| Zero Hour | 172732014

Lifeline | Distance Makes The Heart

DING
Hey, do you have a minute?

DING
I want to hang out, like, on the phone, if you're free. If not, that's okay.

DING
What's wrong?

DING
Nothing, I just want to hang out.

You've been waiting for a while now since that last text, your heart racing from the sadness that overwhelmed you. It was a storm inside filled with a tumultuous rage only masked by the numbness that coiled and suffocated your head. You laid your head on your pillow, still with your hand on your phone before another text snapped you out from your anxiousness.

DING

That name flashed across your screen, one that you didn't want to see before laying the phone back onto the bed. The last thing you wanted to see were empty words, filled with no meaning.

DING

You tried to ignore your phone for a minute or two, yet your curiosity only grew, slowly lifting the phone in your grasp while its screen glowed upon your face. Two names appeared, immediately opening the message thread of one of them ignoring the other.

Two minutes.

A twinge on the corner of your lips perked in a smile, a sad one that you felt before you took deep breaths, holding back the prick of tears. Happiness. You thought you felt it, still confused and filled with a disgusting feeling.

RING

"Hey, did I disturb your sleep schedule?" You teased through the tears.

"What is it, Lightweight?" Growled the voice in your ear, bubbling a chuckle in your chest while you curled in bed.

Of course, you probably interrupted his schedule.

"I had the best patrol today," you chirped while forcing a smile, hoping that would keep you from spiraling. "We got to stop a few petty robberies, and I took down one of the biggest lugs you would have ever seen. I mean, he was giant, like colossal. I mean, don't know if you'd be proud or jealous but that's what I call a victory."

Silence. Just dead air. You couldn't hear the usual grumble or grunt in his voice.

"Bakugou?" You asked, still with no response. "Oh come on, I didn't bore you, did I? Okay, if the great future Pro-Hero can't encourage a fellow, I'm not sure that makes for a good role model in your future."

You wanted to kick yourself in the gut.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to offend," you apologized. "It's late, I asked you if you could hang out since, you know, you guys still have curfew, and-"

"Are you in bed?" He interrupted.

"What?"

"Are you in bed? Or are you aimlessly floating around like the airhead you are?"

You peered down at your bed, mere inches from you while you cuddled into your pillow in your arms, pushing its soft plush against your face.

"... I'm not that far away," you replied with unsteadiness in your voice.

DING

Another text message, and you knew from who. That anger returned while you tried to suppress it, ignoring these emotions from the hurtful words you took earlier that day. It was almost a weekly affair, growing worse with every encounter drowning you.

"I was just so excited I wanted to tell you," you continued. "And... I wanted to know how your day was."

Dead air again. You choked on the growing sadness that swelled in your chest and tried to force its way in your voice.

"Damn nerd almost killed himself," Bakugou spoke calmly.

"Wait, what?"

"Before I get the chance to beat him myself, he goes and does something completely idiotic. And Half-and-Half, if he wasn't blind in that eye of his, he ought to be. Damn IcyHot almost got me killed. We're now out there and they're getting in my way. Last thing I want is for them to ruin any chance of me certifying with the Pro-Hero Board, damn extras."

Laughs

"It's not funny."

"No, no it isn't," you breathed between bouts of laughter. "It's just, I'm sorry, you're already out in the field and I'm still going through work studies trying to catch up to you, and..." You couldn't help bursting in laughter, hugging onto your pillow while you still floated aimlessly in the air, crying tears.

"... what did he say?" Asked Bakugou, breaking your laughter. "What did he say to you?"

Your laughter died into the silence, turning towards the tears that spilled. Hesitating to succumb to the sudden intake of breaths and hiccups, you dug your face into the pillow still with your phone to your ear.

"Tell me Lightweight," he continued.

"He just made me so mad," you answered through the strain in your voice. "And I wanted to hit him so much. It's like he doesn't respect my choices and I decided to be a Pro-Hero. I chose this path, and he undermines what I want, and I'm so tired. I'm just so tired of hearing him tell me how to go about my life and who I could have in my life."

"... you know that I think he's a moron right?" asked Bakugou, his voice surprisingly calm.

"Yeah, yeah I know but-"

"And when have I been wrong about people?"

"Actually there had been-"

"Don't answer that!"

You flinched from the phone against your ear, pulling it away to ease the slight ring before returning it back. Bakugou sighed grumpily on the other line, hearing him turn in his bed.

"He's a moron. He's a moron to think that he could control you. Don't listen to that crap. Got it, Twinkle Toes?"

Through the prick in your tears, your smile returned, brimming from corner to corner hearing those words from the most stubborn man you had ever met. Comforting words even.

"So Midoriya and Todoroki got in your way?" You asked, wondering more about Bakugou's day.

"Like hell they did," he retorted.

That smile of yours still stayed while you talked for most of the night with Bakugou, until you realised the time. It wasn't often you found yourself with Bakugou past midnight.