A Flower's Affection (KiriBaku Flower Shop AU)

Eijiro Kirishima & Katsuki Bakugo-Seven Days

Happy Good Friday, everyone!

⚠In the mean time, this entire chapter is an attempted suicide warning, and a light drug mention⚠

        "I'm going to help you."

        Kiri closed his eyes, facing up at his bedroom ceiling. He took in a shaky breath. Smiled.

        "Come on, why don't you get down from there? Tell me what's wrong."

         The boy turned back around, facing the street with its speeding cars. Far below, the red and blue lights of a patrol car flashed, the officer looking up at the roof. "You wouldn't understand!" He screamed. "Heroes like you have it perfect!"

        Red Riot noticed Pinky and Ground Zero tensing on either side of him, creeping closer to the edge of the roof. Zero was jumpy, only getting half the message from his lip reading. 

        "I do understand," Red promised, inching closer. "I've been where you are. Barefoot on the edge of a roof, scared out of my mind, and hurting. Always hurting."

        "Fuck off!" The kid screamed. "All you care about is another life you get to save. You don't give a damn about the people. Some people don't want to be saved!"

        "I don't believe that. We all want to be saved--it's just a matter of if help arrives in time. I'm not going to let another kid try to throw his life away like this."

        "At least the pain would stop!"

        "Pain gets better if you talk about it. Please, talk to me, I listen. Who hurts you?"

        "It's none of your business," the boy's voice broke.

        Riot forced himself to smile. He'd managed to get as close to the boy as he dared, just enough to snag him if he jumped. "Alright. I'll tell you mine first. My old man is a psychiatrist, and fully convinced that my head is too fucked up for me to deserve life."

        The kid twisted to look at him, showing shocked surprise. Pinky glanced at him, too, but she knew this story. Who else could he trust to pull him off of bridges and rooftops?

        "He tried everything," Red Riot continued. "Shock therapy, beatings, starvation, heck, even hypnotism at one point, but he couldn't convince me that I was a normal, straight male. 'So much potential, such a wonderful quirk, wasted on a confused rainbow boy,' he used to say. His reputation took a hit when word got out and he beat me black and blue, worse than ever before. That night, Pinky here had to talk me off of Marilyn Heights Bridge. I used to cut myself all the time. I felt like if I tried hard enough, I could turn myself straight. It doesn't take a genius to look at me and say it obviously didn't work." Red chuckled to himself, moving to sit on the edge of the roof, next to the boy's shoes.

        The kid sniffed, pulling his arms tightly around himself. "My pops is drunk all the time," he managed. "M-mom thinks he's a saint, and my sister moved out a long time ago. She... She's bipolar, and we haven't been able to afford her lithium in a long time. I haven't been to school in weeks, trying to work so I can get Mom's meds, a-and D-dad got a notice about my attendance in the mail and got drunk again. S-so I climbed up here."

        "Family is important, but so is school," Red smiled. "I've always loved school--I'm terrible at it, but I love it. I found the people I can count on there. You have any friends at school?"

        "Yeah," the kid rubbed at his eyes, moving to sit next to Riot. The hero viewed this as progress. "Her name is Sarah. She's a transfer student from America."