14 Days | KiriBaku | BakuShima

Day 9

Sunday was an averagely normal day for Kirishima; at least, as normal as sharing a house with 20 or so superpowered teenagers can be. The power went out at around noon because Kaminari fell asleep with a charger in his mouth and subsequently had a mini-nightmare, causing the whole building to short circuit as well as himself. A bunch of the cutlery floated to the ceiling as Uraraka forbade anyone from eating until everyone was seated, and Mina 'accidentally' burnt a hole through Mineta's door when she caught him snooping around the girl's floor again.

While all of this was immensely amusing, Kirishima couldn't rid himself of the heavy burden he felt in his chest, weighing down his heart - and his happiness, it seemed, as throughout the day he felt as though every smile, every positive comment and friendly punch was fake. No one seemed to notice, all of his friends treating him exactly the same. Kirishima couldn't tell if that made him feel better or worse. Probably the latter.

What he didn't see, however, was whenever he was around Bakugo, the crimson irises appeared to follow him around the room, narrowed but not in irritation. It was a look no one had seen on the blond before, so they ignored it.

Only when the day of socialising, training and working out was over, did Kirishima finally collapse onto his bed, changed into his pyjamas and completely ready to succumb to the (hopefully) peaceful rest his sleep would bring. In this state, he wouldn't be surprised if another nightmare decided to rear its ugly head. Once Bakugo had shut off the lights after emerging from the bathroom, tucking himself into his own futon on the floor, did Kirishima speak.

"Hey...Bakugo?" His voice was quiet, almost timid, like whatever he was about to ask would be a taxing experience on both himself and the receiver.

There was silence, and for a moment Kirishkma pondered whether Bakugo had actually managed to fall asleep in the short time he had been lying down, but a grunt of acknowledgement told him otherwise. "What, Shitty Hair?" Usually, the words would be spat out, angry or at least mildly vexed, but these came out relatively calm.

Taking a deep breath, Kirishima rolled over so his head hung over the side of his bed. "Can I tell you something?"

Bakugo wasn't facing him, his eyes - whether they were open or closed, Kirishima had no idea - were boring into the wall, and he didn't reply. Kirishima took the opportunity to quickly disclaim some things. "You don't have to listen, you can go to sleep, or tell me to shut up if I'm being too loud or annoying, but I feel like I need to share these things with someone or I'm going to explode-"

"Get on with it, Hair-for-Brains."

"Hah...right..." Kirishima trailed off quietly, not sure how to continue. "I just...it's not very manly of me-"

"I said, get on with it."

Although the words were said with a snap, there was an undertone of sincerity to it that Kirishima couldn't quite place, but it made him realise that Bakugo really understood him. Like, really understood him.

"Okay...okay." He laughed awkwardly, the sound forced and almost strangled. "Sometimes..." Kirishima inhaled, preparing himself.

He'll never talk to you again after this.

"Sometimes, I feel like I can never be a hero."

The words were left open, empty in the air. Exposed.

Bakugo said nothing.

"I feel like, compared to everyone else, my Quirk is so...average. Boring. If you have someone who can run so fast you can barely see them, or someone who can immobilise villains before they've even made their first move, why would you need me? All I can do is harden my skin against attacks. I'm useless, right?" Kirishima gave a short, mirthless laugh.