Chapter 41

"A little something?" Deku laughed at my confused face. "Yeah." I furrowed my eyebrows. "Would you mind fucking specifying that?!" A knowing grin showed up on his face. "All I'm saying is that you're not as special as you think you are." I straightened up. "Standing ovations for that explanation. It's fucking worthless."

Deku lightly put two fingers to his lips, almost as if to tell me to shut up. "Just what does the term 'worthless' remind me of…?" I averted my eyes from him. "Not fucking again, Deku. We've been there already. I can't just erase half my vocabulary just to make you stop bringing the past up all the time, so please just… don't."

He lightly totted his head. "I'm just trying to draw a few lines. Worthless in context of me is already leaving the line at the horizon behind you." I growled lightly. "Drawing a few lines?! It's a fucking spiderweb of lines you caught me in, while you're crossing every single one I ever drew!"

Deku grinned widely. "Welcome to 'Make-Kacchan-taste-his-own-medicine'." I ran my hand through my hair. "You're spoiling for a fight again, huh? I will never get your damn intentions." His expression suddenly dropped to a marble-like facade of coldness. "No, I just found out how different people are from you. In a very good way."

And I was the bogeyman again. He really intended not to forgive me into all eternity, huh? Suddenly, I remembered something. "Deku. Let me talk to Izuku please." "Why? Tired of mean little Deku already?" Dekus voice was never-endingly hostile. I shook my head. "No, it's not about you. It's about him." "Hm."

Deku put his arms around my neck. "Just in case… It's me you're in love with, right? Not him. I hope you're not making up some story in your head that we love you deep inside or something. He doesn't. I don't. And he can't even give you what I can. It's only me you want."

Had I even made a difference? Yeah, I definitely had. I liked Izuku, no doubt, but Deku was the one I… well, wanted so much. So if I… finished my little mission here, what would happen to my relationship with Deku? I was technically playing against my own cards.

Now I needed to talk to Izuku even worse.

"Please?" My voice was almost in a pleading tone. Deku chuckled. "You're begging quite prettily, but… Oh Kacchan, why must you hurt yourself this way?" "What?" Deku was talking in riddles. He cupped my cheeks with his hands and gave me a blurry smile. "Kacchan… Kacchan… There's only one on the other line…"

Only one on-

No. Tell me I'm interpreting this wrong. Tell me this is a lie. It can't be true.

I pushed Deku away from me and took a step back. "You- YOU'RE SAYING IZUKU IS GONE?!" He nodded with the most gruesome little smile I had ever seen with him. My composure was hanging by its neck. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM?! HOW- HOW DOES THAT EVEN WORK?!"

Deku kept his eyes closed, the gruesome smile painted on his face and twirled one of his curls around his finger. "It's not me… Not my fault, Kacchan. If you look into the mirror, you'll see the culprit stare right back with your eyes." I bashed my fist against the wall. "HOW THE FUCK IS IT MY FAULT?! I'M THE ONE WHO TRIED TO GET IZUKU BACK!"

He opened one eye. "Your one mistake was to love me more than that loser." I halted. "What?!" Deku opened his other eye and gave me a look so terrifying, I really hoped he'd die before I would. "Remember that one night I let you have your way? My sacrifice to your ultimate humiliation? When we had sex for the first time?"

As if I'd ever forget that. Although I hated Deku more than anything right now, it would forever be one of my best memories. But that was about to change. Dekus smile widened to a psychotic grin. "The price you paid for temporary pleasure was too high. Izuku begging me to stop seducing you was the last I ever heard of him."

My mind turned blank. I pushed Deku back against the wall by his shoulders. "Stop. No. You're lying. IT'S FUCKING IMPOSSIBLE! I'M NOT PLAYING THESE GAMES!" He let me shake him like saltshaker, just grinning at me. Finally, the truth dawned upon me.

Deku wasn't lying or trying to make a cruel joke on me. He was actually alone in his head. Izuku was gone. Erased. He had ceased to exist. He was done for. Banished from this earth. Gone.

I let go of Deku and stared into his eyes with a blank expression. "That breaches the deal. You know that, right?" He chuckled. "And that's the first thing you care about?" I bared my teeth at him. "You know, if he's gone, I don't have a fucking reason not to beat you down. If you want the feeling of an actual love-hate relationship, keep on hurting me."

Dekus expression became cold and calloused in a split second. "Alright then. The deal is breached, you say? I let you talk to him once. I fulfilled my part." I growled lightly. "The three weeks are long fucking over." "For the eternity, Kacchan. There's no valid way out anymore."

Deku came close to me, suddenly pulling out his knife. "And remember, I'm the one with the knife." I casted explosions in my hands, slightly shifting into fighting stance. "And I'm the one with a fucking quirk." Deku grinned mirthlessly. "You got a point there. Anyways…" He looked like he was about to kill me.

"You sold your life to me. Your soul. There's no end to this deal until you perish." Dekus eyes flared up in a harsh poison green. "And I don't think you'd wanna risk the remains of your precious Izuku for a sudden anger, right? Your short-circuited, irrational decisions already cost his life."

My heart felt like it was being impaled. Repeatedly. I had enough. Fuck what I would think tomorrow, I couldn't stand seeing Deku for another second. I grabbed him by the back of his shirt, rushed down the stairs and pushed him out of the front door before he could react.

I could hear his voice outside. "The deal remains. And believe me, your love does too."

Everything in me shattered.