This Tattoo

Coming Unglued

Bakugou couldn't keep his mind on class all next week. He felt like he was coming down with a sickness that never arrived. In class, his mind wandered far from his lectures. When he got home he couldn't focus on anything and couldn't sleep when he lay down for the night.
Life felt...wrong and he didn't know why.
"And then he took me to the beach and we sat down to watch the sunset."
"And?" Tokoyami asked Jiro. Bakugou blinked. He hadn't been listening to the conversation at ALL.
"Well, he kissed me, and now I have a little lightning bolt on my wrist."
"Congratulations." Shinso pet her on the back.
"We're going to move in together at the end of this month."
"What? Who's gonna help me with the rent, then?" Bakugou asked.
"I dunno. Just craigslist a new roommate." Jiro shrugged.
"Or get that guy to move in with you. He IS your soul mate." Shinso said.
"A possible serial killer or some dumb moron?" Bakugou sighed.  "Hard choice."
"Dude, you've got to give in eventually. He's your soul mate." Jiro insisted.
"But he's so annoying."
"He probably thinks you're worse." Tokoyami teased in a very birdlike way.
"How so?"
"He probably thinks you're mean." Jiro laughed.
"He does not!" Bakugou insisted.
"Well, from what I heard, it sounds like you've been nothing but mean to him since you met." Shinso sipped his drink.
"I was NOT!"
"Well, you probably weren't any more mean to him than you are to anybody else, but that's still pretty mean." Tokoyami explained.
"I'm not mean!"
The others stared at him, skeptical.
"Whatever. I'm going to the bathroom." Bakugou stood, picking up his bag and his empty food tray. He dumped his tray off on the way to the bathroom.
As he was washing his hands, he looked down at his wrist, at the stupid tattoo that idiot had given him.
But something was wrong with it. It was dimmer...like somebody had turned down the opacity on it.
"What the fuck?" Something was wrong. Tattoos weren't supposed to disappear.
But why should he care? He never wanted anything to do with Kirishima in the first place.
Although...there was one circumstance when tattoos did disappear. It was awful and even though he still didn't want to see Kirishima again, he also didn't want this to happen.
He wandered back to the table, still staring at his tattoo.
"What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost." Tokoyami said as Bakugou walked past.
"It's....fading..." He muttered.
"What is?"
"Tattoo."
"What? Lemme see!" Jiro stood, grabbing his arm. "Dude, that's not good."
"What does it mean?" He asked, hoping there was a reason other than the one he had in his head.
Shinso leaned on the table, shaking his head sombrely. "Dude, my uncle got that when my aunt went into that coma."
"Fuck...you don't think..." Bakugou swallowed.
"I thought you didn't care about him." Jiro raised her eyebrow.
"I...uhh..." Bakugou took a deep breath. "I need to go find him." He decided. "Something isn't right."