A Flower's Affection (KiriBaku Flower Shop AU)

Eijiro Kirishima-"A Child"

A sappy filler chapter before the big reveal? Why not.

        "Why does Kiri look like he wants to stab someone?"

        Kirishima growled at the question as he flopped down onto the couch in the common room, an uncharacteristic glare sunk deep into his features. He couldn't tell who had asked, and he couldn't really care. "Because I kinda do."

        The admission startled the other students, who Kiri had thankfully begun to see as friends, and good ones, too. Denki was just so easy to get along with and was always up for making people laugh, and Sero had a knack for saying the wrong things in all the right moments. The two were sat beside him on the couch, jamming down the buttons on Wii controllers, but they paused their game to blink at him. A third screen on their MarioKart game made him glance around and pretend not to see Bakugo hiding in front of the ottoman. He remembered Mina once telling him that Bakugo wasn't allowed to play MarioKart.

        "What did you do Denki?"

        "Shut up, Sero!"

        "Guys," Mina chided, setting down her needles from where she was knitting in an armchair. Kirishima shivered reflexively--those were the violet 14-inch aluminum needles she had once threatened to stab him with five years ago when he threw a mild insult at her about her kissing skills. "Kiri, hunny, why do you want to stab someone, and who?"

        "You know, it's funny," the redhead forced out sarcastically through bared teeth.  "You would think that owning a building would give me the right to come and go as I please, right? Wrong!"

        Mina blinked at him, tapping a button on her phone. "Tamaki kicked you out," she guessed, "didn't he?"

        "What's the point of having a job if I don't get to go to work?!" Kiri snapped, crossing his arms over his chest. He knew he was pouting, but pouting felt like what he wanted to do. His phone buzzed in his pocket, but he ignored it, as he had been doing most of the day. "Uraraka gets to go to work, at a job where I employ her, no less, but me? Ha! No."

        "What's the point of being a workaholic if you end up ignoring yourself and cutting yourself off from the people that care about you?" Sero asked, focused on unpausing the game so he could cheat before the other two boys were prepared.

        Bakugo ran into a goomba and Kaminari fell off a giant mushroom while they looked at their friend with wide, saucer-like eyes.

        "What?" Sero's brow shrank in confusion, as he had definitely expected Bakugo to launch a controller at his head. He clapped a hand over his mouth. "I said that out loud--shit, man, ignore me."

        Kirishima was indignant. "I don't cut myself off from people," he claimed. "I love people! I talk to people every day. I've talked to Mina without fail every day for seven years!" The pinkette opened her mouth to protest, so he corrected himself. "Okay, there was that time a week or two ago, but you were mad at me so I was giving you space. And I meet plenty of nice people at work."

        "Yes," Bakugo deadpanned. "Because Karen was a real fucking gem, wasn't she?"

        Kirishima deflated faster than a balloon, all of his arguments immediately rendered invalid.

        "Kiri, what time did you go to bed last night?" Mina questioned, and Kirishima recognized the dreaded 'mom voice'.

       He mumbled in response.

        "Sorry, what was that?" She sassed.

        "I said three-thirty," he repeated. Granted, his nightmares had him up again at four and left him absolutely miserable, but he'd slept.