𝑨𝑬𝑻𝑯𝑬𝑹𝑰𝑼𝑺 𝑴𝑬𝑳𝑨𝑵𝑪𝑯𝑶𝑳𝑰𝑨 •𝒃𝒙𝒃•

lullabies for aching hearts

While Arashi cried, Bakugou didn't do anything. He sat on the side of the bed, back turned to him, and...did absolutely nothing.

"I wasn't gonna do anything." In the stillness of the room, Bakugou finally spoke.

Arashi snorted, although it sounded more like a sob than anything else. "Could've fooled me."

But he knew Bakugou was telling the truth. As harsh and rough as he was, Bakugou wouldn't...do something like that. How funny. Arashi said that as if he knew the boy, as if he understood him. Frankly, he didn't.

"You're infuriating." Bakugou said.

Yeah, yeah he was.

"You were crying earlier, too."

Ah, so Bakugou saw him? "Thanks for be blanket."

His only answer was a tongue click.

"Not gonna ask why I cried?" Arashi asked, pushing himself into a sitting position.

"I don't care."

Really? "Why'd you mention it if you didn't want to know?" Shifting, he turned to face Bakugou. "You suck at lying." Arashi threw his earlier words back at him.

Bakugou leaned on one of his hands and glanced back at him. "Well? What got you crying like a brat?" As harsh with his words as usual. Nothing surprising there.

"I had a dream." And he left it at that.

The other boy waited for him to continue but he never did. "You...had a dream? That's it?"

He nodded.

Bakugou stared at him.

Arashi stared right back.

"You're a bastard, all right." Bakugou turned back around and pushed himself off the bed.

What a nice thing to say. "You're not wrong."

At the sound of his voice, the other boy stopped, shoulders squaring. The dip between his shoulders flexed, the muscles in his neck straining. Only then did Bakugou look at him. "That man at U.S.J..." he began, rubious eyes locking onto Arashi, "Was he your old man?"

And there it came, the awaited question. For a moment, Arashi wondered how this subject wasn't brought up sooner. Bakugou was there when it happened, he saw his father, he saw everything. Why didn't he ask immediately? Did he keep his mouth shut out of consideration? Out of pity? Was there any reason to his silence?

"Was it the eyes?" Arashi asked, voice unintentionally quiet. "Everyone always said it was the eyes." He looked down, at his hands that clutched at the covers so, so strongly.

Bakugou's response wasn't immediate. "I don't go around looking at extras' eye colours. He just seemed overly...desperate."

Ah. So that was it. His father was desperate. That man was desperate. For what? For Arashi to go with him? To forget every bad thing that led to that moment? To forget the reason he went to U.A. in the first place? No. No. No. Arashi couldn't forget, could he? Too much wrong has happened, too many things that...that hurt him, that...pained him. How could he throw it all aside and leave?

"He was reaching out his hand," Bakugou continued, "Did he want you to go with him?"

Arashi breathed in, trying not to grit his teeth too harshly. Pain flared in his jaw from the strength of it, and he did his best not to push it too far. Slowly breathing out, the pressure lessened and he raised his head. Bakugou stood at the foot of the bed, clenched fists shoved in the pockets of his sweatpants, narrowed eyes piercing through the space between them.