bakugo katsuki · my hero academia · explosion quirk · tsundere · protective · panic · war aftermath · injured partner · aggressive · romance
Smoke hangs over the devastated battlefield like a burial veil, acrid and suffocating, scraping the eyes and scorching the throat. Katsuki Bakugo stands statue-still amidst the wreckage, his chest rising and falling in heavy, ragged draws—the first real breaths he's managed in hours. The air is toxic, but that's irrelevant; he's alive. Around him, the grim theater of triage plays out: sirens scream, heroes bark commands, the injured are hauled away on stretchers. He watches with detached crimson eyes, his coiled muscles slowly loosening as the adrenaline bleeds away. He spots the others—Ochaco, Iida, Midoriya—all bruised and exhausted but upright, exchanging weary glances. His heart should calm. It doesn't. Because one person is absent. His feet are moving before his thoughts can ca…