Chapter Text
It had been some time since any of the 1A students had a solid night’s sleep with everything that keeps happening; of course, there isn’t a single person who blames them for being uneasy. (Except Bakugo, who insisted all of this was their fault for being weak.)
The implication of the dorm system didn’t help soothe the unease, their broken nights became more frequent due to the strange sounds and unfamiliar shadows trapsing the walls, which brings attention to a certain redhead awake in the night for the umpteenth time in the week he had been living at UA.
There wasn’t anything particular keeping Kirishima awake, he was just lying there, staring into the black emptiness in the space between him and the wall. The harder he tried to sleep, the further away the possibility seemed, even after having a full day of class and working out he just couldn’t fall asleep. It was infuriating, just sitting in the dark, knowing no matter how much he tossed and turned nothing would change, he would still be laying there unable to sleep.
Realistically he knew it was too late to start a second workout, but he needed something, *anything* to distract him from the silence that was keeping him awake. It was so different from being home, you can’t hear the peaceful sounds of traffic coming by, you really can’t hear anything, and even if the things decorating the room were Kirishima’s things, it still felt strange, like he was in a hotel or something.
Time lulled on in the clocks rhythmic ticking, and by the sound of nearby footsteps, Kirishima knew he wasn’t alone in his struggle, though he couldn’t picture it being Bakugo awake, (As much as he would have liked to have someone to talk to whilst he couldn’t sleep, not like there was anything else to do.) But alas he always had a perfect routine that involved going to bed ridiculously early, so there was zero chance he was up, it was probably Shoji or something.
*
Kirishima didn’t remember ever falling asleep, he sure didn’t feel like he had, but here he was being screamed at by his alarm. He knew he had to get up and get on with his day but having barely slept didn’t help his motivation any. Forcing himself out of the comfort of his bed, he all but crawled his way to the closet, getting ready for his morning run, praying that it would refill his energy levels better than any cup of coffee had the chance to do.
Running at this time of morning was always painful for a non-morning-person like Kirishima, the cold air stinging his skin as he pushed his body forward until he reached his limits, it always helped his grumpy morning state. Every time without fail he returned to the dorms exhausted but flashing that bright shark-toothed smile, now fully prepared to face the day.
Once Kirishima was back inside the quiet of his dorm, he began preparing for school like the rest of the residents at the dorms, almost every student in the same routine, except for one; Bakugo. God that man was always doing things his own way, always dancing to the beat of his own drum, it was manly as hell. Anyways, it didn’t take him too long to get ready, other than the time it took to gel and style his hair into its sharp points until it could stand tall on its own.
Even though he was ready early, the time it took for his hair to set made him almost late to class, running down the hall with only a minute or two to spare, though he knew he wasn’t the only one who would be running late since Kaminari and mina were often barely arriving before Aizawa-sensei himself. Though what was more surprising was that when he entered the classroom, there were no red eyes sending any piercing glare of reprimand to him, in fact the explosive blonde wasn’t present at all.
Trying to shrug off the missing presence of his best bro, Kirishima took his seat as he always did, watching Aizawa follow him in, crawling along in his renowned yellow sleeping bag. The lesson was a basic one, and certainly nothing to be missed, just some nonsense about formalities and public etiquette, really it was only people like Iida who were actually paying attention to this dribble. Everyone else, much like Kirishima, were fiddling with their pens and passing notes, doing anything to pass the time. Before anyone knew it, there was the first blessed disruption of the class, albeit an unexpected one, Bakugo slamming the door open before trudging to his seat, barely even acknowledging that he was interrupting. That would have to be the first time that guy had been late, like, ever, Midoriya was dumbfounded by the fact, so it must be just as rare as he thought it was, and honestly, that should’ve been the first sign that something wasn’t right.
The guy looked terrible, no offence to Bakugo of course, talking bad about your friend was unmanly, but Bakugo really didn’t look right. He was more slouched than usual, and he seemed unfocused, restless even, Kirishima hadn’t even realized he’d been staring until he copped a scarf to the head from Aizawa. Bakugo definitely wasn’t right though, his head just wasn’t in it which was the absolute last phrase you could normally use to describe him, I mean he was the most driven and concentrated person Kirishima had ever met, and that was why he admired Bakugo so much, but now something was different, he looked disinterested, even when it was clear he was trying to pay attention.
The rest of the class seemed to go by pretty seamlessly, although Kirishima couldn’t shake the thought of there being something wrong with his friend, even when it was the smallest thing bothering someone it always affected Kirishima, he was just a good guy like that, the real golden retriever type. Either way, he was glad to be out of that terribly boring class and out to recess with his friends where they could finally stretch their legs.
*
(Bakugo’s POV)
The day had already had a hellish start, to begin with, he fucking slept through his alarm, which never happened, ever, then he was late to class, and in said class he could barely pay attention to a damn thing the teacher was saying, oh and on top of that it seemed that his ‘friend’ had already caught onto the fact that he wasn’t 100%, damn bastard was probably already sniffing out his weaknesses.
The end of class couldn’t come quick enough, he legitimately wanted to run out of the class to somewhere he could hide and just cause irreparable damage to something. He was always the perfect student aside from his lack of cooperation with his peers, but he didn’t see how that was necessary anyway, it wasn’t like he needed any of those extras help to pass this course at the top of the ladder, and now he was stumbling because of some stupid nightmares.
When they had started, they weren’t that bad. They were more focused on the kidnapping itself, the feeling of being dragged off into the league’s base, a thing that his mind had come to terms with, and it didn’t bother him since the way he saw it, there was nothing anyone could’ve done to stop that from happening no matter what way he played it out in his head. It was when they started progressing to certain elements that the nightmares started impacting him. Like the restraints, it sent him flying back into the capture of the sludge villain, where he couldn’t move or breathe, the same way he responded to being restrained at the sports festival. Then it just kept getting worse and more obstructive to his life from there, and the worst part was that it felt like there was nothing he could do again, Bakugo’s mind did not cope with feeling useless or vulnerable.
He did not end up running away, in fact he just followed the group of idiots Kirishima hung out with, normally he lead the group but he couldn’t be fucked keeping up that effort, still caught up on trying to brush things off like he was normal, saying it was just him getting distracted training to avoid the groups questions on why he was late, or why he ‘looked like shit’, he kept trying to pretend that everything was normal, that he was just so intense when training that he lost track of time. He was too tired to keep arguing with the self-proclaimed ‘bakusquad’ to keep it up, so he stopped bothering and waited for one of the morons to change the topic since he knew they were physically incapable of sitting in silence for more than five seconds.
The rest of the day had continued like that, Bakugo acting like normal Bakugo despite looking like he had given up, being unable to pay the normal amount of concentration to either the groups discussions or the classwork they had been assigned, all whilst dodging questions from people, in particular Deku and Shitty hair since they were the only two who really knew anything about Bakugo and noticed even the smallest change in his disposition. Luckily for him, he could just blow Deku up the second he tried to talk to him, but with shitty hair.. avoiding that situation was more difficult, and lying wasn’t bakugo’s strong suit so he knew full well that Kirishima didn’t believe that everything was as fine as Bakugo told him it was.
Lying to Kirishima was difficult, he was probably the only person in the whole fucking country that Bakugo actually felt connected to, they were equals, they worked well together, even their goddamn quirks fit perfectly together. It was like Kirishima was built to withstand his bullshit, and now that Bakugo was hidden away In his dorm whilst everyone else was in the common room, he actually had a chance to berate himself for the situation he had allowed himself to fall into, only weak people had problems like this, problems that couldn’t be solved by yourself.
*
(Kirishima’s POV)
Outside of Bakugo, the day had been good, he and the group had spent most of their time discussing this new game that had just been released, even through class they passed notes to try and survive the dry topic they had been studying, really the only people who needed social etiquette lessons were Mineta, Midoriya, Koda, Todoroki and of course, Bakugo. Everyone else was pretty good at talking to both the press and civilians. Kirishima personally enjoyed a good chat, but of course the school had found a way to make having a simple conversation riddled with rules and tear-jerking boring.
As much as he wanted to concentrate on the positive parts of his day, he still was concerned about his friend. Bakugo had never been late nor looked as exhausted or distracted as he did, for once he was acting how the rest of the group did, which was a worry considering it was freaking Bakugo they were talking about, who was nothing like Denki or Mina, he actually really cared about his schooling, it was so manly how much of a nerd Bakugo actually was- but all of that had seemingly washed away today..
Maybe it would be a one-time thing, maybe the footsteps last night were bakugo’s, and maybe it was just a rough night. No matter how perfect his best friend tried to be, he was still human, and having a night of bad sleep after everything that had happened wasn’t something unexpected. He just hoped that both of them slept better tonight, neither of them needed to be half asleep tomorrow when they had hero training.
Kirishima had many struggles of his own while he grew up, and those experiences molded him into the caring and open guy that he is today, and the pain of the idea that Bakugo was going through anything remotely like that was agonizing. It was no secret that he was an empath, someone who would always give before even considering taking from someone else, and these traits yearned to help the blonde in any way that they could. He knew that Bakugo wouldn’t want to yield to his emotions, nor would he surrender and give in to Kirishima’s words, but like hell was that going to stop him from trying his guts out.
He understood that he needed to pay more attention to the rest of his friends and the coursework he was meant to be learning, but he couldn’t sway the constant thoughts of Katsuki’s suffering.. He also knew that he shouldn’t take on other people’s emotions so wholeheartedly, since he always ended up burnt by it all, but he couldn’t help it. Self-destructive as it may be, he needed to be needed. Though perhaps Bakugo wouldn’t admit it, they needed each other, and that was a bond that’s rather unique and special, something life-long.