#iwar

You nodded, keeping your gaze focused on the wood grain. Your mind was elsewhere, dreaming about being free, the wind pushing your hair back as you let your horse run to his heart's content. A herd of buffalo coming to run in by you both as the sun set over the mountainside. A sudden jolt to your shoulder tore you out of your fantasy as you looked up at your father with narrowed eyes.

“You know,” your father began, letting his hand drop from your shoulder as he pulled his handkerchief out of his back pocket, “I shouldn’t be havin’ to tell you this. Your sisters had no problem bein’ wedded off to their husbands. Why can’t you be like them? Fall into your role as a woman?”

You grit your teeth, flashing him a sharp glare. Hot anger erupted in your belly as you quickly stood, the wooden chair scraping loudly against the polished floors. “Fall into my role as a woman?” You seethed.

Your father’s cheeks puffed out at your sudden outburst, “you are in your twenties, Y/n. No cowboy is gonna sweep ya’ off yer’ feet like you like to dream about,” he jeered, his upper lip curling into a sneer.

You wrinkled your nose at his comment, “I don’t need a cowboy to sweep me off my feet, I am perfectly capable of getting up on a horse and-”

“Now you cut that out!” your father snarled, pointing a pudgy finger in your face, “no one wants to hear that independence shit. Here’s what's gonna happen, you’re gonna get into that damn dress your mother bought and you are gonna dance with Monoma and let him court you or so help me God. I should not have my last daughter still living in my house. All of your sisters have already married and have children, it’s time for you to do your part!” he finished, his chest heaving as he waited for your rebuttal.

You huffed, realizing that you truly had no other option. Your heart clenched painfully in your chest at the thought of letting your dream go, but in some twisted way, your father was right.With a disgruntled sigh, you left the dining room and headed towards your room to get ready for your father’s stupid campaign ball.

------

Unbeknownst to you and the rest of your family, this ball was more than it appeared to be. Your father had planned to try and rig the community poll so he could be mayor for another four years. Just so he can continue to swipe taxpayer money under the table. Therefore, that was why it was so important that you were married off to the right young man.

Neito Monoma.

The son of a huge crime boss in a major nearby city and one of the largest merchants in the state. If he was successful in handing you off to the Monoma’s then he would have his votes and probably the most important part of the deal. Safety.

A few years ago he had swindled a well-known group of bandits out of three grand when he hired them to make him look good for his first election. He managed to evade them since then, but he knew his time was up. He was in far too deep and you were his last chance.

His unruly eldest daughter who for some reason would not fall into her role in society. He nervously bit his nails as he looked up towards your room on the second story to see you and your sister talking. Everything he had was resting on you tonight.

------

“You look beautiful,” your younger sister said as she adjusted your sage green dress. It was made of silk and shimmered as the evening light reflected against it. “You know,” she mused, “I’ve always thought that you would have been the first to get married.”

You scoffed, “are you kidding?”

She shook her head as she took a step back from you to admire your dress and hair, “I’m not, you’ve got this spirit about you that turns heads. I know you know how many men have come to father asking to court you.”

You snorted, shaking your head as you smiled at your sister. She was too sweet to be related to you, “well thanks, I guess.”

She laughed, holding a hand over her swollen belly, “you’re welcome, now go and have fun. I’ve heard that Monoma is quite the talker.”

Your shoulders slumped. Monoma. You had certainly heard he was a talker, a foul one at that. The thought of being near that dog turned your stomach. “I’ll try,” you said bitterly as you moved to put on your boots. Thankfully, your long dress hid them, and it was much better than wearing heels.

Your sister shook her head, eyeing your muddy boots, she then glanced out your window. A large crowd from town had already started to head into the house. “We better head down there before father gets mad.”

You nodded, trying to rub the sweat that accumulated on your hands on your dress, but to your distaste, you found that the silk was no help whatsoever. Your sister opened your door and you both headed down the winding set of stairs, plush with fabric. You could see Monoma already, he was sticking out like a sore thumb in the middle of the crowd.

He looked ridiculous with his crisp white cowboy hat paired with a white pair of chaps. He was laughing at something your father had said and graciously took a cigar from his father and placed it between his lips.

“I can’t do it,” you hissed, yanking your sister back towards you before she headed to the kitchen to watch over all your little nephews and nieces.

She gave you a lopsided grin, “yes you can. Look, once you're married, you don’t even have to worry about liking him, really. He’ll be working and you’ll be able to do what you want when he’s gone. Just go, Y/n,” she said as she gave you a light shove.

You stumbled forward grumbling under your breath as the crowd parted for you. Then before you could even comprehend your father, Monoma and his father, Vlad, were right in front of you.

“Y/n,” your father said, smiling at you, but his eyes flashed with mild irritation, “we’ve been waiting for you!”

You took a slow breath before smiling brightly. “I apologize, we had to make sure everything was perfect,” you explained in a syrupy voice as you batted your eyelashes at Monoma who tipped his hat at you.

Your father’s grin grew large. This woman in front of him was definitely not acting like you, which he was extremely thankful for. You were finally playing your part. “Hah, well you know how women get with dresses and such,” your father joked with Vlad who let out a hearty chuckle.

You smiled again, but you just imagined kicking all three of them in the balls with your steel-toed boot.

“That’s quite all right,” Monoma said with a small smile as he puffed on his cigar. He ran his gaze across your form, his grin growing larger, “I think it was worth the wait.”

“I’d say so too,” Vlad said. “She’s certainly beautiful,” he added, another hearty laugh bubbling past his lips.

Monoma nodded and smiled down at you as he extended his hand, “you sure do look stunnin’ in fact, do you mind if I have this dance, miss Y/n?”

Oh, how you wanted to bend his wrist back at an odd angle, but instead you politely nodded, “yes please.” With gritted teeth, you slipped your hand into his soft one as he pulled you to the dance floor.

The feeling of his sickly hot hands groping at your sides made your stomach turn as he pulled you close. The urge to run was strong but the feeling of being watched so close made you stay and endure it. And you did endure it and all of its terribleness. The sharp smell of whiskey on his breath as he exhaled on your cheek, the pinch of his fingers against your hips. The brush of his lips on your ear as he pulled you up close. Monoma was too much to handle.

However, luck seemed to be on your side tonight, and soon a whole dance circle formed around you both, and you were passed from man to man. They were all, in your eyes, much better than being with Monoma. After some time you politely excused yourself to the kitchen to get yourself some water.

Once you passed the double swinging doors that lead to the kitchen, you relaxed, and hastily grabbed a napkin to wipe the sweat off your forehead.

“Goin’ good?” your sister asked as she balanced a squirming toddler on her hip.

You frowned, “what do you think?”

She held up her free hand in defense, “okay okay, but remember this is good for you.”

You rolled your eyes as you took a hearty sip of water. “Is it though? I really can’t see myself being able to live like you, It’s just not me.”

Your sister sighed, a smile gracing her soft features, “I know. You aren’t like us and you never will be, but Shindo and I were talking and we think that this may be a little bit more than father trying to find someone for you to marry.”

You quirked an eyebrow, “what do you mean?”

Your sister leaned in close and kept her voice low, “Shindo overheard father talking with Vlad and they were talking about money and that group.”

You hummed, your curiosity peaked. “Did he now? Well, Vlad is from the city, I mean he looks about as sly as they come.”

Your sister frowned, “I hope father hasn’t done anything rash.”

You snorted, “well if he did, that’s his fault for gettin’ caught up in something.”

--------

“Richy boy,” Vlad said as he gazed down at your father, his crimson eyes almost glowing from beneath his black hat as he puffed on his cigar, “why have you been hidin’ that daughter of yours away for so long?”

Your father chuckled and wiped the sweat off his forehead, “ah well she’s got a strong spirit, mellowed with age y’know,” he answered.

Vlad narrowed his eyes, “she’s not one of them feminist is she?”

Your father shook his head hard, “no! She just spends a lot of time outside, that’s all. She’ll be perfect for Neito.”

Vlad nodded, exhaling a cloud of smoke into your father's face, “Good. Havin’ a pretty face around is good for business. Speakin’ of business, my boys have got your polls rigged. You should be all set.”

Your father grinned, a look of relief flashed across his features. “Thank you, I appreciate it, really.”

Vlad chuckled, “eh it’s easy money for me, you country folk are pretty simple.”

Your father gulped as a few notorious faces flashed in his mind, but he pushed the thought of them away and nodded, “yes! Not much happens here.”

“Just how I like it,” Vlad replied with a smirk.

--------

About two hours had passed since the party had started and you now found yourself in the back garden with Monoma. He was obviously drunk which was not very appealing to you.

“You know,” he began, his voice slurred as he held your upper arm in his clammy hand, “you’re lucky that our fathers planned for us to meet. You’ll never have to work a day in your life and you can get out of this dump of a town.”

You pressed your lips into a flat line, obviously displeased. “I see.”

Monoma raised his eyebrows in mild shock, “you seem displeased? I’m right.”

You mulled your next words carefully so as to not anger him, since you could already see a vein starting to pop out of his forehead. “No, of course not. I’ve never been cut out for work.” you lied. It was really the opposite. You were outside every day tending to the garden, feeding the cows, riding whenever you got the chance. Granted if your sunned skin and the dirt under your nails from digging in the garden before the party didn’t show how hard you worked, then you figured the man in front of you was not very observant.

“Clearly not,” Monoma began as he kicked one of your tomato plants, “most women aren’t cut out for work, and if they are they are usually brutish and leathery,” he said, wrinkling his nose as he spat into the garden.

You watched with narrowed eyes as a fat glob of his spit rolled down the scarlet red skin of one of your tomatoes. The nerve. He had no respect.

“They’re not delicate like you,” Monoma purred, placing his hand under your chin and turning your head towards him.

You squirmed, hating the feeling of his clammy hands on your face. He took a large step towards you, invading your space as his hot breath fanned your skin. He was looking at you like a piece of meat. Once his hand traveled down the small of your back towards your ass the frayed string inside of you snapped.

With a snarl of defiance, you tore yourself from his grasp, making him stumble a little.

“What?” Monoma slurred, a smirk growing across his features, “you shy? That’s okay, we’re gonna get to know each other real well soon, and I know under all that silk you’ll be a good little wife for me.”

A bitter laugh bubbled up out of your chest as you folded your arms across your chest, “I don’t think so.”

“You don’t think so?” Monoma asked, the vein in his forehead starting to bulge again, “you don’t get to tell me what to do, woman.”

“Woman,” you repeated, your voice venomous as quickly slapped away his hand that went to grab you. “The nerve you have,” you snarled, taking a few steps back as he started to march towards you.

“You’re acting like a bitch,” Monoma said, his face turning red, “no wonder you haven’t been able to get married, no man wants a woman that’ll sass em’. You’re lucky I’m so nice,” he hissed, “but don’t worry I’ll put you in your place.”

“You will?” you asked, inhaling sharply, completely unaware of the shuffling of clothes and the soft pattering of hoofbeats behind you. “You are such a fucking asshole.”

With your hands balled into fist, you marched towards him and roughly yanked at the collar of his shirt, pulling him down to your level. “You think you can threaten me, daddy’s boy? I’m not scared of you,” you said, flicking off his cowboy hat from his head. “I don’t think this arrangement is gonna work out between us. For starters, I am not going to roll over and let you degrade me like I’m some kind of dog. Secondly, women who work are far from brutish, and judging by the cheap hat and your freshly pressed clothes, it's easy to see that you’ve never worked a day in your life. Lastly, if you ever try and touch me again I will break your shin with my boot,” you said, placing the hard toe of your boot against his shin.

Monoma gulped, his eyes were wide as his gaze jumped between you and the top of your head. With a grunt he pulled himself away from you and stumbled to the ground, his fingers digging into the soft earth as he tried to run away.

You grinned, finding satisfaction at his scared expression, and you folded your arms over your chest in victory. “Scared? I’m glad, now go run along to your daddy. I’m sure he can find you another damn wife.”

Monoma let out a whimper and attempted to scramble away from you. His shiny new boots were starting to grow dull from the dirt he was kicking up.

You were about to say something snarky again till a large hand landed on your shoulder gathering your attention.

“Fuck me, you’ve got the mouth of a sailor, princess,” a deep voice said from over your shoulder.

You stiffened, eyes wide as you glanced up at the man behind you dressed in a black starch top with a burnt orange bandana wrapped around his neck. He was wearing worn jeans under his black chaps and a pair of black cowboy boots that seemed to have some dried blood splashed on the heel by the spurs.

Your gaze traveled back up to his belt that was adorned with a large metal longhorn skull on the buckle and then to his face.

It was one you recognized from the wanted posters in town.

He was grinning at you with a perfect set of white teeth accentuated by honey-tanned skin. Blood red eyes were narrowed with interest as he gazed down at you and pale blond tufts of hair stuck out from beneath his black cowboy hat.

“What?” he began, running his tongue along his bottom lip, “don’t tell me you’ve lost your voice now, princess.”

You shook your head as he dug his fingers into your shoulder, “no,” you said, trying to sound confident, but the waver in your voice was evident.

“No?” he taunted, as he took a step forward, taking you along with him. “You were doin’ so well, by all means,' ' he began gesturing towards Monoma on the ground, “tell him what a sniveling brat he is. Bastard obviously doesn't know how to treat a woman right, isn’t that right princess?” he added, blood-red gaze sliding back to yours.

You twiddled your thumbs and swallowed thickly as you looked down at Monoma, “uh,” but your voice died down to a whisper.

“Aw sorry, you scared?” he asked, giving your shoulder a rough pat, “that’s okay, I’d be pissin’ my pants if I were you.”

You blinked as your gaze turned towards Monoma who was being tied by two other guys. They were also dressed in black but the one with red hair had a red bandana and a maroon hat and the other one had yellow hair with a golden bandana and a tan hat. A finger snapped in your face, making you flinch and you looked up again.

“You gonna answer my question, you scared?” he taunted.

You squared your shoulders, not wanting to let another man push you around. “No I’m not scared,” you said evenly, holding his gaze.

“You know who I am?” he asked, craning his neck to look down at you fully.

“Who doesn’t,” you answered nonchalantly.

“I like that answer,” he said with a bark of laughter. “You sure you aren’t scared,” he asked for a third time, his gaze flickering between you and his other men.

You shook your head. Of course you were scared, but you were also somewhat excited that they showed up. This outlaw next to you might as well be your knight in shining armor right now.

“Well darlin’ you should be, everyone with a brain is scared of Katsuki fucking Bakugou,” Bakugou said lowly as he guided you back towards the house. “Now don’t go runnin’ off on me, alright?” he said as the guy in the redhead kicked in your backdoor and threw Monoma on the ground.

The crowd in the house gasped and instantly Bakugou yanked out his pistol and shot a bullet into the ceiling making everyone scream. He grinned and brought his arm down and yanked you forward in front of him, “now nobody freak out or we’re gonna have a fucking problem,” he snapped as he moved into the middle of the room, “anyone knows where that sniffling mayor is hiding, I got a few words to share with him.”

“Hey!” Vlad shouted from the other end of the room, “what the hell are you rednecks doin’ with my son. Get your damn hands off of em’!”

“Kirishima, shoot the blondie if his pops comes any closer,” Bakugou said coolly, his blood-red gaze cutting to the tall redhead.

Kirishima nodded and slammed his boot down on Monoma’s back while he pulled out his pistol. Monona let out a cry, flinching away from the barrel of the gun in his face.

“Now,” Bakugou began as he tapped his boot against the wooden floor, “I don’t want anyone to interrupt again or this little lady is gonna not be so pretty after she meets my pistol.”

You froze, eyes wide as the tip of Bakugou’s pistol was pressed into your back. At the word of that, your father spilled out of the crowd and onto the ground, tears rushing down his round face.

“Please, Bakugou, please don’t hurt my daughter!” he cried, “please!”

“You gonna pay me the money you owe?” Bakugou snarled as he took a step closer to your father, “you swindled us out of three grand, old man. That was not very fucking nice.”

“I-I don’t have the money to pay you back, b-but once I’m mayor again I can! I promise that’s why I was marrying Y/n off to the Monoma’s. The polls were rigged for me!” he admitted, “please don’t kill me.” he muttered, “I don’t want to die.”

“Now isn’t that fucking sad,” Bakugou sneered, “sell your daughter to a rat for money?”

You blinked, tears filling your eyes, “dad? Tell me that’s not true.”

Your father looked up at you from the floor and nodded, “I’m sorry, I needed the money and you were never gonna find anyone on your own. It was the perfect opportunity.”

You swallowed thickly, “I can’t believe you.”

“Forgive me please,” he pleaded.

You looked away from your father, anger boiling in your stomach. He wanted to sell you like cattle? Just because he owed money to Bakugou? You were speechless, you didn’t like your father, but you didn’t think he would stoop this low.

“You know what Richy,” Bakugou said with a huff, “I’ll give you a month to get the damn money, and for a bit of motivation for your fat ass, since you like to take your fucking time, I’m gonna take this-” he began and before you could even register Bakugou had easily slung you over his shoulder like a dead deer, “for some fucking leverage. If you don’t get me the money by then you’ll never see her again. Got that?”

“Wait a second,” you sputtered, gripping the rough cotton of Bakugou’s shirt between your fingers, “you can’t just take me like this!”

Bakugou snorted, “I can do whatever I fuckin’ want, sweetheart.” With that he patted the back of your thigh as he swept his gaze over the spooked crowd, “One month,” he spat out, voice venomous as he turned on his heel and headed back out the door.

“Put me down!” you snarled, as you pounded your fist against his back, your eyes frantically met your sisters who started to scream your name.

“Kaminari, use your bandana as a gag, don’t wanna hear this one yappin’ all the way back to camp,” Bakugou grumbled as he exited your house.

Before you could even register, Kaminari had stuffed his bandana in your mouth and you let out a muffled scream, trying to grab the other outlaw in front of you.

“Phew, this one is feisty,” Kaminari said with a chuckle as you barely grazed his cheek with your nails.

“Cut that out,” Bakugou snapped delivering a harsh smack to the back of your thighs, “or I’m gonna tie ya up.”

You huffed, your breathing growing fast as your sister disappeared behind closed doors. This was your last chance to escape because you didn’t know what these men were going to do once they got you to themselves. With newfound ambition you started to squirm again, this time grabbing at Bakugou’s hair and trying to kick him in the stomach.

“Oi!” Bakugou barked as your boot struck him in his stomach, “alright, that’s enough, Kirishima tie her up. I’m not dealing with this shit tonight.” Bakugou grunted as he easily threw you off of his shoulder.

You let out a small cry as you landed on the hard earth. Before you could even try to scramble to your feet to run away, a boot was on your back pushing you back down. Soon you felt large hands yanking your hands back and you hissed feeling ropes tighten around your wrists.

“I’m leavin’ her ankles un-tied, she’s gotta be able to sit on a horse,” Kirishima said as he hovered by your ankles.

“Fine, then you can deal with her if she tries to kick you,” Bakugou said and then he whistled loudly. It didn’t take long for three horses to canter up to him before coming to a sharp stop. He sauntered up to a dark bay and quickly mounted his horse, glaring down at you on the ground, “hope you can stay on, princess. We ride fast.”

The three men laughed and you narrowed your eyes at them. Of course you could ride. You were probably faster than them on horseback anyway. You would have spit back a smart comment, but Kaminair’s grimy bandana kept you from doing that.

“Alright, c’mon,” Kirishima said from next to you as he easily hauled you up to your feet.

You glanced back at your house once more before Kirishima snapped his fingers in front of your face to gather your attention.

“Get up,” he told you, pressing the tips of his fingers into your back to urge you to get on the large black gelding in front of you.

You blinked hard, forcing down your emotions as you placed your boot in the stirrup and clumsily got into the saddle. Kaminari laughed at you when you wobbled a little, unable to place your hands anywhere.

Soon Kirihsima got on too and placed you in front of him. Well more like on his lap since there wasn’t too much room in the saddle. It was all very humiliating, hearing them snicker snide comments as they urged their horses onto a fast canter.

You grabbed the horn of the saddle as tight as you could when Kirishima’s horse took off. They were right, they rode fast, and you were thankful you did know how to balance in a saddle or you would have surely fallen off. You glanced over your shoulder to see your house disappearing into the night the further you traveled and your heart ached.

“Hey,” Kirishima’s voice sounded from softly behind you, “let me take that out,” he said, referring to the bandana in your mouth.

You blinked and turned your head as he took his free hand off his thigh and pulled the golden bandana out of your mouth, and stuffed it into his saddlebag. “Thank you,” you muttered, just loud enough to be heard above the howling wind.

Kirishima gave you a curt nod, keeping his eyes forward as he gently maneuvered his horse around a large rock.

You sighed and tore your gaze away from the redhead and to the land that stretched in front of you. The sky was dark as ink with thousands of stars dotting the sky. The prairie in front of you was illuminated from the gentle light of the full moon. In the distance, you could see a thick tree line full of tall cedars and oak trees, their leaves swaying slightly from the warm summer breeze. It was a beautiful night.

Too bad you were being kidnapped.

Soon the prairie started to turn more into rocky hills and the horses slowed to a trot as you began to travel up a worn path that was spotted with juniper trees. A few stray deer leaped next to you causing the horse Kirishima was on to spook a little, but the outlaw sitting behind you kept you both steady in the saddle as he urged his horse forward. The night seemed to grow darker, but in the distance, you could make out a campfire and the silhouettes of a few other horses and some other people.

Your heart began to race in your chest at the thought of reaching their camp. What were they going to do with you? Tie you up? Starve you and drag you behind a horse? Surely, whatever Bakugou had planned for you, it was gonna be bad.

The glow from the fire was starting to grow brighter and brighter till you came to a stop. To your right there were three horses tied to an old log, one was grey, the other was bay, and the last was a deep sorrel. In front of you were two people, a man, and a woman. The man was cleaning his gun while he chewed on a stalk of sweet grass. He had long black hair that hung over his eyes. The woman looked to be about your age. She was sitting against a log, picking mud from the bottom of her boot with a stick. She had strawberry blond hair cut short and in the firelight, it almost looked pink.

“Well look what the cat dragged in,” the man said as he grinned. He had a wide grin, one that could be unsettling if he was not smiling at you with kindness.

“Better not have eaten all the damn food,” Bakugou scoffed as he dismounted his horse and tied his reins to a branch, “all that ridin’ got me hungry as hell”

“Well, we saved you some-” the woman began, but her golden eyes snapped to you, “you boy’s kidnapped a woman? That’s not like y’all.”

“It’s not like we planned on doin’ that,” Kirishima scoffed as he held your upper arm while you slid off his lap and landed on the ground. He followed suit and leaned down to whisper in your ear, “that’s Mina, stick by her. She won’t bite.”

You blinked up at Kirishima, surprised that this gruff man was being kind to you. You gave him a wobbly smile and he clapped you on the shoulder before turning around to tie his horse up and untack him.

Mina smiled as you gingerly made your way towards the fire, keeping your gaze locked on Bakugou’s broad shoulders because he had you spooked the most. Mina patted your knee when you sat down next to her and offered you another smile, “you look awfully dolled up, hope you don’t mind gettin’ your dress all muddy.”

“I don’t,” you replied meekly as you stretched your legs out, the dress scrunching up past your boots as you glanced around the campsite. It was mostly what you expected an outlaws campsite to be. A single cast iron pot and pan sat near the flames, and a few bedrolls were strewn about. They packed light, for obvious reasons.

“Looks like you came prepared,” Mina joked as she tapped the tip of your boot with hers. A nasty grin grew across her features as she locked eyes with Bakugou who roughly sat down on his bedroll, “caught a smart one, Kats.”

Bakugou lifted his gaze towards you, his red eyes were narrowed as he grabbed a roll from the cast iron pan in front of him. “Shut the hell up,” he snapped, cutting his gaze away from you and to Mina. “We’re not here to be friends,” he added as he yanked off his hat and tossed it next to him. “She’s leverage, that’s all. I don’t wanna hear another fuckin’ word from anyone else tonight.”

You listened as the rest of the group muttered to each other before settling into silence. The only sounds around you were the soft snorts from the horses, Kaminari snoring, and the loud buzz of the cicadas and crickets from the juniper trees around you. However, you were restless, squirming against the log as you tried to get comfortable.

Every once n’ awhile, Bakugou’s vermillion gaze would slide over to you between bites of his food. It unnerved you to know that he was watching you. It made you wonder what he was thinking. If he was planning on what to do with you. It also made you wonder why your father decided to even get involved with these outlaws? Why you? Why is Bakugou even offering to keep you alive for a month?

“The fuck you starin’ at,” Bakugou growled as he tore into another biscuit with his teeth. You had been watching him unknowingly for a while, and it was getting on his nerves.

You furrowed your brows, holding your tongue as he harshly swallowed his food. Once you averted your eyes you heard him click his tongue and huff. That shouldn’t have set you off, but after the night you had, your temper was more than short. “Why are you so damn mean?”

“Excuse me?” Bakugou replied, holding his biscuit mid-air.

A hand landed on your elbow and you looked over to see Mina was shaking her head at you. Her eyes were wide with a warning, but you didn’t care. You were smart enough to know how this was going to end for you, so really there was no reason to be scared of the prickly blonde sitting in front of you. “You heard me,” you said while rolling your eyes. “Why are you so mean? Actually better yet, was kidnapping the best thing you could think of? Do you think my father’s gonna dish out three grand for me? He’s a slimy man, you surely know that already.”

Bakugou’s upper lip twitched up into a sneer and he closed his fist over his biscuit. He was clearly pissed at you now. “You’re not makin’ a very good case for yourself. Don’t you wanna live?”

A pulse of adrenaline surged through your body at his response, but you played it off with an exaggerated shrug. “Obviously, but-”

“But what? You gotta plan? Know where your old man keeps an extra stash of cash?” Bakugou said, his voice deep with irritation.

“No,” you answered, and folded your arms over your chest, “but, if you’re such a good thief like the post makes you out to be then you would have gone for Monoma. His family owns practically half of the city down south and its money. Not to mention, you had Monoma in your hands and you let him go.” You paused to present your next part, hope fluttered in your chest at the thought of him biting off on your plan, “so naturally, it makes sense for you to just take me back and take-”

“I’m not bringin’ you back,” Bakugou interrupted as he harshly ran a hand through his messy hair.

“Why not?” you shot back, eyes wide with disbelief, “Monoma is a much better hostage.”

“Hostage,” Bakugou huffed and rolled his eyes before settling his gaze back on yours, “look, princess, I don’t fuckin’ care what plan you’ve cooked up. I’m doin’ this my way and that’s final. I don’t wanna hear another word from that mouth of yours, got it?”

You pressed your lips together in anger and huffed through your nose before giving him a curt nod. It was obvious you weren’t going to get anywhere with him. But that didn’t mean you wouldn’t stop trying.

“Good” Bakugou grumbled as he stood to his feet and grabbed his bedroll. “Nobody fuckin’ wake me up unless somethin’ bad is happening.”

The group around you muttered some words before watching Bakugou saunter away from earshot and lay down.

“He’s sure in a mood,” Mina said with a snort as she yanked out a blanket from the backpack next to her and handed it to you. “You better head off to bed, doll. I’m sure he’ll be up in a few to piss and he won’t wanna look at your face.”

“He’s so mean,” you muttered, mostly to yourself, as you glanced towards the black starch of his shirt that was partially covered by an army green blanket.

“He’s an outlaw,” the dark-haired man said, hearing your quiet words. He set down his pistol and looked at you with a crooked grin, “and you’re the mayor’s prissy daughter. You’re annoying.”

“I don’t think you’re annoying,” Mina reassured you, “Sero’s just bein’ a dick. We’re just from different worlds, doll.”

You frowned, obviously offended, “I’m not prissy.”

“And I don’t have black hair,” Sero scoffed. “It’s just facts.”

“Y’know, I work too,” you began, feeling heat rise to your face. “I know how to ride and rope, just like y’all.”

“That pretty dress and hair-do aren’t helpin’ your case,” Kirishima said as he took a large gulp from his waterskin.

“Well,” Kaminari began as he rolled over, clearly awake now, “the boots help a little. Maybe we’ll put ya on Red over there and see if you can keep up.” Kaminari laughed as he looked over at the large sorrel gelding behind him.

You clenched your teeth, “you’re gonna eat those words.” The group snickered, making snide comments at your confidence which gave you an excuse to leave the group. You gave Mina a fleeting smile and walked away from the fire and spread the blanket down on the ground. With a soft sigh, you laid down and gazed up at the stars.

Granted you wanted to get away from your house, but not like this. You gazed up at the stars listening to the other chat softly, the fire crackling, and the horse quietly chuffing to one another from where they were tied. It was almost peaceful, but it wasn’t.

You just wanted to go home to see your sisters and even your screaming nephews and nieces. With a silent sigh, you rolled over on your side and tried to get some sleep.

------------

A sharp poke to your ribs had you sitting up from a dead sleep with an alarmed gasp. You blinked, heart racing as laughter rang in your ears. With bleary eyes, you looked up to see Bakugou staring you down with a nasty grin.

“Rise n’ shine, princess, we’re going,” Bakugou said as he roughly placed his boot back on the ground, causing loose dirt to plume up into your face.

You grumbled and stood to your feet, brushing off the dirt from your hands. Your dress now looked terrible, and you felt a pang of sadness pull at your heart. You never liked dresses like this, but this was the last reminder of your sister, and now Bakugou put his dirty boots all over it.

“Quit makin’ that face, you gotta change anyway,” Bakugou said, obviously picking up on your dampened mood.

“What am I supposed to change into?” you asked, meeting his scarlet gaze. He was tall and almost cast you in his shadow as the sun rose from behind him.

Bakugou’s lips lifted into a smile as he flipped his cowboy hat on his head, “dunno darlin’ just be ready in a few, and where we’re headed that dress will catch too much attention.”

Your eyes widened as he snickered at you before turning away to tack up his horse. The nerve he had. He was so infuriating.

“Hey,” Mina’s soft voice cut into your violent thoughts, “I’ve got an extra pair of jeans and a shirt you can use.”

"Thank you so much, I owe you one," you said truthfully, feeling very thankful for Mina at the moment.

Mina’s smile grew larger, “I’ll certainly hold you to that, honey.” She gave you a wink as he walked towards her saddlebag and tossed you a pair of worn jeans and a forest green starch shirt that had leather patches on the elbows.

You gave her a small smile as you quickly made your way towards a thicket of cedar trees and practically ripped your dress off and changed as quickly as you could. You couldn’t trust anyone here and you had no idea what sort of morals these guys had, they were criminals after all.

With one last final tug on the top of your boots, you straightened and walked back out into the clearing to see that Kirishima was walking towards you with the large sorrel gelding you saw earlier last night.

“Here,” Kirishima said as he handed you the reins, glancing over his shoulder to look at Bakugou then back at you. “You’re gonna wanna get on before Bakugou sees me handin’ you the reins.”

“What?” you said, confusion evident on your features. Why was he giving you a horse? Obviously, anyone with a brain would not give their hostage a way to escape. You gingerly took the worn leather reins in your hand and looked up at the towering man in front of you.

Kirishima glanced back at Bakugou who was now picking his horse’s hooves, his back was still to you both. “Look,” Kirishima began in a low voice, “we’re headin’ to a seedy town where Bakugou’s gonna drop you off with a harsher crowd. These two guys don’t mess around and I don’t believe in hurting women so get on and go.”

“Kirishima,” you began, fear knotting in your stomach. This was your chance but you knew how talented Bakugou was with his pistol, it would take him one bullet to take you down. Even though this was your chance, the fear of him chasing you was almost too much. “I don’t think I can.”

“You have too, Dabi and Shigaraki have no morals like we do. It won’t be pretty. Don’t worry, your plan to get Monoma was good, he’ll try and nab that weasel, okay?”

You nodded and quickly placed the reins over your horse's head and got into the saddle. You gave Kirishima a quick nod before you urged your horse forward with the click of your tongue. “Get,” you hissed and pressed your heel into the outside flank of your horse. The red gelding let out a loud whine before he took off, tearing across the bare strip of prairie you came from.

--------------

At the sound of one of his horse's neighing and quick hoofbeats, Bakugou immediately turned around. There you were tearing across the prairie, he glowered, “you shit, Kirishima. Why did you do that?” he said as he quickly mounted his horse.

Kirishima looked towards his best friend, “you know I don’t like hurtin’ women Katsuki, and you were gonna bring her to The League.”

“I wasn’t gonna do that dip shit,” Bakugou snapped as he kicked his horse's sides, “was gonna bring her to fuckin’ Deku!” he shouted angrily as he took off after you.

Kirishima’s shoulder slumped, “oh, Deku…”

“You really screwed the pooch this time, man,” Kaminari said with a small laugh as he squinted, “well I’ll be damned, sister really can ride, thought she was lyin’.”

“Guess not,” Sero added with a chuckle.

--------------

You leaned forward a bit in the saddle as you gripped the mane of your horse as he sped up when you reached a small hill. With a panicked breath, you glanced behind you to see that Bakugou was hot on your tail using the lasso in his hand to whip his horse's backside, and it seemed to be working because he was gaining on you fast.

“Shit,” you muttered, fear creeping into your arms and legs, making you stiff in your saddle. You glanced around the area to see that there was another section of woods up ahead that you could lose him in so you steered your horse that way.

“Oi!” Bakugou shouted, his voice carrying on the wind, “you’re bein’ a dumbass!”

You flipped him the bird, which probably wasn’t your smartest idea, but you weren’t thinking clearly right now. As the woods grew nearer you slowed your horse to a fast lope as you weaved through the trees, some of the branches cutting at your cheeks. After a good while, you glanced behind you to see that Bakugou was nowhere in sight and you sighed.

You had lost him.

With a small smile, you slowed your horse to a trot as you meandered through the woods trying to figure out the best path to go to head back home. You would probably have to wait till night to find the north star since your home was always south of it. Right now though, you thought it was best to find water for you and your horse since he just carried you across a long distance at an incredible speed.

“Thanks, bud,” you said with a small smile as you patted the side of his neck while searching for a stream. About a good twenty minutes of wandering later you finally found a stream in a small open field in the middle of the forest. It was pretty with lots of long sweet grass and wildflowers. With one final glance around you dismounted your horse and lead him to the stream where he greedily begins drinking making you chuckle. “Sorry buddy, I’m sure it’s been a while since you’ve run that much.”

Then, of course, to you’re luck that damn raspy voice you dreaded spoke from the thicket of trees in front of you, “that fat fuck has just been grazing for two months straight, surprised he even ran for your spoiled ass,” Bakugou growled as he erupted from the treeline on his horse who was looking rather spooked.

You screamed, spooking your horse up into a rear while Bakugou pulled out his lasso and spurred his horse to leap across the stream as you started to run.

“Don’t think so!” he snapped as he quickly got the lasso around your waist and yanked hard, causing you to fall on your face.

You let out a soft cry as your face met the grass and you heard Bakugou get off of his horse and stomp towards you, yanking the rope around your sides making you hiss.

“Stop whining you brat,” Bakugou hissed as he yanked you up and to your surprise pressed his pistol beneath your chin.

“Thought you said you wanted to keep me around,” you said through gritted teeth as you stared at him down.

“Startin’ to think I made a mistake,” Bakugou sneered as he turned the safety off. “Don’t like my investment’s runnin’ off or bein’ a piece of work.”

You blinked, angry that tears were starting to threaten to spill down your cheeks as he pressed his pistol harder into the flesh under your chin, “then do it.”

Bakugou kept his gaze steady on you for a few painstakingly long moments before pulling his pistol back and placing it into its holder on his waist, “get up.”

“Not gonna blow my head off?” you snapped, at times you wondered if your sharp tongue was sometimes too much. Right now, it just might be.

“Don’t test me, I’m not in the mood,” Bakugou grumbled as he yanked you to your feet, impatient with how slow you were getting to your feet. He turned around and let out a low growl upon discovery that both of your horses had spooked and had run off into the woods somewhere together...hopefully, “well look at that, see that, princess,” Bakugou snapped roughly grabbing your chin and yanking your head towards the woods, “if you wouldn’t have pulled that stunt we would still have our horses and be in town by now and you’d be all cozy in a nice little cabin with a nice little sheriff.”

You snorted, “it wasn’t my fault the horses ran, you had to make a grand entrance? Plus, Kirishima told me you were gonna hand me off to men who were known to hurt women, so of course I wasn’t gonna stay if I didn’t have to,” you argued.

Bakugou let go of your chin and now placed his hand around the rope tied around your body and yanked you next to him as he began his trek into the woods, “wasn’t gonna give you to those assholes. I don’t hurt women either,” he explained a little more calmly, “none of us do.”

“Right,” you said sarcastically, “says the guy who just held a pistol to my head.”

Bakugou huffed as he glanced at you out of the corner of his eye, “just tryna break you in a little. You have a lot of spirit. It’s annoying as hell.”

You snorted and shook your head, “whatever.”

Bakugou didn’t talk for a good while as you both wandered the forest looking for your horses who had apparently traveled quite far together. In the time you had traveled the sun had risen high into the sky and was starting its descent towards the horizon. During this entire time, you refused to talk, which was fine with Bakugou since he didn’t talk a lot either. However, you did observe him closely.

Occasionally he would stop and squat to the ground to look at the tracks your horses made in the soft dirt from earlier. Or he would see some sort of berry on your walk and snatch some of it off a bush, grumbling to himself when it would stain his fingers. He sometimes would look back at you, whether he was checking if you were okay was beyond you...he probably wasn’t though. You also heard him ramble under his breath about your stupid fat horse spooking, or that he was hungry.

You blinked slowly as you watched Bakugou pluck some horse hair from a thorny bramble patch and inspect it before tugging you along behind him. You were growing weak though, it had been hours since you both started walking and you were tired, dirty, and thirsty now. Granted it’s not like you wanted to bring up your current condition to him, knowing he would tell you off. However, at this rate, you knew you weren’t going to last much longer. With a sigh, you gave in, “Bakugou?”

“What?” he said, his voice clipped with irritation as he pushed past a branch that slapped you in the face causing you to let out a whine.

“Can we find a stream? I’m thirsty.”

“No,” Bakugou replied in a steely tone as he yanked harshly on your rope. A soft grunt from you caused him to turn his head and he rolled his eyes seeing you on the ground. God, you were so weak. Just like fucking, Deku. “Get up.”

“If I had my hands and thighs untied, I could,” you shot back, looking up at him from the dirt.

Bakugou let out a heavy sigh before roughly yanking you up by the collar of your shirt. He narrowed his eyes at you, he had to admit you did look pretty dehydrated. “Here, be quick,” he grumbled as he pulled out his waterskin and held it up to your lips. “I wanna find those horses before sundown.”

You didn’t even nod before you started drinking, instantly feeling better but a little nervous as his eyes never left your face as you sucked down probably half of his water before he pulled it away and took a swig before tying it back on his belt.

“C’mon,” he said quietly as he yanked you back up and continued walking.

------------

Luck ended up being on your side, well sort of. Bakugou did end up tracking the horses down before the sun set, but he wasn’t too happy about where they ended up. Both horses were currently tied to a chuckwagon where a group of soldiers were camping for the night. They were obviously traveling west towards a new base that you had heard about from the post the other day. Granted you would have been elated to have found soldiers, but now you were with one of the most wanted outlaws in the country, so you figured they wouldn’t even spare you a glance and gun you down too just for being with him.

“Well that’s fuckin’ great,” Bakugou hissed as he crouched by a large elm tree watching some soldiers mess with his horses and his tack.

“Maybe they’ll let them go? Or bring them to town since they’re lost?” you offered quietly from next to him.

“They won’t do that, they’re not branded. Those bastards will take them to their fucking base and turn them into military horses. Damn it,” Bakugou said as he curled his hand that was resting against the bark of the tree into a fist. He gave you one menacing glare before looking back towards his horses.

“Stop glarin’ at me,” you began, slightly irritated, “we both know it was your fault they ran off.”

“I swear to god, if you sass me one more time, I’m gonna throw you out into that camp as a diversion and leave you with those assholes,” Bakugou said seriously as he ran a hand over his face in frustration.

You rolled your eyes and then proceeded to sit down because you figured you weren’t going anywhere for a while. Which was perfectly fine with you, you were exhausted after walking all day.

Bakugou’s scarlet gaze cut back to you and then to the camp again before a devious grin began to grow across his face, “actually, that was not a bad idea. You would make good bait.”

“I don’t think so,” you quickly responded, shaking your head roughly, “I don’t wanna be bait.”

“Too bad, princess, you’ve got no choice. Now here’s the plan, okay? Listen closely. You can play bait and come back with me or you can stay with these doofuses and I’ll go nab one of your sisters from back home, yeah?” Good thing, ole Richy has plenty of daughters,” Bakugou threatened, hoping he had convinced you not to stay with the military, even though that was the best option for you.

“You’re kidding, you can’t take any of my sisters,” you hissed.

“I can and I will,” Bakugou snapped as he rose to his feet, “now go out there and put on a good pout, those men are starving for a pretty thing like you,” he said with a predatory grin before practically tossing you out of the bushes.

Your cheeks were hot with embarrassment at his comment as you stumbled out of the bushes and landed right in the middle of the camp with a huff.

“Holy!” one of the soldiers shouted, jumping to his feet, his purple bowler hat tumbling off his head, “the heck did you come from lady?”

“Um, um,” you panicked, your breath coming out in quick pants as you watched Bakugou dart behind the wagon towards your horses, “um I was kidnapped by this outlaw I-”

“Golly, are you Y/n L/n?” one of the soldiers who was snacking on a pastry asked, “you’ve been all over the post down in these parts!”

The soldier with the purple bowler hat blinked as he approached you slowly and helped you up. He certainly wasn’t subtle with looking you over, “good thing you landed in our laps, we can take good care of you, get you back home?”

“Mineta,” another soldier with a bandana over his mouth hissed, “leave her alone, the corporal won’t be happy to hear you’re bein’ a pervert again!”

“I’m not,” Mineta purred as he undid your ropes around your body, “she needs help.”

“Golly,” the other soldier with a pastry sighed.

You cringed as you wiggled out of Mineta’s grasp, “I’m okay, thanks though-”

“You sure? Got cut up pretty badly,” Mineta began as he reached out towards your face.

You squinted and gave him a tight-lipped smile, “really it’s fine.” You glanced around for Bakugou only to see that the horses were gone and that meant he left you. That asshole, and now he was gonna go after your sisters. Suddenly hands were on your face and you flinched while the other soldiers besides the one with the pastry and the bandana on his mouth hooted at Mineta.

“Fucking disgusting,” a familiar voice rasped from behind you and suddenly there was a gunshot.

You flinched as blood splattered on your face and Mineta crumpled to the ground holding his shoulder as he cried out. Before you could even register what was happening you were being hoisted up onto Bakugou’s horse as shots rang through the air.

One bullet whizzed by your cheek and you quickly buried your face into Bakugou’s back as he spurred his horse on with yours galloping next to him from being tied to the horn of his saddle. You flinched again as Bakugou shot his pistol and you instinctively wrapped your arms around his torso as he took a tight turn going back towards the camp.

“Don’t fucking mess with my horses!” Bakugou shouted once more before shooting another round into the camp before taking off across the prairie as the sun dipped down below the horizon.

After a good while of riding, Bakugou slowed his horse down to a walk as he started to ascend up a mountain trail. He stiffened feeling your arms tighten around him when his horse tripped and he glanced at you over his shoulder to see that you still had your face pressed into his back. “Geez,” he began, “loosen up, yeah?”

You lifted your head and loosened your grip on his waist, averting your gaze from him, “sorry.”

“Sorry?” Bakugou scoffed as he turned to get a better look at you. Your face was splattered with blood and you had a gnarly cut on your cheek from where a bullet had grazed your face. He sighed, “don’t tell me that got you all scared.”

You looked up into his scarlet red eyes that were hardened and desensitized to violence and you shook your head.

“Good,” Bakugou said with a curt nod before turning back around. He lightly pulled back on his reins to get his horse to stop and quickly dismounted before tying up his horse and yours to a tree, “we’ll stay here tonight and meet up with the others tomorrow in town.”

You nodded and glanced around at your surroundings, there was a small creek babbling to your right and a deep cave on the side of the cliff you had been riding by for a while to your left. Bakugou had already moved towards the cave and started a small fire in front of it by the time you had wandered over to it.

To be honest, now you are scared. The reality of what has happened to you so far has really set in and you realized the actual dangers of being around someone as dangerous as Bakugou. You knew your dad would never cough up the money he owed Bakugou, which made you question what he would do with you once the month was up.

Bakugou shifted a bit on the log he was sitting on as he watched you play with your fingers obviously deep in thought. You were acting differently. Not like he cared. Why would he care, you’re his insurance for three grand, that’s all.

Yet a small nagging voice in the back of his head softly reminded him that you were a human, a person. You had feelings, and you were probably scared and hurting.

You blinked, examining the dried blood beneath your nails as you continued to ponder about where your life was headed until you heard Bakugou stand up, and then to your surprise he sat down next to you.

“Look at me,” Bakugou said in a gruff voice.

You blinked again, weighing his words. What was he gonna do?

“Look at me dumbass,” Bakugou snapped impatiently.

With a sigh, you glanced up at him to see he was watching you with narrowed eyes, “what?”

“Just stay still,” he said with a scoff as he yanked off the burnt orange bandana around his neck and then wet the tip of it with some water from his waterskin. He then looked back at you and used two knuckles to gently turn your face to get a better look at the deeper cut on your cheek from the bullet that grazed you.

Your eyes were wide with shock as Bakugou gently dabbed at the cut on your face. It stung like hell, but you were so surprised at his actions that you remained still. “What are you doing?” you asked after finally getting over your initial shock.

“Cleaning your wound, can’t have my investment get an infection,” Bakugou muttered, his vermillion gaze quickly snapping to yours before moving back to your cut he was cleaning

You nodded, turning your gaze away from him not daring to look at him. He was too close. Way too close. Your gaze shifted back to his face as he continued to dab at your wound. It only struck you then how handsome he was. Despite having dirt speckled on his cheeks, you could tell he had a light dusting of freckles over his nose. He had dark eyebrows that made you wonder why his hair was so blonde? But what stuck out to you the most were his eyes. They were a deep scarlet red that reminded you of dying sparks from a fire.

You were drawn out of your thoughts when you noticed Bakugou was about to spread some plant he had been chewing on while you were in thought over your cut. “Whoa!” you began, leaning away from him, “what is that?”

“Yarrow,” Bakugou explained, as he forcibly placed his free hand on the back of your head and held you steady while he spread the pulp over your cut, “helps with infection,” he finished as he wiped his thumb on the side of his jeans, “go get some sleep, we’re riding early tomorrow. Got a long way till town.”

You watched as he quickly moved away from you to get his bedroll and untack both horses. “You don’t think I’m gonna run away while you’re sleeping?” you challenged, surprised that he was granting you so much freedom.

Bakugou gave you a sideways glance, “I’m not stupid, princess, and neither are you. You know better than to run now.”

You rose an eyebrow at him. He was right, you wouldn’t run because he practically told you he had plenty of sisters to kidnap, not to mention you wouldn’t be surprised if he decided to grab one of your nephews or nieces too. You let out a huff as you turned away from him and stretched out on the soft summer grass.

“Did you make plans without me? Is that why you let me sleep in?” you questioned coming to a stop in front of him.

Bakugou snorted, tilting his head down to look at your serious face, “no I didn’t, think I learned my lesson about doin’ things without you.”

You lifted a brow as a small smile grew across your features, “oh you did? I’m shocked that you’re even admitting that.” You supposed he was referring to when you made him explain his reasoning about why he was using you as bait back in Izuku’s stable.

Bakugou snorted again, and he took one hand and wrapped it around the back of your neck, making you jolt in surprise. “It’s still too early for your attitude, princess,” he said, glancing down at you with a small smile.

Your face warmed as he led you towards the stairs and slipped his hand down from the back of your neck before walking down towards the first floor. Maybe the talk you had with him last night finally tore down his walls, and all of them. He seemed more relaxed around you like he was letting you in, and this time for good.

The smile on your face grew larger as you began to follow him down the stairs where you saw the others lounging by the kitchen.

“Well look who's finally up,” Sero commented, his gaze cutting towards Bakugou who sent him a gnarly glare, and then back to you.

“Ah, sorry, I didn’t realize I slept in so late,” you said sheepishly, tugging at the sleeves of your shirt.

“We all slept in dumbass,” Mina said as she smacked Sero on the back of the head, making him yelp.

The mood suddenly seemed to turn rather sour at the thought of what was going to happen next. You all were about to figure out how to confront Keigo and Kaminari. Not to mention, Bakugou still needed his money to buy Keigo’s estate so he could prove that Keigo was a killer.

You took a seat next to Kirishima who was sipping some coffee he must have found back in your kitchen from an old mug. He glanced down at you as he blew on the coffee trying to cool it off.

“So how’s this gonna go down?” Sero asked, breaking the silence, “we’re down two men.”

Bakugou nodded, choosing to stay silent a few moments before his gaze cut to you. He was thinking and it looked like whatever he was thinking about was something he didn’t like. “Yeah,” he drawled, looking away from you and back to Sero. “I’m thinkin’ we may need to ask for some help.”

“Don’t you even think about it,” Kirishima suddenly said, his voice thick with anger. “Don’t be fuckin’ dumb Katsuki.”

You were almost in shock with how angry Kirishima sounded. He was practically bristling next to you. In the time you’ve known him, he’s been what you would describe a gentle giant? Obviously, you knew he wasn’t actually gentle, but he seemed to like to make sure you were okay.

“The four of us can’t go up against both of them,” Bakugou said, “and Y/n’s only actually hit a target once, and that was a bottle. We need them.”

You frowned at him, but you knew Bakugou was right. You didn’t have the experience to go headfirst into a gunfight. You sure could keep up on horseback, but shooting was something totally different.

“Well,” Mina began, “I sure as hell ain’t going with y’all if you’re gonna get them. Y/n won’t want to either.”

“I don’t want to see those assholes too,” Kirishima added, his voice low with disgust.

You glanced between everyone, utterly lost and confused. “Who are we talking about?”

“Shigaraki and Dabi,” Kirishima answered, holding his heated gaze with Bakugou, “I mentioned them to you before, those two are trouble. Got no respect, and are the biggest snakes I’ve ever met.”

“But we need them,” Bakugou argued, growing frustrated, “they fight dirty, and we all know Keigo and Kaminari do too. They’re just bodies at the end of the day, and they don’t seem to care as long as they get paid.”

“I ain’t goin’ then,” Mina hissed, narrowing her eyes.

You frowned, was Bakugou truly that desperate to get help from people he has no respect for? This plan so far seemed to be emotionally charged again, like the last one he made. Even though your plan had gone badly, only one person had gotten hurt. If everyone had shown up that day, who knows what would have happened.

“Don’t you still need money?” you asked, “why would you want to hire people then?”

Bakugou clenched his jaw, probably frustrated that you were right again. “I do need money-”

“Then it seems smart to get your money first, no?” you questioned, “In case you forgot, I still have a bounty on my head.”

“I’m not fuckin’ turnin’ you in again,” Bakugou said quickly, “that’s not an option. If you’re gonna come up with a plan, then think of somethin’ else.”

Kirishima let out an amused huff from next to you as he took another sip of his coffee.

“Why not?” Sero asked, “it’s easy, Y/n can turn herself in, we know Keigo isn’t there this time. Sounds good to me.”

“I said no,” Bakugou snapped as he narrowed his eyes.

Sero held up his hands, fighting off a smile.

You glanced down at the floor, lost in thought as you tried to think of something better than turning yourself in. Honestly, there didn’t seem to be any other option. You could go talk to your sister and mother? Shindo had three grand, surely, he owns one the largest cattle ranches in your town.

Although, they probably all believed the post about you. There was a good chance they didn’t, but you didn’t want to risk getting caught. You sighed, running your forefinger along the grain of the wood floor, wincing when a small piece would bend up and splinter your finger.

You hated these floors. They were so uselessly expensive. The money that your father poured into this house was laughable, and now it belonged to no one. Taken back by the bank and it would probably be used to build a couple more houses down the line.

It was hard to imagine that you were here just a little less than a month ago getting ready for that stupid ball to be married off to Monoma.

Then you froze. Monoma. Neito Monoma who was the son of Vlad Monoma, one of the wealthiest men in the city down south. “I have an idea,” you began, still loosely forming it in your mind, “what if we go get your money from Monoma?”

“That blonde asshole?” Bakugou asked, rubbing the side off his face in frustration.

You nodded, “yeah, him. His family is so rich, they wouldn’t even notice three grand was missin’.”

“That’s right, you brought that up the first night you were with us,” Kirishima said while setting down his empty mug. “That might work.”

“What about Keigo and Kaminari? We can’t let that trail get cold. The tracks might be gone from the rain last night, and if another storm comes through we’ll never find them,” Bakugou said.

“Then we gotta split up,” Sero said, “some of us track Keigo and Kaminari, the others go down south to get the money.”

Bakugou looked conflicted, his gaze was bouncing between the entire group before landing on you. He knew your plan was good, and he really did need that money. Without it he was just chasing a ghost. “Alright, then where's everyone goin’?”

“You’re our best tracker, Katsuki,” Kirishima said, “you should follow Keigo and Kaminari’s trail. Sero can go with you, he’s the quietest out of all of us too.”

“So that leaves us three to go down south,” Mina said, “that’s good that Y/n is with us, she’ll help us blend in, and she knows more about the Monoma’s than any of us.”

You shared a glance with Bakugou who nodded, he looked upset, but there was nothing he could do. This was the best plan moving forward.

“How long do you think it’ll take to get that money?” Bakugou asked, his voice was almost solemn.

You shrugged, “depends. The city always holds a huge rodeo around the middle of summer, should be in a few days I’d bet. So no longer than a couple of days at most.”

“Fine,” Bakugou concluded, “make a plan then.”

—-------

You spent the rest of the day creating a plan. You had three days to execute it.

You knew that the Monoma’s always donated a large sum of money towards the summer rodeo. It helped promote their business and reminded everyone who ran the city. You planned that Kirishima, Mina, and you would sneak into the rodeo and steal the prize money. Although you didn’t know where the prize money would be held, you knew a certain blonde would, and he most certainly would be there.

Once you had the money, you’d ride back to Kirishima and Bakugou’s hometown where Kirishima would buy Keigo’s estate. Then you’d wait for Bakugou and Sero to meet you back at Keigo’s estate.

From there four of you would ride out and lure Kaminari and Keigo back to the estate where Baukugou and Kirishima will finally prove that Keigo was the one who had killed their families.

It wasn’t a very fleshed-out plan, and you knew it could fall through at any moment, but it was the only one you had. So it had to work, you would make it work.

The rest of the morning you packed for the trip. You had to find outfits that made Kirishima and Mina fit in with normal citizens and cover their identities. Thankfully, not everything had been taken from your house and you were able to find Mina and you some day dresses that would help you both blend in. Kirishima however, there was no way you could find any clothes that would fit him besides an old cowboy hat and an oversized jean jacket.

You frowned, holding up the pale pink dress you found in your sister’s room, it was dotted with little flowers and spots. It looked like it could fit Mina, well you hoped it would cause there wasn’t another dress except for the one you found for yourself.

“That’s fuckin’ ugly,” Bakugou’s gruff voice filled the room.

You turned around to see him walking towards you with his hands stuffed in his pockets. He came to a stop next to you, eyeing the small bag you had stuffed with clothes. “It was my sisters,” you answered, “and it always looked good on her.”

“Whatever, it’s still ugly,” Bakugou said as pulled his hands out of his pockets and sat down next to you.

You snorted, as you went to put the dress in your bag, but he was already pulling out the dress you had just put in there. “Hey, I just folded that.”

Bakugou snorted, yanking the pale yellow dress out. “You wearin’ this one?”

You nodded, feeling your cheeks warm as he hummed. “Why ya askin’?”

Bakugou shrugged as he put the dress back in your bag before leaning back on his hands. “I like yellow.”

Your eyes widened and your face immediately felt like it was on fire as you put the pink dress in and tied the bag shut.

Bakugou’s gaze slid over to you and you noticed that his cheeks were dusted with pink. He was embarrassed too.

The air between you both seemed to shift a bit as you fiddled with the string on your bag. You sighed, finally looking back at him to see he was still watching you. “Katsuki, you’re gonna be okay aren’t you?” you asked as you sat back on your heels.

Bakugou tilted his head, “course I am, I’ll be fuckin’ fine. It’s you I’m worried about.”

You gave him a crooked smile, “I’ll be okay, Monoma’s about as dangerous as a fly. I mean you saw how he was.”

Bakugou smirked, “yeah, I know. I just,” he trailed off, turning his gaze away from you and to the window. He squinted, obviously not able to find his words.

“What?” you asked, leaning in closer to him.

“I dunno,” he sighed, now looking back at you. He sighed heavily again, “you’re gonna come back to me right?”

You froze, unsure if you heard him right. After last night, you knew how he felt about you now, but his words now held a heavy weight to them. It was something you weren’t expecting to hear, and while it was almost frightening to hear him ask you that question, you were relieved that he did at the same time.

After a beat, you answered, “I’ll always come back to you, Katsuki.”

Bakugou nodded, looking like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. He then stood up, knowing that it was time to go, and he stuck out his hand for you to grab.

You slipped your hand into his, trying to calm your racing heart as he pulled you up and to your surprise tugged you into his embrace. Slowly you felt him wrap his arms around you, squeezing tight as he placed his chin on the top of your head.

“Stay close to Eijirou,” Bakugou said quietly.

“I will,” you replied, pressing your cheek against his chest. He was always so warm, and you loved how safe you felt with Bakugou.

After a few more moments, Bakugou pulled away from you, letting his arms slip down from your sides. You moved away too, already missing being so close to him. It was weird how easy it was to be close to him. You had never imagined that you would willing let a man into your bubble, your space, and now you wanted Bakugou to be in yours constantly.

“Better get goin’,” Bakugou said, his deep voice laced with sorrow.

“Yeah, I guess so,” you replied, giving him a melancholy smile. But you would see him in a few days, you promised that You grabbed your bag and followed Bakugou down the stairs and out of the house to see that everyone else was already ready to go.

Mina snickered at you as she glanced between you and Bakugou with a knowing smile. “Don’t have all day, Kats.”

“Shut your trap, raccoon eyes,” Bakugou snapped as he got up on his horse. “You three better not do anything stupid, we’re countin’ on y’all.”

“Nothing to worry about, Katsuki,” Kirishima answered with an open grin. “It’ll be fun, I’ve never been to a rodeo.”

“Eijirou, you better not mess this up,” Bakugou warned, and then he scoffed, shaking his head as he turned his horse around, “just get out of here, gettin’ on my nerves.”

Kirishima laughed and tapped his horse's flanks with his boots, urging his horse into a slow trot.

You got up on your horse and you adjusted your bag on your back as you shared one last smile with Bakugou before following Kirishima down into town and towards the city. You reckoned that the three of you would reach the city by sunset, giving you time to scope out the area and plan for the rodeo tomorrow.

Hopefully, everything will work out in the end. You sighed, glancing back over your shoulder to see that Bakugou was already watching you. It seemed you were always leaving him when things were starting to get better between the two of you. You smiled to yourself and turned back around only to see that Mina was practically right in front of your face.

“You know,” she began, “I always knew he’d go after ya. Never once saw Bakugou gawk at a woman until you came into camp that night.”

Your face warmed, “oh, I don’t know. He seemed pretty fed up with me, and honestly, I was too.”

“Yeah, but that man has never once shown interest in anyone, and I really mean that, until you came along,” Mina explained with a laugh. “Probably is a shit lover, he knows nothin’ about nothin’”

Your eyes widened in shock as Kirishima glanced at you over his shoulder snickering at Mina’s comment. “I,” your voice caught, “nothin’ like that happened at all. I mean, he kissed me and then ran away-”

“He ran away?” Kirishima hooted, “are you kiddin’?”

You shook your head feeling extremely embarrassed that they were talking about your barely budding relationship with Bakugou.

“Knew somethin’ was up with him that week, I told you!” Mina shouted at Kirishima, “I made a bet with Sero too, damn, wish he was here so I could get my money.” She then turned to you, “no wonder you were so sad, poor thing.”

You rubbed the back of your neck, wincing a bit, “ah you know, it’s not really that interesting to talk about-”

“Oh I think so,” Mina interrupted with a heavy nod, “I’m sure Eijirou thinks so too, right?”

Kirishima nodded, slowing his horse down so he could ride on the other side of you, “course I do, he must be pretty serious about ya, Y/n, I reckon.”

You gulped, the sun beating down on your back felt like it was a thousand degrees and you wiped your forehead with the back of your sleeve. Why were you so nervous? You figured everyone already had an idea about you and Bakugou, he was subtle but it wasn’t that hard to figure out you both liked each other.

“You gotta tell us all about your time in the mountains, it’ll help kill the time anyway,” Mina said as she slipped her boots out of her stirrups to stretch her legs.

“It’s not very interesting,” you paused, glancing at their eager faces. It made you wonder briefly why they were so interested in Bakugou’s love life. Was it really so much of a spectacle? If it was, it did make you feel a small twinge of pride.

“Well go on, we wanna hear it anyway,” Kirishima said with a wide grin.

So you began talking, explaining what it was like to travel with Bakugou. How he tended to your wound on the first night, and how he got breakfast for you both the next morning. Then you went on to explain how you left him during the fight with the military so he could escape, and how you came back to him asking to join his group. You explained how you also helped him with his wound and then Mina stopped you.

“He let you do that? She asked.

You nodded, “well he didn’t have any other choice, he had a fever.”

She hummed, sharing a glance with Kirishima before telling you to continue.

So you did, you went on explaining your fight with Keigo and how you hit your head, and Tokoyami. You begrudgingly told them how you slept on him by accident and how he started acting weird around you. However, you did not tell them about seeing him naked by the river. Something told you that they’d never let him or you live that down.

“-and then we rode down the mountain,” you explained wrapping up your story, “he then dropped me off at Izuku’s and y’all know the rest.”

Kirishima shook his head, chucking, “Katsuki, poor guy, maybe Sero will give ‘em some pointers, yeah? Sounds like he’s gonna need em’ soon.”

Mina snorted, “I hope so, it’s more like poor Y/n,” she shook her head, spurring her horse forward and past yours.

You furrowed your brows, unsure of what they were referring to.

—-----------

By the time you got to the city, it was beginning to grow dark. The sunset was a dark orange streaked with brilliant shades of red that reminded you of a pair of eyes you were already missing. It was sort of strange to feel so strongly about someone that you’ve only known for about a month, but you considered that you must be lucky to even feel so strongly about someone.

Once you passed the entrance of the city you were shocked to see how busy it was around this time of night. A massive train rumbled to a stop at the edge of the city and a large group of people got off, crowding the already busy streets.

Around you there were plenty of buildings, a good deal of them were bars and brothels. In fact, a gunshot caught your attention and you watched as a man came tumbling out of the bar, obviously, he was on the losing side of a bar fight.

“We better find somewhere to stay,” Kirishima said from next to you, “you think we could stay somewhere without getting noticed?”

You furrowed your brows, moving your horse around a couple of drunk men stumbling into the street, scuffing up dirt with their boots, “I’m not sure. You two are pretty well known-”

You paused answering your own question as you passed the sheriff’s office. It was probably the largest one you’ve ever seen and there right on the front of the door were six wanted posters that had your faces and bounties plastered on them. You sighed, “probably not.”

“Damn, where are we gonna stay then?” Kirishima asked, glancing around as the people around you became rowdier.

“Outside of town, just a little bit away?” you offered, not feeling confident in your answer.

“I say we just try to stay somewhere here,” Mina countered, “look how drunk everyone is, and it’s barely nightfall. I’m sure we can sneak on by.”

You shrugged, looking around for an inn, there was plenty to choose from. You ended up spotting one near the edge of town, and it looked to be rather empty despite its large size. Just like all of the other buildings by it, it was made of light wood and was two stories tall. It was clear that there was a lot of money in the city.

The three of you stopped your horses and tied them to the post out front before coming to a stop by the front door.

“I hope this works,” Kirishima said as he nudged a flower pot full of daisies with his boot. “Maybe an old lady lives here and won’t be able to recognize us.”

“We can hope,” you said with a meek smile as you opened the door. The inside of the inn was cozy. It was decorated with plenty of pink and there were at least a dozen candles lit around the main area. “Hello?” you called out.

There was a shuffle off to your left paired with a grumble, then out of the shadows a woman appeared. She was short with chin-length brown hair. It seemed that you caught her off guard since her cheeks were bright pink when she stopped in front of you.

“”M sorry, I didn't hear y’all come in,” she said with a small chuckle, eyeing the three of you briefly.

“It’s okay,” you replied with a smile, “do you have three rooms open?”

“I do!” she said quickly, rushing over to her tea table to grab some parchment paper and a feathered pen, “got three right upstairs.”

“Great, we’ll take them for one night,” you told her, hoping to keep her attention off Kirishima who was probably the most recognizable one out of your group. There weren’t many men who were so tall that sported bright red hair past their shoulders.

“Wonderful,” she answered, “just let me know your names and then I’ll give you your total,” she began, her pink gaze cutting towards Kirishima again.

“You can just put us under Midoriya,” Mina quickly said.

“Alright,” the innkeeper answered, slowly writing down the name on her paper. She glanced towards the three of you again and to your utter shock, she yanked out a pistol from beneath her table.

“Whoa!” Kirishima said, holding his hands up as the inn keep pointed the pistol right at his chest, “the hell are you doin’ lady?”

“I know who you are,” she hissed, walking out from behind the desk to herd Kirishima towards the door, “you’re that outlaw, the one who runs with Bakugou. ‘M not stupid.”

“Okay, fine,” Kirishima answered, dropping his act. It took him all but two seconds to yank the pistol out of the inn keeps hand and stuff it into his waistband, “you caught us, but we’re stayin’ either way. You can either forget this all happened or Mina here will tie you till mornin’.”

The innkeeper glanced at you and Mina, looking scared now, “I guess I can let you stay, but I’m goin’ to the sheriff if you lot aren’t out of here by dawn.”

“Done,” Kirishima said as he gave her a wry smile.

You let your shoulders relax as the three of you made your way past the innkeeper and up the stairs. It was sort of a miracle that she didn’t end up running to the sheriff’s office anyway. Then you really would have been in a tough place.

“That was close,” Mina said, voicing your thoughts.

“It was,” Kirishima added, “we’ll leave at dawn. You think we can find Monoma so early?” he asked you.

You chewed the inside of your cheek, thinking. It would be hard, the rodeo really didn’t start till later in the day so you had plenty of time to kill. “We’ll probably have to wait it out a little bit, till the rodeo is set to start.”

“Fine by me,” Kirishima said as he stopped outside his door, “I’ll see y’all in the morning.”

You nodded, walking to your own room and shutting the door behind you. As you got into bed for the night, you looked towards the yellow dress you had set out for tomorrow. It made you briefly wonder how Bakugou and Sero were doing. Have they found Keigo and Kaminari yet? If so, you hoped they stayed safe.

—----

The next morning you were up before dawn, getting ready for the day as you exchanged your riding clothes for a pretty summer dress. You sort of hated the dress you had on, always have, but after Bakugou told you he liked yellow, it didn’t seem so bad anymore.

A short moment later you met Kirishima and Mina down in the front entryway, where the innkeeper was already waiting. She had her hands on her hips, looking rather tired as she kept her eyes trained on Kirishima.

“Sorry for troubling you,” you said quickly to the innkeeper as you passed her, offering a smile as she scoffed.

“Just don’t stop by again, can’t be interacting with the likes of y’all,” she said, folding her arms over her chest.

Kirishima snorted, “don’t worry we won’t ever be back.”

“Good, now get goin’,” she said as she turned on her heel and headed back into what you presumed was the kitchen.

The three of you quickly left the inn and made your way towards the main part of downtown. Even though it was early in the morning there were already people beginning to set up little stands for the rodeo later in the day.

You could see where they had a small cakewalk as well as a booth where a local farmer was selling his honey. At the thought of that your tummy rumbled, it’s been a while since you have last eaten, and there were so many baked goods in sight.

“We can’t stop,” Kirishima’s voice cut into your thoughts.

You sighed heavily and nodded, you were here to get the money that was all. It would have been nice to come to the rodeo under different circumstances. However, if things had gone like your father planned so long ago you would have been here and married to Monona. The thought of that made you lose your appetite.

You continued to move forward trying to focus on spotting Monoma or Vlad in the morning crowd. Now that the sun was rising, more and more people started to show up, making it rather crowded, which made it hard to maneuver your horse through the swarm of people.

“We should get off, we’re drawin’ too much attention,” Mina said as a small child reached up to pet her bay horse.

“Yeah, where do we put ‘em though?” you asked, looking around. There were plenty of places to tie a horse off to, but none were good enough, safe enough. If you needed to get away quickly you would have to have the horses close by.

“Can we tie them by the rodeo?” Kirishima asked, ducking his head down as he flipped the collar of his jean jacket up. He was starting to get some attention from a few people walking by.

“That’ll have to do then,” you concluded as you led them towards the outdoor arena where the rodeo was bein’ held. “We’ll stick there for the rest of the day too, till the rodeo starts. Make sure we can see them set everything up.”

“Good plan, I always knew you were smart,” Mina said with a chuckle as she followed behind you.

—----------

The day dragged on slowly, so slowly that you were sure that this day would last forever. At least around noon, some people started to set up the fencing around the arena, and that’s when you caught sight of your former suitor.

Just like on the night you saw him he was dressed all up in white. White hat, white chaps, white shirt. He looked rather ridiculous as you watched him practice his roping on a horse that was probably worth more than your whole house.

After a few painful minutes of watching Monoma poorly ride, he got off and made his way towards Vlad and the mayor of the town. The mayor was a small man, he looked rather young despite his white hair. The mayor actually looked rather mousy to you, but that didn’t matter.

All you cared about was the money that was being exchanged between Vlad and the mayor. Your eyes narrowed, it seemed that Vlad has a pattern for working with political figures.

The three men talked briefly before going their separate ways. That’s when you spotted that Monoama had the envelope of money in his hands.

“Look,” you pointed out, keeping your voice low, “looks like Monoma has the prize money.”

“Well let’s go get it,” Kirishima said as he stood up, but you yanked him back down shaking your head.

“Not yet, we need him to be alone, I don’t know much about these people, but I know they’re dangerous. Practically run this city if they’ve got the mayor in their pocket,” you explained. “Let's wait for him after he shows his horse, then we’ll get him on the way back.”

Both Kirishima and Mina nodded, agreeing with your plan. The three of you made your way to the stables, keeping out of sight until the rodeo started. To be honest, the rodeo was probably the grandest thing you’ve ever seen. Never in your life have you seen so many horses, cows, and cowboys all under one roof.

Which also made keeping hidden a little more dangerous. But you didn’t have to wait for much longer, not when you saw Monoma get on his horse a few feet down from you. It was his turn to ride and a few cowboys close by snickered at him when his horse spooked from the gunshot signaling him to start his run.

Then he was off, barely holding onto the horn of the saddle.

“Okay, Kirishima, you get his horse and lead him back here when he finishes his run,” you quickly explained, hearing the crowd cheer from outside.

“Mina and I will tie ‘em up and then we’ll get the prize money. Let’s hope he kept it on him,” you said, feeling your heart rate pick up. This was the first time you have ever planned something so important, granted, you’ve never been an outlaw before, but it was still nerve-wracking.

However, you were pleasantly surprised that Kirishima and Mina were so intent on listening to you. They never turned their nose up to your ideas and instead followed through. Maybe you were more a part of this group than you thought.

“Here he comes,” Kirishima said, standing up as he placed his hat on his head to help cover his face.

You held your breath as Kirishima promptly got up and weaved his way through the crowd of cowboys. He was easily a head taller than everyone in the room, but thankfully it seemed everyone was preoccupied with the next rider entering the arena.

Kirishima came to a stop next to Monoma’s horse and grabbed the reins by the bit, and began leading Monoma back to you and Mina.

“And who are you?” Monoma’s shrill voice echoed through the holding stalls, “where are you taking me?”

“Back to where you came from,” Kirishima said lowly as he moved Monoma through the crowd and back to you and Mina.

“My stall is back that way,” Monoma snapped, pointing back towards the stalls opposite to you.

Kirishima shrugged, “it moved, you’re over here now.”

You let out a breath as Monoma came to a stop in front of you and it was then you realized that he had his boots tied to the stirrups with some twine. It was almost comical to see how bad of rider Monoma was. You probably didn’t even need to tie him up anymore, he was practically stuck in the saddle until someone cut him out.

“Hold on, I know you,” Monoma said, his gaze dancing between Kirihisma and Mina. Then his eyes landed on you. “You! That girl, that bitch,” he snarled.

“Now that’s not very nice,” Kirishima drawled as he promptly yanked Monoma from the saddle by the back of his shirt, making the blond yelp as he fell to the floor. One of his boots was still stuck in his stirrup.

Monoma was starting to panic. He was flat on his back with a foot stuck in his stirrup and his horse was starting to grow antsy. “The hell do you want?” he said, his voice wavering as he locked eyes with Kirishima. It was hard to forget the guy who had a pistol in his face not too long ago.

“Wanna know where that money is,” you said, looking around briefly to make sure no one was watching what was happening.

“Money?” Monoma said, shaking his head, “I don’t know where any money is.”

“We think you do, saw you take a big wad of cash from your daddy, right?” Mina leered as he placed her boot on his chest, “better speak up or Kirishima will swat your horse and make ‘em run back into the arena, don’t think that’d feel too good, huh?”

Monoma gulped as he looked up at his boot again. Being dragged by his horse was not ideal. “You’ll let me go if I tell you?”

“Of course,” Kirishima said with an empty smile.

Monoma nodded, “okay alright, I got it on me, the old man gave it to me so I could prove myself,” he muttered as he pulled out a wad of cash stuffed into some parchment paper, “it’s three grand. Is that enough, I don’t have anything else,” he said, his voice was heavy with fear.

Kirishima took the money from Monoma and stuffed it into his back pocket, “that’s perfect.” He glanced at you and Mina, flicking his head towards the back of the holding pens where y’all had your horses tied.

“Okay now let me go,” Monoma said, his gaze jumping between the three of you.

“Well since you asked so nicely,” Kirishima chuckled darkly as he smacked Monoma’s horse on its back, making it squeal as it took off down the gravel, dragging Monoma along with him.

Monoma’s screams gathered everyone’s attention and before you knew it, multiple guys were racing past you to Monoma who was now outside, screaming and shouting about how three outlaws were in the barn.

That was your cue to leave.

In a hurried rush, you ran back to your horse and pulled yourself up into the saddle before kicking him into a gallop.

“Gotta ride fast we’ve got company,” Kirishima shouted over the wind as he weaved in front of you.

You glanced behind you to see some of the cowboys you saw in the barn earlier hot on your tail. They had their ropes out, probably hoping to nab one of y’all, but it was clear they weren’t going to catch up.

You smiled, glancing back over your shoulder again to see that they had slowed down to a stop just as you and the others passed through the far end of the city and back into the open land.

Mina laughed from next to you as she held her cowboy hat so it wouldn’t fly off in the wind. “Those suckers never knew what hit ‘em! Your plan worked Y/n!”

Pride filled your chest as you looked out towards the dark prairie. Your plan did work. No one had gotten hurt, aside from Monoma, but that didn’t matter. You were proud of yourself. It felt like you had finally proved yourself to the others, not that they were ever asking for it, but you felt like it needed to happen.

The horses tore across the plains, kicking up dirt and grass in their wake as you followed Kirishima to his hometown. Your feelings of euphoric adrenaline only seemed to grow as you raced next to Kirishima and Mina.

There’s no better feeling in the world than sitting on top of a horse and letting him run to his heart's content. The night around you blurred as Kirishima let out a yip and right now you felt like you were on top of the world.

After a good while of running, you slowed to a walk, catching your breath as Kirishima led you towards a more barren part of the plains. The dirt started to turn more to dusty sand and a few mesquite trees started to appear around you.

“There’s not much out here,” Mina commented as she squinted into the distance.

Kirishima nodded, “it’s pretty empty, not a lot of people can live out here. It gets better once we get closer to town. There’s a huge lake by our town and an equally large forest. It’s nice there, but here,” he paused, “a lot of people didn’t make it to our town trying to get past these wastelands.”

And they were wastelands. You shivered as you passed the skull of what looked like a bull or a buffalo. It was sun-bleached and was probably home to a smaller animal now.

You rode through the night until dawn. By then you were exhausted and starving, and the sight of the small run-down town up ahead gave you a little more hope to push through. As you got closer to the town, feral dogs raced by you snapping at your horse's legs while you shooed them off.

Some small children dressed in rags, peeked out from behind broken windows as they watched you pass. It seemed like they knew who Kirishima was as a look of awe crossed their features.

The town itself was poorly built, and extremely small. The wood was aged, and splintering from years of being cooked in the hot sun. There were a few markets that had only a few items to offer. Then there was the sheriff’s office, it was just as small and likely didn’t even have a jail cell.

Kirishima stopped his horse, “wait out here, I’ll be back, you two can get us some breakfast. If Koda’s around he’ll give us some biscuits.”

You stayed silent, following Mina towards a small stand where a bald man around your age was whittling a bear out of some wood with a pocket knife.

Upon seeing Mina he set down his knife and gave her a big smile and then his gaze turned to you, he tilted his head, looking confused.

“Oh that’s Y/n, she rides with us now,” Mina explained as she pulled out a few crinkled bills and got off her horse, “you got any of those biscuits?”

Koda nodded, removing his gaze from you as he reached down to grab a small burlap sack and handed it to Mina.

“You’re a doll,” she said as she gave him the money, “we’ll see ya around, kay?”

Koda nodded and returned to whittling his bear, seeming rather happy that he had made a sale.

“Koda’s mute,” Mina explained as you followed her back to the sheriff’s office. “Bakugou says the whole time he’s known him, he’s never talked. No one knows why, but he’s as sweet as they come. Plus, his ma’s a pretty good baker, these biscuits are gold,” she said as she dug her hand into the bag and tossed you one.

You just barely caught it, fumbling the pastry for a moment before you held it steady. It did look good, probably the best biscuit you’ve ever seen, nice and flaky and baked to perfection. While you waited for Kirishima, both you and Mina had a couple of biscuits each, chatting about nothing to pass the time.

Soon Kirishima came back out, waving goodbye to the sheriff who only stuck his hand out of the door to wave goodbye. He got back on his horse, sighing as Mina handed him a biscuit, “got it done.”

As you rode towards Keigo’s estate you were beginning to wonder how in the world Kirishima was able to talk to the sheriff of this town? He was a well known outlaw, so it would make sense that he’d get arrested even if he did grow up here.

“Why did that sheriff let you go, and give you the keys to Keigo’s estate?” you asked, riding up next to Kirishima.

Kirishima lifted a brow as he took a bite of his biscuit, “well,” he began, harshly swallowing his bite, “we give a lot of our money back to this town, the people here need it.” He shrugged, “so the sheriff lets us walk free. Tamaki is a good guy too, despite bein’ a recluse, but he’s good. He knows deep down we’re good too.”

“Well mostly,” Mina added with a small laugh.

Kirishima nodded, looking a little amused, “but he’s always suspected something was wrong with Keigo and all the deaths that surrounded him, so he’s been on board with us catchin’ Keigo. Not like Tamaki was gonna go out after the bastard with guns blazin’.”

“Oh, that makes sense,” you said. You were still a little confused on how they got so lucky avoiding the law with both Izuku and Tamaki, but you supposed that’s probably why they have never gotten caught.

You furrowed your brows, falling back into your thoughts as you continued your ride to Keigo’s estate. The ride there was more than depressing. There were plenty of small shacks and shanties on the road to Keigo’s house, and most of them were abandoned. It made you wonder more about Bakugou’s and Kirishima’s lives when they lived here as kids. It must have been tough, and that made you sad.

Maybe the outlaws you were with weren’t as black and white as you had once thought. After getting to know them better, you’d describe them as gray. They did bad things, but they would do good things in return, like give money back to a poor town that needed money desperately.

Your horse stopped, pulling you out of your thoughts as you looked up. In front of you was a large house, much larger than the one you grew up in. It was painted white with huge double doors and at least twenty windows just on the front of the house.

The house could have been beautiful once in the past, but now it looked worn down and tired. The landscaping in the front was all dead and the weeds had taken over completely, weaving up the wood and past the peeling paint.

To the right of the estate were two smaller houses, obviously hand built, but quaint. Well loved when they were lived in. You assumed these houses belonged to Bakugou’s and Kirishima’s families.

“Kinda spooky,” Mina commented, looking at the many windows that adorned Keigo’s estate.

You nodded in agreement, while Bakugou’s and Kirishima’s houses had a sense of sadness around them, Keigo's house seemed to be full of anger. It made your stomach flip with unease as you looked into one of the dark windows.

“We better start lookin’ for evidence, I know damn well it’s in there,” Kirishima said as he dismounted his horse and tied him to the railing of the stairs leading up to the front door.

You got off two, tying your horse next to Kirishima as you followed him up the stairs. Mina was close behind, muttering under her breath about how she didn’t like the house.

Kirishima pulled out a singular key, it was rusted and barely fit into the keyhole. After a few moments of struggling, he finally got the door open. The hinges creaked in protest as he pulled the double doors wide open.

You wrinkled your nose as the scent of mildew and dust practically slapped you in the face. It was more than obvious that it had been years since anyone has been inside of the house. Still feeling uneasy you followed Kirishima in and then you split up.

Not that you wanted to split up, you felt extremely uneasy being inside of Keigo’s childhood home. You could almost feel the anguish and darkness this house held in its bones as you climbed up the steps.

After some snooping, you came across Keigo’s room. The door was already ajar, and with bated breath you kicked the door open, expecting Keigo to leap out at you, but it was empty.

The room was painted a deep red there was a large bed in the middle of the room. It was broken though, the bedframe the mattress was sitting on was cracked in half, pushing into the wall, leaving a sizable hole in its place.

There were plenty of cobwebs too, many of them hanging from the ceiling and the shelves that held some knick-knacks and toys. You were so caught up in the utter chilling features of Keigo’s room that you missed a large chest in front of you.

You let out a yelp as your shins collided with the wooden chest making you double over. You caught yourself before you face planted into the plush rug that was probably teeming with bugs. With a sigh, you stood back up examining the chest.

It wasn’t covered in much dust, not nearly as much as everything was. Which was odd. Why did this chest not have as much dust on it? You frowned, did that mean Keigo had been back here, did he pull this chest out hoping Bakugou or someone would find it?

There was only one way to find out, and that was to open it. So you did, the chest opened with a groan, and inside was a single journal, bound in black leather.

With a shaky hand, you reached inside and opened it. It belonged to Keigo. It was filled with little notes and some drawings. The pages were stiff and discolored, a few had questionable dark stains on them, you didn’t think about it too much.

You frowned, as you continued to flip through the beginning pages. It was clear that Keigo was a troubled child. Someone who hated his father immensely, and to be honest it sounded like you.

The way that younger Keigo wished he could escape from his home and live with someone else, someone he loved was disheartening. You continued to read that he wished his father would listen to him, how he wanted to go outside and play with the kids in town, but he was stuck inside learning all day.

Which as an adult you were thankful you were given an education, but your mother always made sure you could play, and if she didn’t you made sure you could.

Keigo’s entries got more desperate as he explains how he would watch the hawks outside, swoop and dive in the sky and how he dreamed about being like them so he could fly away from home. There were a few scribbled drawings of some birds on the bottom corners of the page with a hand reaching towards them.

You almost felt sorry for him, no, you did feel sorry for him. His younger life seemed so confining and suffocating. As you read on, something changed. He had written about Bakugou and Kirishima.

At first, he writes wonderful things about them, praising them for being his friends, and for showing him what it was like to be outside, but slowly they turned bitter. He writes how his father favored Bakugou and Kirishima over him.

Your eyes widened as you read about how Keigo tried to get Bakugou and Kirishima in trouble after that so his father would hate them. He killed Kirishima’s dog, poisoned the cows. But nothing worked.

Even though he hated his father he vied for his attention, craved it. The jealousy continued to grow all the way up till Keigo was eighteen. A man now, but his hatred for Bakugou and Kirishima was so intense that he wanted them to rot, to pay for how they took his father away from him, how they were the reason he was locked away as a child. Everything was their fault and he was going to make them pay.

Then on the last page, hastily scribbled down, Keigo admits that he killed his father, did it in the middle of the night while he was sleeping.

“Hey, been lookin’ for ya,” Bakugou’s voice suddenly appeared from behind you.

You screamed, throwing the journal straight up as you turned around to see him staring at you with a shocked expression, “damn you,” you hissed through heavy breaths as you picked the journal up, “scared the shit out of me.”

Bakugou snorted, glancing down at the journal in your hands, “what’s that?”

“Keigo’s journal,” you answered, looking down towards the chest, “I think he was here not too long ago, wanted someone to find it.”

Bakugou hummed and outstretched his hand so he could look at the journal which you gave him.

But at that moment, you realized that Bakugou was in fact in front of you now after almost three days of not seeing him. “You made it back,” you said, your voice small.

“Obviously,” he answered while rolling his eyes as he thumbed through the pages. He stopped, glancing at you to see you standing in front of him with wide eyes.

Without a second thought, you moved towards him and wrapped your arms around him, making him grunt in surprise. You really did miss him more than you thought. “Missed you,” you muttered, a little embarrassed at being vulnerable.

Bakugou chuckled as he returned the hug. He missed you too, a lot. Camping with Sero was not as ideal as camping with you. “Missed ya too, had to put up with Sero for far too long, fuckin’ asshole,” he muttered, thankful that you couldn’t see his pink cheeks.

You hummed, smiling as you pressed yourself closer to him. “Did you find Keigo?” you asked, your voice muffled by his shirt.

Bakugou frowned, “we did, Kaminari and him are camped out about an hour from here.”

You pulled back from him, “sounds like he figured you’d eventually end up here?”

Bakugou nodded, looking back at the journal, “that’s what we thought too.” He paused, reading a bit before looking back at you, “looks like your plan worked though, ‘m proud of you.”

He was proud of you? Your stomach flipped as a large grin grew on your face. “Thank you.”

Bakugou huffed, giving you a crooked smile before returning to the journal. His carefree expression grew more bitter as he read on.

You stood silent watching him read for a bit before he got to the end of the journal. He sighed heavily as he shut the journal and looked at you, he looked sad. You decided to not say anything, and let him speak first.

However, Bakugou, true to his nature, kept silent too. He instead looked around the room, eyeing some old wooden toys and a few literature books that sat untouched on one of the many bookshelves in the room.

“Hey!” Kirishima's voice echoed through the old house, “Sero and Mina found a basement, think y’all should come see it.”

You shared a look with Bakugou, knowing this very well may be the actual evidence he needed to prove that Keigo had killed his and Kirishima’s family once and for all. Keeping quiet again, you followed Bakugou out of the room and down the stairs.

His shoulders were squared and up to his ears again. He must be uncomfortable, and you didn’t blame him. As much as you wanted to go and comfort him, you could tell that he wanted to be alone in his own space.

When you got downstairs you saw Sero standing by a broken door that had stairs leading down to what you could assume was the basement. A basement around these parts was pretty rare, not many buildings had them. You remember asking why the bank had a basement and not your house growing up and your mother told you that the soil was too thin and was full of clay.

Which meant that Keigo’s family really did have a lot of money, more than you probably could even imagine. Your nose wrinkled as you walked down the rotting stairs into the basement. The air felt damp against your skin, and the smell of mildew grew much stronger.

Mina sniffled behind you, suppressing a sneeze as she grabbed your arm. Which you were glad for, it was more than creepy down there. As you reached the bottom of the basement the floorboards moaned and creaked under your steps, sounding like anguished spirits who had been trapped inside of the basement for years.

You wouldn’t have been surprised to find that this place was haunted.

“Let’s go over there,” Mina whispered, giving Bakugou and Kirishima a wide berth as they started to sift through the crates and barrels by a desk.

You nodded, following Mina to the side of the basement where there were two groups of floor to ceiling shelves. There on the shelves were multiple glass jars. They were dusty and Mina wiped one off only to recoil in disgust at a bird carcass stuffed inside and partially preserved in ethanol.

“You think Keigo did that?” she asked, keeping her voice quiet.

You nodded, counting the remaining jars on the shelves. There were about fifty jars, all varying in size. While you did feel sorry for Keigo after reading his journal, your resentment outgrew your pity.

“I think they’re all birds,” Mina added, wiping off another jar with her sleeve to reveal a hawk. “I wonder why he was so obsessed with birds?”

“I think he envied them,” you answered, “he wrote about it in his journal.”

Mina hummed, turning you both away from the shelves as you ventured further into the basement. You stopped at one corner, growing a little more disturbed at the pile of clothes that were shoved into an open hole. They looked like boys' clothes.

“Hey,” Sero’s voice came from behind you. He had practically come out of nowhere.

“Damn,” Mina hissed, holding her hand over her heart, “quiet bastard, what?”

“Bakugou found somethin’,” he said, his voice solemn.

Your heart flipped in your chest as you followed Sero towards the other end of the basement. There you were able to see Bakugou and Kirishima holding onto some clothes.

“This is my ma’s,” Kirishima said, his voice cracking as he ran his hand over the worn dress, it was stained with blood.

Bakugou huffed, throwing the article of clothing he was holding down on the ground, and stormed out of the basement, looking livid. You watched him go, feeling heartsick that someone you cared so much for was hurting.

“Best to let him cool off,” Sero said, following your gaze.

You nodded in agreement, he probably needed some time to himself to mourn. You then turned your attention back to Kirishima who was wiping his eyes as he pulled out a small plaid shirt. It looked like it had belonged to a toddler. It was splattered with blood too.

“Found his weapon also,” Sero said quietly, pointing to a weapon that looked a bit like a broad sword. It was most likely a family heirloom, passed down from generations back.

“Keigo admitted to killing his father in his journal too,” you said quietly, feeling your heart break as you watched Kirishima continue to dig through the clothes of his dead relatives.

Mina left your side, moving towards Kirishima to comfort him.

“Think we should go,” Sero said, as Kirishima let out a quiet cry.

You nodded, following Sero back up the stairs and then out of the house. The two of you remained silent as you built a small campfire in a pasture a good distance away from the house. After a while, Kirishima and Mina came to join you. The four of you sat in silence, trying to process what you had just seen.

It was overwhelming trying to sort through your thoughts. So many things have happened in such a short amount of time, you haven’t really had time to process any of it. You were kidnapped, shot at, fought against soldiers, fought with Bakugou, saw someone die, saw your father die. You gulped not even wanting to try and process all of that at the moment. It was too much to handle.

Time seemed to move fast as you sat and watched the fire flicker in front of you, and before you knew it, the sun was setting again. You blinked, pulling yourself from your thoughts as you looked up. Mina and Sero were quietly chatting to each other as Sero tossed some more firewood into the flames.

Kirishima was sitting against his saddle, staring into the flames with a faraway expression. It then made you realize that Bakugou still hasn’t come back.

You looked over your shoulder to see that his horse was gone which made you wonder he went. Surely he wasn’t far.

“You should go look for him,” Kirishima said, his voice scratchy as he looked up at you from the fire. “He’s been alone for too long.”

You nodded, “any idea where he is?” you asked.

“Probably by the lake,” Kirishima answered and then turned his gaze back to the flames.

The lake? You stood up, walking towards your horse as you tried to figure out where the lake was. Surely close by? You weren’t that good at tracking. With a sigh, you pulled yourself up into the saddle and urged your horse forward.

Despite all of the sadness today had brought, it was a beautiful evening. The sky was big out here, stretching miles and miles and it was decorated with soft pastel clouds. The air was sweet from the summer grasses and fireflies were starting to come out.

You inhaled, rubbing your eyes as your horse trotted up a steep hill, and there in the distance was a silhouette of a man and his horse. He was looking out over the lake, watching the water shimmer as the sun set.

Your horse nickered at his horse when you came to a stop. You dismounted your horse, putting his reins back over the horn of the saddle while he began to graze. If Bakugou heard you, he didn’t turn his head to acknowledge your presence.

The grass was tall here, reaching up to your knees as you waded through, a little frustrated that you were still in your dress from earlier. So much had happened so fast that you didn’t find the time to get changed.

When you finally reached him you sat down, tucking the dress beneath your legs as you stretched out. The view was nice from up here. You could see how large the lake was. After a beat you looked towards him, his eyes were rimmed red, and you knew he had been crying.

“Are you okay?” you asked, your voice soft.

Bakugou nodded, “I think so.”

You nodded, looking away from him and back to the lake, “do you want to talk about it? Sometimes that helps,” you offered gently.

Bakugou didn’t answer your question for a while, but then he took a deep breath. “It’s strange after all this time to finally have closure, ya know?” he began, tearing at some of the grass next to him. “For years I thought about this moment, the moment I finally had proof of what Keigo did and I thought I would be prepared. I wasn’t. And I guess you can’t really be prepared for somethin’ like this,” he finished.

“I’m sure, and I’m sorry it’s been so hard for you and Kirishima,” you said truthfully.

Bakugou snorted, “yeah, me too, but I’m sorry for you too, and Mina, Sero, and Izuku. All of us have been put through hell and back because of Keigo.”

You gave him a melancholy smile as you leaned against him, not really sure what to say.

He sighed heavily, as his shoulders relaxed. Bakugou glanced down at you pressed against him and he ran his gaze down your form, just admiring you and how someone who was previously his bounty became someone so close to him. Someone he cared about immensely.

You smiled a bit watching as a few blue herons flew across the surface of the lake, you’ve always thought they were interesting birds. You were about to say something about the lanky birds until you noticed Bakugou's hand was moving towards yours and then he grabbed it gently, intertwining your fingers together.

Your heart practically leaped into your throat as he squeezed your hand tightly, rubbing his thumb over your knuckles. You were practically stupid with joy as he looked towards you with a soft expression.

“My family would have liked you,” he began as he kept his gaze focused on your hand in his. “Despite you bein’ stubborn as hell.”

You laughed, “you think so?”

He nodded as he stood up, taking you with him, “I do.” He began leading you back towards the horses and then he dropped your hand to get up on his horse, “I wanna show you somethin’.”

You held back another smile as you got up on your horse, following him down the hill and towards the small houses near Keigo’s estate. In the distance, you could see the fire where the others were camped out.

After a few short moments, you came to a stop outside of a small cabin. It was probably only one room and was definitely made by hand. The logs were sturdy though, made out of hardwood. Bakugou held out his hand again and you took it as he brought you towards his house.

You kept quiet as he opened the door. The inside was how you expected, it was one big room. There was one wood burning stove in the back of the room, and a cast iron pot still sat on the burner. In the middle of the room was the kitchen table, a large slab of wood that had been sanded down and polished.

Four chairs were seated around the table, they were pushed out and it almost seemed like people were still living in the house. You could see an apron folded neatly on one of the chairs and there were a few bowls out.

In the far corner of the house were two beds both around the same size, and probably the most expensive item in the house.

“I know it’s not much,” Bakugou began, his voice catching a bit as he cleared his throat, “but it’s the best home I’ve ever known.”

“I think it’s great,” you said with a small smile.

Bakugou snorted, “hah, don’t need to lie princess, your home could hold five of mine.”

You shook your head, “I know, but I can tell this home was well loved and the people in it were too, which is worth more than any large house.”

Bakugou nodded, mulling over your comment as he looked around his old home for one last time. He could still see flashes of memories here and there, but it’s been so long it was hard to remember his old life sometimes. It was time to go though, and he needed to put the memories to rest. He nodded, mostly to himself as he opened the door again, not looking back as he shut the door behind him.

“Where are we going?” you asked as he pulled you behind him, rather harshly making you stumble as he muttered an apology.

“Back to camp,” he said as he let go of your hand and got back on his horse, watching you get back on to yours rather awkwardly.

You frowned, yanking at the dress as you straddled the saddle. It wasn’t very practical to ride in a dress really. You watched as Bakugou moved in front of you leading you past his house and up the hill again. The sun had now set leaving the sky a deep purple.

After a short moment, you realize he’s leading you away from camp and towards the woods. “Where are we going? Camps back that way,” you said looking over your shoulder to see the fire where the camp was growing smaller in the distance.

“Goin’ somewhere else,” Bakugou said as he ducked under a branch.

You ducked too, barely missing the thick branch of the oak tree you just passed. The woods were thick here, and as the light faded you had to rely on your horse to follow Bakugou. After a good while of riding, you stopped by a cove that was tucked away from the lake. There was a small waterfall at the base of the creek, bubbling softly as water trickled over the rocks.

You noticed where he had stopped was a small clearing, the trees had been cut just leaving a bit of grass along with an old stack of firewood that had probably been there for years.

“I used to come here with Kirishima to catch frogs,” Bakugou said, sounding a little embarrassed, “I wanted you to see it too,” he added as he got off his horse.

Even though it was dark you could tell it was a beautiful area, especially with all the native wildflowers that were growing near the edge of the clearing. “I used to catch frogs too, nothin’ to be embarrassed about,'' you teased, making him snort as he collected firewood.

“Bet you were shit at it,” he said as he grabbed his saddlebag and pulled out some flint and steel.

You narrowed your eyes as you dismounted your horse, hauling your bedroll off too. You had finally gotten yourself your own blanket. It was a quilt that you found stuffed away in your closet, and you couldn’t leave it behind. “I was really good at it,” you countered as you rolled out your quilt and grabbed your riding clothes you were planning on changing into.

“Whatever,” Bakugou grumbled, flashing you a quick smile as blew on the budding fire. He sat down after the fire grew to a reasonable size and looked up at you, “c’mere,” he said, looking at the empty space next to him.

Your eyes widened slightly as you set down your clothes and made your way over to him. For some odd reason, you were rather nervous to sit next to him, it was a good kind of nervous though.

Bakugou leaned back watching as you sat next to him and stretched out, the dress you were wearing bunched up past your knees. He pulled his gaze back up to the fire.

You fell into a comfortable silence, but you felt like something was going on that you were not aware of. It wasn’t like you couldn’t feel Bakugou staring at you every once and awhile. Somethin’ was up with him, and you weren’t sure what to think about it. “You’re actin’ weird,” you finally said, looking at him at last only to see that his cheeks were pink.

He cleared his throat, “the hell you talkin’ about?”

You furrowed your brows, “you’re embarrassed, your cheeks are all pink,” you said, bringing a hand up to poke one of his cheeks, making him grumble as he swatted your hand away.

“‘M not embarrassed,” he argued, “I just-” he sighed, cursing under his breath.

You listened for a moment, hearing him curse out Sero for bad advice, and it made you remember what Mina and Kirishima laughed about on your way to the rodeo.

“-Can I kiss you?” Bakugou finally said, refusing to look you in the eyes.

You froze, he wanted to kiss you? The last time he did that he ran away. You knew now was different, but you couldn’t help but feel more nervous than before. After a moment you nodded and felt your heart leap into your throat when moved into your space.

You watched with bated breath as his vermillion gaze flickered down to your lips and then back to your eyes. He placed a hand on the side of your face, cradling your cheek as he tilted his head and pressed his lips against yours.

This time he kissed you differently than the first time, he was gentle and meaningful. Like he was trying to let you know how he felt through the kiss.

You shut your eyes, bringing your hands up around his neck, branching your fingers up into his soft hair. He let out a groan, making you freeze up which gave him the opportunity to tug you closer to him with his free hand.

You broke away panting as he practically planted you on his lap and nuzzled his face into the side of your neck. This was all so new to you, and taboo at that. All your life you’ve been told to wait till marriage, it was sinful and such. Yet here you were, straddling Bakugou as he pressed kisses onto the side of your neck.

You felt nervous suddenly, as you placed your hands on his chest, making him pull back. He looked at you through lidded eyes, there was a heavy blush painted across his cheeks. “Katsuki,” you whispered, your eyes searching his, “I’m scared, I’ve never done anything like this before,” you explained, keeping your voice quiet as you looked away from him.

Bakugou hummed, it was a deep rumble that resonated from his chest, and he grabbed your chin turning your head back towards him, “you don’t have to be scared with me, I’ll take good care of ya,” he said, his voice low.

You shivered, making his lips twitch up a bit. “But Mina said you nothin’ about nothin’,” you said, looking away from him.

Bakugou huffed, clearly annoyed, “of course she did.”

You swallowed thickly, feeling even more nervous now or were you embarrassed? You weren’t sure.

“Hey,” he said softly, loosening his grip on your chin to run his knuckles down the side of your cheek gently. “We don’t have to do anythin’, princess if you’re uncomfortable. I’m not gonna be mad if that’s what you’re worried about.”

You blinked, mulling over his words. Your nerves were frayed but you wanted to be with him, you weren’t too sure what that meant for you, but you trusted him with your life. You could trust him with this. “I do though, I wanna be with you,” you said quietly, looking back at him shyly.

Bakugou hummed looking up at you, part of his face was illuminated by the fire light as he nodded, “okay, just relax, pretty girl,” he said quietly, as he pressed a kiss to your jaw.

You curled your fingers into his hair, tugging a little as he ran his hand down your side before stopping at your lower back. He then pressed on your lower back lightly urging you to grind down on his lap.

You huffed placing your face into the crook of his neck, as you started to rock your hips against the front of his jeans, and a soft whine escaped your lips.

“There ya go,” he murmured, starting to breathe heavily.

You gripped the back of his jacket, as he bucked his hips up. Bakugou let out a groan from beneath you making a tingle of electricity zap down your spine at the sound of his voice.

And it made you realize you wanted to hear him again, hear him moan and writhe above you. Your heartbeat quickened as you sucked in a breath when he gently moved you both down on his blanket.

You looked up at him through lidded eyes as he hovered above you. His pupils were blown as he leaned down to kiss you again, more roughly this time. You let out a whimper when he nipped at your lip, which gave him the opportunity to push his tongue into your mouth.

Everything was starting to become overwhelming as you squirmed beneath him. His hands were all over your sides, yanking at your dress, pushing it above your hips. You involuntarily arched up into him, letting out a moan when he cupped your clothed pussy in one hand, nudging your clit through the fabric with his middle finger.

You broke away from the kiss again, panting as you grabbed onto his shoulders, “Kats,” you breathed out, your breath hitching as he lightly rubbed small circles over your clit.

Bakugou grinned, “feelin’ good?”

You nodded, now grabbing at his forearm when he ran his finger down over your clothed slit. “What’re you doing?” you slurred, watching him hook his fingers into the side of your panties and tug them down over your thighs.

“Relax,” he repeated, now running his finger between your folds, and watching your arousal coat his finger as he looked back at you. Your chest was heaving with each breath you took, and he didn’t miss the way your legs would shake every time he would run his finger through your slit.

“Katsuki,” you said aloud as he moved down, pressing kisses against your collar bone, your stomach, and then the top of your thighs. You bit the inside of your cheek as he blew warm air on your pussy, making you squirm.

“Said I was gonna take care of ya, didn’t I?” he finally said, suppressing a groan when he spread your legs more, watching strings of arousal coat your thighs.

You nearly lost it watching him lay down on his stomach and wrap his arms around your thighs, yanking you towards his face. He placed a kiss to your inner thigh, lightly biting down on the soft skin there before turning his attention back to your pussy.

“Oh,” you whimpered out as he ran the flat of his tongue up against your slit, making you immediately lock your legs around his head as a strange sensation settled in the pit of your tummy.

Bakugou chuckled as he squeezed your thighs tightly, leaving small crescents in your skin from his nails. He loved seeing you come undone when he’s barely touched you. He wanted to ruin you in the best way possible, make you his over and over again.

You unknowingly placed your arm over your eyes as your hips rolled up into his mouth. He’s barely moved his tongue and you were already a mess, babbling out nonsense. Especially when he moved his attention up to your clit, licking at it and sucking it into his mouth.

“Good girl,” he muttered against your pussy as you rolled your hips again, “so good for me.”

You nodded, unable to form words as a funny feeling started to build in your tummy. It had all your muscles tensing and releasing as he continued to suck on your clit.

Bakugou looked up from your pussy to watch you throw your head back and moan. “Fuck, you look so good,” he groaned before sucking your clit again.

You keened arching your back at his praise as another wave of pleasure rolled over. “Feel strange,” you panted out, as the rhythm of your grinding hips began to stutter.

Bakugou hummed, tugging you closer to him if that was even possible.

“Katsuki, I,” you tried to begin but the coil that was twisting inside of your tummy finally burst. The feeling that washed over you couldn’t even be described with words. But it made you shake against him, a cry escaping your lips as he continued to lick and suck through your high.

He kissed your clit before pulling away and moving back up so he could kiss you again. You were still writhing against him, yanking at his jacket as he slipped out of it, tossing it to the side. A warbled whine escaped your lips when he pulled back away from you to yank off his shirt.

“Fuckin’ needy,” he said, shaking his head as he ran his tongue over his bottom lip, still tasting your release on his lips.

“Wanna make you feel good too,” you said shyly, as you watched the fire light dance against the outline of his muscles.

Bakugou smirked, as he easily yanked your dress over your head, his eyes trailing down your body, stopping at the love bites he left on your skin. With a shaky sigh, he moved over you again, holding himself above you with one arm as he ran his other hand up your side. “You sure?” he asked, he wanted tonight to be about you, but how could he say no to you now, when you were looking so sweet under him.

“‘M sure,” you said, sighing softly as he rolled one of your nipples between his thumb and forefinger.

He hummed, moving his hand away from your chest and up your neck before stopping by your mouth, “gonna have to teach you then,” he said slowly as he grabbed your chin, running his thumb over your bottom lip.

You nodded, getting the idea that he wanted you to open your mouth, so you parted your lips as he placed the pad of his thumb on your tongue.

Bakugou's pupils were blown wide as he watched you close your lips around his thumb. “That’s it,” he muttered as he let out a soft sigh when you wrapped your legs around his hips. “Go ahead and use your tongue,” he said.

You swirled your tongue around his thumb, whimpering when he rolled his hips against yours.

“Good girl,” he muttered, as he pushed another finger into your mouth. “Keep doin’ that, and no teeth,” he said, watching you closely as he pressed another finger in your mouth and moved them back towards your throat.

You whimpered, trying to not gag on his fingers, looking up at him with a concerned expression. Were you doing this right? You must be because he was grinding against you even more now.

When he grinned at you, you nearly fell apart again. “Think you’re ready,” he muttered, pulling his fingers from your mouth.

You watched with wide eyes as he quickly got rid of the rest of his clothes. You were in awe seeing him up close this time, he was beautiful. And he was yours now. A slight tap on your cheek gathered your attention and you realized you were staring off again.

“You and that fuckin’ starin’ problem,” Bakugou snorted as he ran his hand covered in your spit over his dick.

Then you really realized what you were looking at now and you let out a whimper, there was no way he would fit. Especially not in your mouth, but you still moved forward sitting in front of him and running your hands up his thighs.

You held your breath as your fingers branched up his lower stomach and you grabbed his dick in your hand, pumping it slowly like you saw him doing, “Is this good Katsuki?” you ask, staring up at him.

He was breathing hard through his nose with his teeth bared as he nodded, “yeah baby, you’re doin’ good.”

He was hot in your hand, and so wet, the noise that your palm would make against his skin was obscene. With a soft sigh, you tore your eyes away from him and back to his dick, watching pre leak from the top. You hovered your lips above the tip, trying to decide the best way to start.

“Spit on it,” Bakugou growled out, placing a large hand on your head, and driving his fingers into your hair.

You looked up at him again as you dropped a glob of spit on the top, and then ran your tongue up the side of his dick.

“Shit,” Bakugou grumbled, his voice deepening to a low rumble. Not like you knew it, but you were teasing the hell out of him, and it was taking everything in him not to fuck your face.

You squirmed at his voice, feeling your body tingle with need again. After a moment you parted your lips and let him push into your mouth. He was big and it didn’t take long for the head of his dick to press against the back of your throat, making your eyes water.

“Oh fuck,” he hissed, gripping your hair tighter between his fingers.

You blinked, tears streaming down your face as you pressed the flat of your tongue against the underside of his dick, and began sucking hard. Your nails dug into his thighs, as he started to buck his hips into your mouth.

“There ya go, just like that, doin’ so good,” Bakugou praised, using his free hand to wipe some of your tears away.

You sniffled trying your best to keep going, you wanted to see him come undone above you. There was nothing more in the world that you wanted right now.

Bakugou tipped his head back, letting out another grunt as he picked up the pace. He didn’t want to cum yet, but you felt so good it was hard not to.

He thrusted into your mouth hard, making your eyes screw shut as he pushed the rest of his length into your mouth. Your nose was pressed against his pelvis as you tried to control your breathing while he shook above you.

“Shit,” he snarled, “gonna fuckin’ cum.”

Bakugou’s hips stuttered and you almost choked when he came in your mouth.

“Swallow it,” he hissed, watching you as he rode out his high.

You did, pulling off of him with a pant as you ran your tongue over your bottom lip. “Did I do a good job?” you asked as he moved back down in front of you.

He grinned, “fuckin’ perfect.”

Bakugou then kissed you long and hard, swirling his tongue with yours as you tasted yourself on his tongue and he and on yours. At this point, you were almost completely fucked out.

“Holdin’ up okay, baby?” He muttered against your lips, smiling when you nodded and ran your hands down his built chest.

“Want you Katsuki,” you said your voice tapering off into a whine

“Think you can handle it?” He asked reaching down to run the head of his dick between your folds.

You nodded, biting your lip hard as he continued to rut against you. “Please,” you begged quietly as your hole clamped down on nothing.

“Sweet thing, so good for me, always so good,” he muttered as he pushed into you slowly, and let out a grunt when he bottomed out, “fuck, you’re fuckin’ tight, princess.”

You whimpered, tears pricking your eyes as you squirmed against him trying to escape the sudden pain from him stretching you, “hurts,” you muttered through quick pants.

“I know,” he cooed, “it’ll feel good soon,” he let out a broken moan, feeling your walls clench around him.

He stayed still for a moment letting you adjust to his size before he started to move. Bakugou thrusted forward, fucking you with deep slow strokes which made you whimper and whine against his form.

Every time he pulled his hips back and then pushed back into you, you would mutter something incoherent in his ear, how good you felt, how big he was, and then you let something slip, you weren’t even aware you did, but he heard it.

“Shit, princess,” Bakugou groaned, as he held your face in his hands, watching you come undone beneath him. “Fuckin’ gorgeous,” he muttered as he picked up his pace, now slamming his hips into yours.

You clawed at his back, your nails leaving raised red trails down his honey-tanned skin as he rolled his hips again. He kept hitting a spot inside of you that had you nearly blackout every time the head of his dick would press into it.

“‘M gonna cum,” you hissed, your eyes rolling back as he brought one hand down to start circling your clit with his fingers.

“Yeah? Go on baby,” Bakugou muttered, kissing your lips before moving down to your jaw, “cum for me.”

Your vision blacked out as you shook beneath him crying out as you clung to his form. His thrusts were growing sloppy now, he could barely hold himself back as he helped you through your orgasm.

“Fuck, fuck,” he growled, now biting at the skin on your neck roughly as he neared his climax, “gonna fill you up, make you mine,” he hissed as he ground his hips against yours. “Fuckin’ love you too,” he grunted before stilling.

You both let out a groan at the feeling of him cumming inside of you.

You opened your eyes after a moment of coming down from your high to see Bakugou panting above you, and you realized at that moment what he had just said to you.

He said he loved you too.

“You love me?” You whispered, your voice hoarse as he let more of his weight rest on you.

Bakugou nodded, wiping some more tears from your cheeks with the pad of his thumb, “I do.”

Your face warmed and you couldn’t help but smile at him, “I love you too.”

“I know, you told me first,” he said, rolling his eyes as he pulled out with a soft sigh.

You hummed, looking up at the night sky. It was true though, you did feel that strongly about him, “I meant it,” you said suddenly.

Bakugou snorted, “I know, I did too.” He wrapped his arms around you pulling you close to him.

You smiled, looking up into his eyes as he ran his fingers down your side. It was warm out tonight, or maybe you just felt warm being with him. Your smile slipped from your face as you thought about tomorrow. Tomorrow you would be luring Keigo back to his estate to have him arrested.

So many things could go wrong, and you looked away from Bakugou, focusing on his hand on your side. He pulled you close to him again, nuzzling his face into the side of your neck. He sighed, his breath puffing against your skin.

He had fallen asleep. You sighed, grabbing his hand to intertwine your fingers together as you shut your eyes letting sleep wash over you too.

—--------

The next morning you both were up early, getting ready to plan for the day. Plan for Keigo. You finished up washing yourself in the lake and then tugged your jeans and shirt on. You could see Bakugou in the distance already getting ready to ride off.

You wiped your face once more as you pulled your boots on before walking over to Bakugou. He was tacking his horse up. “Do you know what you’re gonna do? With Keigo I mean?” you asked, as you put your saddle on your horse.

Bakugou looked over at you, “I’m thinkin’ you and I will confront Kaminari and Keigo, draw them back because they hate us the most,” he said with a forced smile. “Then Mina and Sero would follow up behind, make sure they don’t run away.”

You grimaced, hating that you would have to see Keigo again as well as Kaminari. You were so close to the end now too, and so many things could go wrong.

“Don’t worry princess,” Bakugou said softly as he came to your side, drawing you close, “this is the last time you’ll ever be seein’ either of them.”

You smiled, it was small, but at least you felt a little more hopeful.

“Let’s get goin’,” Bakugou said, shaking the last of the water from his hair as he put his hat on.

You nodded, keeping to yourself as you got on your horse, riding behind Bakugou. He was confident, more so than usual. Or maybe he was happy. You rode up next to him as you both trotted up the hill you found him on last night.

You glanced at him again, he was happy. There was a smile gracing his features when there used to be a scowl. But that made you happy, You smiled as you continued to watch him.

It didn’t take much longer for you to reach the camp the others were staying at. They were already ready too it seemed. All three of them were already on their horses.

“Morning,” Sero said languidly, a lazy smile stretching across his face as he looked between you and Bakugou.

Your face warmed as you saw Mina and Kirishima snicker to each other. It seemed that they were well aware of what happened between you and Bakugou last night.

“Keep your fuckin’ traps shut,” Bakugou quickly snapped as Mina and Kirishima started to move towards you to ask questions.

You gave him a thankful smile which he returned before looking back at his group, “Kirishima, you’re goin’ to the sheriff’s office to get Tamaki right?”

Kirishima nodded, “yeah that’s the plan.”

Bakugou nodded, “give Y/n your pistol then, she’ll probably need it.”

Kirishima handed you his pistol, and you carefully placed it in your waistband, hoping that you wouldn’t have to use it. “You don’t think I’ll need this right?” you asked, looking towards Bakugou.

He shook his head, “No, we’ll stay far enough ahead of Keigo and Kaminari that you won’t need it. It’s just a precaution.”

You nodded, glancing down at the pistol again, you had that same bad feeling settling deep in your tummy. But you pushed it away, maybe this time you were wrong. Everything would work out fine.

“We’ll follow up behind them right?” Mina asked, pushing some hair out of her eyes as she adjusted her hat.

Bakugou nodded, glancing at everyone before he spoke again, “alright, let’s head out then.”

You waved bye to Kirishima as you fell into line behind Bakugou. The ride was about an hour away at a walk and probably thirty minutes back at a run. Which meant this could be over in an hour and a half.

Bakugou was a good deal ahead of you and Mina, chatting with Sero about plans you presumed. Which was fine, you didn’t think you could even talk at the moment, you were so nervous.

The ride itself to where Keigo and Kaminari were camped out was starting to stress you out too. The terrain was quickly changing from grasslands to rocky hills with tight curves. Which meant riding fast around the bends could be dangerous. It could be fatal.

You gulped glancing down at the ravine you were passing. Small stones tumbled down the side, splashing into the river below. Above you vultures started to circle in the distance and an ominous feeling seemed to creep through the air the closer you got.

The hour seemed to pass rather quickly and before you knew it you came to a stop outside of Keigo and Kaminari’s camp. They were camped on the edge of a large cliff. You could see them talking, occasionally laughing as they cleaned their pistols.

Seeing Keigo now after reading his journal and seeing what he had done to Kirishima and Bakugou’s family, what he did to Tokoyami and your father was strange. You were so angry knowing he got away with it for so long, but at the same time, you also felt sorry for him.

He was only a few years older than you and Bakugou, around his late twenties you guess, but as you watched him laugh you saw him as a boy.

“Why are you lookin’ at him like that?” Bakugou said quietly, glancing between you and Keigo.

You shrugged, deciding not to tell Bakugou your thoughts. You figured it would make him upset and rightfully so. You were upset for even allowing yourself to feel the smallest bit sorry for him.

Bakugou huffed, tearing his gaze away from you. He knew you weren’t going to tell him, but he figured you had your reasons. “Sero, Mina, go around back, fire a shot when you’re ready,” he said.

Sero nodded moving forward and down the cliffside with Mina following behind.

You watched them disappear around the corner, chewing the inside of your cheek as you waited for a gunshot.

“Hey,” Bakugou began, watching you fiddle with your reins, “stop worrin’ so much, it’ll be fine.”

You nodded, “I know, he just scares me,” you said looking at Keigo again. You sighed, “and I was lookin’ at him like that because he kind of reminds me of a lost kid.”

“A lost kid? You fuckin’ joking?” Bakugou said, his voice holding a twinge of anger to it.

You winced, “I know it sounds bad, really, and I’m sorry, but I can’t stop thinkin’ about what he wrote about in his journal when he was a kid. He just wanted to be loved and be free, and it reminded me of myself,” you said, hoping Bakugou would understand.

Bakugou huffed, settling his temper. He’s always been known to be quick to anger. But he understood where you were coming from. “I know,” he said, “he had a pretty shit life in that house. No one even knew about it, I didn’t until reading that journal.”

You nodded, “I’m sorry-”

“Stop apologizin’ you can’t help the way you feel,” Bakugou said, “nothing’s ever as black and white as we make it out to be.”

You blinked, finding it interesting that he said what you thought about him and the others. “Yeah, I know.”

Bakugou moved his horse over next to yours and surprisingly held out his hand for you to take. “Just get out of your head, yeah?” he said, his voice softening a bit.

You nodded, slipping your hand into his, feeling some of your nerves settle. However, at the sound of a gunshot, your heart rate skyrocketed, and you looked towards Bakugou with wide eyes. He gave our hand a squeeze before he let go, grabbing his pistol as he moved forward. “Go ahead, want you to have a head start-”

“No way!” you snapped, “I’m stayin’ by you.”

“Fine,” Bakugou said through gritted teeth as he moved his horse forward so Keigo could see him.

You scowled watching Keigo and Kaminari quickly get up on their horses and start to ride towards you. Keigo was fast, yanking out his pistol with a wicked smile crossing his features.

“C’mon,” Bakugou said hurriedly as he turned his horse around, waiting for you to go so he could follow.

You gulped, bringing your horse to a trot as you made your way through the cliff, not daring to look down. Keigo yelled something behind you, which made you realize he wasn’t too far away.

“Gotta be a little faster, Y/n,” Bakugou said, growing worried, “Red’s got ya, he’s a sturdy horse,” he said, trying to urge you to ride faster.

“Okay,” you choked out, pressing your heels to your horse's sides as he quickened his trot. You could see the grass just a little bit away, you were so close, and when you reached the prairie you let out a sigh, uring your horse into a gallop.

Bakugou rode next to you, glancing over his shoulder to see Keigo and Kaminari hot on your tails, “shit,” he hissed as he yanked out his pistol and pointed it towards Kaminari.

You winced watching as Bakugou just barely missed Kaminari who laughed. “Where are Sero and Mina, shouldn’t they be close by?”

Bakugou shook his head, “dunno, they should be right behind them.” He scowled, kicking his horses' sides as Keigo began to catch up to you. Keigo was the fastest rider he’s ever met, besides you, and for a moment he didn’t think his plan would work.

A bullet flew past your face making you yelp while you flinched hard. “They’re getting close,” you said, shouting over the wind.

“I know,” Bakugou replied, trying to think of something.

There in the distance, you could see Sero and Mina riding back towards you, but they were only one horse, Sero’s horse. Something must have happened to Mina’s horse. And to your horror you saw Kaminari look over his shoulder and then turn around, racing back towards Sero and Mina.

It was obvious what he was planning on doing. Sero and Mina even though they both were armed, but they were slow, extremely slow now that they were sharing a horse. Kaminari probably figured he could take two birds out with one stone.

“Y/n,” Bakugou warned, turning his head to watch you look back at the other, “don’t do it, they’re fine-”

A loud squeal and a gunshot had your eyes wide with fear as Kaminari shot down Sero’s horse, causing both him and Mina to tumble to the ground.

“Ride fast, don’t let Keigo catch up to you,” you said quickly before Bakugou could yell at you as you turned around racing back towards your friends.

Time seemed to slow down as you passed by Keigo. You both locked eyes and he grinned, laughing as you raced past him. You turned your head, seeing that Bakugou was still riding back towards the estate which was good.

You turned your attention back to Kaminari watching him yank on his horse's mouth, getting her to slide to a stop. He pulled out his pistol, saying a few words as he pointed it at Sero who was standing in front of Mina. She was hurt, cradling her arm to her chest.

You pulled out Kirishima’s pistol letting your reins drop as you held it with two hands, aiming at Kaminari, and then you pulled the trigger. In the time that you took to blink your bullet found its way into Kaminari’s side, throwing him off the top of his horse.

With one hand you grabbed your reins moving your horse towards Kaminari and you hoped that he wouldn’t get back up. Sero quickly grabbed Kaminari’s horse by the reins and got on before helping Mina up.

They wasted no time riding up to you.

“Always said you were a good shot,” Mina said hoarsely, giving you a weak smile.

You grinned, trying to not shake in your saddle from nerves. “I did have a good teacher.”

Sero scoffed, wiping some blood away from his face, “thank you, we would have been done for if you didn’t turn back around. Mina’s horse got bit by a snake and threw her, lost her pistol and everything.”

You frowned about to tell Mina you were so sorry, but then something strange happened. You weren’t too sure why it took you so long to register what was going on, but Sero shouted something and turned around firing his pistol off again.

You turned, seeing Kaminari crumple to the ground this time gone for good. You looked back at Sero and then a searing pain bloomed at the side of your arm, and you looked down to see that it was limp beside you.

“Y/n!” Sero shouted, grabbing your reins in his hands, “shit, Mina can you tell me how bad it is, I can’t keep lookin’ at her.”

Your leg smashed up against Sero’s and Mina’s as your horses ran directly next to each other and you winched when Mina grabbed your arm.

“Went through clean,” she said, her voice sounding muffled, “you’ll be okay, just hold on.”

You looked down seeing scarlet red blood soak into your shirt and drip down your arm at a steady rate. A feeling of dread washed over you, “Mina,” you hissed, as the gunshot wound thumped in time with your heartbeat.

“You’ll be okay,” she reassured you, holding your hand the best she could.

You nodded, if Bakugou and Izuku survived a gunshot you could too. It would be fine, you’d be fine. However, as someone who has never had to deal with such severe wounds ever, the sight of so much blood, your blood had you slumping forward.

“Don’t fall off,” Sero growled, reaching over to roughly shake you.

You blinked, trying to push the black spots out of your vision as your stomach flopped. “I won’t,” you slurred, gripping onto the horn of the saddle as you tried to stay awake.

Up in the distance, you could see Keigo’s estate, it looked small now but you’d be there soon if you could just hold on.

You swallowed harshly, feeling yourself tip forward again, which was not good. You knew this would make you unbalanced in your saddle, and then you’d fall off, probably hurting yourself more.

Sero reached over again, yanking the back of your shirt to pull you back again. “Fuckin’ Kaminari,” he muttered glancing behind him to see Mina barely holding it together too. The tumble she took off her horse and then his horse was enough to put anyone under.

You managed to hold on though, just in time too, because when your horse and Sero’s came to a stop in front of the house both you and Mina fell off. You hit the ground harshly, groaning a bit. You did feel better on the ground now though. It was steady and soothed your growing nausea.

You heard shouting and then someone was dragging you across the grass as best they could.

“I-I’m sorry,” a voice stuttered above you, “I didn’t know where you were shot, didn’t want to pick you up.”

“S’kay,” you slurred blinked as the person above you came into focus. It was a man. He was looking down at you with wide eyes as he began to put pressure on your wound.

“Katsuki?” you asked, not bothering to look around.

“Kirishima and him just took Keigo right when you came back,” he explained as he tore some gauze off with his teeth, “he’s being put in a holdin’ cell back at the office.”

The office? You blinked, “are you, Tamaki?”

Tamaki nodded, his face was bright red, “Y-yeah, um, you’ll be okay, the bullet went clean through. Uh, stay here, I have to check on Mina.”

You snorted, it’s not like you were going anywhere any time soon. The sun was bright above you, making you squint as you realized it was over. Everyone was still alive. You were still alive.

You sighed, grabbing at the grass with your good hand as your adrenaline started to slow, allowing you to feel the pain of your wound more. It hurt like hell, stinging like a thousand wasps had stuck their stingers into your arm.

Hoofbeats vibrated the ground next to you and you turned your head to see Bakugou’s horse stop in front of you. A moment later he was hovering above you, eyes wide as he stared at all the blood soaking into your shirt.

You smiled at him, still delirious from the pain, “you got him.”

Bakugou nodded, swallowing thickly as he inspected your arm. His words were stuck in his throat like glue. He had heard three gunshots while he was leading Keigo back to the estate and he had hoped nothing had happened to you. Yet here you were, the person he cared about most, hurt.

If Kaminari wasn’t already dead, Bakugou would have vowed to make him hurt.

“You’re crying,” you whispered, watching his bottom lip wobble as a tear rolled down his cheek.

“Don’t do that again,” Bakugou harshly whispered, gently pulling you up against him.

The world spun at your sudden change of position, but you pushed through at the feeling of Bakugou pressing his face into your shoulder. He shuddered against you. “It’s okay,” you said as you leaned your cheek against the side of his head, “gonna be fine.”

“I know,” he muttered, sniffling as he ran his hand up and down your back. “I thought I had lost you, all I saw was you lyin’ in the grass and covered in blood.”

You figured some of his tears were because things were finally over. At last, after years of chasing after Keigo, he had finally got him. “I already told you before that I’ll always come back to you,” you said, letting your eyes close.

“And you always do,” he replied softly, feeling you slump against him. With a shaky hand, he pressed his fingers to your pulse point, letting out a sigh of relief when he felt the steady beat of your heart beneath the pads of his fingers.

——-

You woke up the next morning still feeling pretty bad, but you were glad to be alive really. Even though everyone said you’d be fine, it was still nerve-wracking to look down and see your arm so badly injured.

You sighed, rubbing your eyes as you followed Bakugou and Kirishima to the sheriff's office. Apparently, while you were out Tamaki had ridden down to your town to bring Izuku back as another witness to Keigo's crimes.

You are also surprised to find out that Keigo’s Lieutenant, Endeavor, was headed your way too. Izuku had written to him before leaving the hospital that Keigo was going to be sentenced for his crimes.

You were still missing some details on how everything fell together so neatly at the end, but you weren’t complaining.

Bakugou stopped in front of you, hesitating at the door. He looked nervous. “He’s in there,” Bakugou began, glancing back at you, “he’s gonna try like hell to lie his way out of it.”

“Well he can’t,” you told Bakugou, moving to stand next to him, “there’s so much evidence stacked up against him, Katsuki.”

He nodded, taking a quick breath before walking into the office.

Tamaki’s office was small. Incredibly small. There was one single desk with a looming stack of papers, and then the holding cell was right off to the side. It was dark, only a few slots of light illuminated the corner of the office.

It was quiet, except for Keigo’s harsh breathing. It was ragged and slow, and it sounded like he was in pain.

You stayed mostly behind Bakugou as he walked over to the cell, not wishing to see Keigo at all.

“Came to have a look, huh?” Keigo rasped, pulling himself up to a sitting position.

“Shut up,” Bakugou hissed, dropping his hand to his holster around his waist. It was clearly taking everything in him not to end Keigo right there and then.

Keigo laughed, it was wet and turned into a gasping cough, “not so nice, I guess.” He peered around Bakugou and Kirishima, and locked eyes with you. A smile grew on his face, exposing his blood-stained teeth. “I’m surprised to see you here,” Keigo commented.

“Don’t fuckin’ look at her,” Bakugou said sharply, as he rattled the iron bars making Keigo flinch back, “I want you to look at Eijirou and I, and tell us why you killed them.”

Kirishima nodded, barely keeping himself under control as he watched Keigo in the cell.

Keigo narrowed his eyes, choosing to keep his mouth shut as he looked away from Bakugou and to the ceiling.

“Fuck you,” Bakugou growled, “I should just put a bullet in your head and be done with it.”

You quickly grabbed his arm, shaking your head, “it’s not worth it, he’s gonna get what’s comin’ to him.”

Bakugou flashed a glare at you before sighing. He opened his mouth to say something but the door opened.

You turned your gaze to see Izuku and Tamaki duck through the front door, followed by Endeavor. A jolt of panic coursed up your spine at the sight of the Lieutenant, and you tugged on Bakugou’s sleeve.

“Where is he?” Endeavor’s deep voice echoed in the small office.

“In the cell,” Izuku said and came to a stop next to you and Bakugou, “I’m asking you to let these three go after this, and I’m sure you’ll find that Y/n has been innocent this whole time.”

Endeavor’s turquoise gaze cut between you and Bakugou and his upper lip lifted up into a sneer at the sight of the outlaws in front of him, “the girl I can let go if she proves to be innocent, but Bakugou and Kirishima, I’ll give you both a thirty minute head start and if I find y’all again, I’m putting a bullet between both of your eyes.”

Bakugou snorted, rolling his eyes, “you can try, old man.”

Kirishima stayed silent, not even sparing Endeavor a glance.

Soon all six of you were standing in front of Keigo’s cell. He was laughing again, wiping his mouth occasionally. “You even called Endeavor down? We know that’s a waste of time.”

Endeavor folded his arms over his chest, looking down at his soldier, “You’ve been accused of some pretty serious crimes, Keigo. It’s not the time to joke.”

“It isn’t?” Keigo laughed again, “this is one big joke isn’t it, I mean come on! You’re believin’ these outlaws over me? I never betrayed you, Enji. They never ran away on you.”

“I ran away after findin’ the teeth you hid under your fuckin’ bed,” Bakugou hissed.

“Enough,” Endeavor grunted, glancing down at Tamaki, “where’s that journal Kirishima gave you?”

“Right here,” Tamaki said as he pulled Keigo’s journal off his desk and he handed it to Endeavor.

You pulled your gaze from Endeavor who had begun reading down to Keigo. He had fallen silent, watching his superior read. He looked calm, in fact, he almost looked relieved. You flinched when his gaze snapped to you and he watched you for a moment, keeping silent still.

It made you wonder what he was thinking about. Was he regretting his actions? Or was he envious of you, someone who he planned to put in a cell now free?

“You killed your father?” Endeavor asked, breaking the silence.

“No,” Keigo answered, his voice even now, no hint of amusement at all. He was still watching you.

“No? This is your handwriting, Keigo. Izuku told me about what happened back in the other town. There were several eyewitnesses who saw you shoot Izuku in the street as well.”

Keigo turned his gaze away from you, now looking at the wall.

“Fuckin’ bastard,” Bakugou barked, curling his hands into a fist, “can’t even fuckin’ bear to look at you anymore.”

You were surprised to see Bakugou actually storm out of the office and slam it shut behind him. You then shared a look with Izuku and Kirishima and they sighed, leaving the office to follow Bakugou.

“S”not lookin’ too good for you,” Endeavor said, “look son, just tell the truth and your sentence might not be as bad.”

“My sentence is death, either way, you cut it,” Keigo said, which was enough of a confession for Endeavor to hand the journal back to Tamaki.

“You know, Tokoyami had a lot of potential, it’s a shame,” Endeavor said, shaking his head as Keigo scoffed. He then turned to you. “Miss, you’re free to go now, we’ll send out a post to take down your bounty. I’m truly sorry.”

You nodded, shocked that he let you go so easily. You weren’t exactly crime free now, but you weren’t going to say anything. “Thanks.”

Endeavor tipped his hat at you and turned to Tamaki, “keep ‘em here for another night, and then I’ll take him back to base so he'll be dealt with there.” And then he left, slamming the door behind him so roughly the old building seemed to shake.

Tamaki ran a hand over his face, setting the journal back down on the desk and following Endeavor outside.

Which meant you were alone now with Keigo. You turned towards him, looking at him curled up against the wall, holding his hand on the gunshot wound on his side. He looked nothing like the villain he was before.

He just looked like a normal man to you now.

“Aren’t you going to leave?” Keigo hissed, flashing a glare at you.

You held his gaze a moment longer, and then you left. Not sparing him a second glance as you walked out the door.

Bakugou was already on his horse, getting ready to leave as well. He looked antsy, cracking his knuckles. You got on your horse, waving to Izuku who was heading off with Tamaki. Probably going to help Endeavor, you assumed.

The ride back to the pasture was tense. Bakugou was stiff, muttering under his breath and glancing back at you occasionally, to make sure you were keeping up. Once you reached camp he briefly told you in passing that he was going to go by the lake again, something about how he wanted to be alone again. Which you respected. In the past twenty-four hours you have never seen Bakugou show so much emotion, it must have been overwhelming.

Kirishima stopped his horse next to yours, sighing, “I’ll follow him. Make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid.”

You nodded, watching as Kirisima took off after Bakugou, riding fast to catch up.

It was a relief to see the others after the morning you had. Mina gave you a meek smile as you dismounted your horse and came to sit next to her. “How’s your arm?” you asked, looking at the makeshift splint and cast Sero had made for her.

“Hurts,” she shrugged, “and yours?”

“Hurts too,” you replied, smiling a little.

“Did they let you go?” Sero asked, looking up at you from where he was cleaning his pistol.

You nodded, “yeah, they cleared my bounty.”

“Hah, must be nice,” Sero snorted, leaning back as he put his hands behind his head, “well, what are you gonna do now with your newly acquired freedom?”

You snorted, “like there’s much to do with it,” You paused, glancing at Sero and Mina in front of you, “I would like to stay with y’all. If you’ll still have me.”

Mina laughed, “that’s gotta be the dumbest thing you’ve ever said, Y/n. You’re one of us, you know that.”

You smiled, grimacing when Mina rubbed her knuckles into the top of your head. Even after everything that’s happened between you and this group of outlaws, you now finally felt like you belonged with them. They were your people, your family now.

—---

Later that night when the sun had been long gone, Bakugou and Kirishima came back. He was quiet returning to camp. Stealthily stepping over Sero’s sleeping form as he made his way to you. Kirishima tripped over Mina, barely catching himself as she rolled over on her other side.

You were barely awake, grumbling under your breath as you tried to get comfortable. Your arm still hurt like hell so it was hard to even fall asleep. You rolled over, holding your arm as you lay on your stomach.

A hand at your side had you suddenly rolling over and your eyes snapped open in surprise. You looked over your shoulder to see that it was only Bakugou behind you. He gave you a tired smile as he tugged you into his chest.

You attempted to flip in his embrace so you could face him, and with a little bit of struggling, you finally did. “Where did you go?” you whispered as he ran his hand up and down your side.

“Somewhere,” he murmured, not looking you in the eyes.

In the back of your mind, you knew where Kirishima and him went, and you think he knew it too. You brought your good hand up to his face, smoothing out his furrowed brow with your thumb, “do you feel better knowing he’s gone?”

Bakugou grabbed your hand in his and placed it on his chest. He nodded, “yeah, I do, I think.”

You nodded, unsure of what to say to him. “Well, that’s all that matters then.” You sighed, shutting your eyes as you pressed your forehead into his shoulder.

Bakugou hummed, settling down as he continued to hold your hand. Everything that he’s worked towards for so many years has finally come to a close. It felt weird not knowing what to do next. He knew at least he didn’t want to be on the run forever, and he knew the others didn’t as well. He exhaled softly as he looked around at the others, watching them for a moment before looking back at you.

At least he had you, and he figured that was something to put all his time into now, and he’d happily do it.

—---------

The summer days were growing short and the leaves on the trees were beginning to turn from cool green to brilliant reds and oranges. The air was cool, rattling the drying grass as you squinted your eyes.

You brought your arm up to shield the sun from your eyes, gritting your teeth as some pain rattled up your arm, but it was so much better than before. “There,” you said, now pointing towards a large boulder in the distance.

Bakugou snorted as he shook his head, “princess, we’ve raced at least a hundred times now, and every time I’ve told you that you’re a faster rider than me.”

“Well I wanna hear it again,” you said with a wide grin, “C’mon, Katsuki, maybe you’ll beat me this time?”

Bakugou glanced at you, fighting off a smile, “okay fine, you count down then.”

You grinned, starting to count down, and once you reached zero, and you both took off racing towards the boulder up ahead. You glanced over at Bakugou who was barely behind you and gaining speed.

“Think you’re gonna lose this time,” Bakugou shouted from next to you, trying to grab at his hat before it flew off.

You frowned, kicking your horse's sides as you gripped his mane. Your horse huffed and then sped up, easily passing Bakugou’s and flying past the boulder. As you came to a stop you glanced back to see Bakugou slowing down right behind you, shaking his head as you turned around to greet him with a smug grin.

Bakugou rolled his eyes, smiling at you. “You’re a faster rider than me,” he said while he shook some hair from his eyes.

You sighed, “well no. Not really, which is pretty obvious.”

Izuku’s face warmed and he turned back around to maneuver his horse through the treeline. “Right, sorry, stupid question.”

“It’s fine,” you muttered, watching the night sky start to morph into the colors of dawn. The sky was turning hot pink just like yesterday. Which meant there was another storm coming. You almost felt like the recent weather was reflecting your storm of emotions. You sighed, “so you think this plan is gonna work?”

Izuku nodded, “it should. Keigo doesn’t know I am still in contact with Bakugou. So, he shouldn’t be suspicious when I come to take you away.”

Your stomach churned at the thought of being with Keigo again. There really was no telling what was gonna happen. Even though Izuku’s words comforted you a little, you had a gut feeling that something would go wrong.

“I’ll keep you safe, Y/n,” Izuku told you seriously as your small town came into view. He stopped his horse and turned his head to look at you, “I’m bein’ serious.”

You blinked, almost wishing to shrink away from his intense gaze. It was a relief to hear how serious he was, but a part of you wished you were staring into a pair of red eyes instead of green ones. “Thank you.”

Izuku smiled at you before urging his horse forward again. It didn’t take long for your hometown to appear in the distance. In a way, you were happy to see the town and all of its little shops and stores. You could see that there were a few people milling around, probably getting some early morning groceries from the market.

As you got closer you began to notice your face was plastered on almost all the storefronts, with your bounty posted at the bottom. You gulped, making eye contact with the drawing. They made you look ferocious, eyes wild, a large grin. It didn’t even look like you.

It didn’t take long for you to reach your home. Even though it’s roughly been three weeks since you’ve last seen it, a lot has changed. Your garden was dead, all the plants were ripped out by the root. Your belongings were scattered on the front lawn.

It stung to see how easy it was for your family to believe the lies that Keigo had spread. With a sigh, you slid off the side of Izuku’s horse and he briefly followed you. With a sigh you looked up at Izuku with furrowed brows, “you think this will work?”

Izuku waited a moment before nodding, “yeah it will. I’ll see you soon, try not to worry, okay?” With that, he turned his horse and cantered back to town.

You nodded, having to believe that the plan would work. You had faith in Izuku. He was a good man and you trusted him. You came to a stop outside your front door and held your breath as you knocked on the door.

Within seconds the door was opened, revealing your father. He looked worse for wear. Pekid and sweaty. His clothes were frumpy and the stench of alcohol slammed into your senses. His eyes lit up at the sight of you and a drunken smile crossed his features, “I knew you would show up here you terrible creature.”

You frowned, feeling your chest tighten at his words.”Just get on with it. Go get your fucking money.”

Your father grinned as he slinked back into the dark house and reappeared with some rope and harshly tied it around your wrists, making you wince. He shut the door behind him as he began to walk you to town. “That outlaw close by?” he asked, his gaze shifting across the horizon, “watchin’ me?”

You kept your mouth shut, refusing to even acknowledge his question.

“Bet he sent you back to make me give him his money,” your father cackled, shaking his head as hysterical laughter bubbled from his lips, “like hell I’ll do that. I’m gettin’ the hell out of this town, far away from here,” he muttered.

Your eyebrows furrowed at your father’s paranoia. He looked like he had lost his mind. “Why are you leaving?” you asked, curiosity getting the best of you.

“You think I’m going to stay here after the town found out about my scandal? They want nothin’ to do with me, the house is getting taken by the bank in a week's time. Not to mention, I’ll have my own bounty soon once enough people come forward as witnesses from the party,” he grumbled, shaking his head.

“Serves you right,” you spat, “you think you deserve anything good after what you did?”

“I did what I needed to do,” your father shot back, trying to hold onto what little dignity he had left.

“Whatever, I hope you rot,” you snapped as you came to a stop outside of the sheriff’s office.

Your father laughed, it was dry, “the only one of us that will be rotting is you, my dear.”

You were seething as you watched your father open the door to the sheriff's office. He yanked you in, causing you to stumble in after him.

The door shut behind you and you immediately locked eyes with Keigo. He was sitting behind the desk with his boots propped up. He looked terrifyingly calm as his golden gaze danced between you and your father.

Slowly you watched as he began to grin, his lips pulled up into his cheeks with a sense of malice at the sight of you tied next to your father. He moved quickly from his seat, long limbs retracting from the table as he stood up.

You shivered, feeling your heart leap into your mouth as he continued to watch you. There were only two things in this world that made you feel like you should drop everything and run. Those were spiders and Keigo Takami.

In fact, Keigo reminded you of a spider. He was cunning, building a web of lies that he would entrap his prey in. And at the first sense of danger, he would recoil back into his web, waiting for the right moment to strike.

He never walked over to you, deciding to stay in the shadows by the side of the desk instead. It made you nervous as you watched his gaze dance between you and your father. It was like he knew this was a setup.

“Well look what the cat dragged in,” Keigo finally said.

Your father laughed, it was loud and forced, “she came back all on her own, probably knew it was best to turn herself in.”

Keigo hummed, standing from his seat and making his way over to you both. “Is that so?”

Your father nodded aggressively, “it is. Now, this is her right? The one that killed your comrade?”

Keigo narrowed his eyes, outstretching his hand to grip your chin between his cold fingers. “I think so.”

You tried to recoil, but he held your face steady as he dug his fingers into your cheeks, his nails making small crescents on your skin.

“Oh yes, this her,” Keigo concluded, a grin of satisfaction stretching across his face.

“Good good, now where is my money?” your father asked, letting go of your rope and rubbing his palms together.

“Let's not be hasty now,” Keigo said, glancing back at the door that led to the sheriff’s personal office.

“I don’t have time to wait, just take her and be done with it,” your father snapped, growing restless.

Keigo sighed, looking rather annoyed, “you people make things so hard for me.” Just like before you watched frozen as Keigo yanked out his pistol and pressed it into your father's forehead. “Walk,” he hissed as he bent down to quickly grab your rope.

“Whoa!” your father hissed, eyes wide as he almost fell back, “the hell are you doin’!”

“Shut the fuck up old man unless you want a bullet in the head,” Keigo snapped as he kicked the back of your father's knees making him stumble towards the back office.

“Okay! Okay!” your father choked stumbling towards the back door.

“What are you doing!” you hissed, yanking back on your rope, eyes wide. Did your entire plan fall through? How did Keigo know something wasn’t right. Bakugou and the others weren’t even here.

Keigo ignored you, herding your father into the back office. The door opened and your eyes immediately started to water at the scent of death. It hung heavy in the air making you cough.

“Hell,” your father coughed, seeing the crumpled body of your sheriff shoved in the back corner of his office, “you did this?” he asked, eyes wide as he stared up at Keigo.

Keigo grinned, shoving your father to the floor, next to the body. “Oh no, I didn’t do anything. It’s all her fault,” he said while shaking his head, “just like with Tokoyami, right Y/n?”

“Don’t do this,” you croaked, not even able to look at the body. You have known the sheriff since you were little. He was a nice man, a good one. Saved your town plenty of times from criminals. He was older now but still had enough kick in him to fight off crime.

But not Keigo.

“Y/n didn’t do this, it’s obvious you killed Toshinori,” your father babbled, his gaze shifting between you and Keigo until he finally realized that you were in fact innocent.

“Oh yes she did, after killing Tokoyami, Y/n seems to have a thirst for blood now,” Keigo began as he pressed his pistol harder into your father’s forehead. “She came back home to get rid of her father, which the whole town knows you two despise each other, especially now.” He shrugged, golden eyes shifting to Toshinori’s body, “and little ole’ sheriff got in the way, she had to take him out too.”

“Please Keigo,” you choked out, grabbing at his arm, but he promptly shoved you away from him, hard. You stumbled falling back against the wall with a thud. You hated your father, but this… this was something you didn’t want to watch again.

“Beggin’?” Keigo leered, his golden eyes were wide with bloodlust, “now that’s not like you? Where’s your fight?”

“Y/n,” your father said between quick breaths, “don’t do anything, give em’ what he wants.”

You sniffled, and shook your head, “I can’t, I let him do this once, I can’t let him do it again.” So you stood up, not sure what to do except charge at Keigo and try to knock him over, maybe wrangle the pistol out of his hand.

You slammed into Keigo with a grunt, trying your best to fight back but all he did was laugh and easily pull you back from his side. How could you think that you could take him on? After all, he was trained in combat.

“Nice try,” Keigo cooed, yanking your head away from his side by your hair, “I can see why you’ve caught his attention, haven’t met too many people with so much spirit.”

Your mouth soured as you stared up at Keigo. This whole time, he knew that this was a plan. Knew that you were with Bakugou, even if it was for only a little bit. How could you be so naive to think that he didn’t know? Someone who has evaded the law after so long was surely cunning. “Keigo please, I don’t know why you’re doin' this?”

Keigo hummed, yanking your head back further to see the fear glint in your eyes, “I’m doin’ it because I like it. I like the chase, I like seein’ people squirm. You all are so easy to fool, walkin’ around like sheep.”

“You’re terrible,” you spat, reaching up to dig your nails into his forearm, “Bakugou’s gonna get you, all of them are.”

“Oh, you think so?” Keigo chuckled darkly, “I don’t, Bakugou is always two steps behind and far too late. He always has been, and always will be.”

You narrowed your eyes as Keigo yanked you up by your hair, making you yelp.

“Now, where was I?” Keigo hummed, turning his attention back to your father, “right, well best get to it.”

You screamed as your father mouthed out an apology before he shut his eyes. The shot fired and you flinched as blood sprayed your face. You never wanted this to happen. Not again. Another death blamed on you. Before you could register what was happening you were being dragged out of the sheriff’s office like a limp doll.

Keigo opened the door and was surprisingly met face to face with Izuku who was about to knock. For the first time since you’ve seen Keigo, he was caught off guard. “Izuku?”

Izuku’s gaze snapped to you, tracking the thick blood that was sliding down your skin. “Keigo,” he said, his voice even.

“What brings you here?” Keigo asked, shutting the door behind him and placed his hand back on the handle of his pistol.

Izuku’s gaze snapped away from you, not missing Keigo’s hand now on his pistol. “Just passin’ through, thought I’d pay Toshinori a visit.”

Keigo hummed, a bead of sweat rolled down his temple. “Toshinori’s out. Had me lock up the office, takin’ this one to the county prison.”

Izuku swallowed thickly, “I see.”

The tension was so thick, you could cut it with a knife. The two men before you seemed locked in some sort of standoff and before you knew it, Izuku had yanked your rope out of Keigo’s hands and pulled you behind him, all while pulling out his pistol and pointing it at Keigo. “Don’t move,” Izuku hissed, backing down the steps.

Keigo sighed, scratching the side of his head, “well maybe you got the jump on me this time.”

You gripped Izuku’s shirt tightly between your fingers as you watched Keigo with wide eyes. Did you and Izuku actually catch Keigo off guard? You felt Izuku’s muscles tense beneath your fingers as Keigo began climbing down the steps.

There was a feeling of impending danger in the air. You knew, Izuku knew it, hell the whole town knew it. You could see the stores around you start to shut their windows and lock their doors. The streets were starting to empty and before you knew it both men were standing in the street, about six feet apart watching each other closely.

“What’d he do?” Izuku hissed at you, not taking his eyes off Keigo.

“He killed Toshinori and my,” you paused, feeling your throat tightened, “he killed my father. It seems like he knew we were comin’.”

“Shit,” Izuku said quietly, “how the hell did he know we were comin’?”

You shook your head trying to push down your growing panic. “I don’t know.”

Keigo looked relaxed in front of you both, tense, but relaxed. Which was unnerving. It was almost like he had his own plan. Your eyes widened in realization. Keigo had told you he’s always been two steps ahead of Bakugou and he could never catch up. Why was that?

You gulped, that only meant one thing, he wasn’t working alone.

“Izuku, we need to leave, Keigo, he’s not working alone, he’s-” you began but you were promptly cut off when a pistol was pressed into your lower back.

“He’s got a partner,” a familiar voice spoke from behind you.

You and Izuku both turned your heads to see Denki Kaminari standing behind you both. He yanked out another pistol and pointed it at Izuku’s forehead.

“Kaminari?” Izuku breathed out, still keeping his pistol pointed at Keigo, “why?”

Kaminari shrugged, he looked pissed. “I was gettin’ sick of working under Bakugou, havin’ him piss all on me. Takes me for granted he does, always callin’ me useless. Do I look useless now?” he hissed.

“I can’t believe it,” Izuku hissed, “you know what this bastard has done and you’re working with him?”

Kaminari shrugged, “like you haven’t killed anyone, Izuku. You’re not clean.”

“Never in cold blood,” Izuku snapped back, “the hell do you want with us?”

“We don’t want either of you,” Keigo said from behind you, taking the opportunity to move because Izuku was distracted. Before either, you or Izuku could move Keigo had shot Izuku in the shoulder making him drop his pistol on the ground.

You flinched and immediately went to grab Izuku’s side as he screamed, grabbing his shoulder with his free hand. “Izuku!” you shouted trying to remain calm as Kaminari yanked you away from your friend. “If you want Bakugou why are you attacking us!”

Keigo chuckled, shaking his head, “you’re a little dim aren’t you?”

You bared your teeth at him as you watched Izuku sink to the ground, blood starting to pool from his shoulder.

Keigo shook his head again, “I’ve known Bakugou a long time, and I know how much that one means to him,” he explained, looking towards Izuku and then back at you, “and now my good pal here has told me that you mean a good deal to him now too. So why wouldn’t I take the two people he seems to care about the most?”

“He won’t come, he’s not stupid,” you hissed.

“Oh he will,” Kaminari said, yanking you up closer to him, “in fact, they should all be here soon. Honestly, can’t thank you enough for making this easier with the plan you told us last night. Killed two birds with one stone.”

“You asshole,” you snapped, turning to look at Kaminari, “you’re gonna get it when he gets you.”

Kaminari laughed loudly and shook his head. He decided to not answer you and instead pick you up and slung you over his shoulder. “You got Izuku?” Kaminair said to Keigo.

Keigo nodded, and he bent and surprisingly hoisted Izuku onto the back of his horse.

“Wait!” you shouted, kicking at Kaminari as you tried to squirm out of his grasp as he hastily tied another set of ropes around your ankles with one hand, “the hell are you doin?”

“Shut up,” Kaminari hissed as he threw you over the back of his palomino and got into the saddle.

—--------------

You rode to the edge of town and to your horror both of them stopped by the train tracks. Even though you fought back, it still wasn’t enough to overpower either man as they tied you and Izuku together on the tracks.

“When’s the train comin’?” Keigo asked as he finished stuffing a bandana into your mouth.

“Thirty minutes, give or take,” Kaminari answered with a shrug, “Bakugou knows they’ll be here.”

You squirmed in your restraints trying to find a way to wiggle out. A scream of frustration tore through you as you yanked on the restraints again. The sun was hot and glaringly bright as it reached its peak point in the sky.

Which meant it was noon.

You knew the train always came through your town shortly after rnoon.

You squirmed again, tears rolling down your cheeks as you tried for the hundredth time to yank out of your restraints. You needed to get out of here and save Izuku. Your heart broke thinking of your friend tied against you. You could feel his blood soaking into your shirt, the one he bought you.

He wasn’t moving behind you, which had you worried. Was he still alive? Or was he passed out? This was all your fault, you should have never made him come with you. If only you knew how to fight well enough. More tears leaked out of your eyes as you kicked again, feeling the train rails start to rumble.

This was the end then? Used a piece in Keigo’s chessboard to get to Bakugou? You had no idea why he even wanted Bakugou. He was a man possessed it seemed.

You shut your eyes, feeling the ground vibrate. At least you tried. You really did, you fought all the way up to the end. You exhaled, bunching your muscles as the vibrations grew louder.

The sound of gunshots echoed around you and you opened your eyes to see two horses leap over the train tracks next to you. Your eyes were wide as you noticed Kirishima and Mina take off after Keigo and Kaminari.

Two more horses skidded to halt next to you, briefly rearing as their hooves slammed down in front of your face. Sero was the first off his grey horse, scrambling to Izuku’s side as he began slicing through the rope.

You blinked and Bakugou was suddenly in front of you, swearing up a storm as he yanked out his hunting knife and began sawing through the rope.

“Fuck, hurry up Sero, the train’s almost here,” Bakugou barked, his red gaze jumping to the train that was starting to grow closer to all of you.

“I know!” Sero hissed, glancing at his hands covered in blood, “one of them is hurt bad.”

Bakugou and you finally locked eyes and he yanked the bandana out of your mouth and tossed it to the side.

“It’s Izuku, Keigo shot him in the shoulder, his left one,” you said quickly, your voice was hoarse.

The train was so close that the tracks were starting to rattle, and the conductor yanked on the whistle, and stuck his head out of the side, screaming at all four of you to get off the tracks.

Your heart was slamming in your chest as Bakugou began working on the knots on your legs, and now that your hands were free you were hastily helping him as best you could.

Sero finally got Izuku out of his restraints and yanked him to the side of the railroad, ripping off his flannel to look at his wound. You glanced back at Bakugou, who was still struggling to get your ankles untied.

“There’s no time,” you breathed out, the train would hit you in less than a minute now, “Bakugou.”

“Shut the hell up,” he snapped, his voice catching as he cut through another rope.

“Bakugou,” you hissed, your eyes watering as the horn whistled again.

With one final tug, he got you loose and quickly yanked you off to the side just as the train flew past you both. The sound of the train passing screamed in your ears as you briefly shut your eyes. If Bakugou had taken a second longer both of you would have been hit and gone in a matter of moments. He held you close to him, one large hand was pressed against the back of your head, keeping you close to his chest and the other was circled around your waist. He had you turned too, tucked away from the train as it sprayed gravel against his back as it passed.

As fast as the train came, it was gone, leaving behind a rush of wind and you kept your face pressed against Bakugou’s chest, breathing heavily as your adrenaline started to fall.

“Look at me,” Bakugou’s deep voice rumbled in his chest.

You looked up, feeling some of your hurt from yesterday rebloom in your chest. His rejection. You haven’t had time to think about it, for obvious reasons, but having him here now looking down at you was hard. Albeit you owed him your life now.

“Are you hurt?” he asked, bringing both hands to cup your face as he turned your head, his eyes narrowing at the blood on your face.

You shook your head, “I’m okay, Izuku is he okay?” you asked, breaking your eye contact with Bakugou to look at Sero who was looking grim.

“He needs a doctor, it’s not a clean shot. He’s lost a lot of blood,” Sero said seriously.

“There’s one in town, it’s right next to the courthouse, you can’t miss it,” you said quickly, bringing your hands up to pull Bakugou’s away from your face. “There’s an old lady there, Chiyo, she’ll take care of him.”

Bakugou frowned, glancing away from you and to Sero, “take him there, make sure he doesn’t die, Sero.”

“No promises,” Sero said as he hoisted Izuku on the back of his horse before getting back on his, “you better get on after Mina and Kirishima, I’m sure they’ll be needin’ an extra hand or two,” he said and the to your shock he tossed you his pistol.

You scrambled to catch it and let out a sigh when you caught the heavy weapon. With that Sero kicked his horse's sides and took off towards the town.

Then it was just you and Bakugou alone.

“What happened?” you asked, breaking the brief silence, “with Kaminari?”

Bakugou’s face twisted up in pure anger at the mention of Kaminari, “fucker took off right after you and Izuku. While I was…distracted,” he said, rushing to the end of his sentence quickly before continuing, “left a note that Mina found in the stables the next morning.”

“I’ve never liked him, ever since he shot at me,” you said, rolling your eyes.

Bakugou huffed, “I shoulda known right when he shot at you, he was not one of us, no one else would have done that.”

“What makes you say that?” you asked truthfully, “I was runnin’ away, anyone could have shot at me.”

Bakugou shook his head, “nah, the moment I told them you were with us, you were never a target. Not even when you were runnin’ away.”

You raised an eyebrow as you watched him shift uncomfortably in front of you. He looked like he wanted to say something, but you knew this wasn’t the time to talk. “You need to go, Sero’s right, Mina and Kirishima need help.”

Bakugou’s gaze snapped to you, “and what about you?”

You shrugged, “I don’t have a horse, and both of us on yours would slow you down.”

Bakugou shook his head, “I’m not letting you out of my sight again, you know that right?” he said seriously as he turned his head and whistled, “lazy fuck,” he muttered under his breath.

There in the distance was your favorite companion. The big red gelding you’ve been with since day one. He was barely cantering as he slowly made his way towards you both and then came to a stop before you, nudging the top of your head with his nose.

You grinned and ran your hand along the side of his cheek. “I missed him,’ you said quietly, mostly to yourself.

“Well he’s your horse,” Bakugou said, “he’s never listened to anyone but you after all.”

Your eyes widened as you looked towards Bakugou, “you mean that?”

Bakugou nodded, his lips twitching up into a small smile at the sight of yours.

“Thank you, Bakugou, really,” you said seriously as you got onto your horse, and watched Bakugou get onto his.

Bakugou shook his head, “it’s nothin’ and-” he paused, glancing at you briefly before, “-it’s Katsuki.”

You blinked, your eyes wide as you watched him kick his horse's sides and take off after Mina and Kirishima. You were close behind, standing in your saddle as you raced after him. He wanted you to call him by his first name? Maybe he did care for you, in a twisted distant sort of way.

Keigo and Kaminari were right, he did come back for you like they said he would. You smiled a bit as you followed Bakugou into a sparse forest. Even though you were still hurt by his actions from yesterday, what he just said soothed the sting a bit.

However, your smile was quickly wiped from your face when you came out to the open prairie again. Far in the distance, you could see Kirishima and Mina trying to cut Kaminari off from Keigo but they weren’t having much luck.

“Shit,” Bakugou hissed as he looked to where they were headed. There was one place he refused to ride and that was through the bramble wood in the distance. It was impossible to ride through there without cutting up the horse you were on, but he knew those two wouldn’t care.

“What?” you asked as you moved in next to him, your heart was hammering in your chest. This would be your first fight and you were terrified.

“We’re turning back,” Bakugou announced, “we can’t follow them through those brambles, it would make all our horses lame.”

“But they’ll get away,” you responded, “can’t we go around?”

Bakugou huffed, glancing around his surroundings. He could go around, but it wouldn’t make sense to camp somewhere with those two on the loose, and that was probably what Keigo wanted. For him to lean into his temper and follow him.

There was no need to scramble now. He needed to plan, make sure to cover any possibilities Keigo could conjure for when he meets him for one final time.

“It’s fine, this is better, we need to plan again,” Bakugou finally said and then whistled loudly, watching Kirishima and Mina turn back around.

You nodded, trusting Bakugou’s instincts. If he thought it was unwise to follow Keigo and Kaminari you would go along with it. Honestly, you had no problem not facing Keigo after the day you had.

Soon Mina and Kirishima came to stop next to you and Bakugou, both panting and dripping with sweat.

“We almost had ‘em!” Mina said between breaths, “nicked Kaminari in the side with my bullet.”

Bakugou snorted, “I know, but I’m not goin’ into those brambles. You know Kaminari led Keigo over there for a reason.”

“But we almost got ‘em!” Mina argued.

Kirishima shook his head, “Katsuki’s right, Keigo always has a plan. He probably still had the upper hand on us somehow, but now that we let them go, we’re finally on an even playing field.”

Mina sighed heavily, raising her arms above her head, “fine, you’re right. I would have gone after them either way. How could I not, I hate a snake,” she hissed, referring to Kaminari.

You sniffled, listening to the three of them talk before all eyes were on you, making you freeze.

“What happened to you?” Mina asked, referring to all the blood on you. In fact, you were partially soaked in it just from Izuku’s gunshot.

You frowned, thinking back on your father's gruesome death. It was horrific the way he died. At least he knew that you were innocent at the end of the day. A terrible feeling of grief entered your chest and you looked away from Mina to hide the wobbling of your bottom lip.

Kirishima snorted and grabbed Mina’s reins, leading her away from you. They had to pass through the town to get to the tracks, and he saw the bodies in the street. He knew one of them was your father.

You let out a breath as Mina and Kirishima moved away from you.

“C’mon,” Bakugou said from next to you, “better get back before it’s dark.”

You nodded, remaining silent as you rode next to him back to town.

—-------------------

You had learned that Izuku had lived. Just barely, he had lost a lot of blood and if Sero was any later getting him to Chiyo, he would have died. You told the others that they could stay in your house since no one was there anymore. Your mother had apparently left your father shortly after you were kidnapped to live with your sister.

You were now seated in a small room where Izuku was sleeping. He looked bad, to say the least. His shoulder was stitched and wrapped but he looked like he was in pain, even in his sleep. Apparently, he wasn’t expected to wake up for a few days, but you felt immensely guilty that he had gotten hurt.

It was always someone else taking your place.

Bakugou was watching you closely from where he was seated next to you. He had joined you to check up on his friend, and he was rather surprised to see you reach out and grab Deku’s hand.

It made him frustrated, if that was the word, seeing you so gentle with Deku. What had happened in the past twenty-four hours that made you so close? Or were you always this close. He did leave you with him for five days.

You shivered, feeling the intense gaze of Bakugou burn holes in the side of your head. So you turned your head, locking eyes with him.

He held your gaze before letting it drift down to your hands intertwined with Izuku’s and then he stood up. “We better get going, we’ll be leavin’ in the morning.”

You nodded, gently placing Izuku’s hand on his bare chest before following Bakugou out of the tiny hospital. Apparently, no one batted an eyelash watching you follow the most infamous outlaw in the west out of the hospital and through the town. Or they were too scared to say anything now that your town had no law enforcement.

With a sigh you mounted your horse and rode next to Bakugou back to your house. He was quiet, but it was different. Not the same stoic quietness that you were used to, but an irritated quiet.

The whole way back he didn’t say a word.

You tried not to care, but it was hard not to. He was still ever-present in your mind, despite how hard you wanted to push away your feelings.

Once you got back to your house the storm you predicted would come through finally started to kick in. It was a gentle summer storm, with soft rain and rumbling thunder. You had put everyone's horses in Torino’s stable, without asking him, but you were sure he wouldn’t care. Then you made your way inside.

Your house was different on the inside too. All the furniture was gone, the plush carpet on the stairs was ripped out. So your father wasn’t lying when he said the house was going to be taken by the bank.

Mina, Kirishima, and Sero were already asleep on the floor, sprawled out on bedrolls, and probably thankful to not be out in the rain. You, however, made your way up to your room, well old room.

It was empty except for your feather mattress and a few clothes strewn about. Thankfully you found another shirt and a pair of jeans since your current ones were covered in blood. You set them out of the bed before making your way back outside and sitting on the porch steps, letting the gentle rain wash away the blood from your skin and clothes.

There was a lot on your mind tonight. Tokoyami, Toshinori, your father, and Izuku.

Their faces flashed in your mind as you rubbed your cheek, trying to get more blood off your skin. You hated blood. It was thick, hot, and the metallic smell was enough to turn your stomach.

The door opened behind you and you looked back over your shoulder to see that Bakugou was behind you. You watched him shut the door and walk out into the rain before sitting next to you. He leaned forward, placing his elbows on his thighs, staring into your ruined garden.

“” M sorry ‘bout your father,” Bakuguo said after a long stretch of silence.

You nodded. He knew you didn’t like your father even now still, but it was nice of him to say something. “Thanks.”

Bakugou hummed, keeping his gaze set on your upturned tomatoes. They still had fruit on them.

You fell into silence again, watching the rain hit the earth and lightning flash softly in the distance. It was nice, but you were starting to grow ansty. Surely there was a reason he came out here and sat next to you so willingly.

“Quit squirmin’,' Bakugou said gruffly from next to you, watching you out of the corner of his eye.

You stilled, sighed heavily as you turned your body to face him, “why’d you come out here?”

“Am I not allowed to?” he asked, turning his face towards you and raising his eyebrows.

You shook your head, “no you are, I just-” you sighed, pinching the bridge of your nose between two fingers. “You made it seem like you wanted nothing to do with me after what happened, between us,” you blurted out.

Bakugou froze, eyes slightly widening at your confession. “I never said that.”

“Well, you implied it-”

“I just saved you from dyin’ today and you’re telling me that I want nothin’ to do with you?” he said, clearly growing agitated.

“No!” you cut in, folding your hands into fists, “no, I don’t mean that, and I’m so thankful you did save me, really, but why are you actin’ like everything is normal?”

“Well it is,” he answered dully, turning his gaze away from you again.

You frowned, he was so thick-headed. “Katsuki,” you began, which immediately got his attention again. His eyes snapped right back to yours and were wide with shock, “you can’t just pretend like nothing happened, at least I won't. I know you said that stuff doesn’t work out for you, which is fine”

You took a breath, finally coming to terms with your feelings. You liked him a lot. But if he wasn’t going to be there for you like that, then you couldn’t stay tied to someone who didn’t want you. Izuku was right, you needed a better man, someone who wanted to try, even if they were scared.

“But I’m not gonna stick around after this, I can’t-”

“It’s Deku isn’t it,” Bakugou interrupted, his voice was bitter.

“What?” you asked, raising your eyebrows. Now you were the one who was confused.

“I saw the way you were lookin’ at him, the way you were holdin’ his hand,” Bakugou admitted, his voice was quiet and low, “you care for him.”

You sighed, “I do care for him.”

Bakugou tensed from next to you, clenching his jaw as he moved to get up.

You frowned, reaching out to yank him back down, “stop runnin’ away, I’m not done,” you told him harshly as he sat back down again. This time you kept your hand on his sleeve, holding him tightly so he wouldn’t run off like he always does. “I care about him, but not in the same way I care about you. You piss me off to hell, and I hate how much of a hold you have on me.

Which is why I need to leave when this is over. I can’t keep lookin’ at you knowin’ you don’t want the same,” you admitted, feeling like a weight had been lifted off your chest.

Bakugou was still like he was stunned.

You let your gaze drop to the ground and you released your grip on his shirt and stood up. It was nice getting everything off your chest, but now the humiliation was starting to set in.

“You piss me off too,” Bakugou said, stumbling over his words.

You snorted, rolling your eyes as you looked down at him, “nice to know-”

“And you annoy the hell out of me, always got something snarky to say,” he continued his voice wavering a bit, “but you’ve got a strong spirit, I admire it.”

You froze, slowly sitting back down as he continued to speak.

“I like listening to you talk, you could talk to me about your stupid tomatoes for hours and I’d listen. I like riding with you, I just,” he furrowed his brows trying to find his next words, “I care about you too, and it scares the hell out of me. I’ve never felt like this for anyone before.”

You swallowed thickly, your eyes searching his as he waited for you to answer. You did start to smile though, which made him relax his shoulders that were bunched to his ears again. “It scares me too. I think it’s scary for everyone, really.”

Bakugou snorted, a smile slowly growing across his features, “gotta hard time believin’ that princess.”

Your face warmed as you both fell into a comfortable silence, just watching the storm pass in front of you. After a moment, he had moved closer to you to where his knee and shoulder were pressed against yours.

“Hope you’re hungry,” Bakugou’s timber voice cut through your thoughts as he stepped out of the bushes holding two fat rabbits by their feet.

Your eyes widened, “those are huge.”

Bakugou grinned as he sat down across from you and began cleaning them before shoving a sharp branch through both and placing them over the fire. “I know. You’re lucky you got saddled with me instead of Kirishima. He can’t hunt at all.”

You hummed, watching the rabbit start to sizzle over the flame, “that’s good.”

“Not even gonna say thanks?” Bakugou scoffed as he wiped his bloody knife on the side of his jeans.

You slid your gaze over to him, “thanks.”

Bakugou huffed, as he placed his hunting knife back in its holster against his hip. “Somethin’ crawl up your pants, princess?” he said, raising an eyebrow at your obvious sour mood.

Your cheeks flamed at his comment and you shrugged. “It’s nothing,” you said, not wanting to get into another argument with him.

Bakugou rolled his eyes as he moved to turn the rabbits over the fire. “It’s obviously something, you’ve been pouting all morning. Once we get goin’ I’m not stopping so you better make up your mind.”

You sighed, well he did seem much more approachable now than he ever was. “I don’t like bein’ this dirty,” you said as you plucked the shirt you were wearing, it practically clung to you like a second skin.

Bakugou glanced up at you, “you can wait till we get to town.”

You frowned, well at least you tried. Plus, a couple more hours didn’t sound that bad, you could handle that easily.

-----

A couple more hours to town had turned into a week now, at least. You and Bakugou had ridden all the way to the river that separated you from the town only to find it uncrossable.

The rainstorm from earlier that morning caused a dam downstream to collapse making it near impossible to cross the river safely. You sighed glancing away from the violent white rapids to Bakugou who was cursing under his breath. His horse stamped its hooves against the loose mud, obviously agitated at the shifting ground.

“What a fuckin’ joke,” Bakugou said aloud, as he harshly yanked his horse away from the mud and beckoned you up next to him with his free hand.

You sighed and pressed your heels into your horse's side, getting him to trot up next to Bakugou. You honestly didn't know how you were going to put up with him for a week or more. “Now what?”

Bakugou gave you a sideways glance before pulling out a worn piece of parchment from the depths of his saddlebag. He gently opened the paper so as to not rip it and then looked back at the river before staring at what could now be identified as a map.

You maneuvered your horse closer to his as you looked down at the worn sheet. The map was modest, obviously, handmade. You gathered that the river you were now traveling next to was named White Tail River, and it made you wonder if he came up with that name. You watched as Bakugou traced the length of the river with his pointer finger, occasionally looking ahead of him for landmarks. “So where are we going now?”

Bakugou sighed as he stuffed his map back into his saddlebag. “Further north, much further than I’d like to go, but we can’t go back. I’m sure the military is swarmin’ back there after that little stunt last night.”

You nodded, looking ahead. The prairie grass seemed to span for miles and miles ahead of you, but in the distance, you saw the unmistakable outline of a mountain range. “How far north are we going?”

“Up the mountain, this river only gets deeper and wider the further north we travel, it forks once we reach the lower level of the mountain range, so we can cross there,” Bakugou explained.

“Are we even prepared to go that far?” you questioned honestly. It was a good question, you had one pair of clothes, definitely not enough supplies if something were to go wrong. Not that you knew much about roughing it out in the wild, but you didn’t like feeling unprepared.

“ I’ve got everything I need right here,” Bakugou said with a small smirk as he patted his saddlebag.

“Alright,” you replied, somewhat skeptical.

Bakugou huffed, obviously picking up on your cautious tone of voice. “Just be good and follow along,” he said gruffly before moving up ahead of you.

You pursed your lips, staring daggers into his back. He was so sure of himself, so confident that his plan would be bulletproof. Granted, for him to become such a notorious outlaw he would have to be good at planning, but this was all spontaneous. It felt unnatural. In fact, you took in a sharp breath, could this be your chance?

Could you leave?

Now that it was truly just you and him for an unforeseeable amount of time, the chances of you escaping were much higher. If he was correct and the military was back south, once you crossed the treeline you would be safe.

You could go home.

Yet a nagging pull in your gut told you the decision to leave wasn’t the right one, and deep in your heart, you wished it was.

“Better not be thinkin’ about runnin’ off,” Bakugou said from in front of you, not sparing you a glance as he continued to ride north.

“‘M not,” you replied hoarsely as you glanced behind you once more. The forest you were once in was growing smaller in the distance. This must be happening to you for a reason, there was no other way for everything to go so wrong, but so right at the same time.

“Good, come up here, wanna keep an eye on you,” Bakugou said, now turning his head to look at you. The afternoon sun was glaring bright as it bathed him in light, except for the portion of his face shaded by his hat.

Obediently you moved back up beside him, shifting your weight in your saddle as you stretched. You glanced at him again as you slipped your boots out of the stirrups, rolling your ankles to stretch your pinched joints. He was stoic, the perfect picture of what you’d imagine a lone rider on the prairie would be.

And you hated that.

You hated how Bakugou so easily slipped into your little fantasy world that you had curated for years while trapped at home. His life that he’s been living was what you wished yours would be, minus the criminal activity. But you envied his freedom.

Perhaps that’s the real reason you stayed beside him. You wanted to be free like him and even though you were far from free now, just being by him, riding by him, made you feel free. Which made your rising guilt even more prominent.

“You got one helluva starin’ problem,” Bakugou snapped from next to you, obviously irritated with your practically unblinking gaze locked on him.

You blinked rapidly, your eyes were now dry, “don’t mean to.”

“Then stop, it’s fuckin’ annoying,” Bakugou said, his voice sour.

“Well, you’re annoying,” you spat, anger flaring in your tummy as your jealous thoughts came to a head. With a huff, you tapped the side of your horse with your boot and trotted ahead of him.

Not surprisingly, this ticked him off and he was soon by your side again, nostrils flared as he stared you down.

“I think you should be a little more kind to me, princess. Seeing as I treat you so well,” Bakugou said as he gripped his reins more tightly.

“No one said you have to,” you hissed, eyes narrowed as you looked away from him and towards the mountains. Maybe if he did treat you terribly you wouldn’t feel so bad about enjoying your freedom away from home.

“Fine, you wanna be a brat, then I’ll give you what you’re askin’ for,” he said.

Before you could even register what he was doing, he had a rope tied around the horn of your saddle and he spurred his horse forward into a gallop. You let out a yelp as your balance was almost thrown from the sudden movement of your horse trying to keep up.

“Better hold on, I’m not stoppin’ for a while,” Bakugou said with a menacing grin as he kicked his horse's sides once more, pushing him to run faster.

Your eyes were watering as you tried to see the world ahead, but all you could do was hold on for the ride. The sound of hoofbeats drummed in your ears as you both tore across the prairie. The hot summer breeze was now cool against your warm skin as it pushed your hair back.

Your legs were beginning to shake as you held yourself up in the saddle and you slid your fingers into the coarse red mane of your gelding, balancing yourself once more. Adrenaline rushed through your veins and you felt fear grip your heart like a vice, but only for a fleeting moment.

Your fear was quickly replaced by euphoric glee as you watched the country fly past you. The horses were running so fast, it felt like you were flying. A laugh bubbled past your lips as you began to grin.

Bakugou furrowed his brows at the sound of you laughing? He quickly glanced back at you to see that you were laughing. He shook his head as he slowed down both horses to a walk again. He scoffed and looked back forward, tugging the rope off of your horn as he easily pulled it back to his side.

You were still smiling as you rode up next to him again, pulling your wind-blown hair from your face. “I always like going fast,” you said, a little surprised that you were talking about something personal to you.

Bakugou lifted a brow, keeping his face passive, “I can tell.”

“I bet you thought I was going to fall off, huh?” you told him, still catching your breath.

Bakugou hummed, glancing at you once more. “Nah, you’re a good rider, I saw that yesterday when you tried to run off.”

You blinked at him, did he compliment you? Surely not. “You think so?”

Bakugou gave you a curt nod, “pretty good for a beginner.”

“A beginner,” you snorted, “no way a beginner could stay on after that stunt you pulled.”

Bakugou shrugged, squinting as he took off his hat to wipe his forehead with the back of his sleeve. “That was nothin’”

“Nothin’ huh? Okay fine,” you said, your gaze jumping around the landscape in front of you before landing on a single squatty cedar tree a few hundred feet in front of you. “If I can beat you to that tree, then you have to take back saying I’m a beginner,” you told him.

“Are you kiddin?” Bakugou said seriously, giving you a hard glare, “I’m not doin’ that.”

“Why not?” you asked, a grin tugging at your lips, “scared you’re gonna lose?”

Bakugou grumbled something under his breath before answering, “Fine, only to prove you wrong.”

Your grin grew larger at his reply. You weren’t exactly sure why you were pushing so hard to get him to race you. Maybe it was because he’s the first person you’ve met that you could actually ride with.

You had to teach yourself to ride. When you were a kid you practically begged the old rancher that lived next to you to let you ride his old ranch horse. He turned you down plenty of times, before giving up eventually.

Sometimes too, you would sneak out in the morning while your sisters were cooking breakfast with your mom to watch the old rancher push cattle. You were always in awe of how he and his horse were so in sync. His horse would cut in front of the cattle while the old rancher would barely have to lift a finger. Or how his horse would watch his back while he tended to a calf. You thought it was amazing.

“Oi, gonna sit there and daydream?” Bakugou’s gruff voice cut you out of your thoughts.

You shook your head, and glanced at him, “no, but you wanna count us off-”

A couple of pops from a gun cut you off and you quickly glanced behind you to see that there was a band of military men hot on your tail. How you both missed them coming up behind you was a mystery, but you felt your heart leap in your chest seeing them point their pistols at you.

“Shit,” Bakugou growled and yanked out his pistol, “fuckin’ go!”

You didn’t have to be told twice, with a panicked breath you kicked your horse's sides and took off, ducking down as Bakugou shot off his pistol. “What are we supposed to do!”

“Just stay close, we’ll outrun em’,” Bakugou shouted back as he stood up in his stirrups and shot another bullet into the group behind you.

You heard a sharp squeal and you glanced behind you to see a horse crumbling to the ground, taking his rider out with him. Your heart ached at the sight, but you’d rather it be them than you.

Your heartbeat was pounding in your chest as your horse raced past Bakugou’s. For a fleeting moment, you felt a little prideful at the fact you were a faster rider than him. However, your pride was quickly swallowed when another spray of bullets hit the ground just behind you, showering you and your horse with dirt.

“Fuck,” Bakugou grunted out from behind you clasping his free hand over his shoulder.

Your eyes widened as you saw his orange bandana start to grow crimson with blood, he was hurt. “You’re hurt!”

Bakugou bared his teeth, glancing back at where he dropped his pistol. The group of soldiers were now gaining fast and he for the first time was at a loss.

You slowed your horse down next to his, watching as the soldiers continued to get closer. Their bullets were now just barely missing you both. Selfishly, you thought that if they were to come get you, you’d again be returned home. Although in the heat of the moment, you realized you didn’t want to go back to the house you grew up in. It was constricting and confining, and as much as you loved your sisters, you’d much rather be in the hands of an outlaw that back with your father. Especially now. “I’ve gotta plan,” you shouted over the wind.

“What?” Bakugou hissed, his face paling, “no fuckin’ way.”

You shook your head, “you have to trust me, Bakugou. You’re not gonna be able to outrun em’ with one arm. I’ll meet you at the foot of the mountain okay?”

“The fuck are you tryna to do?” he spat, red eyes narrowed as he scrutinized you.

“Gettin’ them off your trail, just trust me, I’ll come back,” you said seriously, glancing behind you once more to see that the small group was almost caught up to you.

“Like hell, you’ll come back, I ain’t stupid, princess,” Bakugou scoffed, “just fuckin’ go, I don’t give a shit anymore.”

For some odd reason, your heart twisted at his words but you nodded, “just wait for me okay?” With that, you quickly turned around and rode towards the group of soldiers behind you. They slowed their horses down at the sight of you drawing closer.

You glanced back behind you to see that Bakugou was now a good distance away from now, and you let out a sigh of relief. Granted, you’ve been with him for only forty-eight hours, but you at least owed him this after he saved you from that nasty soldier.

You were even now.

“You Y/n L/n?” a soldier with long black hair asked.

You nodded, “I am.”

“Good, I’m colonel Aizawa,” he said, his voice deep as he inspected you closely with dark eyes. “I’ve been tasked to take ya home.”

You furrowed your brows, but nodded, choosing to remain silent.

“How ya holdin’ up?” Aizawa asked, as he pulled a waterskin from his side and handed it to you. “I’m surprised he let ya go? He’s not one to do that.”

“Me too,” you muttered as you took the waterskin from the colonel. You were ultimately surprised that he did let you go, but he wasn't really in a position to be yanking you along while he was injured.

“Fucker’s probably gonna die out there,” the man next to you spat, a grin growing across his face. “Serves him right for takin’ down the rookie.”

You glanced at the large man riding beside you. He looked intimidating with a large scar that ran down the front of his face. His piercing turquoise eyes snapped over to you, causing you to almost flinch at the intensity that was behind them.

“You’re lucky you made it out alive,” the man said, “in all my years as a lieutenant, I’ve never run into a more dangerous snake than that outlaw.”

You furrowed your brows, in some form of confusion. You knew Bakugou was dangerous, and aside from his sharp tongue and a sour mood, he stayed true to his word and never hurt you. In fact, it sort of seemed like he was warming up to you.

“Lieutenant Endeavor, I’m sure she knows, she’s been stuck with him for two days,” Aizawa said, his voice laced with what sounded like exhaustion.

Endeavor snorted, pushing his tan cowboy hat back to run his hand through his messy red hair, “right, I apologize, miss.”

“It’s fine,” you muttered.

---------

Once you made it back to the woods with the group, well convoy was a better word to describe the group you were traveling with, it was dusk. The sky was a deep purple with streaks of hot pink and orange stretching across the horizon.

You had your horse tied up away from the rest of the group. The few men you were traveling with were now sitting around the campfire they built chuckling to each other about something. You were too busy thinking of how you were going to slip away when they were sleeping to listen to their conversation.

In fact, that’s why you kept your horse tacked up. You played it off as you didn’t know too much about what you were even doing around a horse, which they bought. You were then brought out of your thoughts when a pair of boots stopped in front of you. You looked up to see one of the soldiers that traveled behind you, and you learned he was also the one who had shot Bakugou.

“How ya holdin’ up?” he asked as he sat down next to you and offered you a biscuit.

You took the biscuit and glanced at him. He was smiling at you with a wide smile, but it didn’t seem to reach his golden eyes. “I’m doin’ okay,” you answered as you took a bite of biscuit, “thanks for the biscuit.”

“Of course,” the soldier muttered, glancing away from you before speaking again, “pretty rough for you to be kidnapped huh?”

You nodded, “yeah.”

The soldier hummed before speaking, “believe it or not, Bakugou used to not be the way he is now.”

You lifted an eyebrow, “what do you mean?”

“You’ve never heard about where he and Kirishima came from?” the soldier asked, his caramel blonde hair falling over his eyes.

You shook your head. The post in your tiny town never delved into any violent kind of news. They only posted about the farmer's market, weather, etc. The only thing that even mentioned the outlaw group was their wanted posters by the sheriff's office.

“Well, I guess I'll tell you. I’d say it’s been about four years since I was friends with those two, Bakugou and Kirishima. We grew up in the same town and on one practically cold winter, Bakugou’s entire family caught a fever and he was orphaned at age eighteen,” the soldier began.

You frowned, that sounded terrible. “That’s awful.”

He nodded, “it was, he had to go live with Kirishima, apparently though, he passed whatever his family had to Kirishima’s, and before anyone knew it, both those boys were orphaned. Of course, Endeavor here was traveling through town right then, lookin’ to recruit boys for the military and he snatched us up.”

You took another bite of your biscuit, fully invested in Bakugou’s history now.

“The three of us became pretty close during boot camp, even though I’m a few years older than them. Bakugou told us plenty of times he was gonna end up as lieutenant some day, and he was always pickin’ a fight with this scrawny kid, Izuku.

After training, something changed and I’m not sure what. Bakugou’s always been quick to temper, but he was angry. So angry that one day he and Kirishima left without a trace. The next thing we knew their faces were bein’ plastered up on every sheriff’s office out west for theft.”

You blinked in shock. You never knew Bakugou and Kirishima had it so bad growing up. A lump formed in your throat when you thought back on how much you complained growing up, and compared to them you were so lucky. “Wow, I wonder what made them leave,” you asked.

“Dunno, but I don’t have any mercy for them, they’ve shot down enough of our own that they deserve whatever happened to them. Hope he dies out there,” the soldier said bitterly, his golden eyes hardened with hate.

“Keigo,” Aizawa’s voice carried across the small camp, “you don’t need to be talkin’ about that kind of stuff with her. She’s been through enough.”

Keigo huffed, pushing his hair away from his eyes before giving you a curt nod, “sorry.” With that, he stood up, brushed his hands off on his pants, and made his way back towards the fire, where Endeavor gave him a hard clap on the back.

You finished your biscuit and leaned back against the tree behind you, lost in thought once more. What made Bakugou turn into such a notorious criminal? It just didn’t seem to make sense to you.

-------

A few more hours passed and finally, the fire was put out. You were told that you’d be leaving early in the morning to head back to your town, but you firmly decided that you definitely weren’t going to do that. Even though you didn’t plan on returning home anyway, after learning a bit about Bakugou’s history, you wanted to know more about him, his world.

You did feel guilty about leaving your sisters, this time voluntarily, but you weren’t going to pass up the opportunity to taste freedom again.

So, when you were sure the soldiers were dead asleep you silently got up and untied your horse from the log. You led him away from camp and when you felt that you were a safe distance away, you pulled yourself up into the saddle and took off.

The moon was still mostly full, so the prairie was illuminated in pale light, allowing you to see at least some of the land around you. But most importantly, you could see White Tail river to your left and the mountain range far in the distance.

The night was cool and you were thankful to be out of the heat of the day. Crickets chirped loudly as you passed them, springing up out of the grass to escape the hooves of your horse as they hit the damp earth.

You figured you’d have to ride all night and a little bit into the morning to probably reach the mountainside and Bakugou. You had told him to wait for you at the base of the mountain, but now, doubt clouded your thoughts. How were you sure that he’d be there?

A jolt of unease settled in your belly as you continued to ride forward, the roaring rapids of White Tail River sounding from your left. He was an outlaw and at the end of the day, you were just his hostage. You slowed your horse down to a walk, suddenly having second thoughts about making the trip to the mountainside.

He was hurt though, and you did promise you’d return, and you never went back on your word. You set your sights back on the mountain and rode forward, ignoring your feelings of doubt.

After a good while of riding at a canter you slowed back down to a walk as you passed the cedar tree you were going to race Bakugou to, and something shiny on the ground caught your eye. You stopped your horse to get a better look, and to your surprise, it was Bakugou’s pistol. Without a second thought, you dismounted your horse and placed the pistol in your waistband before getting back on. You were sure he would want that back. You glanced towards the mountain range again, it was still far away but now the forest where the soldiers were was much further behind you.

Clouds were beginning to roll in and you heard the unmistakable rumble of thunder in the distance. You frowned, riding in a storm and in the dark? That was definitely not ideal. The wind picked up, causing goosebumps to prickle on your skin and you stopped again, glancing towards the dark clouds again. You were going to lose your light soon.

You looked around your surroundings hoping to find any sort of shelter to take cover, but the landscape around you was bare, the only vegetation being the tall grasses and a few squatty bushes. With a sigh you decided that you would just have to push through, so you kicked your horse's sides again and rode off towards the mountainside.

Lightning flashed in the distance and you shuddered, whatever storm was rolling in was a big one. Soon a few raindrops began to fall and they were warm as they slid down your skin. It was still gentle enough for you to ride forward thankfully.

The storm ended up passing by you, only sprinkling you in rain from a few straggling clouds. You supposed that was lucky because you were able to now see again when the moonlight poked through the broken clouds.

For the remainder of the night you rode towards the mountain up until dawn. The loud yips of the coyotes by the mountainside signaled to you that you were practically almost there, and by the time the sun had crept over the mountains, you arrived where the river was fed by a large waterfall.

The spray of the water caught the early morning light and you watched in awe as a multitude of different colors danced in the mist. You also noticed that the trees here were different from the ones you were used to at home. They were tall and old, their needles swayed in the cool morning breeze scenting the air with pine and spruce.

You rode forward, rubbing your eyes as you tried to search for Bakugou. The fear of him not actually being here was more prominent than ever. You couldn’t even try to track him due to the rain last night. Even though it was light, it still washed out the tracks. The only thing you could do was travel up the mountainside along the river, hoping to see a familiar dark bay horse.

The temperature seemed to drop rather dramatically the further up you traveled, which was sort of unsettling. You glanced behind you to see that you had made it up quite far. The small waterfall that you were just by was at least twenty feet below you now.

Your horse nickered, gathering your attention back in front of you, and to your shock, you saw a cloud of smoke curling a small distance away from you. “Did you know where to go?” you asked your horse, petting his sorrel fur while he maneuvered around some large boulders.

It didn’t take you much longer to reach whatever little campsite Bakugou had set up. You could see his saddle resting on a large boulder, his horse tied to a low-hanging branch, and there was a dying fire in front of an overhanging rock.

You dismounted your horse and led him towards Bakugou’s, and proceeded to untack him. You glanced around the camp once more while you undid the girth. Where did Bakugou go? Was Keigo right? Did he die out here? Surely not, a gunshot to the shoulder wasn’t fatal, right?

Why were you so worried about him? You bit the inside of your cheek as you put the girth over your shoulder and pulled off the saddle and pad, setting it next to Bakugou’s. You were worried because if he was dead, then you were alone. You felt a twinge of guilt twist in your gut as you removed the bit from your horse's bridle and set it by his saddle. Bakugou was just an outlet for you to live out your dream, you needed him because you couldn’t figure out how to do any of this by yourself.

You furrowed your brows feeling conflicted again with your decision. Should you have left? It’s only been three days since you’ve left home now, but the thought of even returning was humiliating. One of the horses whinnied causing you to lift your head from where you were staring at your hands.

Out of the bushes stumbled Bakugou, he looked to be in pretty bad shape. His face was pale, and a thin sheen of sweat coated his forehead as he clutched his bad arm with his other hand. You could see he was holding a bundle of leaves and flowers in his hands. He stopped though, upon seeing you sitting by the fire.

“You came back,” he said, his eyes slightly wide with shock.

You nodded, “I said I would.”

Bakugou huffed as he stomped across the camp and roughly sat down by the fire. “That was pretty stupid of you to do,” he said, his breathing heavy as he looked you over.

You shrugged, “well, I didn’t want you to take any of my sisters,” you answered. That was somewhat truthful, but it was mostly a lie.

“You think I can do that right now, princess?” he scoffed and ran a shaky hand through his hair.

Your cheeks warmed, right. He was really in no shape to even be riding, let alone kidnapping another one of your sisters. “Good point,” you muttered, cutting your gaze away from his intense eyes.

“Then get goin’ don’t need another mouth to feed,” he said truthfully.

You looked back at him, “but I just got here-”

“So? You can ride back, nothin’s stoppin you,” Bakugou said, there was a slight lilt in his tone as he looked down at the plants in his palm, thumbing through them.

“Don’t you need the money?” you argued, hoping he would find a reason for you to stay. So you didn’t have to ask.

“That’s the last fuckin’ thing on my mind right now,” Bakugou said while rolling his eyes, “you think I care about money when I’m separated by at least a four-day ride from my group? Not to mention I’ve got this to deal with,” he added, his scarlet gaze cutting to his wound. “If you’re here with me, all you bring is attention, and I don’t wanna deal with all the drama that comes with draggin’ your ass along. So get goin.”

You frowned, shifting your weight as unease crept up your spine. If you wanted to stay, you were going to have to tell him the truth. “What if,” you took a deep breath before looking at him, “what if I don’t wanna go?”

Bakugou laughed, it was coarse and loud, making you wince. “You’re fuckin’ kidding right? You wanna stay?”

You nodded, “I do.” You rubbed the side of your neck, squirming again under his gaze, “look I don’t want to go back home again, alright? I’m just gonna be pushed around like cattle and married off to some stranger. I don’t want that, okay? I want to be like you, you’re,” you paused searching for the right word, “you’re free.”

“Free?” Bakugou repeated, mulling over your confession. He had to admit you did come from a shitty place, so it makes sense you’d wanna leave.

You nodded, “yeah, you’re free. You get to do whatever you want, travel where you want, make your own decisions, and I want that. I want to be my own person, and even though I was supposed to hate being taken by you, it’s the best I’ve ever felt,” you admitted.

Bakugou hummed as he stretched his legs out in front of him. “So you wanna join us then?”

“Well, I don’t wanna be an outlaw,” you quickly answered.

“You can’t have one without the other,” Bakugou countered, “you can’t be like us, like me, unless you’re willing to break some rules.”

You glanced away from him and down at your boots. Your sister talked to you once about making sacrifices for the things you want. For her, that was marrying Shindo, but she was able to live comfortably, that was her dream.

And this was yours.

“Fine, I’ll join you then,” you answered, locking your gaze with his.

A wry smile tugged at Bakugou’s lips. This was probably the last thing he’d ever expect from someone like you, but he had to admit you had balls. “Alright then, well first things first, you gotta learn how to act like us. It’s a good thing we’ll be here for a while, can’t have you pulling us down.”

You blinked, surprised at how fast he accepted you. He didn’t say any snide comment about you being a woman or look down on you for leaving your family like this. He accepted you, and he was the first person to accept you for who you are.

“You know how to shoot at least?” Bakugou asked, tilting his head to get a better look at you again. He knew you could at least ride well, probably as good as him honestly. That was probably all you had going for you, he’d have to teach you the rest.

You shook your head and then you suddenly remembered the pistol tucked safely in your waistband, “I found this on my way up here,” you began as you pulled out the pistol and held it out, “thought you would want this back.”

“Thanks,” Bakugou answered leaning forward to grab his pistol, his fingers brushing against yours as he took his weapon back.

Your eyes slightly widened at the soft touch of his calloused fingers against your own. For some odd reason, your heart seemed to flop in your chest like a fish before you quickly regained your composure.

“We’ll have to start that tomorrow,” Bakugou answered as he looked over his pistol.

“What about your wound?” you asked, looking towards the large patch of blood that still seemed to be wetting his shirt and bandana, “that doesn’t look too good. That should probably heal some more before we start anything, right?”

“It’s fine, one thing about us is that we take care of ourselves, alright? I don’t need you fussin’ over me-”

“Then why did you ‘fuss’ over me?” you asked, pointing to the fresh scab on your cheek. The yarrow that he put on your bullet graze had helped the wound close much faster and so far it’s stayed uninfected.

“That was different,” Bakugou quickly answered, “you were an investment then.”

“Well whatever, that wound is much worse than this cut, you can’t just brush off a gunshot,” you said, standing up and walking towards him. Before he could protest you placed your hand on his forehead. You were no idiot when it came to fevers, you had plenty of nieces and nephews that would come home from school with a summer cold and you’d always offer to help.

Upon seeing Bakugou and his clammy skin, you immediately knew he was sick. “You have a fever.”

“No, I don’t,” Bakugou barked back, slapping your hand away from his forehead as he looked up at you from the ground.

“You do, that’s pretty bad if you already have a fever this fast,” you muttered, ignoring him grumbling at you as squatted down in front of him.

Bakugou huffed, “I don’t need your help.”

You frowned, “Just think of it as a trade? You teach me how to shoot, I’ll help you get better?”

There was a beat of silence before Bakugou nodded. He was really in no position to be taking care of himself. He’s been wounded like this plenty of times, but he’s always had someone with him, whether that was Kirishima, Denki, Sero, or Mina, someone was always there to help him or vice versa. “You even know what you’re doin?”

You scoffed, “I’m not stupid, I think you are for not cleaning it out the first chance you got,” you said, “is there a calm part of the river close by?”

“Yeah, it’s close,” Bakuguo answered, his timber voice a little softer.

“Okay, c’mon,” you said as you extended your hand to help him up. You watched as he weakly stretched out his hand and grabbed yours. His entire hand engulfed yours which was somewhat shocking. With as much strength as you could muster you helped him up.

Bakugou at his full height towered above you, your gaze leveled out at the top of his chest. He roughly yanked his hand out of yours, making your cheeks heat up. You lifted your gaze to see that he was looking down at you with hazy eyes before turning away.

You silently followed him to the river just outside of camp. This part of the river was calm, the water moved slowly and gently, it was nothing like the rapids you saw earlier. Just seeing such clean calm water made you want to jump right in and scrub all the grime from your skin.

“Now what?” Bakugou asked, cutting into your thoughts.

“You need to get in,” you told him, jutting your chin towards the river.

“No fuckin’ way. That water is cold as hell,” Bakugou snapped.

You sighed, “okay fine, don’t get in, but you need to at least get your clothes off the wound, so we can clean it.”

Bakugou huffed, clearly annoyed as he shot you a glare before he used his good hand to yank off his bloody bandana and throw it down on the pebbles. He shot you another nasty glare when you went to help him out of his jacket. With his free hand, he tugged at the sleeve on his bad arm and slipped it off, cursing under his breath as the fabric pulled at the inflamed skin under his shirt. All that was left was his cotton undershirt.

You watched as he fumbled with the buttons, before yanking at them harshly, causing a few to fly off. He was being so aggressive with himself, making you furrow your brows in concern. “You’re going to hurt yourself more if you keep yanking on that.”

“M’ not,” he spat, hissing when his shirt tugged at his shoulder.

“I can unbutton-”

“No,” he quickly answered, his voice clipped as he yanked the last button off. With one hand he pulled off the shirt with one yank.

Your eyes widened at the torn flesh on his shoulder. It was dark red and looked horrible. Fresh blood was still oozing from the front of the wound and you walked closer, inspecting the red angry skin that was swollen around the bullet wound. You placed your hand on his forearm while you glanced behind him to see that the bullet wound went all the way through his shoulder, which was good, all things considering.

“Well?” Bakugou asked, his red gaze focused on your hand on his arm.

“It’s a clean shot, it looks like it’s not infected, which is good. I’m guessing your fever’s from your body working too hard, either way, this has to get clean,” you told him, “I really think you need to get all the way in the river, it’s still warm enough to dry off.”

“Fuck no,” Bakugou said seriously, “I already said I’m not goin’ in there.” His breath hitched when you brought your hand up by his wound, you weren’t touching it obviously, but his eyes tracked the way the tips of your fingers would lightly press on the swollen skin around it.

“Hmm, I don’t think you have a choice, this looks like it could go downhill pretty face,” you told him and looked up to meet his gaze.

“Fuckin’ fine, god you’re so annoying, should have sent your ass back home,” he said.

It was obviously an empty threat, but you couldn’t help but smile a little. “You can wash your clothes too while you’re in there.”

“Sure, fine, go make yourself useful and grab my saddlebag,” Bakugou said with a sigh. He hated that you were right.

You nodded and headed back to camp to grab his saddlebag. You had to admit, with how heavy the bag was you now believed him when he said he had everything he needed in there. With a grunt, you hoisted it up over your shoulder and headed back to the river to see that Bakugou was already waist-deep in the water, clearly upset.

You were clearly not expecting to see him so naked? You set down the bag, forcing your eyes away from his cut torso and built chest. It was sort of embarrassing, but you’ve never really been this close to a man before, well at least not when he was stark naked in a river.

Your gaze flicked up to Bakugou again who muttered something as he splashed water up into his wound, cursing like a sailor. In the sunlight, his honey-tanned skin seemed to glow and you let your gaze travel down the hard planes of his muscle. You knew he was a big guy, but you never expected him to be so strong.

“Stop fuckin’ starin!” Bakugou shouted from the river, shaking his head as you almost lost your balance turning away from him.

Once he was done, you tossed him the extra clothes he had in his bag, which were a pair of blue jeans and a cotton undershirt. It was a little cool for just a t-shirt, but it was much better than being in dirty clothes. Plus, his clothes would most likely be dry by nightfall.

Bakugou had you put some yarrow on his wound before wrapping it with gauze he had stashed away in his saddlebag. “There,” you commented as you tucked the gauze underneath itself, securing his bandage, “I think you’re good.”

“Hm, thanks I guess,” Bakugou grumbled before yanking his shirt over his head and carefully putting his arm through the sleeve.

While his clothes were drying you helped him back to camp and to your surprise, he fell right asleep on his bedroll.

--------

Bakugou slept for practically three days. He would wake to go to the bathroom, drink water, and eat, but that was all. Of course, you would check his wound and reapply yarrow while he slept. You figured he needed the rest, but the entire time you were hoping he wouldn’t just die. Granted you’ve always been a worrier, so you practically stayed awake all three days, hovering over him and watching him like a hawk.

On the fourth day, he was much more alert, his fever had broken, and the red puffy skin around his wound had vanished. It was only then you let your guard down. When you were sure he wasn’t going to go to croak on you, you went to the river to finally wash your grimy clothes and take a much needed bath.

Never in your life had you felt so gross, and the moment you stepped into the water you immediately felt relief wash over you. It didn’t take long for the dirt to wash out of your hair and you dunked your head under the water again to rub the grime off your face. When you resurface you were most certainly not expecting Bakugou to be standing on the bank of the river.

“Something wrong?” you meekly called out to him, folding your arms over your bare chest. Granted the only part of you out of the water was your head.

Bakugou huffed as he stuffed his hands into his front pockets. He had grown used to waking up to your face for the past three days, and when he woke up today you were gone. Granted he knew you didn’t leave since your horse was still tied, but he regretted admitting it made him a little worried. “No,” he answered, his timber voice carrying across the water.

You glanced away from him and then back, somewhat confused, “then can you leave?”

A grumble of irritation slipped past Bakugou’s lips as he stared you down. “Hurry up, don’t wanna waste the day,” he said as he glanced at your drying clothes.

“Fine,” you muttered as you watched him walk away from the river. He glanced back at you once more before walking out of your view and into the woods. You shivered and glanced towards your clothes drying in the sun, you should probably get out.

You were thankful that the sun had dried your clothes rather quickly and you made your way back to the camp, pulling your damp hair back away from your face. There was a funny feeling stirring in your tummy at the thought of having to see Bakugou again.

You weren’t exactly sure what you were feeling, but it sort of made you want to avoid him as much as possible, but not in a bad way. It was more like you were growing shy around him, which was something you weren’t known for.

“Took you damn long enough,” Bakugou snorted from beside the fire, he was cleaning his pistol and another one was resting on top of his thigh.

“I wasn’t that long,” you argued, rolling your eyes at him as you sat down across from him.

Bakugou huffed again and set down his pistol, “whatever.” He looked up at you from his pistol and shook his head, “you ready to go? You gotta get familiar with a pistol before we move out of here.”

You nodded, glancing at the extra pistol next to him. It was identical to the one you had found earlier, and then you remembered Bakugou was known around the west for being able to wield two pistols at once.

“Good,” he said as he stood up, stretching his bad shoulder gently, “we’re goin back by the river again.”

You watched as he walked past you, clearly not planning on waiting for you. With a sigh you stood up, and followed him, narrowly avoiding the branches that almost slapped you in the face when he moved past them. In a way, you were sort of thankful he was still treating you the same, but you also wished he would try to get to know you?

Now that you were part of his group, you figured he’d ask you some questions aside from what you knew about pistols. When you were with the rest of the group they all seemed very familiar with each other, obviously. You briefly wondered if you should ask him about himself?

“Here,” Bakugou’s voice cut into your thoughts as he held out one of his pistols. “Go ahead and take it.”

You glanced at the weapon in front of you and you gently took it from his hand. It was heavy to hold and cold to touch. How many people has he shot down with this gun?

“So, it’s pretty self-explanatory, pump the trigger to shoot, pull out the chamber to reload,” Bakugou explained as he pulled out his other pistol and showed you how to pop the chamber out. Inside there were six brass bullets. “Wanna make sure you never run out of these, and never lose count.”

You nodded, holding the pistol with a somewhat limp wrist. You didn’t like guns and you never planned on ever using one, even if you were hunting. Granted you didn’t like hunting either.

“When you shoot, keep both eyes open. Some shits say to close one, don’t do that. It messes up your depth perception,” Bakugou explained as he raised his arm and pointed his pistol towards a tree across the river. “Keep your arm straight, but bent a little at the elbow, helps with the recoil. You’re gonna wanna use two hands though.”

He was moving through his explanation so fast, you had a hard time processing exactly what he was saying. “So I just hold it like this?” you asked, holding out the gun with two hands.

Bakugou clicked his tongue, clearly not satisfied with your position, but he shrugged, “go ahead and shoot then if you think it’s right”

“I feel like this isn’t right,” you countered, shifting your hands a bit. You had no idea what was wrong with your hands, but he obviously wasn’t going to correct you.

“Just shoot, you’ll figure out what’s wrong pretty fast,” Bakugou told you and looked across the river, “try and aim for that blue spruce tree.”

You gulped and pointed the pistol towards the tree, already tucking your head away from the anticipating bang of the bullet leaving the pistol.

Bakugou snorted, shaking his head as you began to curl in on yourself. He knew what was gonna happen once you pulled the trigger.

You let out a shaky breath as you pulled the trigger, immediately flinching at the loud bang. Then to your horror, the recoil of the shot pushed your hands back right towards your face and in that second, before the butt of the pistol smacked your nose, you knew you had your hands way too high up. You let out a muffled cry when the pistol smacked against your nose, and you dropped it, cursing under your breath as scarlet blood trickled down your face.

“Told you,” Bakugou said as he bent down to pick up his pistol. “First off, you can’t flinch before you shoot, then you miss your target entirely. You hit the tree to the left, just barely. You also have to use your other arm as support, or the recoil can get you. Your arms were too high and too straight. Watch.”

You looked over at him with watery eyes as he held the pistol out in front of him, supporting his hand that pulled the trigger with his other one. You noticed how he kept his arms bent and they were about level with his chest. Before you could blink he pulled the trigger and the bullet instantly splintered into the blue spruce across the river.

“Try again,” he said as he handed the pistol back to you.

You sniffled, wiping your bloody nose with the back of your hand as you took the pistol from him. You did your best to copy him and listen to his advice, and when you pulled the trigger this time, your aim was a little bit better and the recoil wasn’t as violent.

“Better, still got a helluva long way to go though,” Bakugou said as he looked towards the tree. You had managed to hit it this time, just barely though. “We’ll work on it again, tomorrow.”

“We just got started though,” you said, your voice somewhat nasally from your bloody nose.

“Best not to rush into things, and I’m hungry,” he said as he shoved his pistol into his waistband. He then walked off, back to camp leaving you alone by the river.

You rolled your eyes as you brought a hand up to pinch your nose. It throbbed angrily and you signed, tasting your metallic blood slip between your lips. He was so brash, but as Sero had told you earlier, you were from a different world. That much was clear to you now.

--------

Another couple of days had passed and while you got better at handling a pistol, Bakugou’s mood seemed to get more bitter. You weren’t sure why, it wasn’t like you were doing anything annoying on purpose, but the number of times you caught him glaring at you was getting a little uncomfortable.

You thought by now he’d finally start opening up to you, at least a little. It seemed like that would have happened just due to the fact that he let you join his group with no hesitation. It made you worry that he was regretting letting you join.

Which then made you worried he would get up and leave, or worse? Your thoughts wandered to something darker and you pushed the thought away. He wouldn’t resort to that. Not to mention, he did owe you for taking care of him for the past week.

You watched him as he roughly bit into a sizable piece of jerky from across the fire that you had built this time. He was watching his horse graze by yours, obviously trying to ignore your staring, which you thought was subtle.

“How many times do I have to fuckin’ tell you to stop starin’ at me, damn,” he snapped, his red eyes snapping to yours.

You blinked, your cheeks heating up as you looked away, “sorry.”

Bakugou scoffed as he roughly swallowed his jerky, “I wanna know why the hell you keep watchin’ me? You got a problem, princess? I’m all ears.”

Your upper lip twitched as you looked towards him once more. The firelight cast him in orange light, making his red eyes almost glow. “I’m wonderin’ why you’ve been so closed off? You’re still treating me like a hostage.”

“I’m treatin’ you how I treat everyone, princess,” Bakugo answered as he took another bite of his jerky and stretched his good arm behind his head.

“So you’re this prickly with Kirishima?” you questioned, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah, sure, shitty hair is just as annoying as you are,” Bakugou said.

“Yeah right,” you muttered, “I doubt that.”

“And how do you know so much about my friendship with Kirishima?” Bakugou challenged, lifting an eyebrow. It seemed that your comment had gathered his interest.

“Well, that group of soldiers that chased us down, they knew you. One of them told me about you and Kirishima. How you both were in the military and left,” you explained, not really sure if you should even be revealing that you knew this much about him.

“Well, aren't you miss nosy,” Bakugou snapped, clearly irritated now. “You believe that shit? I bet it was Keigo who told you about that right?”

You nodded, deciding to keep your mouth shut. He was looking pretty pissed now.

“Yeah thought so, look, don’t go nosing in people’s business when it’s got nothin’ to do with you,” Bakugou said, his tone clipped.

“I wasn’t-” you began, trying to explain that Keigo was the one who approached you, but apparently Bakugou must have had enough of you as he promptly got up and threw the rest of his jerky into the flames.

You winced as the flames heightened for a moment before settling down and you gazed up at him. His jaw was set as he watched the fire before looking at you.

“Watch the horses, done lookin at your face,” he muttered before turning around and stomping through the woods, headed off to who knows where.

“Okay,” you muttered, feeling guilt pull at your chest. If there was one thing you hated most, it was having other people upset at you. Well, that was if you had any sort of respect towards them, and in some ways, you did respect Bakugou.

In fact, you had been vying for his approval recently, trying your hardest to improve at shooting, helping him collect firewood. Even hunt. You caught your first rabbit yesterday.

Although, it was sort of humiliating for you to be trying so hard. You’ve never once felt the need to prove yourself to anyone, especially to a man. You scoffed, tossing a twig into the fire. The fact that Bakugou had made such an impression on your personality was a bit frightening on your end. You briefly wondered if he was breaking your spirit. The one thing you clung so fondly too.

After a good hour of sulking and realizing he wasn’t coming back, you put out the fire and grabbed your blanket from where you left it on your saddle. With a sigh you placed your blanket on the ground and laid down, hoping to fall asleep soon.

-----

All at once, you were woken from a dead sleep by someone’s hand covering your mouth, muffling a shocked cry that escaped you. Your consciousness was sluggish with sleep but your body immediately jumped into fight mode and you squirmed bringing your hands up to scratch at whoever was grabbing you. They wrapped an arm around your torso to prevent you from trying to get up to run.

“Damn, ouch,” a familiar timber voice hissed lowly from directly behind you, “stop, it’s just me.”

You blinked the sleep away from your eyes as they adjusted to the dark, and Bakugou dropped his hand from your face. “What-”

“Shh,” he hushed you, bringing a hand up and pointing to something out in the distance. The good thing about your campsite was that it allowed you to see down below you all the way to the base of the mountain. You squinted, there about fifteen feet down from your camp was a fire. You could make out some shapes and a few horses.

“Looks like they followed you,” Bakugou whispered, his breath tickling the shell of your ear.

“I didn’t know,” you answered truthfully, “M’ sorry.”

“The hell are you apologizing to me for?” Bakugou said lowly, raising an eyebrow at your worried expression.

“You were so mad earlier, I thought-” you began, but he cut you off again.

“It’s a touchy subject for me,” he admitted, his voice quiet. He didn’t like talking about his past, and it pissed him off to learn that Keigo’s been spreadin’ lies about him and Kirishima.

You nodded, now becoming hyper aware of his muscular arm wrapped around your torso tightly. He was warm behind you too and you could feel the spikes of his hair brushing against your temples. Your heart was now racing wilding in your chest, and goosebumps rippled across your skin when he huffed, his warm breath fanning against your neck.

Your mind was almost reeling, and you had no idea what was happening to you. Why did he cause such a reaction in you?

“We’re gonna have to sneak out fast, don’t want them to catch up,” Bakugou said, glancing back towards the horses.

“You’re not going to leave me?” you asked meekly, not even fully aware that you asked him such a vulnerable question.

Bakugou scoffed, “why the hell would I leave you? You run with me now, right?” he said truthfully. “Go tack up your horse,” he added, slipping his arm from your torso and standing up.

“Are you sure?” you asked. It was so unlike you to be so weak, so dependent.