Seraph - Katsuki Bakugo

t w e n t y

It was early. Way too early to be going to school, but Reigen and Shouta were on their way to meet the rest of the class to catch the bus. Ren was staying with Hizashi for the week, both of them practically vibrating with chaotic excitement when Reigen and Shouta had left.

Neither Reigen nor Shouta spoke during their car ride over; both way too tired to make any semblance of sense in a conversation.

Over the last week, Reigen had been plagued with dreams of her father. Not only that, but her sleep deprivation had gotten so bad that she had been sure she had actually seen him a few times. He stood outside her window, eyes so black they were like endless voids that promised nothing but despair.

The first time this had happened, her screams woke both Shouta and Ren. Shouta had put Ren back to bed once he assessed the situation, managing to calm Reigen down after holding her for almost an hour.

There was a brief investigation, but there was no sign of the man anywhere near their home. Not so much as a footprint. It was determined that Reigen had imagined it, but it just seemed so real to her.

"Tanaka, good morning!" Midoriya was the first to speak to her, eyeing Shouta curiously as they had walked in together. Most of the class still didn't know of her situation, but she had been thinking about telling a select few during their trip.

Reigen gave the boy a small smile, but it fell away almost immediately. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm just tired. Haven't been sleeping much." She groaned, setting her head on Midoriya's shoulder as they stood. She felt him tense up slightly, and could practically see his flustered expression.

"How come you haven't been sleeping?"

She looked up at him. "I... I'll tell you soon. I promise."

His brows furrowed, but he nodded. She looked over Midoriya's shoulder to see that Bakugo was looking right at her, and gave him a reluctant wave. He rolled his eyes slightly, going to stand by Kirishima and Sero.

As they began to board the bus, Reigen realized she hadn't spoken to anyone about sitting next to her. She looked around, a bit frantically, as she realized that basically everyone had paired up to sit with one another. Then, she sagged a bit as she remembered that there was an uneven amount of people in their class anyway. So, she made her way to the very back of the bus, sitting on the bench seat behind Sero and Ojiro.

She listened as Iida began to yell at some of the students for standing while the bus was moving, allowing her head to rest on the window and her eyes to shut.

"You look like shit," a gruff voice sounded from beside Reigen, making her jump and whip her head to the speaker. Bakugo.

"Wow, thank you."

Bakugo grunted, sitting on the opposite side of the bench seat and looking out his window.

"Why are you sitting back here?"

"That bird guy was gettin' on my nerves."

"Tokoyami?"

"Whatever."

Reigen looked back out her window, her mind feeling fuzzy from her exhaustion. She lifted her legs up so she was essentially curled into a ball, not noticing that Bakugo was watching her warily. He couldn't figure out why he was so drawn to her, and it pissed him off. For fuck's sake, they rarely ever interacted. Though, he felt at ease when he was near her. Her presence was warm, unlike anyone he'd ever met before. It almost reminded him of Deku, but it was very different to how he felt about Deku.

He wanted to ask her why she was so exhausted. He wanted to tell her to sleep, to take care of herself. He wanted to take care of her, since it seemed that she did such a shitty job at doing it herself.