Healing Together

Part 5

"Hey shitty hair", Bakugo knocked at the door "let me in".
He heard some muffled punches, Kirishima was probably punching into his bed instead into the wall and then nothing. There was silence.
"Kirishima?", he tried again "can I come in".
He heard footsteps and the noise of the door being unlocked. Then he saw Kirishima standing there and holding the door open for him to come inside.
Bakugo nodded and got in before Kririshima closed the door again and shuffled towards his bed. Bakugo stared at the wall. There was a crack in his wall and some of it had crumbled to the floor. But what made him stare was the red colour on the wall. He looked from the spot over to Kirishima who was looking down at his hands. Bakugo followed his stare and saw that Kirishima's hand was bleeding.
"What did you do, you idiot?", Bakugo groaned in concern and rushed over to him taking his hand in his own.
"I punched the wall", Kirishima shrugged.
"Without hardening yourself?", Bakugo accused "are you an actual idiot?"
"I didn't think about it, okay?", Kirishima yelled and pulled his hand out of Bakugo's hold "I was just angry and needed to get it out of my system".
"I'm sorry", Bakugo whispered and took a hold of his hand again "let me look at it".
"Okay", Kirishima nodded and let him take his hand.
"We need to go to Recovery girl with this", Bakugo spoke after inspecting the hand for a few seconds.
"No, I will just wrap it up and it will heal itself. I don't want to disturb her with something like this. It was my own fault anyway and it's not that bad", Kirishima mumbled.
"No it was that grape's fault", Bakugo spat "stupid asshat".
"No, it wasn't", Kirishima said looking to the floor "sure, what he said was total bullshit but just because he is dumb I don't have to act like an ass".
"You didn't act like an ass", Bakugo insisted as he went to get the first aid kit out of Kirishima's bathroom.
"Yes I did, I -", Kirishima wanted to explain himself but Bakugo cut him off.
"No, you did not. What you did was stand up for me. I could have done that myself and it would have pissed me off if anyone else would have done it but it was you and somehow I was okay with it. It was okay for me to be vulnerable, when it was you that helped me. It was okay to be weak if you were the one that saved me. And it was okay not to defend myself if you were the one defending me", Bakugo had his teeth clenched and his eyes were glassy when he looked directly at Kirishima and his voice broke slightly "you did not behave like an ass. All you did was help me. And usually that would have pissed me off. But it didn't".
Bakugo cleaned Kirishima's bloody knuckles and his hands were trembling.
"It didn't okay", Kirishima saw a tear slip down Bakugo's cheek "and I don't know why. And that scares me".
"Bakugo", Kirishima pulled his hands away to hold Bakugo's "hey it's okay. You're okay. It's okay to be scared".
"No, you don't understand", Bakugo tried to breathe calmly "all my life I pushed people away. Because I knew that at the end of the day the only one I could rely on was myself. And the people, they just turned away from me. And I knew I was right. And I tried to push you away so many times. I really did. And I hated myself for it. But you just came back. Time and time again. Not only that. Despite everything you risked your life to save me. Me! The person that tried so hard to get you out of their life. After that I found myself stopping to push you away. I found myself relying on you and trusting you. You helped me with my nightmares and I let you get closer. Let you see my vulnerable side. A side no one has seen before. And why? Because I knew that I could. Because I knew that you would not turn away. No matter what happened. You would not let me down. Because I learned that at the end of the day I could not only trust myself but I could trust you. And that's why I let you speak in my stead down there. Because you are the only person that gets me and the only person that I trust. And that scares me. These feelings scare me. I don't know how to handle them. I don't know how to open up more. I have no idea what I am doing. What if my feelings fail me? What if this was all a mistake?"
"Hey Bakugo listen to me", Kirishima interjected as Bakugo started breathing rapidly "opening up to me so that I can help you was not a mistake! I understand that you are scared and that's okay. But I want you to look at me now. Look at me. Okay. I will never, ever in my whole life break your trust in me okay? I would never do anything that could hurt you and I would never use the trust you have in me for my advantage. You can rely on me. It's okay for you to rely on someone else than you. You need help sometimes. And I am so glad that I can be the person you rely on. That I can be the person that you trust. My feelings scare me too, but they also make me really happy. Are you happy Bakugo?"
The question lay heavy in the air. Both boys knew exactly how they were feeling towards the other. But both boys were equally afraid of saying it out loud. Afraid to scare the other one away. But Kirishima had asked the question. And there was no turning back now.