BNHA ONE-SHOT - breakdown, uplift

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When Mina finds him, Kirishima is curled up against the outer wall of city B, tucked into himself as far as he can go. Suddenly Mina is overwhelmingly grateful that she'd followed her gut and checked on him.

She picks up the pace, coming to a stop in front of him at a jog. She immediately drops down into a crouch, carefully keeping her hands to herself by her feet. Kirishima's head nods to the side in aversion without even looking up.

"Hey," she starts. "Kirishima. It's me. What's up?" She hadn't been able to tell if he was crying or not in his position, but now she sees that his shoulders are trembling even though the rest of his body relaxes at her voice.

After a long moment, his frame lets out a shaky sigh and he shakes his head, still not lifting it. Mina thinks she can hear his voice, but it's super quiet. She has to lean in further. She tries her best to balance without touching him-- she isn't sure if he'd be okay with that.

He was saying, "Just... me being stupid."

"You're not being stupid. Maybe irrational," she adds lightly, hoping to make him laugh a little, but it falls flat, and guilt settles on her skin. "But never stupid, man."

He doesn't respond to that, so she stays in her crouch in front of him for a while. Some stragglers streaming out of the fake city give them looks as they pass, and Mina shoots back her pride and joy of death glares. Sometimes having evil-looking eyes has its advantages.

She eventually sighs and asks quietly, "Can I hug you?"

After waiting with bated breath for an answer, Kirishima nods minutely, and Mina smiles. She shifts around so she's sitting side-by-side with him, and drapes her arm over his back. She's not much of a bigger, but it's something she can do to help, at least.

Mina closes her eyes and gets comfy, glad that the campus doesn't close for another few hours.

About five minutes later that feels like longer, Kirishima's breathing evens out, and three minutes later, he hits his head against the concrete wall with no small amount of force. The wall fractures, sending dust down the back of his jacket. He seems not to notice. His hands come soon after, rubbing his eyes and cheeks clean roughly. So he had definitely been crying.

"What's wrong?" Mina tries again.

Kirishima gross-sniffles, training his eyes straight ahead. They're rimmed with red. "It's stupid."

Mina frowns, concerned. He obviously hadn't taken her words to heart before, so she doesn't bother repeating them. "Did you do bad?"

He lets out a barking laugh, pitching his head forward again into his hand. Letting his legs stretch out, he says, "That's the thing! It's stupid! I did fine! I probably even got in!" Mina was confused why he was upset if that was the case. "I got a fair amount of points, I helped other people out, too, so that feels good! I hope some of them make it in, we could be friends..."

"Then what's the problem?" Mina finally asked, retracting her arm to lean forward and pay more attention to him.

"The stress, mostly." He chuckled. "And I was so worked up, scared of hurting someone by accident while fighting the robots, and I've been putting sommuch on going here, sure I did well but was it good enough? I'm sure there were a lot more efficient people in other cities, and the goddamned written part was so long and hard and I have no clue how I did there so if I miss the hero course I probably won't even make it in Gen Ed, and fuck."

Mina regrets taking her arm off him. Now it'd be weird to offer another hug, but she doesn't know what do to other than that.

Kirishima continued after a moment of collecting himself. "It's over," he let out with a sigh. "It's over. That's what matters. Whatever happens now, if I get in or not, it's out of my hands now and I can stop being a stupid bitch about it. I just had too much bullshit built up. Had to unclog my emotion machine, ya know?" He turns a smile to Mina.

She wants to tell him to not call himself a bitch and that he's a dick if anything, but she has the foresight to deem that in bad taste. Instead, she says, "Yeah, I get it. And I'm glad you trusted me enough to share this."

Kiri's smile strengthens with another huffing laugh. "Heh, that was a lot to unload on you when we only went to junior high together, isn't it?"

"Well, sure," Mina thinks, "but we're friends at this point, aren't we?"

Mina sees his eyes light up for real. "Yeah, what are friends for if not a shoulder to cry on?" He seems to register his words then, and turns forward, rubbing the back of his neck. "That whole thing wasn't very manly, was it?"

She had been gearing up to declare him her first official guy friend, but that startles her. "What?!? Bro, expressing your emotions and yeeting the sad juice is a super healthy, responsible, and badass thing to do, and I'd say that sums up manliness, so it's pretty much the manliest thing ever!"

Kirishima's eyes shine as he beams. "Bro, I am so stealing that philosophy!"

He uses the wall to get up after that, groaning a little. Mina gets it; she's sore as well after that sort of full-body and quirk exertion. She takes the hand he holds out for her gratefully. Once they're both up, the air turns awkward. The grounds are mostly empty, and that's saying something considering how expansive they are.

Kirishima fidgets with his jacket sleeves. He seems to suddenly notice the concrete dust in his shirt and pulls a strange face before doing a little dance to shake it out. The dance increases in intensity and Kirishima just barely rights himself before falling over. He grimaces after toning it down, still wiggling his shoulders. "Ohhh, I got some in my binder."

Mina snorts. "That sucks, dude. We should go so you can get home and take care of that."

"God. Yeah."

Kirishima is visibly uncomfortable (and doing a little jig) the entire way off UA's campus and to the train station. Mina's is first, so she turns to bid him goodbye properly. He looks better than he did earlier, living in the moment instead of drowning in his emotions, and his cheeks are still ruddy. He's a lot more relaxed, though, and Mina's proud for him. "So... is there anything else I can help you with?"

"Certainly not this binder situation," Kirishima grumbles to himself, then shoots her an honest smile. "But don't worry about it. You helped plenty." The overhead speaker announces the near departure with a burst of static. "So... seeya?"

Kirishima looks so adorable in the way he asks that, his hands deep in his pant pockets and his shoulders up by his ears. They're definitely friends now, he shouldn't be worried about not seeing her again! She'd show up at UA and aggressively be the poor dude's friend whether he wanted her to or not, or even if she got in the school herself or not. Mina makes a point of expressing her utmost joy at befriending him in her expression and voice when she says, "Yeah, see ya at school!!"

He calls after her as she steps into the car, "Thanks again! I owe you!!" She just laughs and waves at him through the door after it closes.

Mina's gonna friend the hell out of him at UA!