Kiri(Baku?)Kami I probably won't finish

Chapter Sixty-One

Bakugo POV:

Fuck. Today I had to go back to work with Icy-Hot and his shitty dad. I knew both of us would miss Deku, and I felt even worse because the whole class was supposed to visit him today in the hospital before he got moved, but neither of us could see him since we were busy.

I changed into my costume, still in my room, realizing just how revealing the lack of sleeves was for maybe the first time. I wasn't sure where my winter costume was, but I doubted I'd be able to survive in that thing anyway since it was sweltering today.

Denki peeked into my room to check on me since I was taking a little while.

"You alright, Kat? Todoroki's waiting for you," he said, then noticed the dilemma I was in.

"They haven't really faded yet," I said, referring to the scars all down my arms. "And I can't find the winter one, so—"

"But you'd probably get a heat stroke in the winter one," he replied, coming over and sitting on my bed next to me.

"I know. But..."

"Kat." I looked to my boyfriend, and he had a sympathetic, or maybe even empathetic look in his eye. "I wanna tell you something that I haven't told Ei yet because he would probably freak out, and I don't think he'd get it, anyway."

Denki pulled up his shirt and showed me his back. It was also littered in scars that were mostly faded by now, although some were too deep to disappear that easily. "He thinks they're just from fights and sparring and stuff, but they're from my dad. I told everyone that that asshole just ignored me a lot or never cared about me, but that's not the whole truth." My eyes widened as he let his shirt drop back around his body, covering up his own scars. "I was ashamed of them for a long time, too. But do you think I'm any weaker even though I let him them do that to me?"

"No," I said honestly. "I don't."

"I get what it's like to feel like you deserve it. It took me a long time to accept that it wasn't my fault. And I know exactly what it feels like to wanna hide them, and that's fine, but there's no reason to be ashamed if you can't. And we can look for the winter costume when we all get back, if you want," Denki smiled. I nodded, returning it, before getting up.

"I'm late," I said, spotting the time. "But thanks, Denki." I gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before sprinting to the common room.

I skidded to a stop next to Halfie, and if he cared about the fact that I was flashing the whole universe with my scars, he didn't say anything. He just looked ticked off that I had taken so long. "We need to hurry."

"I know, shut the hell up," I grumbled.

—

I got some judgy, sometimes even disgusted, looks as the three of us patrolled. I did my best to ignore them all, but one particularly got on my nerves.

This. Bitch. Wouldn't. Leave. Me. Alone.

It was the mall lady.

"It's you again!" she exclaimed when she first spotted me. She didn't have her kids this time.

"Do you know this woman?" Endeavor asked me.

"Not really. It's a long story, but we've bumped into each other before twice. And no one likes her," I sighed. If anyone was gonna comment about my scars, I would've thought it would be M*neta, but he hadn't seen me. But now I knew she was gonna try to do something for revenge or whatever, especially since I didn't have Eiji or Denki with me.

"Is that any way to speak to me—" she started, but Icy-Hot stepped in, ignoring her.

"Our class went to the mall all together twice, and she really just makes a lot of homophobic and transphobic comments for no reason," he explained. "She's an overall very rude person."

"Hey, Blondie, is he another one of your..." Mall Lady curled her lip in disgust, gesturing at Icy-Hot.

"What? Halfie? No way, I have standards. And he has a girlfriend," I shook my head immediately.

"That's rude, Bakugo," Halfie said, but I ignored him, and attempted to ignore Mall Lady along with him, because I might have blown a crater in her face otherwise.

"And those... are you sure it's really appropriate to show them off? Do you not have any shame?" She seemed satisfied when it was clear she had struck a cord with me.

I really wanted to snap at her. Very badly. I managed to force myself to politely tell her to fuck off. "If you have a problem with me, then at least bother me when I'm not busy. Or never, either one works."

"I think I'm going to take up my problems with you when I feel like it."

Todoroki and Endeavor both looked somewhat concerned that I might do something rash, but they could also clearly tell that I was trying harder than usual not to snap. Still, it would've been appreciated if they did something about it because I clearly couldn't do that right.

"And what does 'Deku' mean, anyway? You've got it written all over you," she went on.

I took a deep breath and glanced up at Endeavor. "Get rid of her. I fuckin' mean it, and I'm not gonna explain shit to her."

"Ma'am, I'm going to have to ask you to stop harassing my sidekick, or I will have to arrest you," he finally said, almost relieved. She huffed, glared at me one last time, then finally left.

"Bakugo, are you—" Halfie started to ask, and I cut him off.

"I'm fine enough to still fuckin' be here and not in prison for blowing her up, right?" I grumbled.

"Alright."

The rest of the patrol went relatively smoothly, and nothing really happened. Besides some uncomfortable looks, it wasn't nearly as bad as I had thought it would feel.