Paint the Stratosphere Red

104

"Dynamite?" his voice wavered heavily, hands shaking and entire waterfalls pouring from his eyes. Katsuki was really getting sick of all this sobbing and crying.

"Hiryur...Dynamite..." he repeated a good octave higher, and he practically threw himself on top of them, burying his face into their chests and letting out a high pitch whine. When a sobbing Eri joined the hug, Dabi only held on tighter, Eri rubbing her face against them like a cat.

They stepped back and stared at them.

Dabi hiccupped "I... We thought you were dead..."

Hiryur took this as his time to speak up. "I'm okay, we both are. Don't be sad."

There was a surprised yelp and a thud from the other side of the room as Kirishima leaped up and the two boys found themselves enveloped in another giant bear hug. "You can't do that to me, you hear me? You scared the ever-loving shit out of us!" Another commotion could be heard on the other side of the room.

Kaminari suddenly appeared, leaping over and landing in some kind of strange pose, pointing at him dramatically. He couldn't help but notice the pinpricks of tears at the edges of his eyes. "Asshole!"

Bakugou just glared back deadpan. "What's new?"

Sero's snort from the side sounded wet with emotion. Kaminari stomped his foot like a child throwing a temper tantrum as a couple of tears escaped. "No! Don't even! You can't do that to me, guys! Don't you dare think that you can just get away with scaring me like that, bro! I'm gonna have nightmares for weeks now!"

"Okay, chill, Denki," Sero said coolly, though the crack of emotion was still present. "The guys just got back. Give them a break."

"Don't think you're off the hook, though!" Kaminari huffed, though no one paid him much mind.

Momo stepped up to them. "Welcome back! How are you two feeling?"

"Good," Hiryur replied and glanced at Katsuki, watching as he wrung his hands nervously.

"I'm surprisingly okay." He snorted. "Honestly, this whole thing seemed like one giant act of karma. I've had it coming for a long time." Before anyone could ask, Katsuki continued. "I've realized that what I did in the past was unforgivable. I made middle school hell on Earth for many people, one person in particular more than anyone else." Midoriya looked like he was about to protest, so he continued before the boy could get anything out. "I know I did. I saw all the shit that happened because of the things I did. I deserved that scare. It's just karma." He looked the boy right in the eyes and said what he knew he needed to. What he wanted to say.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. For everything. I know I don't deserve your forgiveness, so I'm not gonna ask for it, but I will say that I regret all of it and I wish I could take it all back because you didn't deserve any of what happened to you. What I did to you. I'm sorry." Katsuki was out of breath when he finished, and he ripped his eyes away from Deku's because he couldn't stand to find out what he might look like.

The silence in the room was deafening.