Koto's POV

I don't know how long we sit there. How long I pump the lifeblood through Bakugo's broken body.

How long until help comes.

How long until the surgeons finish patching him up.

All I know is the steady thrum, keeping his heart beating.

And beating.

And beating.

Voices speak around me, but I no longer hear them. Blood drips from my nose, but I no longer feel that. Nor do I feel the tears crusting my eyes as I keep them firmly closed.

A tube runs into my mouth. I occasionally eat.

My hand feels as though it has fused with Bakugo's. I keep his heart beating in my sleep.

As Recovery Girl comes in for another healing session, I feel her small hand at my back.

"You can't continue this much longer," she says gently.

But it's the only way to keep him alive while your quirk saps his stamina.

She seems to read whatever expression is on my face. "His body is at a point where it will heal if he is able," she explains. "He cannot go past this point without his own heartbeat to sustain him." The old woman rubs slow circles on my back. "And your body cannot take much more of this either."

My lips scrunch into a pout of defiance, but I know it's true. Every heartbeat pounds into me like a heavy hammer. My own blood feels sluggish as it flows through me.

"You have to let him take over, my dear."

I squeeze Bakugo's hand firmly. There hasn't been a squeeze back. Not for days. Weeks. I have no clue how long I've been here. I press his knuckles to my lips, mouth forming the words my quirk prevents me from saying.

Come back, Ducky. Please.

With those words, I let my power retreat from where it has been curled protectively around his heart. The muscle beats once. Twice. My quirk senses true rest is at hand and rushes back into myself.

Quiet. That's all I hear for the first time in a while. The monitor beeps, and the lights above hum, but I no longer feel the sound intimately. It's just some distant sense that has been disconnected from the others. I suppose this is what everyone else feels.

My eyelids strain but eventually flutter open. Recovery Girl is at my side, looking at the ongoing heart monitor with distinct pride on her wrinkled features.

"You bought him time, my dear," the hero assures me. "And now, it's time to rest."

She leans over before I can protest and plants a kiss on my forehead. Darkness immediately embraces me.

•°•°•°•

Ba bum

Ba bum

Ba bum

The sound follows me even in sleep. I've gotten too used to it. It carries on as the only beat to lead me. My footsteps follow it forward.

My eyes gaze up at the twilight sky, the cliff I stand on looking out over a city of ash. As I watch, the wind blows it away.

I hold my hands out to catch the wind, and it pulls me away from the edge. I turn on my bare feet, grass being tamped down below me. I continue to turn. And turn and turn.

My foot catches on a root, and I pause. My eyes lock onto Bakugo's form, sitting at the edge of the tree. His red eyes look up at me, and I smile. He's okay.

He rises, taking my hand as if he was never hurt. I turn in his grasp, and he leads me through the forest. We dance to the beat of his heart.

Ba bum

Ba bum

Ba bum

I again approach the cliffside. The wind gusts and pulls me away. With all my trust in the boy holding me, I lean over the gap. His warm hands hold me steady.

We stand so high the clouds pass below us. In the refracting light, I see us walking in the rain that day under the umbrella, I see us on I-Island, I see us at UA...

I see myself leaving his shirt outside his door with only a note...

The hands on me turn frigid. Bakugo drifts away on a breeze that turns him to snow. Snow in a winter forest. Along a road. A frozen over creek.

The steady presence no longer holds me, and I tumble over the edge of the cliff, breaking through the cloud like shattering glass. The images turn to a kaleidoscope around me, and the hero with the rainbow angel wings blows the shards away.

I land in my bed back home. Mic's home–my home. My eyes feel heavy, but a presence hovers over me, warm and inviting. It tells me to hang on. To open my eyes.

"Koto," it says, the voices of many mingled together. Young and old, male and female. "Is it worth it? Did you make every sacrifice worth it?"

My eyes make out the glowing figures at the end of the bed, and my eyelids flutter completely open. My great-great-grandmother, Evie, reaches out her hand from where she leans over my bed. Behind her is her son, his daughter, my parents...

My breath catches in my throat. I have so much to tell them.

Evie's hand remains extended. A legacy comes full circle. Sacrifice to save others. To be a hero without a second thought.

I slip my hand into hers, and her slender fingers are warm around mine.

•°•°•°•

A door slams, and I'm shaken awake. My arm tingles from where it has been propping me up in the chair I slept in. I haul myself up, and a tear falls from my cheek, splattering on the tile floor beneath me.

I roll out the crick in my neck and look to see Bakugo slumbering, his heart monitor still going steady. His mother's purse rests in the corner, but his parents are nowhere to be seen. They must be going to the cafeteria. Maybe that's what woke me up.

How long since I saw this light? I ponder, glancing out the window, up at the LEDs above us. How long since I spoke?

I rub at my neck, clearing my throat. I was going to speak to my family. I was going to tell them my story.

I flex my fingers, the warm feeling still there. I blink down at them, the sensation of having Evie's hand in mine not completely gone.

They know, the thought enters my mind. They know everything you want to tell them.

My arm is run through with a wave of cold. Like Evie's gentle touch was finally removed, leaving my hand cold and empty. I close my eyes once more and mutter a quiet thank you to them.

When I open my eyes, the room around me feels emptier than before. My heart pulls me forward. I scoop up the bag that someone had left at my side and head to the bathroom to don civilian clothes.

Returning, I notice Mic's receiver on the bedside table. I lunge for it and press the button. Within only a few moments, it vibrates in response. I hold it close to my chest, knowing I still have family here that is counting on me. I will make every moment of this life worth it for him too.

I take one last look at Bakugo as he sleeps. His hair is clean of all the blood and tangles that were in it when I rescued him. My hand twitches towards him, as if it's about to run itself through the ashen locks. But it remains at my side.

I shouldn't.

I slip out the door. Heading home.

•°•°•°•

Uncle Mic is at the gates of UA when I return. He sprints down the hill to reach me, sobbing into my shoulder when he finally embraces me. I return the hug just as fiercely.

He pulls back to examine me, his green eyes flicking over my face. "I, um," he starts, his voice thick with tears. "There's something you should know."

He pauses, and I take a moment to look over him fully. His hair isn't slicked up, instead pulled back into a pristine bun. His normal leather costume has been swapped for a black button down and slacks.

Slacks?

His outfit looks like...like someone died.

Of course someone must have died, I mentally berate myself, looking at my uncle with a deep understanding. How many of his friends fought in this war? How many didn't come back?

I fight past the lump in my throat. "Who?" I manage.

•°•°•°•

The gentle breeze whips through my black gauzy dress. Midnight bought this for me ages ago, and I was too rude to wear it. Now, she'll never see it.

Nemuri Kayama, the stone reads. Brave hero, beloved friend.

Mic pulls away from me, leaving me to stare at the ground that is not so fresh anymore. The sod they had placed over the grave has become one with the grass around it. I crouch down to plant my hand on the earth–the closest I can get to her.

"Midnight," I whisper, then quickly correct, "Nemuri." Tears, hot and thick, flow over my cheeks. "I'm sorry that I treated you so horribly."

The words feel like a knife twisting into my heart. I had treated Bakugo horribly, but had saved him in the end. There was nobody to save Midnight when it really counted. The heroes had taken down the League of Villains, and Eri had reverted Shigaraki's power into nonexistence, but what did it matter to the heroes who were crushed like ants in the process?

"I know that all you wanted was to be there for me," I continue. "And I'm sorry I lashed out because of my own problems. I'm so so sorry. I wish I could tell you–"

A sob halts me, and I curl into myself, my hand grasping at the short grass, ripping and tearing. A warm hand returns to my back. Mic's gentle touch reminds me to release the grass, to not desecrate her grave. Shame pours into me, fresh and new. The only thing I've felt since he told me.

Midnight...gone...

I never tried with her. Not once. My grief had made me reject her for simply trying. And now the grief from her passing...

It's just too much to comprehend. My mind retreats into that dark space in my mind. Too overwhelmed with everything, it sits back and watches my auburn curls drift past my eyes. It watches as we turn away and return to UA.

•°•°•°•

"There's this really good program here to help new heroes build their own agencies," Jupiter explains to me. I nod absently.

Over the past few days, I have been calling all my friends, checking in on them. Maybe distracting myself from my own regret. I don't know, but their stories give me something else to think about.

"Annie and I have been talking," he continues, and that gets me to focus fully on him. He chuckles. "Knew that would get your attention."

The boy throws a wink my way, and I roll my eyes, asking with the first spark of interest I've felt in a while, "And? What's going on?"

"We're talking about creating an agency...together."

I can only blink in response. He waits for the information to settle in, nodding as emotions pass over my face.

"Annie?" is all I can say.

"Honestly, she's gotten a little better since you had that talk with her," he explains. "Then we went to see you and your friends. Plus there was that whole story on the news with you and...nevermind, you know the story. Anyways, something in her is trying to be better. I can see it. And she's definitely chilled out around Kati, which is good because...we started dating!"

"You and Kati?" I ask in shock. "I can't believe she wouldn't tell me the moment it happened! When was this?"

He sends me a cheeky smile with a blush trailing over his cheeks. "About three weeks ago."

"And nobody thought to tell me?"

"Well..." he rubs the back of his neck and continues, "admittedly, we didn't want it to ruin our friendship or make things weird between everyone if it didn't work out. But, it has been. Working out, I mean."

I blink at my friend as he fumbles for his words, looking away shyly. "I don't know. I just haven't felt this way before. Like there's ever been such a right decision in front of me, you know? I mean, I care about her a ton, and over time, it just grew into more. I can really trust her with myself."

The tenderness of his tone warms my heart. I smile at him and say, "Well, I'm really happy for you guys. That's great!"

His lips tug up into a big smile. "Speaking of, we're about to catch a movie tonight. Is it chill if we call you back after? Then you can grill her over a call rather than text."

"Oh, you know I will," I retort, laughing with him. "But yeah, go and have fun. Let her know just how happy I am for you guys! I'll talk to you soon!"

"Later!"

"Bye!"

The silence once again fills my room. It's been a while, but still the quiet bothers me. It fills me with that same empty feeling, like I'm watching from outside my body. I lug myself off my bed and head to the common room.

My classmates are watching an interview with heroes, so I nestle myself next to Eijiro on the couch and join them. The hero with the lavender hair–"New Hero on the Scene: Arcenciel"–who saved us from Glitter's attack is speaking about teamwork that triumphed over evil.

Despite it being mildly interesting, I can't bring myself to focus on it. If I'm being honest with myself, I just came downstairs because I wanted the background noise. My mind, the traitor, keeps going back to Bakugo.

I still shudder to think about the state I left him in. I know that Recovery Girl has a point: at some point, he does have to heal himself. And I know I should trust her that now is the right time, but every day since has been filled with worry.

Out the window, a flowering bush loses petals in the wind. They are pulled away into the breeze before they can even touch the mulch.

We walked into that war in not the best place of our entire friendship. What if we never reconciled and he...

No, no, I can't think that way.

I will not let one more person be taken when I haven't made things right with them.

It's out of your control now, a small voice whispers in my ear.

And that's why I should have stayed, I tell it. Should have made sure.

The front door groans open, and my eye is drawn to the noise. A gasp fills the room. I don't know if it's from my class or just me.

Bakugo walks through the door, escorted by our homeroom teacher. The rest of my friends rush to their feet, but I push my way through.

I don't care about who I am moving aside or how many tears fall from my face as I engulf the boy in a hug. Distantly, I hear Aizawa berate me, maybe for not being gentle, but all thoughts of caution are eddied away as I feel the brush of his arms closing around me.

Tears fall thick and hot onto Bakugo's shoulder, even as I smile at his return. I pull back to examine him, and the rest of our class takes the opportunity to greet him. He seems reluctant to let me go, his hold lingering even as I step away.

Eijiro approaches to give our friend a huge hug, followed by Mina and the rest of the Bakusquad. Despite the impatient scowl, Bakugo doesn't push any of them away.

"Okay, alright!" the boy growls instead. "Don't tell me you thought old Crusty could actually put me down."

"Never," Ei assures him, grinning wide.

Sero grabs his shoulder and leads him past me into the living area. The rest of the class flocks behind them. "You just got here in time for lunch!"

I take a moment to stand back and watch as Bakugo's return serves as a source of joy for the entire class. I can't help the ache in my cheeks as I look on.

The boy turns, and I just barely see the ruby hue of his eyes flick over to where I am. I can't wait another moment. I approach and join my friends of Class 2-A.

------Author's Note------

Hello everyone!

First, I want to say a really big thank you to everyone who has followed Koto's story to this point. You rock! You allowed me to continue writing my passion project and connected with it in a way I was very grateful to see.

This may be the final chapter, but there are more parts coming in the next few days (and maybe some more in the future) so be sure to keep an eye out for that. Additionally, I have a new book, Jaded, with a new cast of characters that is soon to be updated. If you're interested, go ahead and add it to your library. Be sure to drop a follow so you're alerted with any new updates!

But in other news, I have really been working on my art all this time, and I'm super excited to share my new Koto reference picture with you all! It feels special that after all this time, I can make some fanart for myself <3

It's bittersweet that all of this is coming to an end, but I feel so grateful that I have wonderful readers like you to share this with. I truly can't say it enough, but thank you, thank you, thank you!

Stay tuned for bonus chapters! And don't forget to vote and comment if you enjoyed!