Bakugou had fucked up. Majorly. In the exact way he had been so worried that he would. [Now your friends know what a freak you are] he could almost hear her saying. [Now they'll all leave you.] Damn Shouto and his self-sacrificial bullshit, and to hell with Bakugou's need to prove him wrong. He'd ruined everything. It didn't matter how much he'd tried to push them all away- every single one of the stupid bastards meant something to him. Kirishima, Kaminari, and Shinsou included. Finally letting people in only to screw it all up in one moment felt so unfair, but he knew he'd done it to himself. He never should have admitted it to Shouto.
Whatever Shouto had been trying to do, there was no way he was going to be happy with Bakugou's feelings for him and Deku. And Deku- god, he'd been so horrible to him, how could Shouto even pretend Deku had feelings for Bakugou? Surely they'd all feel so uncomfortable around him now. If they even wanted to see him again, which he was currently doubting.
He'd ended up at the fucking park after fleeing his apartment, just sitting on a bench and catching his breath while he went from panting from the sudden exercise to struggling to breathe due to panic. This would definitely be the last straw. They all saw how fucked up he was, how scarred. They knew about how he refused to take care of himself, how callous and rude he could be. What the fuck was even keeping them around this long?
His phone buzzed and curiosity won out over panic.
Kirishima: hey man, u ok?
You: yeah just getting some air
He didn't want to answer (he suspected Kirishima had been asked to text him), but he also remembered the frenzy he'd sent them all into the last time he'd disappeared. Whether it made sense or not, whether they still cared or not, he didn't want to cause any more stress over his safety. He was safe. Just freaking out.
Maybe Shouto wouldn't tell anyone. He was a pretty private person, maybe it would be alright, right? But Shouto had also been trying to say that Deku had feelings for Bakugou and that just didn't make sense, were they . . . trying to hurt him? Maybe they knew, maybe he hadn't been subtle enough and now they were just mocking him.
But Kirishima had told him it was okay, hadn't he? He'd recognized Bakugou's feelings and he'd promised he wouldn't judge him. And he hadn't. Maybe he could keep Kirishima, at least.
He checked his phone again.
Kirishima: u know im here if u need anything. Love u bro
There was a text from Shinsou as well.
Shinsou: hey Denks and i are grabbing ice cream if ur free
Bakugou hesitated. On the one hand, he was not feeling well at all. On the other hand, Shinsou and Kaminari most likely didn't know what had happened and a bit of company with some normalcy sounded . . . really nice. He needed to get his mind off of things before he spontaneously combusted.
You: when and where
His phone started buzzing almost instantly with an incoming video call from Shinsou.
"What the fuck," he said as he answered. Unsurprisingly, Kaminari was the one on screen holding the phone with Shinsou in the background, despite it being Shinsou's phone.
"Hey!" Kaminari greeted, waving hello cheerfully.
"Sorry, he swiped it from me and said texting would take too long," Shinsou snorted. They were walking outside somewhere, the phone bouncing in Kaminari's hands and making the view shaky.
