Bakugou's PoV

A little embarrassed I straightened up and noticed that my upper body was naked. Looking around, I saw that Red had carefully spread my cape on the ground to dry. Then I looked frowning at my bare arms and noticed numerous cuts.

"I'm sorry." I heard Red say quietly.

I turned around and stared at him confused. "What are you sorry for?"

Red reached for my wrist and ran gently with his fingers over one of the cuts. "That you were injured."

"Are you fucking serious?" I asked him, frowning. "Have you looked at yourself?"

Kirishima looked down at his upper body in surprise, as if he hadn't actually done so yet. Frowning, he ran one hand over his ribs and pressed lightly on the discolored skin. He hissed in pain.

"Cut it out, idiot." I rebuked him. "Don't tell me you haven't noticed that yet. You may be a dragon, but you're not indestructible."

"You should know that." Kirishima said and gave a tortured smile.

Silently, I looked at him. I don't know why, but his comment hurt me. Yes, I was a dragonslayer and my entire training was to know the weak points of dragons in order to kill them. But this was something else. He was different.

"Why did you do that?" I finally whispered when our silence became unbearable. He looked at me confused. "Why did you save me?" I clarified my question.

"I ...", Red scratched the back of his head in embarrassment, but then stopped because the movement stretched his maltreated skin. He frowned and seemed to think. "I don't know. I know that ... you want to kill me. But I don't think you are a bad person ... on the contrary. I wouldn't have forgiven myself if I hadn't helped you, especially since I was the only one who could. I don't know, does that make sense?"

I know you want to kill me. The sentence echoed in my ears. No, at that moment I wanted nothing less than to hurt him. Already when I had put away the sword before our fight, my instinct had told me that he was different. He was not one of those destructive rabid dragons I knew. Nevertheless, I had listened to Aizawa and fought against him. In his dragon form it was much easier to see a monster in him. I swallowed but didn't know what to say. I was too busy sorting my thoughts.

I felt Red's worried look before he quietly started talking. "I have to move on, but I could drop you off somewhere where you ... well better come back", he became quieter and quieter, apparently he didn't know exactly how to deal with the situation either.

"No." I finally said quietly. "I can't go back. How could I go back and pretend that none of this happened? You saved my life and that even though I tried to kill you, even though you are a dragon and-"

"I'm first and foremost a human being," Red suddenly interrupted me. A harsh undertone had crept into his voice. I fell silent. Kirishima looked at the floor and frowned before quietly continuing. "I know what they say about us half dragons. A dragon's brood like me, born to infiltrate the land from within, must be something abysmally evil. But the truth is that I don't even know the dragons. I grew up among people ... I am first and foremost a human being. I just wish that someone understood that. I am not angry, I only have a second body. I don't know what the dragons have done to you, that you hate me so much."

I couldn't see his face because he held his head down and his long hair blocked my view, but I saw the tears falling into his lap. Without thinking much about it I crawled towards him and reached out one hand to his face. He flinched when I put my hand on his cheek and then looked up carefully.

"I don't hate you," I said quietly, looking deep into his eyes. With my thumb I stroked away a tear that was about to run down his cheek. His big bright red eyes looked hopefully at me and I smiled slightly.

He still had tears in his eyes as he leaned forward and pulled me into a hug and buried his face in my shoulder. I carefully put my arms around him so I wouldn't hurt him and stroked his back.

A mixed feeling of guilt and care came over me. On the one hand I was to blame for the fact that he was so miserable, on the other hand I wanted to do everything I could to make him feel better and maybe even trust me. Because I trusted him strangely. Only a few days ago I couldn't have imagined it.

While I held him in my arms, I thought about my future. As I had already told him, I couldn't go back. How could I make the king and his military understand that Kirishima was a good-hearted man and that I refused to hunt him? Because that is what they would do. They would either force me to hunt him or send another dragonslayer. But the idea that they could hurt him was just terrible.

Unconsciously I hold him a little tighter and Kirishima hissed in pain. Immediately I let him go. "Sorry," I said quickly and looked at him.

Red shook his head laughing and exposed his pointed teeth. When he noticed my gaze, he quickly held his hand in shame in front of his mouth to hide it. But I grabbed his hand and took it aside. "You don't have to hide from me. You can trust me".

Kirishima's PoV

I looked into the earnest face of the dragonslayer. He seemed serious. Did I trust him? My mind resisted it a little. Eventually he had tried to kill me last night, but when I looked into the honest red eyes of my counterpart I couldn't help but nod. "I trust you," I said quietly.

A little smile played around the corner of Bakugou's mouth. Then he frowned and looked a little embarrassed to the side, as if looking for the right words. "Red ... would you mind if we stuck together from now on? We could help each other..."

I grinned and it felt so good to be able to freely show my teeth without being afraid that my counterpart could judge me. "I'd be happy to do that, Bakugou."