A Flower's Affection (KiriBaku Flower Shop AU)

Eijiro Kirishima - The Aftermath of Uncertainty

Aw, have a nice chapter?

Not anymore.

*Deep breaths*, kiddos, prepare yourselves. Oh, and... check the date.

That being said: ⚠️ death, mourning, amputation, injury, talk of death/grief, disability due to injury, depression, general PTSD, gravestones/cemetery, talk of sad futures ⚠️

Here's a tissue: 🧻
And a bandaid: 🩹

        We've been waiting on this for two years already and this was a request, so let's go—

        Soft morning light spilled across the concrete floor of the flower shop, filling the room with a lovely, gentle glow. Normally, the shop would be open by now, the bubbly redheaded owner tending his plants and greeting customers with his trade shark-y smile.

        But Kirishima was all out of bubbles today, and the usual smile was nothing more than a gentle frown. Today wasn't a day for smiles and cheer. He stood behind the counter, elbows resting on the marble surface, his fingers clasped together as he stared solemnly at the floor, at the light stretching through the windows. The usual red apron had been swapped for black slacks and a crisp white button-down shirt. Long red hair had grown out past his shoulder blades, and he'd taken the time to straighten it out and tie back the top half. He'd left one of the windows open somewhere, and a cool morning breeze blew through the store. The wind blew something off one of the shelves, and a long brown feather floated to the ground.

        Kirishima's eyes locked onto the feather as it drifted to the floor, long-familiar sorrow clenching his heart. It had been a year since those feathers had burst through his store, and he was still finding them tucked away in all corners of his life. Each one of them brought forth a new burst of grief. Grief for the friends he had lost.

        Taking a shaky breath, Kirishima moved around the counter and gently picked up Tamaki's feather. He'd take it with him today, when he went to meet Deku, Shoto, Cellophane, Mirio, and Mina. Thinking there to be no better time to leave, he lifted a wrapped bundle off the counter and pushed through the glass door of Chivalrous Arrangements and into the gentle morning, locking the door behind him.

        Izuku Midoriya. Shoto Todoroki. Hanta Sero. The other heroes had done their best to come together and support each other in the past year, but the loss was still difficult to get over. They'd lost friends. Lovers. Colleagues. Death was hard, a cruel, tragic truth, and one that had been forced upon them in the blink of an eye.

        Last year, a new Todoroki Industries Research and Development lab had caught fire, a catastrophe that would later be revealed to be the work of the criminal League of Villains that terrorized Musutafu. Heroes had flocked to the forty-story tower to rescue the researchers and technicians trapped inside, and the building had nearly been completely evacuated when disaster struck. The structure failed, and the tower collapsed on top of the heroes that had been scouting for more civilians.

        Tamaki Amajiki, the hero Suneater, had been crushed instantly by falling debris. Kirishima, who had been standing as his hero persona, Red Riot, next to the shy, anxious hero, had been spared only by the reflexive activation of his quirk. Kirishima had been the first to find the body, the first to see the broken, tattered wings, and the tattered shell of the hero that had been his friend.

        If Kiri had been a little faster, he might have been able to pull the hero out of the way.

        Seven other heroes had fallen that day. Three unnamed vigilantes. Ms. Joke, the humorous hero. A heroine named Sirius. A young hero named Chargebolt.