Before And After ||BNHA Kiribaku||

Chapter 45- Eternity

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Bakugo felt relaxed, somehow. It was weird.

Everything he'd said was true, despite how embarrassing it was when he admitted it. And Kirishima was kind and forgiving, despite all the pain Bakugo made him feel.

Bakugo was so grateful, underneath the hot layers of shame and worry he'd felt.

While Kirishima no longer had his hair spiked up, or the boundless energy radiating off of him all the time, he was still a great person to be around. He was someone who was healing, and was trying to help others heal.

Kirishima was a great person, Bakugo thought, sneaking a glance at the redhead.

Well, what was supposed to be a glance turned into a long stare. Watching a few leaves blow in the wind was boring as hell, so looking at Kirishima was a lot better.

Kirishima himself was looking at the tree branch.

Was he thinking of climbing the tree?

Bakugo's eyes dragged over to the branch. He could somehow imagine Kirishima climbing the tree, but without tears or fear in his eyes. The wind would be blowing in his hair as he sat onto the tree branch.

Would Bakugo follow after him? It seemed like a stupid thing to do. It would be pretty easy to get caught.

Eh, whatever. Even if it wasn't just in his imagination, Bakugo would still follow. Climbing a tree wouldn't be hard.

Kirishima would probably be waiting for him too.

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They had settled back into a routine of visits, finding a lot of time to catch up while Bakugo's work hours were shorter.

It was a relief to Bakugo that they were able to return back to normal, especially after knowing how Kirishima truly felt about all the information Bakugo's been withholding.

It'd been a nice time of peace for the two of them. Kirishima had so much to show him, whether it was a new flower in the garden, or a new book he'd been practicing to read.

Occasionally, Bakugo would share a story about how he'd awesomely blow the life out of any villain dumb enough to wreak havoc in the middle of the day, but he never had nearly as many things to share as Kirishima.

It'd actually felt pretty pathetic, once Bakugo realized that his life as a hero was more boring than someone who was trapped inside a hospital 24/7.

But of course, Bakugo realized it was usually because of Kirishima's friends. As it turned out, Koda was the one who planted the flower, and Deku was the one who gave Kirishima the book.

Bakugo had purposely avoided having his visits overlap his fellow heroes' as to not make Kirishima uncomfortable, which he thought was much better than his previous reason (he didn't like them), but he couldn't... keep avoiding them.

Well, he could...

Actually, no he couldn't. 

He'd made too many stupid mistakes in his miserable life, and if he couldn't fix them, then what was he still living for if it wasn't for Kirishima?

Anyeantway, ignoring the fact that almost everything went wrong in his life, he definitely knew that even getting a word out to anyone would be hard, let alone asking to spend time with them for any reason.

So Bakugo tried waiting for a good opportunity. During their meetings would be no good. It would probably be too overwhelming for him. You couldn't really have a private conversation when there were around eighteen pairs of ears always open.

Some part of him wondered if Hagakure or Ashido would say something, but he knew they wouldn't. They knew he had shut himself off from the world already. No matter how much incessant bugging they had done while they were in school, they never got an answer. They wouldn't expect to get one now.

It was good they were having fun with Kirishima though. To keep up that warm smile on the redhead's face was already a lot.

Wait for an opportunity, Bakugo thought to himself.

It was sort of frustrating, actually, knowing he didn't have the ability to go up and ask them to fix their relationship.

But Bakugo decided he could wait for the time being, and focus on a few other things in the meantime.

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678 words

A/N- i've been listening to the lantern rite genshin ost and it's fantastic 10/10