Archive of Our Own ^beta

Cherry red dripped onto porcelain, the splats spreading like blooming poppies. Like a mosaic, like burgundy on fresh snow, like his eyes. The translucent rouge contrasting the pure white eerily as though the pigments were made for each other. Tainted. He’d tainted the innocence it had previously held. He’d stained it. He was entranced. Something about the scene was just so…

Astounding

Preternatural

Otherworldly

He couldn’t look away. Maybe he didn’t want to look away. In this world, there's nothing but red. Bright, poise, imposing red. Everything flourished here, even lifelessness felt organic. Such a wondrous place. He would get there no matter the price. 

Reveling in the numbness, he brought coloured hands back up to his throat, where the dye was slowly trickling out, and began painting. Deft fingers drew lines and sigils with practiced ease. Strange words littered his bare chest by the time he was done. It would work this time. It had to. He had nothing else to offer to uphold his vows. He wasn’t one to break his promises and he’d promised her that he’d join her. That he’d free her. He planned on keeping it. If his blood wasn’t enough then his soul would have to do.

Once the last stroke was placed at the base of his abdomen, the blonde let out a shaky laugh. This was it. He looked into the mirror in front of him, into blood red eyes which wept blood, as the words that coated him began to grow cold and seep into pale, numb skin. The last thing he saw before his eyes grew too heavy and it became official.

Bakugou Katsuki was dead.

And then he woke up screaming to the sight of purple staring back.