Embraced Through A Nightmare
Katsuki Bakugou x Eijiro Kirishima

A/N: Not a particularly unique idea. Just a one-shot of my version of Katsuki dealing with the emotional turmoil of being kidnapped and Kirishima coming to comfort him. Been dealing with a severe bout of depression, so this is kinda me just dealing with that in my own way. Hope you enjoy, 'tis but a sappy little fluff piece.

'Join us, Katsuki Bakugou…'

Those sickly words bounced around inside his mind, echoing, beckoning. Each and every night they plagued him again and again until he woke with a start, sweat careening down his body, soaking his clothes, his lungs greedily inhaling breaths of air.

Tonight, however, the nightmare was much different.

Rather than the usual banter of words that assaulted him, Katsuki found himself standing alone in the darkness, his red hues frantically looking around for an escape. His chest squeezed uncomfortably as nausea built in the pit of his stomach. He was always at the villain's hideout, chained to that damned chair, yet here…here there was nothing. There was no grasp of reality, nothing to tell him that All Might was going to blast through the wall to save him at any moment.

'You like winning, don't you?'

Katsuki whirled around, searching for the disembodied voice. "Stop fucking around!" he shouted, his voice breaking. He wanted so badly to give into his anger, to draw strength from it and fight back, but his fear had a vice on him that he couldn't shake.

'You have all the makings of a villain, so why not give in? Don't fight it.'

In an instant the darkness parted way to a large grey hand, its fingers outstretching toward him. Katsuki moved backwards, his teeth gritting together, eyes beginning to water. "Stay the fuck away!" He lashed out, igniting the sweat in his palm, yet not a scratch emerged on the grotesque skin of the hand and it continued its slow trajectory until it curled around him, squeezing tightly.

'Join…us…'

Katsuki felt the air escape his lungs and he tried desperately to breathe, yet to no avail. He couldn't move and any hope that had flickered inside him quickly died in that moment. Laughter surrounded him the tighter the hand squeezed and he felt his ribcage precariously close to breaking beneath the pressure.

But as it appeared death would win out, Katsuki shot up in bed, his body drenched in a cold sweat and panting sporadically. His eyes swept across his room, finding little comfort in the familiar walls surrounding him.

Running his hands through his damp locks, Katsuki forced himself to focus on his breathing, trying hard to calm his heart rate. "What the hell is wrong with me?" he murmured, curling his knees up to his chest. How was he supposed to become a pro hero if he couldn't deal with something like this? He knew that he wasn't as strong as a lot of the pro's out there, yet that never deterred his goal of becoming number one, not until now. He had witnessed a man hold off a full-blown punch from All Might right before his eyes, forcing the beacon of hope and peace to use every ounce of strength until nothing remained.

And then there was the matter of Deku. He pushed himself to try and get better, to surpass that useless nerd and fly to the top. But at every turn that boy had something new up his sleeve, something added to his arsenal that pushed him just steps ahead of Katsuki each time.

A small knock came at his door, forcing the blonde to break free of his thoughts. His eyes darted to his bedside clock, annoyance rising drastically. Who the hell was bothering him at one in the morning? He swallowed the lump in his throat, his mouth going dry. Unless he had made noise during his nightmare and someone heard.

The knock came again, but this time instead of falling back to silence, the doorknob turned and slowly Eijiro Kirishima emerged in the doorway. His eyes were heavy with sleep, his red locks falling limply over his face as he looked at Katsuki curled up on his bed, a complete wreck.

"Get the fuck out, Shitty Hair!" Katsuki spat, turning away to hide his face.

Ignoring him, Kirishima shuffled over toward him and flopped down on the edge of the bed. He yawned and rubbed his eyes sleepily before offering up a small smile. "Another nightmare?" he inquired. In response, Katsuki tossed his pillow at him, hitting him square in the face. "So I guessed right."

"Tch. I didn't have a nightmare."

Kirishima tossed the pillow back at him. "Right, so you weren't crying out in your sleep?"

"You wanna fucking die?" Despite the anger laced within Katsuki's voice, he had managed to keep from shouting. The last thing he wanted was to draw more attention than he already had. "Who said you could just come into my room without asking, anyway?"

"I was worried," Kirishima said softly, looking down at his hands. "You've been having nightmares since you came back, but tonight seemed different, more intense." His red hues met Katsuki's and held his gaze for a moment. "Bakugou, talk to me, man… You can't keep this all bottled up all the time."

"Who the hell asked you to care?"

Hurt flashed across Kirishima's face, his gaze dropping to the floor. "Aren't we friends?"

For a long moment, the two sat in silence, neither moving nor finding the courage to speak until the redhead finally brought his gaze back up to the explosive hero. "Bakugou, whether you consider me a friend or not, I'm still here for you," he said and stood, but instead of moving toward the door to leave as Katsuki expected, he was surprised to see Kirishima moving closer to him, his arms reaching out to him. At first, Katsuki flinched away, readying his palms to ignite an explosion, but the second he felt the warmth of his friends embrace, he found himself trembling, his mind momentarily flashing back to the giant hand that had grabbed him in his nightmare.

"Don't…touch me…" Katsuki said weakly, yet even as the words escaped him he found himself embracing the redhead back, eyes welling with tears.

"I don't care if you talk to me about it, Bakugou, but at least acknowledge that you're not in this alone."

The emotions coursing through Katsuki were confusing and complicated, a conflicting whirlwind he couldn't make sense of. Apart of him wanted to blast Kirishima away and curse at him, to let his anger consume him, yet another part wanted nothing more than to pull the redhead down onto him and find safety inside his warmth and strength. Instead of coming to a conclusion, Katsuki rested his head on Kirishima's shoulder and grabbed at his shirt roughly. His body was rigid, not quite accepting his friend's closeness just yet.

"Bakugou?" As Katsuki grabbed his shirt, Kirishima felt his balance on the edge of the bed slipping with each second until finally he fell into the blonde, toppling over him onto the bed. It wasn't a position he had expected to be in with his closest friend at Yuei and yet here he was, his hands on either side of Katsuki's head, their eyes locked on one another.

It was truly surprising to see such softness on the explosive boy's features, the way he looked up at him with tear-rimmed eyes. It was so uncharacteristic to see Katsuki so…defenseless. For a long moment, all Kirishima could do was stare down at him, his cheeks tinged a faint shade of pink. "I'm sorry," he said finally. He began to sit up, but much to his surprise Katsuki had grabbed his arms and pulled, causing the redhead to lose his remaining balance and collapse on top of the blonde.

Katsuki buried his head in the nook of Kirishima's neck, inhaling deeply as his arms snaked around him. "Just…fucking stay like this," he muttered, his voice muffled.

Kirishima lips creased with a smile, his own arms making their way around the blonde and pulling him in closer. "Okay," he said simply, his eyes beginning to close. "You know, Bakugou, you're not the only one who was scared when you got taken. While Midoriya and the others were trying to get you back to camp, I was useless. I retreated to the camp and once I was there I couldn't head out to help you fight." His hands clenched into fists against Katsuki's back, squeezing him. "If I had been by your side that night, maybe I couldn't have prevented this from happening."

"You did enough," Katsuki said softly, his head still buried against Kirishima. "You helped get me the hell out of there."

"Yeah, but you still had to face those villains alone."

Shrugging, Katsuki finally lifted his head and looked at the redhead. "I just need to be stronger. I don't want to ever have to rely on someone else to rescue me."

Laughing softly, Kirishima moved so that his forehead rested against Katsuki's. "What's wrong with relying on others? Teamwork makes you stronger than you realize, Bakugou. There are a lot of things people can't do in this world without some kind of help."

"Tch. Only weaklings need fucking help," he spat, turning his head away.

"So then me being here holding you isn't me helping you ward off a nightmare?" the redhead challenged, smirking. Somehow seeing Katsuki so tame made him a bit more confident in calling out the ill-tempered boy's words.

Katsuki's gaze shot back to him, narrowing. "This is something else."

"Really?"

"Yes."

Quirking an eyebrow up, Kirishima watched him for a moment. "What is this then?"

Cursing under his breath, Katsuki angled his head and moved closer, his body trembling nervously as he brought his lips against Kirishima's. For a long moment, neither of them moved, the shock and nerves keeping them frozen in place. Finally Katsuki parted, inhaling a large breath of air. His cheeks were tinged pink, yet nowhere close to the coloration that Kirishima sported.

"W-What was that…?" the redhead inquired, dazed.

"Nothing."

"Nothing?! How the hell is that nothing?" Kirishima pulled away, pushing Katsuki onto his back before maneuvering himself so that he was straddling the blonde, his arms on either side of his head. "You can't just kiss people like that, you know."

Katsuki's cheeks were flushed brighter as his crimson hues burned into Kirishima like a flame. "You're not 'people' though," he said, almost inaudibly.

"Bakugou…do you…like me?"

"Don't be fucking stupid!"

Despite his response, Kirishima couldn't help but let his usual goofy grin spread along his lips, his teeth exposed. "I like you too," he said. "I have for awhile."

The response was certainly unexpected and no matter how much Katsuki repeated those words in his head, he couldn't quite wrap his head around them. Did he like Kirishima as more than a friend? He had respected the strength that the redhead demonstrated on multiple occasions and despite being obnoxious like the rest of the idiots that hung around him, there was always something different with Kirishima.

"I don't know what I feel," Katsuki said, turning his head away. He enjoyed being close like this, to feel…loved. It was such a different feeling than what he typically allowed himself to feel. Hell, even his relationship with his parents weren't even close to what others may deem as a functional and caring relationship. His parents cared for him and vice versa, but they never vocalized it. They had their own messed up way of showing it.

Kirishima gently brushed a lock of blonde hair away from Katsuki's face, causing the explosive boy to look at him again. "You don't always have to put things into words, Bakugou. Sometimes actions are enough."

"Fine, in that case…" With a quick, fluid motion, Katsuki grabbed Kirishima into another unexpected kiss, his tongue trailing along the redhead's lower lip before parting from him slightly. "Just help keep the nightmare away."

Without a word, Kirishima broke into a soft smile and closed the small distance between their mouths, recapturing Katsuki's lips with his. In that moment he would happily give him anything he asked for, anything at all.

A/N: As I said, just a small fluff piece, nothing special.