MANIA - Katsuki Bakugou

━ a promise

chapter 68

Bakugou held his head in his hands as he sat in the hospital hallway, ignoring every doctor and nurse that passed him by. He'd lost count of the number of gurneys that had sped past him in the last few hours. The busy-ness of the hallway never died down—not even for a second.

He rubbed the bed of his palm against his eyelid, sighing. He'd been sitting here for hours. Five to be exact. The heroes had already issued a public response to the chaos that happened in Nagano and on Sensima's current state. She'd been in surgery for six hours now. They didn't know if she'd live or...

He didn't want to think about the alternative.

Kirishima tried to convince him to leave or at least change his clothes, but Bakugou refused. He wanted to wait. He wanted to be the first person to see her when she got out of surgery. He had to see her. His friends seemed to understand and left him to sulk in the hallway, waiting for hours in the same damn seat outside her room.

The media had loosened up on criticizing Shimamura for the meantime since Deku's press conference. He had convinced them that Shimamura was being manipulated by the Wraith, but he couldn't ease their concerns fully. She was still a hero that betrayed the masses in their eyes. He couldn't change that. At the very least, he made them understand the critical condition that she was in after her fight with the Wraith. They couldn't ridicule a dying hero... it was unethical.

Bakugou groaned and rubbed his eyes as he glanced up at the closed hospital door. It hadn't opened in a long time. He leaned back and put his head against the wall, shutting his eyes.

He sighed as a memory crawled out of the back of his mind in his tired state... he just couldn't keep it away.

· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·

He and Shimamura sat curled up together on the green common room couch as a movie played on the television. The room was dark and everyone else had gone to bed, with the only remaining source of light being the flickering of the screen. The movie was practically muted since Shimamura insisted on keeping it quiet so as to not disturb their classmates that were sleeping, but the quiet was making Bakugou fall asleep. He had a hard time hearing it so quiet anyway. He rubbed his eyelids as he yawned, holding Shimamura against his chest as she watched the movie.

Shimamura had her head against his shoulder as they lounged back. Their legs were intertwined and Shimamura's hands were fiddling with her long strands of white hair absentmindedly. Bakugou's head rolled back every so often as he tried to stay awake during the movie, but it was difficult.

Bakugou, as we all know, is not a night owl by any means. He would usually be passed out by now, but he stayed up for Shimamura. Compared to him, she was a definite night person. Sometimes it wasn't her fault—her bipolar levels usually dictated what time she went to sleep, if she actually went to sleep that night—but other times she just liked to stay up into the later hours. Bakugou stayed up for her, to keep her company. It was sweet.

As third years, they had it all. When it was just him and Shimamura alone, he felt like they were invincible. It didn't matter what anyone else said. As long as they were happy, nothing else mattered.

His eyes drifted down to his quiet girlfriend as she watched the screen. But her expression was unlike what he was expecting. He expected her to have a soft smile on her face like she usually did when they were watching movies together. Instead, she was frowning and her brows were furrowed. It was painfully obvious that something was on her mind.