"Please never do that to me again," Kirishima said out of nowhere while they were sitting on the couch watching Youtube videos. Bakugou honestly hadn't been paying attention. He was too busy weeding through all of the texts and Snapchats he'd been sent that he'd ignored while having a several day meltdown in his room.
"Do what?" he asked, genuinely unsure as to which thing Kirishima was alluding to.
"That's a good point." Kirishima huffed. "Like, anything you did the past few days. Running off, ignoring your phone, locking yourself in your room . . . anything you did to push us away."
Bakugou cringed a little. "I'm . . . sorry," he said awkwardly. "I don't- I don't know what's wrong with me."
"Trauma," Kirishima said, but he bumped his shoulder against Bakugou's to lighten the tone. "In a weird Bakugou way, everything you did makes sense. From your point of view. But from a logic and not freaking out your friends point of view, you should, like, never do that again. You don't have to like, promise not to or something, just- just try. "
"Fine," Bakugou grouched, desperately hoping his tone would make him sound less awkward.
"Pinky swear," Kirishima demanded, turning and holding up a fist with his pinky finger stuck out.
"What?" Bakugou stared at him.
"Pinky swear!" Kirishima repeated, unfazed. "I, Bakugou Katsuki, will try not to age my friends before their time."
"Yeah, okay, whatever," Bakugou said, rolling his eyes and holding up a reluctant hand. Kirishima hooked their fingers together and beamed at Bakugou so intensely he couldn't even be mad.
"You are valued and important," Kirishima said, still holding his finger captive.
The bathroom door shut loudly and they both started in surprise, jumping apart and turning to see Deku behind them. He looked surprised as well.
"Sorry, I-" he motioned to the door. "I didn't mean to shut it so- so loudly."
"No problem!" Kirishima reassured him, "it does that sometimes, it's weird."
Deku didn't look at all like he felt any better, but then again he hadn't seemed well lately anyway. Bakugou felt terrible about it. He knew Deku had been staying over every day since Bakugou had shut himself in his room, and the other boy still looked pale and sick. He should probably try to talk to him about it, see how he was doing. After all, he'd had to be there for the second accident too. He was likely triggered by it.
Tap "Ka-" tap "-cchan." It felt almost like a sneeze he couldn't hold in. Deku and Kirishima didn't say anything, thankfully, and Bakugou made a mental note that he was forever indebted to them. His friends never commented on his strange compulsions unless they were actually relevant, and he really wasn't sure how he'd be able to handle it if they weren't so understanding.
Deku disappeared into Kirishima's room where he'd been picking up some of the things he and Shoto had left in there while Kirishima was gone. Bakugou went back to going through his texts.
Iida: Hello! I hope you are recovering quickly. I was informed that you were in the hospital and would not be able to come in to work, so I have taken you off of the schedule until you are feeling better! We miss you here and wish you a speedy recovery.
Oh, Iida. Bakugou felt oddly emotional at the text. Iida's energy and strange way of speaking used to get on his nerves sometimes, but now it was almost comforting. He texted as if he was emailing an office, but Bakugou had never felt more relieved at a text message. So he still had a job, thank god.
