Work Text:
It was supposed to be a normal outing. It was Denki's idea! He said the squad should go to the mall together! Bakugo was adamant against going because they were 'losers holding him back'. That was until Kirishima cheerfully declared that he and Bakugo could have some 'manly bonding time'. Suddenly, Bakugo was all "What are you waiting for you shitty extras?!" Denki almost laughed at the complete 180, but in the excitement of them actually convincing Bakugo to come with them, Denki forgot his headphones.
They travelled together for Mina's uncanny ability to run into creeps, which ended up with her beating the shit out of them and they really didn't need to add another creep to the metaphorical body count. In the meantime Kirishima was holding three bags of Crocs. Three. Not three pairs. Three fucking bags full of Crocs. Why did he need so many Crocs? Where would they all go? Why was he adamant on it being a 'surprise'? What was the point here? Jirou tried to contain her excitement as they walked past a Hot Topic, declaring they need to go in for 'reasons'.
"Oi, Dunce Face! Keep up!" Bakugo yells. Denki nods sheepishly, trailing after them. He's looking around the stores, trying to see where he wants to go, when a child starts screaming. The screaming is shrill, piercing, grating, it's upsetting. Denki tries to shove those ugly thoughts down. It rears itself and twists that Denki should throttle the child for being so loud and he should lash out. His head throbs, suppressing such ugly thoughts was utterly exhausting. While he follows Jirou and the others around, his head spins. The music is blaring in his ears, there's a couple fighting, the child is still screaming. He tries to step back for a minute, but every step he takes towards the door leads to Jirou yelling at him every time. He needs to get away, just to grab his headphones. Everything is becoming a daze the longer he goes without the sensory cutoff.
He slips away when Kirishima starts chatting about the Crimson Riot merch and distracting everyone. He practically yanks his backpack to the floor, desperately rummaging through it. His headphones! Where are they?! He's shaking, yet somehow everything manages to get louder. There's advertisements, people chatting, the sound of clinking dishes from the food court. Denki wants to scream, but he can't for his voice will add to the torturous cacophony. It's like his ears are going through a fucking cheese grater. He absentmindedly rubs at his ears and grits his teeth. He wants to curl up and scream until his lungs give out and he can give no more.
Why can't the world just shut up?!
Bakugo is going to throttle the fucking idiot brigade. He only agreed to come because Shitty Hair wanted to and Shitty Hair just had to go and be cute! Wait, scratch that. Shitty Hair isn't cute! He's annoying like a dumb little puppy! They finally finish up at Hot Topic, and Racoon Eyes wants to go get lunch with Soy Sauce, even though it's only been-
Fuck, it's been two hours already. Bakugo rolls his eyes as they drag him to some dumb ramen shoppe and they go to order.
"Hey, Denks? What do you want to eat?" Soy Sauce asks with that stupid grin on their face. Normally Dunce Face would have loudly declared what he wanted before they got there with some shitty joke. "Denks?" Everybody turns around, and he's nowhere to be seen.
"Idiot probably got distracted and wandered off." Jirou scoffed, but Sero wasn't having it
"¡Mierda!" Sero breaks off from the group. "Denki!" Bakugo rolls his eyes and drags Soy Sauce back to the group by the hoodie.
"I'll look for Dunce Face."
"I dunno, man. You're... You. Denki might be lost and he'd probably prefer a comforting face." Bakugo rolls his eyes.
"Shut up! I'm looking for him Soy Sauce! I'll call you guys or whatever if he wants you or something!" Bakugo shouts and walks off before anybody could tell him otherwise. He tries all the shoppes that Dunce Face might be at. Jewelry stores, toy stores, hell even other food stalls. He didn't see him anywhere, and he didn't hear him anywhere. He wouldn't say he's worried, not at all! The other idiots are! He huffs in annoyance. Did Dunce just leave but he didn't want to hurt their stupid feelings? He's about to send a text to the morons, but that's when he hears it.
A sob.
Bakugo at first thinks it's just some random extra, but once he starts walking towards the bathroom, he can feel his hair stand up, and the acrid taste of distressed static sits heavy on his tongue. And how likely was it that there was another kid here with an electrical quirk? He approaches the stall he hears the crying in, and knocks. It opens without issue, he didn't bother locking the damn door. Some fucking weirdo could have hurt him! The way Dunce looks is wrong. Usually he's all happy go lucky cheerful smiles and crushing hugs. Instead, he's curled on himself taking ragged breaths, struggling to breathe. His hands are bleeding, covered in teeth marks. He's letting off small shocks of electricity, and Bakugo growls when a stray spark hits him. He curls further on himself at the noise. Bakugo's not out of his element, he just needs a minute! He pulls out his phone and opens the search bar. 'Friend curled up crying'.
Panic attack.
Bakugo lets out a huff and pulls something out of one of the shopping bags. He didn't mean to buy it! He just saw it and thought of the electric blonde. "Hey Dun- Pikachu." He grunts. Pikachu lets out a whine, and the sound of his whine makes him curl up further. Bakugo's voice softens to a near whisper. "Pikachu, can you talk or whatever?" A shake of the head, and Pikachu is practically trying to melt into the wall. He's still sobbing, gasping for breath. He taps Pikachu's hand and guides it to his chest. He tries to even his breathing, and Pikachu tries to shove his other hand back into his mouth, and Bakugo has to as gently as possible pry his other hand from his mouth. He places it on his chest, and they just sit there, taking breaths in time with one another. Pikachu starts to uncurl, and Bakugo is easing a Pikachu plush into his hands. He looks absolutely starstruck, holding onto the plush and looking at it. He plays with the ears, gently rocking himself back and forth. Bakugo says nothing and types out something on his phone.
'Panic attack?' A shake of the head. What the hell was that then?! Pikachu grabs at Bakugo's brand new hoodie and Bakugo wants to say something, but Pikachu looks so distressed despite no longer being curled up. He pulls the hood over his eyes and continues to silently mess with the plush while rocking himself.
It takes an hour for Pikachu to finally speak, and Bakugo definitely told the other morons to stay the fuck back because Pikachu is freaking the fuck out.
"Thanks." He murmurs. "Sorry about the hoodie, and sorry you had to deal with... that." Bakugo was now annoyed for a completely different reason.
"Pikachu. You were upset for whatever-"
"Sensory overload." He quietly interrupts.
"Hah?"
"Sensory input come in, too much sensory input bad, no way to let out excess input, bad time." He says like that explains everything. Bakugo just goes with it, and says nothing. He'll grill him about it later, when he's not recovering from the sensory overload, as he called it.
"Well how do you stop it?"
"Well, I usually have headphones or fidgets, but I was so excited you agreed to come with us, I uh, forgot them... I guess I fucked this up, huh?" He laughs dryly, Bakugo shakes his head.
"Pikachu you didn't fuck up shit." He offers a rough and callused hand to Pikachu's hand with litchenburg scars. He takes it, holding the Pikachu plush in the other. Bakugo slings his backpack over his shoulder, and while they get situated, Bakugo looks up things to help with sensory issues, and finds there's a lot of people like Pikachu. He sends a text to his old hag, totally not labelled 'Momma ❤' explaining he's gonna buy some shit and don't question it. He makes a few purchases, and looks at Pikachu, who still looks so tiny.
"Let's go back to the idiot brigade and head back to UA, they miss you, Kaminari."