Radio Silence [KiriBaku, Complete]

Sleep Paralysis

Kirishima wakes up like he is rising from the depths of the ocean. He feels drugged, or perhaps just painfully, bone-achingly tired. Yet even after time passes – he isn't sure how much time – he realizes that he cannot move.

He isn't restrained; sensation has come back to his limbs, although everything feels very far away, and he can tell he's on something soft, probably a bed, covered by a blanket. There's a tightness in one of his arms that might be an IV, but overall his body feels fine, whole. If he was injured, it's all been healed.

Because he cannot move, he can't open his eyes, but he can tell when the room gets suddenly brighter – the lights are flicked on, maybe, or someone abruptly opens the curtains. He hears footsteps, drawing nearer and nearer before stopping. Desperately Kirishima tries to remember where he was and how he got there, but he can't remember anything. It was the weekend, right? The last thing he remembers is deciding to leave campus to go shopping with some people – he can't remember the shopping itself, just planning it, can't remember if it's Friday or Saturday or maybe even Sunday.

"Recovery Girl says it's from a quirk." The voice is Uraraka's, low and worried, and comes from near his left ear. "She says he's all healed physically, but..."

He doesn't know who she's talking to. After a beat, he hears her turn and leave.

.

He is not sure if he's awake or not. His body feels like it's perpetually in that state between sleep and wakefulness, but he's pretty sure the things he hears aren't dreams. They're way too mundane for that. He hears what must be nurses, discussing a different patient, using medical terms he wouldn't understand under the best of circumstances; he hears footsteps in the hall and the sound of a vacuum in the next room. Time seems to stretch out forever. He wishes he was sleeping, so at least dreams could give him some source of entertainment, but he's left with the scatterings of ambient noise and his own fractured thoughts.

Later, although he has no idea how much later, there are more voices. These, he can recognize, although they're blending together so that he cannot make out any individual strain of conversation. He hears Ashido and Midoriya and Hagakure; he can pick out Kaminari after a moment, and what he thinks might be Sero, but he isn't sure. To try and pick out what they are saying is like listening to an orchestra and trying to hear the notes of an individual instrument. It's much easier for Kirishima to relax and let the voices blend together. The familiarity of their voices is somehow soothing.

More footsteps, someone new entering the room. The voices still. "We're researching this quirk. The villain has used it on law enforcement in the past," a new voice announces, and Kirishima can tell it's Aizawa. "It will go away on its own after a few weeks..."

"A few weeks?" That has to be Bakugou.

"...or if we catch the perpetrator, of course," Aizawa continues, ignoring the outburst. "And I was able to speak directly to one of the police officers who got hit." A pause. "He says he was fully aware the entire time."

A long silence, until someone says simply, "What?"

"He was unable to move, but he could hear and feel everything the entire time." Footsteps again, this time moving towards the door. "I've got to go see how the search is getting on."

"W-wait! Aizawa-sensei!" It's Midoriya, and Kirishima hears him follow the teacher out, hears his voice getting softer as they get further away. "Tell me about this quirk! What do you mean when you say..."

The room is cast into a stunned silence that lasts for maybe thirty seconds. "That sounds like bullshit," Bakugou says. "Wasn't that guy's quirk 'Sleep'-something? So shouldn't Kirishima be, you know... asleep?"