Sincere Affection (Various!My Hero Academia x Reader)

The Ending to a Very Exciting, and Very Long, Day

(Y/N)'s P.O.V.

The cheering of the audience was accompanied by the explosions of a few fireworks above the stadium; glancing over to (F/N), I watched him flinch slightly with every firework, which made me grab his hand and give it a small squeeze, hoping to relieve some of his stress from their sounds.

He looked over to me, a small smile coming onto his face, before his attention moved forward towards Midnight, who was standing next to an empty area, since the small stage from before was removed from the arena.

I did the same, glad to have gotten a good spot when all the first-years were instructed to come down here.

While I would have preferred to stay in the stands, since sitting down on a semi-comfortable seat was a bit better than having to stand in a crowd of your peers when you were already a bit tired from earlier events, but I guessed that a crowd in front of the winners' podiums would make for a better publicity shot. Because, an empty space in front of it? Kinda sad...

"The first-year students have completed all of the events for the U.A. Sports Festival," Midnight said, holding one of her arms out to the crowd, "Now, it's time to relax and enjoy the awards ceremony."

How true that was for me. I should really look into things for stress relief...!

As music started blasting from the speakers, loud enough to cause (F/N) to flinch before he pulled his hand out of my firm grasp to stick his fingers in his ears, even more fireworks were set off; it made me wonder about how much money did the school really have to be able to afford all this. None of this is really needed... but it does make this look cooler, so...

A trio of fireworks went off right behind Midnight, these ones only releasing a lot of smoke to cover the podiums as they rose out of the ground.

The smoke didn't last nearly as long as smoke previously-seen in the festival, and it was easy to see the winners.

However, it was a big surprise to see Bakugo chained up to a large slab of concrete, his behavior almost like that of a rabid animal. As I heard a few of my classmates voice concerned shock over the sight, I noticed that, besides the chains that were holding him in place, Bakugo was also wearing a heavy-duty muzzle and a device over his forearms and hands to keep him from using his Quirk. This is... not okay, is it? I mean, he's an explosive teenage boy, not a wild dog with rabies!

"He's been going nuts ever since he woke up," Kirishima said, making my eyes widen as they stayed on Bakugo's figure, "Man, Bakugo... pull yourself together."

I knew that being that angry, for that long, wasn't a good thing. Drat! My list for people to check in on after the festival already is maxed out at two! And, with Bakugo's tolerance, I'd have to kick up the Charm for him, which would not be good for me... well, I guess he'll be okay, compared to Yaoyorozu's low-spirited reaction to her loss, and Todoroki's... uh, giant problems with his home life? That first one will be easy to deal with, but the second will probably be short and awkward...

Maybe if I failed at becoming a hero, I could try becoming a therapist. My Quirk would be suited for that...

It would be a lot of work, but would also be a great way that I could help people. Note to self: look up information about therapy... and try to add it into my Quirk strategies...

As the podiums came to a stop, I snapped out of my thoughts, still cringing slightly at Bakugo's predicament.

My eyes went over the second-place and third-place winners, noticing that only Tokoyami seemed concerned about all that was going on the first-place podium next to him, while Todoroki just looked down at the ground in front of him. For the person who I thought was just cold and unfriendly, he just looks so much sadder after everything today...