Work Text:
Thunk!
Bakugou’s foot made contact with the punching bag again, almost knocking it off its chains once more. He’d been down in the training area since he’d been able to sneak away from dinner that night, and in that time had taken his anger out on several different pieces of training equipment, only some of which survived his wrath.
He was currently working on some basic skills, different kicks and strikes without the use of his quirk. This was to help maximize his training, he reasoned. If he were to ever face off against a villain that was able to nullify his quirk, or was immune to it, or any number of things, he needed to make sure that his skills were enough to surpass any situation that was thrown his way.
Thunk… Crash! This time the punching bag flew off its hanging chain, flying across the room and crashing against the ground.
Good sign for his training, Bakugou told himself. And if watching this destruction at his own hands regardless of his quirk was cathartic, then who was he to judge?
He sighed, looking at the bag on the floor. In the moment of impact, the moment of strength, he had felt okay again. The feeling had not lasted long, and standing in the aftermath staring at the bag just let those same feelings from that morning’s training session come flooding back in. Chasing the escape from that once more, Bakugou walked across the room and picked the bag up by its chain and dragged it back over to its hook in the ceiling.
As he was hanging the bag on the hook to restart his training, the appearance of another in the training room was announced by the soft click of the door opening.
“I have the room booked until curfew,” Bakugou snapped, not even looking over his shoulder. “Get lost.” He gave the punching bag a tug to make sure it was secure on its hook, ignoring whoever had come in behind him. He had assumed that they left when he had not heard them say anything, only heard the click of the door closing, but now that silence was interrupted by the clearing of a throat.
Bakugou finally turned around, ready to yell at whoever was invading his space and not listening to his demands they leave, but when he turned, he came face to face with All Might and for just a moment the insults died on his tongue.
All Might did not speak at first, appearing almost nervous, like he did not know how to approach whatever he came for. Finally, All Might spoke, saying, “I apologize for the intrusion, Young Bakugou, but I was hoping we could talk about what happened during this morning’s training exercise.”
“It’s after class hours,” Bakugou said, irritated. “If you want to talk about my class performance, it can wait until we are back in class tomorrow.”
“You know that is not what I am talking about,” All Might said, his voice almost gentle.
Bakugou huffed at that. He did know that’s not what All Might was talking about, but he did not want to talk about it. Just thinking about that morning's training session brought a scowl to his face.
It had started off as any other training session. They were split into pairs to face off in a battle simulation. Bakugou had been paired with one of the extras. He had gone into the training exercise with the same vigor he went into any other, he did not hold back. Why would he? He was here to become the best, and one did not get there by pulling their punches. His opponent was not holding back either. Good, that’s what Bakugou wanted. An indisputable win.
And he had been on track to snag that indisputable win when his opponent had been able to land a strike right in his stomach. It was hard enough to knock the wind out of him and send him sprawling for a moment before he was able to get himself oriented once more. That was not the issue, that he could fight through. No, the issue had been when the strike hit him directly in his medical device, the one truly vulnerable spot, and he had felt it get knocked out of alignment. Of course, this was nothing he would stop a fight for. Bakugou managed to win the fight in only a few more moves and had stalked off before they were given their critiques by the teachers.
Luckily, no one thought much of it. Bakugou’s tempter gave him a reputation, one that was congruent with storming out after an imperfect fight, and that reputation helped him hide. He’d gone straight to the locker room to deal with the issue, get everything back to where it needed to be out of sight of everyone that did not know about his secret. He would have gotten away with it, if All Might had not come to check on him and see the device before Bakugou had been able to finish getting everything tucked away again. Bakugou had managed to storm out before having to answer any questions, but he knew that could only last for so long. Now he stood in front of All Might, having to face the consequences of his carelessness.
“Well I have nothing to talk about,” Bakugou said shortly. He turned away from All Might, returning his focus to the punching bag. “I’ll see you in class tomorrow.” After that dismissal Bakugou got back into stance to continue his training, but he should have known that it wouldn’t be that easy.
“Does Recovery Girl have a stock of ostomy supplies for you?” All Might asked bluntly. This caused Bakugou to freeze, and he felt every defense in him go up. All Might didn’t wait for an answer before pushing forward. “It is an ostomy bag, right? Does Recovery Girl have the supplies you need?”
Bakugou grabbed the hem of his shirt and tugged it down, despite the fact it was already covering his stomach. His ostomy bag was secured against him with a belt that kept it tucked against him and out of his way. With a loose enough shirt you wouldn’t have any idea it was there without knowing what to look for. “That’s none of your concern,” Bakugou said harshly, but All Might was undeterred.
“As your teacher, it is exactly my concern to make sure you have everything you need to be successful,” All Might said, “And this is well within that range. Do you have what you need?”
The care with which All Might asked that only caused irritability to bubble up in Bakugou. “I’ve managed myself this far,” he snapped, “That’s not going to change now. I don’t need anyone getting involved and messing things up.”
All Might looked at Bakugou pensively for a moment before asking, “Messing things up?”
“You know what I mean,” Bakugou scowled.
“I am afraid that I don’t,” All Might said, “But please, help me understand.”
Bakugou rolled his eyes at that. Realizing that he would not be left alone to train any longer he abandoned the punching bag to go over to his bag of stuff and grab his water bottle. “I know the way people act when they find out about these things, and I’m not going to be dealing with any of that shit here,” he said. “I don’t need people getting all weird on me now, and for what, so I can have a couple extra stashes of my supplies? The supplies I already keep with me? Yeah, not going to happen. I am going to be the number one hero; I will not let people’s perceptions of a plastic bag stop me.”
When Bakugou looked back over to All Might, he saw that his teacher’s expression had softened.
“Young Bakugou,” he said, “People are not going to treat you differently because of this. It will not stop you from your goal.”
Bakugou couldn’t help but scoff at that. “Yeah, sure,” he said sarcastically. All Might looked at him expectantly, waiting for Bakugou to elaborate. Normally he would just shrug that off, push anyone away that wanted to talk about this, but before he could do that, he found himself talking. “Look, that damn nerd Deku is not the only one around here who has spent time researching heroes with the hopes of becoming one. I have kept tabs on all the top heroes since I was a kid. None of them were like me, so I expanded my search, looking at local and underground heroes, looking internationally, everything I could get my hands on. Now I am at the best hero school in the world, I’ve learned about more heroes than ever before, I have met more heroes in this past school year than I have in the rest of my life combined, and everything has come to the same conclusion. There aren’t heroes with medical devices, with disabilities. There just aren’t.”
“Now that is not exactly true, is it?” All Might asked. His hand rested lightly against his side, where his scar from his fight against All For One was, the one that took his stomach and his lung and even his appearance.
“And look how that turned out for you, Mr. Symbol of Peace,” Bakugou snapped. Part of him regretted the words as soon as they came out, but it was an embarrassingly small part, because All Might was right. He was the first hero that Bakugou had ever known to be disabled, and he had spent the entire time doing everything he could to hide it from the public, and it only became known after the battle that took the last of his power and drove him into retirement. Not exactly the type of thing that Bakugou was looking for in his search.
“I suppose that is fair,” All Might said, “But that is exactly why I know that you cannot handle this on your own, no matter how much you are determined to.”
Bakugou was tempted to snap back at that, but he didn’t. In all honesty, it was exhausting trying to keep everything hidden. Classes and training on their own were hard. Nothing that Bakugou could not handle, of course, and he was always ready to push those challenges to their limits. But sometimes he wished he could focus simply on that without having to focus on keeping his secret so he wouldn’t be seen differently. The constant vigilance made him feel isolated, not just from his classmates, but from the concept of a hero trainee in general. It was a weight on him, one that he had accepted after so long, but one that he wished he could go without.
Sensing that he had gotten to Bakugou, All Might pressed forward. “Even in the depths of my injury and recovery, I was not doing it alone. From the very beginning I had people on my side, and there is no way that I could have continued as the symbol of peace without them. Letting people in does not make you any less of a hero. You can’t be number one on your own.”
There was sense to what All Might was saying, Bakugou could admit that. “I’m not going to tell any of those damn extras about my situation for some sort of feel-good sentiment about the power of teamwork,” he said. He may have been coming to respect his classmates, possibly even trust them to an extent, but that’s exactly why he did not want them to know. He could not stand the idea of them coming to see him differently for this.
All Might gave Bakugou a little bit of a scolding look when he called his classmates extras but did not push that matter any further for the time being. “I’m not asking you to,” All Might said, “As much as I know the benefits of support, I understand the need for privacy just as much. But you cannot hide it from everyone.”
“What are you getting at?” Bakugou asked.
“Me, Recovery Girl, and Aizawa,” All Might said, ticking off a finger for each name, “We need to know, need to be kept updated on anything you need, and ostomy supplies will be added to all first aid and recovery areas on campus.” Bakugou tensed at that, and seeing that reaction All Might added, “No one needs to be told why or for whom this supply is being added for. Most will not need to be told it is being added at all, but the supplies will be there for you if you need it. Okay?”
“Yeah, whatever,” Bakugou said with a bit of an eye roll, but it was honestly a bit of relief. Having some stocks of supplies would be helpful, and allow him to keep his peace of mind to be able to focus on training without having to worry. Recovery Girl knowing about it would be beneficial; even if he did not need any ostomy related help from her, he would be able to go to for any other issues without having to worry about being found out. As for Aizawa, Bakugou knew from how he treated Deku and his broken bones in the beginning of the year that he would not take the ostomy bag as an excuse to slack off, would not take it as any reason to treat Bakugou differently, which is exactly what Bakugou wanted. If he had to let people in, it could be a lot worse than this group.
“And one more thing,” All Might said, breaking Bakugou from his thoughts. “This is not an enforcement, but an offer.”
Bakugou looked at him a little confused, not sure where this was going, but he listened.
“I would like to meet with you,” All Might explained, “Have some check ins, perhaps at the end of each week.”
“You mean other than the ones with Deku?” He asked.
All Might nodded. “Those meetings check in on his training, and while I am always more than happy to check in with you during those as well, I believe it would be beneficial to have a space of your own to talk about anything you would not feel comfortable sharing in front of others. A place with someone who can understand what it is like.”
Bakugou had to admit, that sounded nice. A place of his own, someone who understood, being able to talk freely about what it was like trying to be a hero with this, or at least not have to pretend like it wasn’t there. “Yeah, sure,” he agreed after a moment, trying to sound nonchalant. “But don’t get the wrong idea, I still plan to surpass you.”
To Bakugou’s surprise, All Might gave a smile at that. “I wouldn’t expect anything less.”