My original story has been published! It's called Dawn of the Rose and can be found on Amazon Kindle, or Etsy. Thank all so much for your support. :)

Cold and cruel times can be hard, and seem to stretch on for far too long, but I promise spring comes.

Touching artwork by arneweenn on deviantART.

Beta: emplatinum

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I woke up to the nauseating stench of pork. It made me lurch up in bed, clutching at my stomach and mouth. For a handful of minutes, I didn't move an inch because I felt like if I moved I might've ended up losing my dinner from last night.

The foul odor slowly disappeared from my senses, and I strained my ears trying to listen if anyone was outside moving. Maybe someone had made bacon in the middle of the night?

But no, I didn't hear anything.

'A dream?' I thought, lowering my hand from my mouth. There was still a needle in my gut that prevented me from relaxing, but at the very least I didn't feel like I was going to throw up at any second. I sat in the dark, waiting for the queasiness and unease to pass, my eyes roaming around my room.

It was a... girlish room, I supposed. Lots of pinks, whites, oranges, and reds. All of my furniture—with the exception of some dolls I had made—had been passed down to me from my sisters and aunties. The bed was made by Papa, though, with white wood and pretty flower designs painted on.

Most of my room was taken up by shelf space for my many, many textbooks. All of which were autographed by the author, Nezu, and ranged on a variety of subjects. I may not intend to pursue a career in astronomy, but it was fascinating to read about. It was amazing that Nezu was so well versed in such a multitude of subjects.

There was a book missing from my shelf. It was was related to physics, and Katsuki was currently borrowing it. Katsuki might've seemed like a rough-and-tough kind of person, but he also enjoyed studying a variety of topics. He enjoyed Nezu's texts as much as I did, and would add his own notes to my own (as I had a tendency of sticking notes onto some pages to elaborate, or question something I had found).

I let out a long sigh when the nausea finally passed, but my sense of unease didn't. I turned around in my bed and grabbed the biggest doll I had made. They were plush dolls, made out of black cloth. Some thought they were creepy, but I liked them. I didn't entirely understand why I made them when I was younger, but I knew they were important to me and I found comfort in their presence.

And yes, I knew that I was technically almost an adult and probably shouldn't still be clinging onto stuffed dolls for comfort but—

Oh well.

I continued to sit in the darkness for another ten minutes, but my anxiety didn't let up. Finally giving up on going back to sleep, I got out of bed and put on my slippers. I decided to head out of my room, and I eventually ended up in the kitchen.

'Maybe some comfort food?' I thought, my hands moving on their own as I grabbed ingredients. It felt like I was on autopilot.

Somehow, about an hour later, I ended up with cupcakes.

A lot of cupcakes.

Fifty cupcakes.

I put most of them in some tubberware and wrote a note out to my fellow classmates that it was essentially free cupcakes.

But there were seven left out that didn't fit and I didn't feel like getting out a whole new tubberware just for seven cupcakes.

I could eat seven cupcakes.

'Okay, maybe not by myself,' I allowed. 'Or maybe I just don't want to eat them by myself? Would that be a bit too sad?'

So I put them on a plate, poured two glasses of milk, and put them all on a tray.

Then I thought about who to go wake up to eat cupcakes.

My initial reaction would be Shōto, but I woke him up last time so I'd feel bad for doing it again. Then I thought about Izuku, but he was crazy tired when he went to bed last night... Ochaco was acting odd last night so I wanted to give her rest, too...

Which left Katsuki.

That made me hesitate for a second before I teleported into his bedroom.

My dear friend was snoring, completely sprawled out in his bed. His dorm room looked exactly like his bedroom had: Neat, filled with video games and All Might stuff, and like it belonged to a very studious student who enjoyed books over brawls.

I loudly cleared my throat.

Katsuki gave a snort, blearily opening his eyes and staring at me for a solid minute before he woke up enough to realize what was going on. "What the fu... What the fuck are you doing here, Bubblegum?"

I held up the cupcakes, smiling tentatively. "Cupcakes?"

Katsuki wiped his face, groaning. "Go bother someone else."

"Please?"

Something in my tone bugged Katsuki, because he sat up next and turned on his nightstand light. He glared at me for a few minutes, and I nervously shifted my posture around. He finally asked, "What happened?"

The knot inside my gut twisted, and I lowered my gaze. "I guess, maybe a bad dream? I—I woke up smelling... smelling pork."

There was a moment of silence, and then Katsuki reached across and grabbed a chocolate cupcake. He unpeeled the wrapper and took a bite out of it. "At least you can bake."

Relief settled over me, for some reason. I felt like the tightness inside of me loosened up just a tiny bit. I smiled at Katsuki, my lips turning up on their own, and I took a seat beside him. I kept the tray on my lap, and Katsuki grabbed his glass of milk, taking a big swig out of it.

"You wanna spar when we're done? I'm in the mood to kick some ass," Katsuki muttered off handedly. "Since you rudely woke me up, it's the least you can do."

"O-Oh, yes. That sounds nice," I said, beaming. We each ate three cupcakes, and split the last one. We didn't talk while we ate, but that was fine. Just having someone sit beside me felt like enough.

When we were done eating, I asked if he wanted to change and he shook his head, taking my hand instead. Out of reflex I teleported both of us back to our usual sparring grounds.

Katsuki glanced around the grassy fields, his expression unreadable. He grunted, "No Quirks, palms open. I don't want to be hearing about your whining because I broke your stupid nose again."

That got a strained giggle out of me, the sound coming out oddly. "Okay."

I kicked off my slippers and started stretching, Katsuki mimicking my movements.

Then we began our spar.

It was a familiar routine. While our styles had changed over the years, and we fought much differently than we had in the beginning, it still felt comfortable, and relaxing. We didn't talk while we fought. Each round was over when the other was pinned, and then we started back up like nothing happened.

Time slipped away from us. Hours had likely passed—it was probably nearing five in the morning—until we were both trembling from exhaustion. We were covered in sweat, mud, and grass, but that was fine.

For that one moment where we looked up at each other, out of breath but content, everything was fine.

I almost, almost, forgot that I didn't have a Baba and Papa to return home to.

I almost, almost, forgot what the stench of burning flesh smelled like.

I almost, almost, forgot I was supposed to be grieving.

"You've," I gasped out, "gotten—better—much."

Katsuki was bent over his knees, wheezing. "I—know."

"Do—you—want—to." I took some gulping breaths of air and evened out my breathing before continuing. "Do you want—to learn how—to use weapons?"

Katsuki slowly straightened up. "Weapons would—probably get in my—way."

"What if you can't—use your Quirk?" I asked him. "What if you reach your—limit?"

"That won't—" Katsuki abruptly cut himself off, his face pinched like he bit into a lemon. "What do you—what do you think I should use?"

"Staves are good. Multifunctional," I said slowly, considering what weapon would be good for Katsuki. I wasn't even certain why I suggested it in the first place. Katsuki was going to be an amazing hero, I doubted he would ever feel like he needed to use a weapon.

'So why did he agree? Does he think he'll reach a limit?'

'Did he already reach a limit?'

"You're smart," I went on, still thinking, "so you could probably use poison. Ah, not the deadly kind, but the kind that can put people to sleep or paralyze them. Maybe just give them really bad rashes."

Katsuki's face screwed up in plain distaste. "No."

"Blades aren't normally good for heroes, but you could probably learn to use them safely," I said. "You'd have to learn how to perform field sutures, though, in case you made a mistake."

"Pass."

"What if you built in some projectiles?" I asked. "Like stuff in your shoes, and grenade thing? Things that don't require you to use your Quirk, but won't take much energy, either. You could launch smoke screens, or small arrows, or... You know, stuff like that."

"That's not really a weapon," Katsuki pointed out, his eyes narrowed.

"Well, what would you want to learn?" I asked him.

'What happened?'

Then it clicked.

Katsuki was kidnapped.

Well, we both were kidnapped. The whole ordeal was a fog in my memories, and everyone made it out okay, so I didn't dwell on it.

But maybe Katsuki did?

"Is that why you've got a staff now?" Katsuki asked, his voice gruff. He was watching my reaction with narrowed eyes.

"In part," I admitted. "It was more Shishō's idea than my own."

"You—you didn't need a weapon that night," Katsuki pointed out quietly. "You got out—you got out of your bindings with goddamn third degree burns."

I blinked, then flushed. "I also passed out right afterwards. You carried me to safety."

That made Katsuki snort harshly, his face twisted in scorn. He didn't say anything, though, but I felt... something stir inside of him. There was a dark thorn inside of my friend that was twisting around, cutting into him.

'What's wrong?' I wanted to ask. I wanted to reach out and pull him into a hug like I would with Shōto, Izuku, or Ochaco, but I didn't dare.

"Katsuki-kun," I said gently, tenderly. He jerked back when I used his proper name instead of a nickname. "Katsuki-kun, if you weren't there with me, I would have died. I couldn't have gotten away on my own. I don't remember a lot about that night, but I know this with absolute certainty. If you weren't there, I would be dead."

I took a deep breath and then bowed sharply towards him. "Thank you, Katsuki-kun. Thank you for saving my life. I should have said so earlier, and I'm sorry for my lateness, but I hope you can still accept my thanks now."

"... Idiot."

I straightened up, smiling at him. There was something still off about my dear friend, but it didn't seem quite so dark. He shoved his hands in his sweatpants pockets, and looked up at the morning sky. "How'd you get out?"

"Oh, um." I blushed, and mumbled, "I dislocated my wrists and ankles, then put them back into place."

Katsuki gave me a hard look of disdain. "I knew you had a high pain tolerance, but that's—that's insane."

"I can show you how," I offered him.

"Who taught you?"

"No one," I answered. "Just something I know how to do."

Katsuki scratched his cheek. "... Okay."

"Do you wanna know how to do sutures?" I asked. "Emergency first aid and stuff?"

"You know?"

"Farm girl," I said, pointing at myself. "Can also show you how to pull a baby horse outta—"

"I'll learn first aid," Katsuki cut in sharply before I could finish. I let out a very unladylike giggle at that. "... Bubblegum?"

"Yes, Bocchan?"

"You think about that night? When we were with the villains?" Katsuki asked, his voice barely above a whisper. "You ever... think about it?"

"Not... Not so much anymore," I confessed quietly. "But you... do?"

Katsuki turned away from me. "We should head back. It's almost time to get up, anyway."

His deamour abruptly changed. Whatever was bothering him had to be related to that night, and it wasn't something he wanted to talk about.

I knew better than to force people to talk about unpleasant things, but—

I stepped toward Katsuki and wrapped my arms around him. I buried my nose into his back, and gave him a tight squeeze. "Bocchan, you know I love you like a brother, yeah?"

He seized up, stiff and frozen like a porcupine covered in ice. His shock delayed his reaction, which allowed me to further add, "And I'm here. For whatever, whenever. I'll always be here, Bocchan, cheering you on."

Katsuki finally gathered his senses and harshly shoved me away from him. Red-faced, he turned back around and angrily snarled, "Who the fuck said I wanted that? Don't fucking do that again, you stupid Bubblegum pop princess!"

I smiled back brightly in return, holding out my hand. "I make no promises. You're my precious friend, after all."

Still flushing, Katsuki scoffed and roughly grabbed my hand. I teleported us back to his room, giving his hand one more firm squeeze before heading back to my room.

I cleaned up for the day, running on barely five hours of sleep. A quick shower took care of the dirt and sweat. My long hair tangled too easily, though, and it took a solid half an hour of rigorous combing to get rid of the knots.

Unfortunately for me my friend had landed more than his fair share of hits, and I could feel the bruises starting to form. Neither of us went for vital, or overly sensitive areas—like faces, or joints—but my arms were sore from blocking. Deciding to play it safe, I wrapped a couple of cold compresses around the more tender areas, and wore a long-sleeved turtle neck for the day.

Since it took me admittedly longer than usual to get ready, I actually didn't make it on time for breakfast and had to head straight to class. I teleported directly to my seat, ignoring the glances thrown my way at my oddly late timing.

Taking my seat, I saw there was a blueberry muffin on my desk. Before I could ask who placed it there—and thank them—Aizawa entered the classroom and signaled for us to begin classwork.

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After class that day, 1A headed back to the dorms. I walked with my friends, wincing when I put too much pressure on some of my forming bruises.

"You seem a little sore, Kiyo-chan," Ochaco observed. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I reassured her. "Just had an impromptu sparring match with Bocchan last night."

"Why?" Shōto inquired, frowning.

"No real reason," came my response with a shrug. Then I yawned. "Oh jeepers. I guess I should go to bed early tonight."

"What time did you spar with Kacchan?" Izuku asked, also frowning as he peered at me.

"Oh... um... you know... maybe... around four in the morning?"

My friends exchanged glances.

"Kiyo-chan, if you're having trouble sleeping—" Shōto began, but I cut him off by placing my hand over his mouth.

With a small smile, I said, "I'll be okay. I promise."

"Still," Izuku said uneasily, his brow furrowed. "Maybe you should stay with someone tonight?"

"You can sleep in my room, Kiyo-chan," Ochaco offered. "We can watch some movies before bed on my laptop."

I had to admit it was awfully tempting to cuddle someone and watch movies, but—

I knew if I had another nightmare, I'd end up making them stay up with me. I wanted to try to get through at least one night on my own. Just... one night.

Chewing on my bottom lip, I carefully said, "I want to try to sleep on my own tonight. If... if I can't, then I promise I'll stay with one of you guys the next night, okay?"

"Don't force yourself," Shōto replied softly. "You're not alone."

"I know. I know. I just—I want to do this. I think I can do this."

Ochaco abruptly stopped walking, and threw her arms around my neck. She pulled me close and gave me a tight squeeze. "Okay, Kiyo-chan. We're here for you, whatever you need."

Izuku rubbed my back while Ochaco and I hugged. Shōto contributed to the affection session with an awkward pat on the head, which made me giggle.

"Thank you," I said sweetly. "Really. Thank you all so much."

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As soon as we returned to the dorms, I grabbed an abundance of snack food and headed off to my room.

I changed into a very comfortable white and pink cat onesie, crawled into my bed, and proceeded to watch the happiest, fluffiest, sweetest shows I knew on my laptop. I started with the remake of Fruits Basket, then moved on to Yumeiro Patissiere.

Which unfortunately just made me outrageously hungry and I had already ravaged my snack food.

So around ten at night, I hopped out of my bed and snuck into the kitchen to make some dinners.

At first I was only going to make dinner for myself, but for reason I thought that tonight I ought to make five. I set to work, first washing several cups of rice before dumping them in the rice cooker.

I took half a kilogram of ground beef out of the fridge and began to cook it over the stovetop. While that was going, I mixed together a cup (138 g) of brown sugar, a cup (138 g) of soy sauce, a few tablespoons (30 g) of sesame oil, a pinch of paprika, black pepper, and some ginger. After the meat finished cooking, I dumped the sauce into it the skillet and let it simmer for a few minutes while I made the side dishes.

Since I was always a big fan of rolled eggs, I made a couple of those.

I dumped the rice in a bowl, poured the saucy beef over it, and placed some slices of eggs on top. Perhaps not the fanciest of dinners, but it was pretty dang delicious. I had to quadruple the recipe to make enough for five meals, but they all turned out pretty dang great.

'Now why did I make this many?' I wondered. 'Maybe I ought to wrap them up for whoever grabs them in the morning as first come first serve?'

As I pondered what to do, approaching footsteps caught my attention. Since you had to go through the kitchen / eating area to get to the elevators that would take you back to the dorm rooms, anyone coming in from the front had to come through here.

But it was well past curfew, so nobody should have been coming from that direction.

Curious, I peeked around the corner and let out a squeak of surprise.

Aizawa, Izuku, Katsuki, and Cinnamon Roll were coming down the hallway. Both of the teachers looked like they had been dressed to head to bed for the night, whereas both students looked like they had been through one hell of a sparring match.

"U-Um," I squeaked out.

Aizawa immediately glared darkly at me. "What are you doing out of bed?"

I let out an eep at his glower. "I got hungry! I-I was up, and I, um, I made dinners? I, um, made a lot of extras if you'd all like some."

Katsuki didn't pause, though, and he brushed past me. I watched him leave, my brow furrowed with concern when I saw even more bruises on him.

"Thanks, Kiyo-chan," Izuku said, accepting the meal. "I'm going to get cleaned up then eat this."

"Do you need any help?" I asked him, noticing his injuries seemed just as bad as Katsuki's.

My friend smiled brightly at me, though. "Nah. I can take care of this."

"Oh, okay," I said, watching Izuku leave next. I turned back to Aizawa and Cinnamon Roll—er—All Might and offered them the other two bowls.

"Thank you, Kiyo-chan," Cinnamon Roll said with a smile. "It's been a while since I got to enjoy your cooking."

"Thanks," Aizawa grunted. "Now go to bed."

"Yes, sir," I said, teleporting back to my room to grab a first aid kit, then to the kitchen to grab a water bottle, and finally straight to Katsuki instead of my bed.

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I sat on Katsuki's bed, handing him a bowl of food and water. I didn't know what the blow up was between Izuku and Katsuki, but I had feeling it was about that night. The night we were kidnapped.

Katsuki reluctantly accepted the food, and I used the opportunity to begin doctoring him up.

It went to show how tired he was, that he didn't swat me away or protest. I cleaned up the scrapes, smudging antibiotic ointment on them before bandaging them up. I noticed some knots, and bruises forming, so I placed some cold wraps on them to keep the swelling down.

Nothing required stitches, or to be set.

By the time I was done with that, Katsuki was almost done with his food and I quickly teleported back to my room to grab a basket and then headed back.

I placed the basket in Katsuki's lap, and he stared down at it dully. "What's this?"

"Stuff to practice sutures," I said. "Since you'll be under house arrest, I thought now would be a good time for you to get some experience. Gotta learn how to use a needle and thread first before you can do it on flesh. I provided the supplies, and a couple books that will show you how to sew step by step."

Katsuki rummaged through the wicker basket, pulling out the needlework and cross-stitching supplies.

"Once you get the hang of that then you move on to fruit, and then we'll buy some pig meat," I went on. "Setting bones is a bit trickier to practice on, but, um... There's also a textbook in there about trauma care."

Katsuki pulled out the textbook next, glancing it over and muttering quietly, "Thanks."

I hesitated for a split second before I gave him a quick, tight hug. I pulled away before he could shove me off him, though.

"You... okay?" I asked him. "You seem better, but are you okay?"

"I'm—" Katsuki sighed through his nose, closing his eyes. "I'm fine."

I tilted my head at that, not entirely believing him. "There was once a boy who said he was fine. He said he was fine, even as he watched people in black bury each member of his family. He said he was fine as he lost the ability to walk, and he said he was fine, as he lost the ability to see. He said he was fine to his doctors, and he said he was fine to his friends, and he said the word fine so much that it lost its meaning entirely. The boy thought if he said it enough, it would be true, but that simply didn't happen. He wasn't anywhere close to fine. He was breaking inside, as bits and pieces of him fell into despair. He was helpless to his pain, but unable to voice anything other than the words: I'm fine."

I patted Katsuki's knee. "It's okay to not be okay. I won't force you to tell me what's going on, but you should know that you and I both know you're not fine."

Katsuki clutched tightly at the textbook, refusing to meet my gaze. He was tired, physically and emotionally spent. Whatever he and Izuku fought about had completely drained him, and it looked like there was a boulder pressing down his back and shoulders. The sharp thorns and needles inside of him weren't so sharp and cutting anymore, but they still left wounds.

They might have even left scars.

I gently took the textbook out of his hand, and I placed the basket on his nightstand. I patted his bed and said, "Why don't you lay down? I'll tuck you in."

"I'm not a fucking toddler."

"Don't be a brat," I scolded him lightly, pulling back the covers. "You're tired. You need rest now."

Katsuki scoffed, but there was no energy put into it. He crawled under the blankets, and I pulled them over him. I switched off the nightstand light, and I pulled up the chair from his desk.

I sat beside his bed and I said, "For tonight, I'll make sure you sleep well. Whatever is bothering you, I'll keep it away from your dreams. I promise."

"I'm not a kid," Katsuki mumbled, his voice raspy. His eyes drifted closed, and exhaustion finally hit my dear friend. He was asleep within minutes.

And I stayed by his side for the rest of the night, keeping my promise.

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Thejunestone on deviantART ( wattpearl on wattpad) drew some very sweet fanart of Kiyomi and Shōto dancing from the movie! I hope to be able to grab a copy of the movie soon in order to do a chapter of it.

Arneewenn and KaidaStorm drew some very cute fanart of Kiyomi in her new outfit on deviantART!

I hope ya'll will check out all of their fanart.

Chapter 17 is almost done. I hope to be able to post it next week as an apology for this one being so late.

Answer: I am grateful for my imagination, inspiration, family, work, and life.

Question: Who, or what, keeps your bad dreams away?

Reviews are love!