Blood Covered Flowers

Chapter III - Crush.

The early morning rose over the battle cities outside the common area windows. It creeps over the buildings and shines on Kirishima's face warmly, waking him up. He blinked his eyes open and yawned, and like usual he was the first one awake. He got up from the floor and unwrapped himself from the blankets he was sleeping in, he stretched and tidied up his little area along with some of the other messes that he and his friends had made before heading over to the kitchen to make some food for everyone. The clock read 7:03AM on the stove. He brought out a bowl and some ingredients and began to make some pancake batter, and once that was done he buttered the pan and poured the batter into it, humming some music to himself as he flipped the pancakes. He couldn't stop thinking about what Bakugou had said to him last night, playing it back in his mind over and over again like a tape. The anxiety began to rise as he thought about having to tell Kaminari and Ashido about all of the things happening with him recently. What would I even say? How would they react? Would they even want to help me? What if they can't help? Will they be upset with me? What am I going to do if I don't have them to help me? These thoughts raced through Kirishima's head, he felt heavy and dizzy from the rising anxiety until he heard a certain yellowed hair boy yawn from across the room. He looked over and saw Kaminari stretch and stand up.

"Good morning Denki!" Kirishima smiled, flipping the last pancake.

"Morning." Kaminari yawned. "Ooo something smells good.."

"Yeah, I was the first one up so I decided to make breakfast for everyone. Hopefully, it's good, I know Bakubro usually cooks and I'm nowhere near as good as him." Kirishima told him, setting down the plate with the pancake tower on it.

"Pancakes?" Kaminari asked with excitement as he sat down at the counter.

"Yeah! I didn't want to make something too complicated since I'm not that experienced. I hope they're good!" Kirishima smiled softly.

"If you were so worried about them being bad, then why didn't you just wait for Bakugou to wake up?" Kaminari asked.

"I figured he and everyone else would sleep in a bit since we were up pretty late last night. Plus, I had some stuff on my mind so I wanted to distract myself." Kirishima explained. Kaminari tilted his head.

"What's been on your mind?" Kaminari asked him, snatching a pancake from the tower. Tha-dump...Tha-dump...Tha-dump...Tha-dump. Kirishima's heart thumped in his chest, his anxiety from last night rising again. "..Dude?" Kaminari gave him a worried look and he snapped out of it. "Yeah okay, you're really freaking me out now."

"It's just my cough, that's all." Kirishima answered quickly. "It's been getting more aggressive lately and I've been worried about having to talk to a doctor about it." Kirishima bluffed.

"Doctor? Why not just go see Recovery Girl about it?" Kaminari gave him a puzzled expression, taking a bite of his pancake. Kirishima didn't think about that. Shit.

"Oh- Uh- she scares me a bit, always lecturing me for bruising up my arms and stuff or cracking my skin. I just- uh- don't want to get yelled at." Kirishima tried to lie. Kaminari wasn't buying it.

"Dude, you're an awful liar." Kaminari frowned. "So, what's really going on?" Kaminari asked him again. Kirishima sighed.

"I- Ha-" Kirishima choked on his words; his throat started to tighten and sting. He turned around quickly and faced the sink behind him and started to cough up the petals. One. Then three. Then four. Then two more. Ten petals total, plus a small flower bud. Great.. I didn't even get the chance to tell him, thanks universe. Kirishima thought, spitting out the last clump of blood and saliva. Kaminari's eyes widened. Kirishima looked over at him and saw his terrified look. He glanced back down at the sink, washing the flowers down the drain.