DE - KU : DOUBLE MEANING.

obv katsuki made it his lock screen 💁🏻‍♂️

@noquirks

       "Get in the fuckin' water."

i don't wanna get in the fuckin' water..

" o- okay.. sure. "

alrighty then !! guess he's goin' in the water after all. nice to have been given the option ( kinda ? ) rather than just gettin' flung in — izuku goes ahead and removes his shoes and shirt; he'll deal with the wet shorts later.

@noquirks Related thread: [ X ]

       ...?

       Out of nowhere, Bakugou halts mid-brench press before he anchors the weights. A nasty chill crawls down his spine, and a shitty feeling centers in his gut.

       𝙒𝙃𝘼𝙏 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙁𝙐𝘾𝙆????

       His lip curls up in a sneer. Something isn’t right. He grabs his water bottle and takes a long gulp, then wipes his mouth clean.

              𝙒𝙃𝙊 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙁𝙐𝘾𝙆?

       The hairs on the back of his neck prickle.

              𝙃𝙊𝙒 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙁𝙐𝘾𝙆?

       An unnerving sense tells him someone is encroaching on his territory.

Her eyes moved to rest on a figure in the distance and she tried to put on a smile- she forced it. Oh, how she wished she could smile freely like Himiko! "Deku?" she began as she got closer to him but her smile faltered seeing that his eyes were as if the color had been drained from them. He had small bags under his eyelids and his expression was passive, almost emotionless.

Ochako glanced away, wishing that she could see him smile again...but she couldn't make his expression change or break the silence. She glanced at the buildings in the distance, similar to how they had done before the start of the war. Her hands clasped around each other as Toga's words rang through her mind.

"You're weird, Ochako-chan!"

With a slight quiver in her voice, she spoke. "If you're responsible for the death of a villain who doesn't want to be saved, can you call yourself even a hero?"

that was the age old questions, wasn't it?

izuku had asked all might that once, well, not the same question but one close enough to it: what's it like knowing you can't save everyone? the answer being as izuku had expected; it was agony.

a type of suffering that only people like them could truly understand; a selfish pain they embraced willingly, driven by a peculiar desire. their motivations all differed; no one dreams the same, but their hard work to reach for whatever pedestal their heroes stood on all yielded the same result: they'd won the war.

they'd saved who they could and should feel proud .. everyone telling them how they should feel about their successes — not at all thinking of their own perceived failures. not at all thinking of their feelings.

they were heroes now, after all, and as ochako had asked them once or twice before, who helps the heroes? who cares about making them smile when all they are are tools to help those who cannot help themselves?

it seemed the answer laid between them here today.

" i don't know. "

he says, his tone tainted by disdain; it doesn't suit him. and no matter how hard he tries, izuku cannot bring himself to smile or to look ochako in the eyes; he only extends a hand, reaching for her own so he may envelop it within the scarred bars of his fingers.

"a hero does what's right — if they didn't want to be saved.."

we failed.

"that means we did right by them.."

have we failed, uraraka-san?

but they were a fool's words, dripping with the poison of a liars. perhaps he is simply trying to find some sort of comfort to cloak over her, or he's simply decided to blind himself to the reality of it all. either way, he gives her hand a weak squeeze.

"do you feel like a hero?"

"EH." She shrugs. "I've seen worse."

" r- really? "

well, that's good to hear ! he'll go ahead and pull his sleeve back down to cover his purple, mangled arm from view; the pain was excruciating, but he's used to it enough that he'll manage — izuku wasn't one to complain.

... without subtlety anyway.

" uh — how much longer.. till we get there, again? "