Ch. 48 Ring Size

<flashback to about two years ago>

"I'm not coming out, and I'm not talking to anyone. I'm going to live under these blankets for the rest of my life."

"Solid plan," Hawks said, standing in the doorway to your dark bedroom. All of the lights were off, and he assumed you were buried under all of those sheets and blankets on the bed somewhere. "Want to talk about it?" he asked.

"No. I'm not talking to anyone ever again."

Coming into your room, Hawks carefully maneuvered around your furniture in the dark. Sitting down on your bed, he put one hand on what he thought looked like your back and began rubbing gently.

You were mad, sad, angry, sick to your stomach with how fucking disgusting people were in general after the interrogation you'd done today, but if you focused on the feeling of Hawks's hand on your back, on the gentle rhythm of his hand moving up and down, you could ignore and forget some of that. Not all, but some.

"You weren't supposed to work today," he said.

"Yeah, well, I guess when they have a psycho on their hands the police make exceptions."

"No one called me."

You pulled the blankets off your head for just a second. "I used to work all the time without you, you know. And that asshole officer said I'd be fine with just him there," you said.

"And are you fine?"

"Fuck no!"

With a smirk, Hawks tapped the tip of your nose. "I thought you weren't talking to anyone."

"I'm not," you said pulling the blankets back over your head. "Go away."

With a sigh he laid down on your bed next to you. "All right. Then I guess you don't want the present I brought you."

"Present?" you mumbled meekly from underneath the blankets.

"I was going to give you a present, but if you're never speaking to me again, I could always take it back..."

"Don't you dare," you said, immediately sitting up and knocking the blankets off you. "Why did you get me a present?"

Hawks leaned over and turned on your lamp, the soft light just enough in your dark bedroom so that the two of you could see each other. "You're not just going to read my mind to find out?"

"Truthfully, after the sick shit I saw today, I would sort of like to give my brain a rest."

Hawks reached out and took your hands in his.

"Before I give you your present," he said, "I want you to know that I'm sorry you had a bad day. I'm sorry people are awful. I'm sorry that you always see the worst in humanity."

"Thanks. Some days it's awful," you admitted, "but I have to remind myself that even though these are the only people I see, I'm interrogating a very small percentage of the population."

"I don't know how you do it. All of these people give me the creeps."

"Same, honestly. It took everything in me to even say out loud to the police what this guy had done. But I tell myself that I'm helping families and victims. That's the only way I can make it through. You help, too, you know. Having you here makes the day go by so much faster."

"I won't always be here."

"Stop saying that."

"It's the truth, y/n. You know that my transfer is coming up. This job was never supposed to be permanent for me."

"Lucky you. Moving to the big city, fancy secretive hero missions. I'm proud of you, but I'll admit that I'm a little jealous. Sure you can't stay?"

It had crossed his mind more and more lately. You were two people who had never really had anyone, and now you had each other. It felt unfair that now that you had finally found each other, it all had to end. A selfish part of him hoped that gift would be enough to keep him in your thoughts, and maybe one day... No, he couldn't think about the future. There was no point.

"You told me that no one remembered your birthday."

"That was months ago, before you were even here. It's not a big deal."

"It is a big deal."

"No, it's not. These people... the police, the commission... they're not my family. They probably don't even know my birthday. Now my parents on the other hand, they didn't call or anything, so they suck."

"Relatable," he nodded.

"But it's okay."

"It's not."

Hawks reached in his pocket and took out a small box and you put out your hand to stop him.

"If that's a promise ring or some other cringey bullshit, you can take that right on back to the store."

He only chuckled. "You think I don't know you better than that?"

"I'm the mind-reader here. As a matter of fact, that's exactly how I know that you are just cheesy enough to do something like that."

"Just open it."

He held the box out to you again, and this time you took it, opening it slowly, cautiously.

Your first thought was that it was pretty, but when the light of the lamp hit the red and gold metal of the bracelet, you saw how truly beautiful it was.

"It took forever to find the right combination of metals, but I think it turned out okay." He looked at you hopefully. "Do you think so? Is it okay?"

"It's... gorgeous." You slipped it on and held up your arm to look at it. "I love it."

"I thought about waiting until it was time for me to transfer to give you this..."

"Can we please not talk about that?"

"But then you told me about your birthday and then today they called me saying you were...."

"Like this?"

"Like this," he admitted. "I decided that it was as good a time as any to give it to you."

"I'm glad you did. Thank you."

"Will you quit all this now?" he asked, gesturing to the blankets you'd cocooned yourself under. 

"No."

"Why – " but you interrupted him by grabbing the blankets and throwing them over both of you and pulling him into the mess of sheets with you.

"This isn't so bad," he smiled. With the lamp on, you could sort of see each other's faces under the covers. Your breaths and bodies made it hot, but his wings held up the blankets enough to give you space and air. He scooted closer and put his arms around you to bring you to him. "Did I hear you right when you said you wanted to turn your brain off for awhile?"

"I may have said that," you smiled back, your fingers touching his face, his ear. "Why, did you have something in mind?"

"Well... I think I've been a good, haven't I? Getting you a present."

Pushing him back and rolling over on top of him, you wrapped his hair in your fingers and tugged gently. "You definitely have been. So you think you deserve a reward?"

You brought your face down to his, your lips grazing his but not quite kissing. You smirked as you felt his face push up towards yours, but you backed up, denying his lips. "You know the rules. Ask for what you want, Keigo."

"You. I want you."

"And?" you raised an eyebrow expectantly. "You know what to say."

"Please?"

"Good boy."

--------

<back to the present>

Watching the clock count down five minutes, your hand went to your bracelet and started fidgeting with it, twirling it around on your wrist. The familiar weight of the bracelet helped distract you from the new feeling of the engagement ring on your finger.

Finally it was time.

"Hey, I'm taking out the trash," you told the other bartender working with you tonight.

"In the middle of a rush?"

"Sorry," you said, emptying the trash can near you.

"Just because you're engaged now to a celebrity doesn't mean you get to do what you want."

"You can shut up whenever you want, you know."

"Whatever," he said. "I'm taking an extra long smoke break later then."

Dragging the trash bags into the back, you looked around for Shoto, but didn't see him. The bar really was crowded, so he was probably in there somewhere. He'd told you that he saw one of his sidekicks and went off to talk to them, but that had been awhile ago.

Once outside, you threw the trash into the dumpster and wandered around, hoping he had gotten the text, hoping he'd been here all along anyway.

There he was. The shadows hid him well, and you noticed he was wearing the new shirt you'd ordered for his costume made out of the special tech fabric. 

You walked straight for Bakugo, and the fire burning in your eyes made even him back up a little.

"So glad you're here. I need you to blast my finger off," you said, holding up your finger with the ring on it.

"Gladly," he smirked, little sparks already forming in his hand.

"Wait wait wait, I didn't really mean that!"

"Oh."

"But seriously I can't get it off."

"Then maybe you shouldn't have put it on."

"You think? No way. Because I totally thought it was an absolutely great idea to get engaged to that stupid peppermint prince - "

"Whoa," Bakugo said, nodding in approval. "That's a good one."

"Thanks. Can you help me get it off or not?"

Bakugo took your hand and examined the ring, in his mind thinking of any and all flaws he could find. Unfortunately there weren't any, although it seemed to him that the design itself was too gaudy, too over the top, for you.

"Nice ring," he muttered.

"Yeah, I guess, but the diamond is too big, and overall, it's just too –"

"Busy."

"Yeah." That had been exactly what you were about to say, but you knew your quirk wasn't working.

You couldn't help but notice his expression change as he stared at the ring. You thought he would be angry, and he was, you could tell, but this was something else. If you could have used your quirk, you would have reached for his thoughts, but that wasn't an option right now. He dropped your hand and looked away from you.

"Bakugo. Look at me. You have to know I didn't want to do this, he tricked me, I don't want to marry him, please don't be mad at me, I didn't mean to..."

"Stop," he said, his voice oddly quiet.

"What? I understand if you're angry. I do. I'm mad, too. No matter what I do, I can't seem to get anything right. It's only still on my hand because that jerk got the wrong size and now it's stuck."

"I'm not mad at you."

"Oh. Then... what is it?"

He grabbed onto his sleeve and tore, tearing off part of the fabric. He took your hand again and wrapped it around your hand, keeping that one finger out. The sparks in his hand started to heat up, just enough to expand the metal of the ring, making it easy for him to pull off.

Bakugo handed you the ring and you put it in your pocket. You breathed a huge sigh of relief, but his expression hadn't changed.

"Talk to me," you said. "Please?"

"Y/n... I...ugh!" he groaned, turning away from you.

"What is it? Just say it. I can take it."

"Y/n... I... well, I don't know your ring size either!"

That had been what he was upset about? There was no reason for him to know your ring size, for anyone to know it. Hell, you didn't even know it. Who cared?

He was usually so confident, so arrogantly self-assured, but not right now. You were still thinking about this, and staring at his back and thinking about how hot he looked in all black like this, when you heard him speak again.

"Do you think.... Do you think you'll tell me... one day?"

You were about to answer him, but he spoke before you had a chance. "I shouldn't have said that," he said quickly. "Forget I said that."

You darted around and stood in front of him, and even in the darkness you could see a hint of a blush on his cheeks.

"Yes."

"What?"

"I said yes. One day I want you to ask me my ring size."

As the weight of your words sank in, big, goofy smiles broke out on both of your faces. You didn't smile for long though, because his arms were around you, picking you up by the waist, kissing you.

"Um, hey, guys?" a familiar voice behind you said.

He set you down, and as you untangled yourself from Bakugo, your eyes slowly followed the direction of the voice. Even in the darkness of the alley you could see the red wings, fuller than they were years before, the golden hair, the whole handsome thing.

Your first reaction was shock, at seeing him in person, right in front of you, but then that shock morphed into something else, a bitter taste creeping into your mouth.

"What the hell is he doing here?"