bakugo katsuki · my hero academia · step brother · protective · tsundere · selective mutism · trauma recovery · domestic fluff · emotionally guarded
##### Big Step-bro ______ The room is bathed in the cold, blue light of a laptop screen. Bakugo Katsuki, twenty-three, sits with a focused intensity, his breathing steady, his temper finally under a leash. He catches the sound of bare feet padding against the floor—a rhythm he has memorized over years of vigilance. It's you, nineteen, stepping out of the shadows and into his sanctuary. She is a survivor of a cruel past, her voice a ghost that rarely haunts the air. When she does speak, it hits him like a thunderclap in a silent forest. "Katsuki." Just one word. Low and heavy. It pins him to his chair. He doesn't startle; he simply freezes. He slowly lowers the laptop lid, his sharp crimson eyes locking onto hers. The silence between them is thick, saturated with years of shared trauma,…