— taking me back

everyone knew ground zero was one of the strongest heroes in the business, but little did they know how weak he really was for you.

pairing: bakugou katsuki x reader

content: a bit mature, but not nsfw. characters are aged up in this btw! also fluff because yes

forgot to put this the first time, but if you want to ~feel~ the imagine more, you can listen to taking me back by lany ((yes like the title)) !!

warnings: some strong language, very mildangst

A knock on your door startled your Saturday night Netflix binging. You set your popcorn on the table rather loudly, annoyed at whoever had the guts to interrupt the only free time you could get at 11PM. Your hand hurried to the doorknob to stop the vigorous knocking, and you were met by a tired-looking Ground Zero, looking big with his grenades and hero costume intact.

You couldn’t help but roll your eyes at the sight. “Work got you again?”

“Let’s not talk about it,” was the only thing he muttered before you let him in, taking off his large weapons and placing them on the side of the door along with everything else that was bothersome to him. He was left in a black tank top and baggy jeans.

“You know, you need to come home sometimes,” you tell him, setting your hands on his sturdy biceps. “Your mom’s probably thinking you’re dead by now.”

His eyes closed in pleasure as your hands started to knead, hitting him in all the right places. “Please, the old woman’s enjoying the house to herself.”

“What about Masaru?” you asked, taking a better look at his attire. You had no idea he looked this good without the extravagant hero accessories on.

“Left for a business trip. I don’t know where.” He groaned, leaning into your other hand that raised to caress his cheek. “You’re seriously a martyr for taking me in after everything I’ve done to you.”

“Past is past, I suppose,” was all you could say.

Bakugou—or as you called him, Katsuki—was your ex-boyfriend. Unknown to others, and most of Class 1-A, since you decided that keeping it a secret would be best, given the constant danger your lives were put in. Any kind of secret that would reveal a rising hero’s weak spot can and will probably be used against them. And unfortunately, Bakugou’s weakness was you.

It ended when the both of you decided it wouldn’t work out with the way things started to change pace. He was completely set on becoming the best hero in Japan that he barely went home to your shared apartment. He found an agency that would take him in—much to his dismay, working with Half and Half Bastard under Endeavor’s Hero Agency.

You, however, had different plans. You were working to become a minor hero in your prefecture, as you didn’t want to be under the constant stress of fearing for your life at the top. Bakugou constantly tried to coax you out of that mindset, saying that he knew you could do way more, but you just weren’t having it. The lack of time and different outlooks caused a major fallout that eventually resulted in a mutual break-up.

However, despite moving out and getting rid of everything you shared, Bakugou always found his thoughts drifting back to you. He shrugged it off the first months, thinking it was part of the shitty moving on process. Until he couldn’t take it one fateful Thursday night and found himself crying on your doorstep, practically begging you to take him back.

It struck a heart string to see him like that. He never ever begged anyone for anything, and to hell with showing his emotions to people. The fact that he was completely sober, had the right state of mind to rethink his decisions, and still came back to you—it was too much. You, too, were having trouble with the moving on process, but nothing was going to be fixed with this set-up. If you took him back, you’d argue over the same things all over and over again.

So it ended up with you letting him sleep over, and making the pro hero promise to leave the next morning. A part of you still cared deeply for him, and didn’t want to see your Katsuki cry, staying in his embrace the entire night and having to fight back your own tears. As expected, the promise was broken, and he stayed over for another night, and another,—maybe just one more?—until coming back to you became an unspoken habit of his whenever he “needed support after all his missions”. You knew it was just because he missed you.

And you missed him, too, deeply.

“Do you mind if I…” he suddenly started, snapping you out of your thoughts as the both of you sat down on your couch.

“Go ahead. It doesn’t matter anymore,” you replied. Katsuki rested his head on your shoulder, closing his eyes and basking in the sweet smell of your perfume.

A comfortable silence wrapped you both, only the television volume giving light to the ambiance that settled.

“You should shower,” you mentioned. He didn’t necessarily smell bad, you just wanted him to move away and stop your thoughts.

“Do I smell?” he asked, a genuine tone laced in his voice.

“No.” You couldn’t hold back the hand that made it to his spiky hair, patting gently. “I’m just worried you might be tired.”

“I think I’m good here,” Katsuki insisted, leaning further into you.

His left hand started to wonder places, landing on your right. His thumb rubbed mini circles on yours, matching the pace of his calm breathing. After a few more circles, his arm moved behind the small of your back, switching your positions quickly and letting you lean on his stern chest. You adjusted yourself to sit in between his lap, faces dangerouslyclose.

You could kiss him then and there, and you knew he wouldn’t be opposed to that.

Or would he?

You could test your hypothesis, but your brain was telling you otherwise. It was impractical to let your heart rule over you again. The way that he was coming back to you even though you were supposed to move on was dumb enough. A kiss would just cross the line.

You sighed in defeat.

“What?”

“Nothing,” you brushed off. But you knew he wasn’t going to let that slide.

“If I’m bothering you—“ he started, but you were quick to interrupt.

“No, you’re not, Katsuki.”

He lifted his head, looking straight into your eyes. “Then why do you look like that?”

You raised an eyebrow. “Like what?”

“Like you can’t wait for me to fucking leave.”

Apparently, your facial expression gave it away. It’s not that you wanted him to leave, though.

“I probably should,” he retorted, getting up from his seat. “None of us is going to move the fuck on with this, right?”

Bakugou rose and made his way to the door, carefully gathering his stuff. The sight made the pain in your heart worsen—every step was a dagger to your already tainted heart. He was hesitant, too, slowly moving as he took jagged breaths.

None of you was willing to break the awkward tension in the room, until you choked out the only words you could make out from the flurry in your head.

“What if I don’t want to move on?”

He turned around. “What the fuck do you mean?”

“I don’t want to fucking move on,” you repeated, harder and angrier this time. The lump in your throat seemed to let go of its grip when the tears came out, blurring your vision completely. “I don’t want to fucking lose you anymore.”

It seemed like you cried for an hour with how unexpectedly painful it felt. Not once in your solo crying sessions did you feel something quite like this, and seeing him make his way to the door was reliving it all over and over again.

You wanted to remind yourself why you hated him—why you hated that everything he did was a reason for you to love him even more.

You hated how he always managed to disrupt your thoughts without him even being there. You hated the way he used to tease you about the way you cooked, but held you safely in his arms as he taught you how to do it better. You hated the way he would talk to you in your sleep, sweet nothings that would never come out in broad daylight. You hated how he comforted you when you needed it most, telling you he’ll be your shield when the world’s out to get you. You hated the way he looked at you on dates, like you were the only woman on earth, and nothing and nobody else mattered. You hated how the two of you used to dance to the same Arctic Monkeys song on the radio, and pointed to every sappy love song that came on and told him it was your song. You hated that he stayed up with you on the nights you had to study, and took you to new midnight diners downtown if he decided you needed a break. You hated waking up next to his stupid face staring back at you, waiting for you to wake up so he could finally be with the love of his life.

But most of all, you hated how your heart still belonged to him after all this fuckingtime.

Warm hands made their way to the back of your head, pulling you closer and rubbing your back.

“I don’t want to fucking move on, too.”

You looked up at him. His face mirrored the same expression as yours, tears in his eyes and lips trembling as his crimson eyes found yours.

For once in his life, he was completely sure of taking a risk for something—no, someone—he was completely, head over heels weak for.

But if you were there, none of that mattered anymore.

“I still love you, Katsuki,” you whispered, leaning closer into him and feeling the warmth of his shaking body radiate onto you. “I don’t want you to slip out of my grasp anymore. I know you might not feel the same, but please—please—let me kiss you one last time before you go.”

Katsuki pulled you up, his arms resting steady on your back. “I’m not leaving, you idiot.”

Leaning in, his lips touched yours, and slowly, the sparks, the cliche sparks you once felt with your teenage love came back. He was still the same red-faced boy who accidentally cursed you as he confessed his attraction, stray flowers from UA’s grass fields in hand. In another held a tiny teddy bear that was wrapped in an orange box with a note attached in rather messy handwriting—I like you, dumbass.

“I was hoping you’d take the hint after all this time, but I still love you, idiot.” Katsuki moved your messy hair out of your face, wiping the tears that kept coming down, not minding his own. “I’m not leaving you ever again. And I’m not letting some other extra take away what’s mine.”

“You’re such an asshole.” You laugh at your own teasing, and he does too. “We’ve got to do a thing about our problems, though.”

“About that,” he responded, a little smile forming on his face. “After shitting on myself for months on end, I realized how much of an asshole I was to you. You should never have to compromise your dreams just because of my shitty opinions. Be the hero you want to be, love. I’ll always support you if that meant your happiness.”

In shock at the Bakugou that was in front of you at that moment, you were at a loss for words. You hugged him with all your might. That was the only thing you wanted to do as you realized he finally changed, and was willing to make your relationship work the second time.

“Stop crying, dumbass! You’re going to make me cry, too,” Katsuki teased.

“Idiot, you’ve literally been crying for the past ten minutes. Let it slip for today.”

He chuckled. You rested into his embrace, feeling contentment fill up your heart.

note: hullo humans !! this was very self-indulgent and the result of my 1am brain rot™️ again. anyway,,, i’d like to thank u all for 300 notes on the past two imagines like whUT. u guys,,, i ams o Grateful nd i wanna cry and hug u all individually but i cnanot so pls have a virtual cookie each instead. i love u all