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“Mr. Bakugou?” Rin says, gulping as she holds her tea in shaky hands. Bakugou merely glares at her over his own teacup, already seeming to decide he can’t get rid of her or her questions easily.
Shifting uneasily in her chair, Rin sighs. “The man, in all your pictures, with the red hair? That’s Kirishima Eijirou, isn’t it?”
Bakugou’s grip tightens on his teacup. “Where did you hear that name?”
Rin shrinks in on herself. “I— I read about him, while doing research. Grandpa says he was an amazing hero. And strong.”
Bakugou’s expression softens a little, his eyes going glassy. “The strongest.”
Rin gulps. “Can you— can you tell me about him.”
Bakugou groans, looking away from her and dragging a hand over his face. “You’re just as persistent as dumb Deku, aren’t you, brat?”
“Are you going to tell me about him or not?”
Bakugou sighs, leaning forward in his chair and pinching his brow. The more and more Rin sees Bakugou, the more she realizes that he does want to talk, he just needs to be asked first.
“He was my husband and best friend. We— we were unstoppable together.”
“What happened to him?”
“You read the reports, didn’t you?” Bakugou growls. Rin backs away.
“I wanted to hear it from you, sir.”
Bakugou sighs, looking at his hands. “Fucking Midoryias. Too curious for your own good.”
“Bakugou?”
He looks at her, his gaze completely heartbroken. “It was all my fault.”
The day was like any other.
Katsuki and Eijirou had been at the whole hero thing for a while, almost reaching fifteen years in the field. They had started their hero agency together, had risen through the ranks together, doing everything hand and hand, manic grins on their faces. They were getting older, that much was evident from the ghosts of wrinkles that started to form and the strands of grey hair they started to find. But not once did they stop, the two loving their line of work more than anyone else, especially since they got to do it together. Honestly, Katsuki doesn’t know if he would have gone on for as long as he had without Eijirou. Some of their friends had already begun to retire, starting families of their own with children of their own, but Katsuki and Eijirou kept going at it. They were there to remind each other of their limits so they didn’t break their bodies like Iida had, and kept things new and exciting for each other so hero work didn’t get boring and monotonous like it did for Kaminari. They pursued it with the same vigor they did when they were just kids, and always had each other’s backs to prevent the worst of injuries.
Katsuki didn’t know what he expected. Hero work was full of tragedies, and the two had come close to their own far more times than they could count. They’ve both spent their fair share of time in the hospital, anxiously waiting for the other to wake up, but sometimes it was hard to remember those moments when out in the field.
It was Katsuki’s fault, that day.
Everything always had to be Katsuki’s fault.
The two were facing off against some villain with an unknown quirk, but judging based on Katsuki’s sporadic explosions, they had pretty much figured out that it was something akin to Aizawa’s quirk, although they couldn’t pin down the exact pattern of how it was activated. The two were a bit worse for wear, taking far longer than they would’ve liked to realize their quirks were pretty much useless. Eijirou had a long, shallow gash crawling across his torso from the first time his quirk was cancelled, the villain slashing at him with everything he had.
But they were still winning. Katsuki grinned at Eijirou and Eijirou grinned back as they set up their next joint attack, this one being one of the few they worked on without quirks for scenarios just like this.
The two stood on either side of the villain at the top of a tall building, the wind whistling through their hair. The villain’s head swiveled back and forth, weighing which hero was the bigger threat and needed more of his attention. As expected, his gaze landed on Katsuki, deciding to ignore Eijirou (Katsuki always threw a fit about this, saying that his husband was stupidly strong and his opponents should recognize that. Eijirou laughed and said that the whole point of the plan was that they wanted them to go after Katsuki, so really it didn’t matter who the villain decided was stronger, as long as they could use it to their advantage).
Katsuki takes this time to use some of his flashy moves, darting after the villain and causing explosions left and right, obscuring the villain’s vision with a bit of smoke and debris. The villain coughed, his vision darting around to follow Katsuki, poised to fight as he tried to find his opening. Katsuki danced in front of him, darting left and right, throwing punches and kicks, then quickly backing away to throw off his balance.
The villain, finally fed up with the game of cat and mouse, roared, charging at Katsuki. Katsuki felt the moment his quirk got cancelled, his explosions coming to a stop as the villain pulled out a knife. He knocked into Katsuki with the force of a freight train, the man being far from skimpy, knocking him to the ground with a THUD. Katsuki’s head hit the ground, and he groaned, knowing that it would be a bitch to deal with later, but now was not the time. They had to finish out their plan.
The man holds up his knife, the silver blade glinting in the sunlight, seeming thoroughly convinced that he’d finally get the drop on the number one hero. He was sorely mistaken.
Just before the villain could launch his final attack, a firm grip latched onto his arm, stopping the movement. The man gasped, turning around to meet Eijirou’s glare, his fangs bared threateningly. The man howled as Eijirou twisted the knife out of his grasp, then blocked the following punch. Katsuki always loved this part, loved seeing the moment villains saw his partner and realized they really should’ve payed attention to the other one.
“Red NOW!” Katsuki shouts, grabbing the attention of the man once more. Eijirou throws his arm over his eyes just in time for Katsuki to release his stun grenade, effectively blinding the man, at least for long enough for them to neutralize the threat. The moment the flash is over, Eijirou is grabbing quirk cancelling cuffs and slapping them on one of the villain’s arms. Katsuki was ready to call the fight done.
But then, the villain did something unexpected. He exploded.
Katsuki blinked as he sees the man use HIS QUIRK to blast Eijirou away to the other end of the roof, dangerously close to the edge. An attempt to use his own quirk proves that he’s taken Katsuki’s power again.
Oh. So not like Aizawa’s quirk, just an annoying-er version of that idiot from Class B’s quirk.
Katsuki grunts as he stands up, immediately darting for Eijirou, but the villain’s faster now that he’s using Katsuki’s explosions. It’s fucking annoying to watch, the villain seeming to have learned to manipulate the quirk the same way he does, taking on his strategies and maneuvers. It was like first year Deku all over again.
Katsuki managed to get the drop on the villain, tripping him before he could reach Eijirou. In that short amount of time, Katsuki rushed for him, pushing his hair out of his eyes.
“You alright Ei?” Katsuki asks. Eijirou laughs breathily, nodding his head.
“His explosions will never be as powerful as yours, babe,” Eijirou grins. Katsuki snorts, shoving him affectionately before turning his gaze back on the villain, who has seemed to regain his bearings. He sees Eijirou get up as well, both of them poised at each other’s side and ready to attack.
“You looked really hot when distracting him earlier,” Eijirou says as his hardening ripples over his skin. “Reminded me why I married you.”
“Ei I thought we were too old to be flirting in the middle of a fight.”
“Never too old, Kats,” Eijirou said, flashing him that million dollar grin that was at the top of Bakugou’s list of reasons why he married him.
The villain sways as he approaches them, now holding two long swords, an upgrade apparently from his knife. A test explosion in his hand shows that the quirk doesn’t last for very long, making Katsuki grin.
“You ready, Red?”
“When am I not, Kats?”
Katsuki…. Shouldn’t have had as much faith in Eijirou as he did, shouldn’t have let the idiot protect him as much as he did. They… they had talked about it before, the protecting each other bit of hero work, and almost stopped being hero partners because of it. It was one of their greatest weaknesses, working as a team, although few villains knew how to exploit it. The fact remained that if Katsuki was in trouble, Eijirou would protect him, and if Eijirou was in trouble, Katsuki would protect him, no matter the cost.
This wasn’t any different.
The villain seemed to deem Katsuki’s quirk as the most useful and kept stealing the damn thing right under his nose, and this time wasn’t any different. Eijirou had been knocked back by the villain already before, having his own quirk used against him, another large gash springing on his arm, this one much deeper than the first. As Eijirou struggled to stand back up, the villain rounded on Katsuki, ready to charge at him. Katsuki began to light up his palms, only to realize his quirk wouldn’t come.
Shit.
Katsuki’s eyes darted around, trying to think of a way to counter the villain’s incoming attack in a way that was productive. He was pretty much shit out of luck when the villain came at him, palms blazing.
Everything from then on happened in slow motion. Katsuki saw the villain come after him, but his movements were too slow, his reactions seeming to get foggier and foggier as the fight wore on, no doubt from his potential concussion he got earlier. Seeing this, Eijirou immediately jumped forward, hardening rippling over his skin as he pushed Katsuki out of the way, taking the brunt of the explosion, which was more powerful than the last ones seemed to be.
Katsuki forgot how close they were to the edge of the roof.
When the smoke cleared, he saw Eijirou, dangling over the edge by a single clawed hand stuck into the cement on the side of the building.
“EIJIROU—“ Katsuki shouted, running after him, but the villain grabbed onto him, yanking him back. Unbridled rage coursed through Katsuki’s body as he turned on the man, aiming one of the strongest right hooks he ever has in his life straight at his face. The villain went down, and Katsuki didn’t wait a moment longer. He darted to the edge. To Eijirou.
Eijirou looked up at him, seeming relieved.
“Oh good, you’re okay,” Eijirou said, smiling up at him as if he weren’t dangling from a building.
“Ei— gimme your hand. Let me help you up,” Katsuki responded tiredly.
Eijirou didn’t need to be told twice. He swung his other arm to Katsuki, clasping his hand tightly.
“My hero,” Eijirou said, grinning toothily. Katsuki rolled his eyes.
Then— then Eijirou’s other hand slipped. He lost his grip on the wall, suddenly swinging very dangerously over the edge, dragging Katsuki a bit closer to the side too, the only thing keeping him up now being Katsuki’s hand in his. The two gasped, adrenaline coursing through their body as Katsuki regained his balance.
“Why the fuck did you let go of the wall, dumbass?” Katsuki shouted, his heart beating erratically as he watched Eijirou swing.
“I didn’t— my quirk. Fuck, he cancelled it again.”
“It’s fine. Fuck— let me pull you up,” Katsuki growls, bracing himself and starting to pull. His muscles were exhausted, his arms tense from all the explosions, but still he tried, with what little strength he had, to pull Eijirou back on the roof.
But Katsuki had his own injuries, and one on his leg decided to flare up right at that moment, causing him to stumble.
Eijirou slipped a little further, Bakugou now being face down on the ground, desperately holding on to his partner.
“Katsuki!” Eijirou shouts, his breath coming out in quick spurts as he looks down.
“Crap— Ei— C’mon look at me it’s fine, I got you.” And Eijirou does look at him, with those big red eyes that hold so much warmth and adoration for him.
Katsuki can’t let him fall.
He grunts, trying to at least get back on his knees, holding tightly onto Eijirou.
“Kats—“ Kirishima gulped. “Your hands are sweaty…” he said as he readjusted his grip.
“Fuck— I know Ei I can’t help it just gimme—“
“KATS—“ Eijirou gasps as his hand slips a little further. Katsuki shouts in fear, trying to squeeze harder, desperately trying to keep his grip, to pull Eijirou back onto the building, to save him.
He slipped.
And Katsuki is left with nothing else but to watch in horror as the love of his life free falls through the air, arms reaching up for him as he screams.
The building wasn’t that tall. Sure, it was tall enough that it was a height, but with Eijirou’s quirk, especially with unbreakable, a fall from that height wouldn’t have killed him. He’s fallen from greater heights and has come out unscathed.
But, however the villains quirk worked, it allowed him to take Eijirou’s quirk at exactly the right moment.
Katsuki doesn’t remember how the villain got locked up, all he remembered was rushing down to the ground level, using his explosions to get there faster, and look for Eijirou in the wreckage of the already torn apart building from the earlier scuffle. He called out for him, hoping to hear Eijirou’s voice, knowing that he could survive a fall from that height.
He remembered finding Eijirou’s body, surrounded in a pool of his blood, body broken and eyes still looking skyward, as if still putting their trust in Katsuki.
Katsuki remembered his sob as he clung to Eijirou’s lifeless body, not caring that his clothes were getting soaked in blood, and begging him to wake up.
He remembered the paramedics trying to pull him away from his Eijirou, saying they need to look at his wounds, but Katsuki refused to leave him.
Then… Katsuki remembers nothing. The hospital, the reports, the interviews, all of it passed in a blur, the only distinct memory being Katsuki getting back from the hospital and sobbing in their empty apartment.
Two days after Eijirou’s death, Katsuki announced that he was retiring.
Three days after Eijirou’s death, nobody heard from him again.
Rin hadn’t known Bakugou very well, even in the short visits she got from him, but it still felt uncharacteristic to see him this quiet, with silent tears running down his cheeks as he finished his story. In her visits, Bakugou had been quiet, but this was something else, and it was most certainly far from the flamboyant youth she’s heard about from her grandfather.
This Bakugou was heartbroken and mourning, shutting himself out from the world, because there was nothing left in it worth living for.
Rin scoots closer to him, placing her hand on the armrest of his chair.
“It wasn’t your fault,” she says. Bakugou growls, turning his head away.
“Of course it was.”
Rin is silent for a moment. Then…. “Mr. Bakugou…. You need to move on.”
Rin should’ve expected him to kick her out of the house after that.