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"It's been a while, Izuku." Bakugo wasn't sure when he stopped calling Izuku 'Deku' and started calling him 'Izuku'. It felt wrong after a while, a nickname the boy would never be able to shake. "I finished UA today. Gonna be a pro hero soon."
"We'll be pro heroes together Kacchan! Just you wait!”
“Yea yea ya nerd, I’m gonna be the number one though! You’ll just be my sidekick!”
“Kirishima, Denki and I are planning to start an agency together. I know I’ve always said I’d do it with you, but I can’t. Not anymore.” Bakugo’s fingers drummed against his left thigh, hard from years of training.
“You would’ve been proud, if you were here.” Rain soaked Bakugo’s hair. He knew it would rain, and he had been right. On his walk it had started raining, but he didn’t bring an umbrella. Water helped him feel clean.
“Where were you, Izuku? I needed you. Where were you, dammit!” The graveyard echoed with Bakugo’s voice, his jaw clenched, tight, salty tears streaming down his face, mixing with the fresh rain. “You promise, you fucking nerd! You promised you’d be here! You fucking promised!”
The memory arose. It was the same one that has been repeating in his head, over and over, for a little over two years now. Fuck, it really had been that long, hadn’t it? Yet the wound was still fresh, and would likely never fade. Not until he was dead.
He didn’t remember much of that day. There was blood, screaming. Bakugo remembered that. Izuku’s normally happy and smiling face was bruised and bloody, his eyes cloudy. He knew the face by heart now, it being etched into his eyelids every time he closed his eyes.
“Stay with me, ya damn nerd!” Bakugo cried out, desperately pressing on the wound that covered Izuku’s stomach. The battle raged all around them, yet all that mattered was the boy underneath him, with a broken body and a smiling face.
“I’ll be alright, Kacchan. I always am.”
He was dying, and they both knew it. They both knew that no matter how hard Bakugo pressed, or how long he kept it up, Izuku was going to die. Yet Bakugo kept pressing, kept talking to Izuku, begging him to stay alive for just one more minute.
“C’mon, don’t you dare die on me now! We had a fucking promise, you remember that! We’re gonna become heroes together, the best the world’s ever seen!” Bakugo was shouting, but it didn’t register. His ears were ringing, his mind solely focused on the dying boy in front of him.
“Kacchan, I’ll be alright.” Izuku’s voice was weak and breathy, interrupted by a cough that made him wince in pain.
“Stop fucking saying that and stay with me dammit!” Izuku, the one who had been by his side since day one. Izuku, who had always supported him. Izuku, who was comforting Bakugo while he lay there dying. Izuku, who was smiling and reassuring Bakugo with that stupid nickname he always used. Izuku, who was Bakugo’s other half. Izuku, who was lying there dying. Izuku, who was lying there dead.
They had to pull Bakugo off of Izuku’s body, hours later. The battle was over, and his hands were stained with crimson blood. He had stayed holed up in his room for hours, days, crying. He almost didn’t go to the funeral. That would’ve made it real. It would mean he wouldn’t get up in the morning to training sessions, seeing who could outpace the other. It would mean that he would have no one who could match the level of spice he enjoyed on his katsudon. It would mean that his other half, his enemy, his rival, his friend, his lover, the person he knew would always be there for him would be gone.
He ended up going.
The funeral was nothing like Izuku. It was all dull, full of people dressed in black crying. Izuku would’ve cried himself if he were there, not being able to stand people being upset because of him. Bakugo didn’t cry, he refused to, knowing that Izuku wouldn’t have wanted him to be upset. He knew exactly what Izuku would say.
“The past is in the past, Kacchan. There’s nothing you could’ve done, so there’s no point in beating yourself up over it.”
He didn’t speak at the funeral. He wanted to, but what would he say? What could he say? How could one describe the pain of someone who had been there since day one, someone whose soul was intertwined with yours, how could you describe the pain of their death?
Bakugo stared down at the picture of Izuku’s smiling face, taken during the summer of their first year of high school. He couldn’t stand it. He was so happy, and he was dead.
“I hate you, Izuku. You left me. Why did you take the attack for me? I could’ve survived it, you shitty nerd. You should be here, dammit! You should be here! It was meant for me! Why? Why do you have to be so damn selfless ?” Bakugo was shouting again. Izuku hated it when he yelled.
A broken promise. Crimson hands. A stained heart. That’s all Bakugo knew now. His hands would never be clean, nor his heart nor his mind. All that remained now was Izuku’s broken, bloody smile.
“I’m sorry, Izuku. I’m sorry I couldn’t save you. I’m sorry you took the attack for me. I’m sorry you weren’t able to reach your dream, despite finally being able to. I’m sorry, Izuku.”
“Finish UA for me, yea?”
Bakugo had finished UA.
“Stay strong for me, Kacchan.”
He had. For two years, he stayed strong.
“Become a pro hero. Complete our dream.”
That’s where Bakugo would fail.
“I’m sorry, Izuku. But why keep a promise that’s already been broken?”
Kirishima would be the one to find his body. He already could see it happening, the knock on the door, the smiling face to one of horror. He knew Kirishima would scream, and Denki or Iida would be the first there. He knew that Kirishima would cry, probably collapse on the floor. He knew that Aizawa would be the one to cut his body down, find his note. He knew that Aizawa would understand. Aizawa always understood.
A broken promise. Crimson hands. A stained heart. That’s all Bakugo knew now. His hands would never be clean, nor his heart nor his mind. All that remained now was Izuku’s broken, bloody smile, yet soon a broken body would join it. Soon, the two twin flames would be reunited. Soon, all of his pain would be over. Soon, Bakugo knew, he would join Izuku. They would be together.
“I’m making my own promise, Izuku. I promise we’ll be together. Until the end of time.”
And with that, Bakugo turned away from Izuku’s grave to head to his dorm. He wouldn’t be here in the morning. He would be with Izuku, a broken promise complete.