another wave of anger ran through his body, and once more, he tried to move, but it was useless: both he and Katsuki had fallen victim to a strange quirk that seemed to nullify their quirks and left their bodies lax and numb… except for pain. That, he could feel it perfectly fine, amplified even.
They had fought, both of them had, but it had been useless: they could barely move.
Swallowing another cry that threatened to escape his mouth, Shouto closed his eyes as he could still remember how he and Katsuki (but mostly Shouto) had decided to turn an average night off, free from their duties, into a night date. It was uncommon for them to share a free night, their schedules barely met, but when they did, it was one of Shouto’s favorite moments. He had decided to give it a try, to make it something special. After all, their friends had insisted that even if they had always been together—or long enough to make it look like that—a date was still something light and fun that the two of them should enjoy.
So he had caved in and asked Katsuki for one.
“Can we have dinner?”
“Sure,” the other had replied nonchalantly.
“No, Katsuki, I mean going out. To a fancy restaurant, walk under the moonlight and then make love the whole night like we used to do.”
Katsuki had simply smirked and stolen his breath away with a searing kiss before booking a table for the two of them in a new place that had amazing reviews and was on everyone's lips. It hadn't been that hard: both were well-known heroes, who had been ranking in the Top 10 for almost five years by now, dropping their names had gotten them a table, almost instantaneously.
“There, done. I hope you truly meant that last part, Shouto.” The way Katsuki had sultry whispered his name against his neck gave him goosebumps, and a moan bubbled past his lips when the grip he had on his waist only tightened. “Because I’m going to pound into that perfect ass of yours the whole night and I’m honestly not going to give a single fuck about how much you beg me that you can't take it anymore.”
“…”
A playful nip on his bottom nip followed by more sensual promises made Shouto expose his neck to his lover’s mouth, and as Katsuki left his marks all over his pale skin, Shouto finally found his voice to reply to him.
“I hope so as well. I can’t wait for tonight.”
“Why wait? Let’s enjoy a little preview right now, huh?”
He had tried to struggle against it, but it wasn’t as if he was truly trying to push Katsuki’s touch away from his body. As Katsuki easily threw him over his shoulder and carried them over their bedroom, Shouto wiggled around and asked him to stop, that they had no time for this… yet his hands were already fondling Katsuki’s ass as his mouth watered at the sight of it. Katsuki could say that his ass was perfect as much as he wanted to, but for Shouto, perfection came shaped as Katsuki.
Once they had reached their destination, rather than play and pretend, keeping up his parade, he had simply ripped away his clothes and urged the blond to do the same. Katsuki had chuckled and, shaking his head, he had stood naked in front of a very eager Shouto, whose legs were wide open already, in a blink, as he licked his lips and observed the man on the bed.
In a twisted way, Shouto could still feel his lustful gaze and the warm touch of his lover all over his skin. He was truly sick, wasn’t he? Why was he recalling that now? Why now, from all the possible moments?
Katsuki was dying before him, and rather than help him like he was supposed to do as a hero and as his fiancé, he was crying like a baby, mumbling his name over and over as Katsuki slowly bled on the dirty ground while he was being beaten, teased, and filmed for who knows what stupid reason.
His chest throbbed, and he felt a new wave of nausea as he recalled the stellar moment of their night: Katsuki’s proposition.
They had managed somehow to arrive at the restaurant just in time, as they had had several rounds of sex and then a long make-out session in the shower to cool down and clean themselves… that had turned into another sex marathon as Shouto had got revved up as he saw Katsuki standing behind him in the fogged mirror they had over their sink. They were both unsatiable, had great stamina, and Katsuki always took what he wanted while Shouto was more than willing to offer; in other words, not the best combo for last-minute plans once they got into horny-land, but oh well.
Thankfully, they had managed to keep their hands to themselves as they got into their clothes and rushed towards the restaurant.
Katsuki hated being late to anything, so he had dragged Shouto all the way there, and as per request, they hadn’t taken their car, as one of Shouto’s wishes had been to walk under the moonlight.
Now he wanted to go back in time and slap some sense into himself, because if he hadn’t asked for that, this would have never happened. Instead, they would be in their apartment having more stellar sex as he stared with awe at the ring Katsuki had given him after dinner…
The food had been delicious, especially under the eyes and care of Katsuki, whose feet had played with him under the table. Shouto almost choked on the soup when he tried to slurp a spoonful of it, and a foot had pressed against his crotch. The blond had pretended as if nothing and so had tried Shouto, although a couple of little mewls had escaped his mouth.
“Tsk, is the soup that good?”
“Y-yes.”
“Yeah? Wanna share some with me, handsome?”
Blushing, Shouto had bit his lip and nodded as he leaned over the table to feed Katsuki’s waiting mouth. He had whimpered when he had seen those sinful lips caress the spoon, and his heart skipped a beat when that skilled tongue licked with such ease the metal. He squirmed in his place as he knew exactly how skilled Katsuki’s tongue could be.
When Shouto had leaned back into his chair, he had tasted Katsuki. Indirect kiss observed under piercing red eyes, as Katsuki's feet kept rubbing against his crotch, and the back side of one of his calves, making him shiver and moan softly.
It had been a memorable dinner, or so he had thought until Katsuki had pulled him in the middle of the street towards a less crowded one and given him a bruising kiss while he cupped his face and ordered him, “marry me.”
There was no other reply to that except “yes.”
After another kiss, this one sweeter and shorter than the previous, Katsuki had pulled away and shown Shouto a small black box with a simple silver band inside. As he had taken the velvety case, he had been able to take in all the details Katsuki had placed on the ring: a small explosion had been engraved on it along with a tiny snowflake and a flame.
“It’s us,” he had whispered breathless.
“Well, duh.”
Shouto’s vision blurred as tears started to pool in his eyes. He saw that he wasn’t the only one, as Katsuki, too, seemed to be having a hard time trying to keep his face impassive, but his eyes… Shouto could easily see the storm that was inside of them: the fire, the passion, and the unmatched love his man held for him.
“Let’s go home. I want to feel you,” he had whispered, unknowing he had just doomed them.
Katsuki had nodded, and after sliding the ring where it belonged, he had taken Shouto’s hand and kissed its knuckles before marching towards their home. Both were in such a hurry to reach it and in such a happy state that they had not seen how they were being trailed until it was too late.
“SHOUTO, GET DOWN!” Katsuki had pushed him and took the first hit, a punch square in the jaw.
“KATSUKI!”
Irked, he had tried to freeze their attackers, but it had been useless. No ice nor fire came from his body. Lost, he had stared with horror down at his hands and wondered what was wrong. A pained scream coming from his love had made him snap from his reverie, and as he had tried to move to help him, he had plummeted to the floor, joining him.
“K-Ka-Kat… s-su…”
A clapping behind them had made him stiffen.
“Don’t bother. You won’t be able to move in a long, long, loooooong time. Okay, do we have the camera on?”
“Yes, boss!” Another voice piped.
“Good, good… Okay, let’s begin. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our humble showcase of how pathetic heroes are! With me, we have Shouto and Dynamight, the stellar power couple that has captivated the heart of our beloved nation.
“On one hand, we have the gentle and approachable hero Shouto, while on the other, we have Dynamight, one of the top heroes in the list of heroes who look like villains.”
Every single second Shouto was forced to hear the guy, he felt angrier and sicker, and he knew Katsuki must be feeling the same.
“Now, now, heroes are the pride of this nation, and as such, we allow them a lot of privileges… but are they worthy of them? I THINK NOT! And tonight, I’m going to prove it. Can a hero be worth the title of hero if they can’t take care of themselves? Can another hero be worth the title if they are not even capable of saving the one they supposedly love the most? Ah, and because we’ve been lucky enough to take these subjects in particular, we can answer one final question that a lot of you have been thinking about: Is the relationship between these two lovebirds real or not?
“We all know how Dynamight is and how he treats Shouto in public… is their relationship a simple PR gimmick or is it real? Stay tuned to figure it out!”
This was a public humiliation. Shouto tried to move and winced as the more he moved, the more he felt his body getting numb.
They were dragged into another area, one that had more suitable lighting, or so he heard. Then he had felt a little bit more freedom of movement, and he had tried to use it to attack the asshole he had closest, but he had ended with a hard kick on the face, blood flying from his nose.
“SHOUTO! YOU BASTARDS! DIE, DIE, DIE!”
“Is that how a hero should behave?”
“I’M GOING TO FUCKING MURDER YOU! SHOUTO! SHOUTO! What have you done to him? Why isn’t he moving!?”
“Oh, don’t worry, we are just placing him under the effect of the quirk a little bit more than you. His quirk is more dangerous than yours in the distance after all. Well, now let’s begin our game… who is our volunteer?”
Silence overtook the place as Shouto frowned. Volunteer? He could assure these idiots that neither he nor Katsuki wanted to be here. He heard Katsuki’s curses but couldn’t manage to decipher them as his brain seemed to get fogged more and more. He felt the kick against his ribs and how they were lifting him from his hair as they started to slap and punch him.
“NO! NO! STOP!” Katsuki’s begging shattered his heart.
“Ooooh, so we do have a volunteer after all. Very well, Dynamight. Are you willing to take Shouto's place? Are you saying that you want to be the beaten one?”
“YOU FUCKING SICKO!”
The air got knocked out of Shouto as a harsh punch landed on his stomach. He retched as his dinner threatened to make an appearance.
“SHOUTO! Leave him alone, you bastards! I’m going to kill you, I’m going to kill you all!”
Another punch and a kick, and his dinner splashed the floor. Shouto was panting and groaning from the pain. He couldn’t understand why; he had taken worse beatings in his life, so why was he so weak now?
“K-Kat…”
“Well? What is it, Dynamight? Is your relationship fake after all?”
That made them snap. For Shouto, it was a hit way worse than any of the ones he had just taken, as he could still see the happiness in Katsuki’s eyes as he had asked him to marry him. He could still feel the loving caresses he had left all over his body just a few hours ago, and he could easily recognize his pain and despair as he had been yelling his name.
How did they dare to call their relationship fake?
They had no idea! Not even the least idea of how caring and gentle Katsuki could be. Even if he always scrunched his nose and played and pretended to abhor any show of love or PDA, he never ever pushed Shouto away whenever he had sought him. Whenever they watched a movie, Katsuki simply spread his legs to make space for Shouto to sit between them. He always took care of him whenever he had a nightmare, a rough day, or got sick. He always knew when Shouto was having a day and offered him whatever he might need, even before Shouto could grasp what he truly needed. Katsuki had bought him a bouquet of roses one day simply because Shouto mentioned that they looked pretty. He cooked for him, prepared him daily bentos, and left an array of little notes for him all over the place, from reminders to expressions of love.
Katsuki had shown Shouto everything he knew now about house chores and relationships.
Katsuki loved him.
Katsuki was devoted to them.
And he was just proving it right now as he was doing what Bakugou Katsuki never did: beg.
“Please, don’t hurt him anymore. Do it to me. Please, just let him go. Please.”
No.
Their eyes met. Shouto saw a mirror of his desperation in them.
No.
He tried to mouth it, he tried to scream it, he tried to move to shake Katsuki from his shoulders and yell at him that he was being a dumbass for saying that. Katsuki never gave up… he couldn’t give up now.
But he couldn’t move or talk, so he didn’t.
One of the men lifted him and forced his head to stand up, directly looking at Katsuki.
“Don’t close your eyes or we will start everything from zero, and you don’t want him to suffer any further, right?”
Shouto started to cry as he tried to fight the hold the man had on him, but he couldn’t move, his body was still paralyzed and quirkless.
Katsuki. Katsuki. Katsuki.
His heart pounded at the rhythm of his beloved’s name, and as the first hit struck that handsome face of his, Shouto felt a part of him dying.
As kicks and punches started to rain on Katsuki, he understood why Katsuki had done it: it was a hundred times worse to be the witness than to take the beating. Shouto threw up again as he saw how Katsuki’s skin broke, as he heard his little pained groans becoming louder and louder as they mixed with the crack of his bones and splashes of blood.
“No… stop… stop it please. Please. No. Y-you are going to KILL HIM! STOP IT! KATSUKI! KATSUKI!!”
His begging was met with his head being smashed against a wall, and now here he was. Crumpled on the floor, revisiting all the events that had led them to this very moment.
It was his fault.
It was Shouto’s fault.
Katsuki was no longer moving.
His harsh, pained breaths and the slight movement on his chest were the only proof he had that his love was still alive.
This was a torture cast upon the two of them, but why? Why them? They were heroes whose work was to save people. They were the good guys. Neither he nor Katsuki used their fame to take things just because. They lived a quiet, peaceful life in the same small apartment they had gotten back when they had started living together after graduating. They had talked multiple times about moving to a bigger one, but always declined it: their small, humble home held too many memories, and neither needed anything more.
Katsuki was Shouto’s home.
They could be living in a cardboard box, and as long as they were together, he would be happy.
“Kat…”
Stretching his hand towards him, he tried to move, and finally, his captor let him go. The impact against the floor hurt, but he didn’t mind as he started to crawl towards Katsuki. He needed to check him. He needed to touch him. He needed him.
“Well, looks like we have the answer to at least one of the questions: their love seems to be real.”
The hateful voice made ice pump through his veins, and as he realized this, Shouto quickly took it and created a wall of ice that separated them from those monsters that had decided to taint their night with a camera and a superiority complex, trying to prove who knows what.
“Kat… Katsuki? Pl-please, my love, d-don’t leave me. Please.”
A harsh wheeze coming from Katsuki’s half-opened mouth broke Shouto’s heart, as that was everything he got as a reply. Katsuki’s eyes remained closed, and his body unresponsive. As he heard the screams coming from the other side of the ice wall, he felt his body slowly regaining his senses. It seemed that the quirk that nullified theirs needed a visual to work.
Even if he knew that moving Katsuki was dangerous, he could hear those monsters’ screams and hits against his ice. He reinforced it, then gently began to drag Katsuki away, seeking help. He needed to find someone, anyone.
He did, and soon, Shouto found himself in a hospital getting treated for his injuries. But that didn’t matter.
He had failed.
As a hero.
As Katsuki’s partner.
He was a failure. Pathetic.
As he cradled his head in his hands and silently cried in the ER room, waiting for an update on Katsuki, the TV was cut out of the blue, and a broadcast hijacked all the channels.
As confusion overtook the room, it only took one second for Shouto to comprehend what was going on.
It was the voice, that hateful voice, that he knew he would never be able to ever forget.
“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our humble showcase…”
A parade of friends, allies, and police walked through Katsuki’s room, yet neither man paid them any mind. One, because he was unconscious, the other because he was trapped in a whirlwind of painful memories and mocking voices.
He had proved that man’s point, hadn’t he? The broadcast said heroes were unworthy and pathetic, and Shouto had just proved how pathetic he was. He had failed Katsuki. He had no redemption. He could never accept one.
Shouto finally reacted when Midoriya placed his hand over his shoulder and squeezed it.
“Todoroki-kun… I’ll find the men that did this to you, to Kacchan.”
He knew that, just as before, Midoriya had no ill intentions, but his words set Shouto off. Slapping his hand away from his body, he stood up and walked away from Katsuki’s unmoving form on the bed. He ignored everyone who tried to stop him and kept moving forward.
But it didn’t matter. No matter how fast or far he ran away, Shouto couldn’t stop seeing Katsuki lying unmoving on a pool of his blood or intubated on his hospital bed.
“No, Midoriya, you won’t be the one who finds them,” he darkly mumbled as an idea started to shape in his mind. Maybe he could… maybe he could atone himself after all.
Shouto spent his days between Katsuki’s bedside and the streets, chasing the ghosts of those monsters. He could feel himself cracking bit by bit as days passed by, and Katsuki remained unresponsive. Doctors kept saying it was only a matter of time before he woke up, that they had got him on time, and the scans and analysis showed he was recovering, but... But. Katsuki was still sleeping. Shouto’s only comfort was that the man was no longer intubated and the bandages seemed to be diminishing along with his swelling.
On the other hand, Shouto felt that his heart and soul were withering. He hadn’t told anyone about their new relationship status. The ring was safely kept on a little chain around his neck, which he constantly touched, seeking comfort.
He missed Katsuki. He missed his voice, his touch, and his eyes. He missed having someone on his side who knew him. He had never been too good at communicating, and Katsuki had never needed it to understand him. Well, that was a lie; at first, the gap between them seemed insurmountable, but after a little effort, they had made it. Opening up to Katsuki now was as easy as breathing because he knew that Katsuki would always have his back. He would never lie nor hold back.
They had managed that. The two lonely boys had done that… and now, all their work and effort, all those years they had shared together, overcame their differences, and the bumps along the road seemed to be gone.
Shouto was once more all alone.
Every second he spent next to Katsuki, he felt the burden cast upon his heart grow three sizes bigger. Maybe he should be out there, doing his job rather than waiting for Katsuki to wake up… but he needed to be here, he needed to be the first thing Katsuki saw, just as he needed to be the first one to see Katsuki, the real one.
Almost a week after the attack, Shouto finally found what he was looking for so desperately.
He recognized that voice and struck without giving any of them a chance to counterattack. He didn’t wait for reinforcements, nor for a visual: he would never forget that voice that haunted his worst nightmares.
Ice flooded the street and encased them all, but Shouto’s eyes were zeroed in on one subject in particular as he finally took him in. He hadn’t been wrong, of course, he hadn’t.
That voice.
He stomped his way there, grinning, and leaned over the man, whose eyes slowly filled with dread as he realized the man before him was far from the hero Shouto he had mocked that fateful night.
Smiling darkly, eyes unhinged, Shouto leaned over him as he gripped his face with enough strength to leave a bruise, nails nearly drawing blood. “Well, now let’s begin our game. Who is our volunteer?”
When Katsuki opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was Shouto. The man was peacefully sleeping on a chair next to his bed, head resting on one of his hands as his little snores filled the room.
“Oi, Shouto… wake up.”
Slowly, the other man fluttered his eyes open, and a bright smile appeared on his face as he took the other man.
“Katsuki, you are awake,” he whispered with awe.
“Tsk. What the fuck happened to me?”
Standing up, Shouto approached him, and with soft eyes and a gentle touch, his hand cupped Katsuki’s cheeks with all the care in the world as his eyes watered up and his lip quivered a little.
“It doesn’t matter anymore, my love. I took care of it. Now you only need to worry about getting well, okay? And don’t worry, I’ll be with you the whole time.”
“What the fuck do you mean?”
Shouto simply kissed him and smiled as his thumbs kept caressing Katsuki’s face.
Yes, according to the doctors, Katsuki’s recovery should take between two and three months. That was the minimum time he was supposed to be on leave. It was perfect, since Shouto, too, was on a two-to-three-month leave… well, Katsuki’s was medical while Shouto’s was disciplinary, but details didn’t matter.
“My love, do you remember proposing to me?”
“Huh?”
“I was thinking that we should do it soon. We should get married as soon as we can… I don’t want to lose you.”
His confession was met with a curse and then a searing kiss that unfortunately didn’t last as long as both parties wished it had, because breathing was still a need. “Yeah, I remember that and dumbass, of course we can, and you won’t.”
Brokenly, barely keeping his tears at bay, Shouto whispered, “You promise?”
“I swear on my life. I won’t ever leave you.”
“Okay.”
“… now tell me what the fuck have you done.”
Shouto chuckled and kissed Katsuki one last time as he knew that his husband-to-be was going to tear a new one on him once he was done explaining himself.
He would do it again. He would do it all over again.
Midoriya and his friends had been right: it had been fun, in the end, it had. He wished it hadn’t come to that, but it was what it was.
As Shouto lay on the bed with Katsuki, who kept scolding him for his reckless behavior, Shouto felt a tiny strand of connection growing with his older brother as his fingers mindlessly played with his ring… Revenge could be fun, but it was better when it was served ice-cold rather than with fire.
[fin.]