Kirishima wakes up like he is rising from the depths of the ocean. He feels drugged, or perhaps just painfully, bone-achingly tired. Yet even after time passes – he isn't sure how much time – he realizes that he cannot move.

He isn't restrained; sensation has come back to his limbs, although everything feels very far away, and he can tell he's on something soft, probably a bed, covered by a blanket. There's a tightness in one of his arms that might be an IV, but overall his body feels fine, whole. If he was injured, it's all been healed.

Because he cannot move, he can't open his eyes, but he can tell when the room gets suddenly brighter – the lights are flicked on, maybe, or someone abruptly opens the curtains. He hears footsteps, drawing nearer and nearer before stopping. Desperately Kirishima tries to remember where he was and how he got there, but he can't remember anything. It was the weekend, right? The last thing he remembers is deciding to leave campus to go shopping with some people – he can't remember the shopping itself, just planning it, can't remember if it's Friday or Saturday or maybe even Sunday.

"Recovery Girl says it's from a quirk." The voice is Uraraka's, low and worried, and comes from near his left ear. "She says he's all healed physically, but…"

He doesn't know who she's talking to. After a beat, he hears her turn and leave.

.

He is not sure if he's awake or not. His body feels like it's perpetually in that state between sleep and wakefulness, but he's pretty sure the things he hears aren't dreams. They're way too mundane for that. He hears what must be nurses, discussing a different patient, using medical terms he wouldn't understand under the best of circumstances; he hears footsteps in the hall and the sound of a vacuum in the next room. Time seems to stretch out forever. He wishes he was sleeping, so at least dreams could give him some source of entertainment, but he's left with the scatterings of ambient noise and his own fractured thoughts.

Later, although he has no idea how much later, there are more voices. These, he can recognize, although they're blending together so that he cannot make out any individual strain of conversation. He hears Ashido and Midoriya and Hagakure; he can pick out Kaminari after a moment, and what he thinks might be Sero, but he isn't sure. To try and pick out what they are saying is like listening to an orchestra and trying to hear the notes of an individual instrument. It's much easier for Kirishima to relax and let the voices blend together. The familiarity of their voices is somehow soothing.

More footsteps, someone new entering the room. The voices still. "We're researching this quirk. The villain has used it on law enforcement in the past," a new voice announces, and Kirishima can tell it's Aizawa. "It will go away on its own after a few weeks…"

"A few weeks?" That has to be Bakugou.

"…or if we catch the perpetrator, of course," Aizawa continues, ignoring the outburst. "And I was able to speak directly to one of the police officers who got hit." A pause. "He says he was fully aware the entire time."

A long silence, until someone says simply, "What?"

"He was unable to move, but he could hear and feel everything the entire time." Footsteps again, this time moving towards the door. "I've got to go see how the search is getting on."

"W-wait! Aizawa-sensei!" It's Midoriya, and Kirishima hears him follow the teacher out, hears his voice getting softer as they get further away. "Tell me about this quirk! What do you mean when you say…"

The room is cast into a stunned silence that lasts for maybe thirty seconds. "That sounds like bullshit," Bakugou says. "Wasn't that guy's quirk 'Sleep'-something? So shouldn't Kirishima be, you know… asleep?"

"It was Sleep Paralysis," someone else says. Kaminari, Kirishima thinks. "Oh my God…"

"Is it true?" Ashido says. Kirishima hears her draw closer, feels the press of her arm on his shoulder. "Kirishima, can you hear us?"

"He's not going to answer you, fuckhead."

"That legitimately sounds like hell," someone else says, and Kirishima can't follow who it is anymore, there are too many people, they're standing on both sides of him now. He wants to open his eyes – or better, just to say, Yes, that's right, I can hear you, I hear everything – but of course, he can't even move any part of himself.

"He's not in pain, right?"

"He didn't even need to be healed. Just scrapes and bruises from hitting the ground."

"Well, that's good. So he's not suffering or anything."

"Uhh, hello!" It's Kaminari. "I'm pretty sure 'hearing everything but not being able to move' counts as suffering!"

A pause. "Yeah, true," someone else says, her tone sad. Hagakure, maybe. If so, it's miles away from the perky tone Kirishima is used to from her. "It sounds really boring. And lonely."

"We have to come in every day to keep him company." It's Ashido, and Kirishima feels her squeeze his shoulder. It's reassuring – somehow the contact makes him feel more real. "You know he'd do the same for us."

He feels a little swell of pride at that.

"I can bring in a radio to leave in here while we're in class." It's Jirou – he hadn't even realized she was here. Kirishima wonders how many people are in the room, wishes desperately that he could see. "That's better than nothing, right?"

"That's a really good idea," Mina says. "We should make some sort of schedule so someone's with him all the time when we're not in school, to keep him company."

"What good would that do?" Bakugou says. Kirishima hears the sneer in his voice. "What would one person do? Sit next to him and read? Do their homework?" A pause. "It has to be two people, idiot."

"Oh my God, Bakugou, you're totally right," Hagakure says. "That makes so much sense!"

Bakugou doesn't answer, and it's Mina who speaks next. "Let's make a signup sheet," she says. "We can hang it in the classroom. Everyone loves you so much, Kirishima. I'm sure there won't be a minute you're alone if we can help it."

.

But he is alone at night.

The hospital doesn't allow guests at night, probably. Or so he reassures himself. He isn't sure if he's sleeping, or how much; he tries counting his breaths to try and keep track of time, but every few hundred he loses count. Oh God, he feels like he's going insane. He can't tell if the sky's getting brighter or if that's just a light that's been on the whole time. Get me a clock that chimes the hour, he wants to tell them, whenever they come next. Something, anything to give me some sense of the passage of time. The night felt like an endless hallway, stretching on into forever.

Finally he hears footsteps, someone approaching his bed. Jirou's voice: "Hey Kirishima. I brought that radio I promised. I don't know what kind of music you like, so… I'll just set it to my favorite station." He hears a click, then the white-noise sound of ads. "Sorry I can't stay any longer, I'm going to be late for class as it is."

The radio's set to a hard-rock station, and normally Kirishima isn't too fond of that, but holy hell does it make all the difference for him that day. There's some sort of morning talk show where they play a trivia game, and between the music and the traffic updates and the weather forecast he feels like a real person again, living on Earth instead of some sort of awful purgatory. He owes Jirou so much for that little radio, he thinks. More than he could make up to her in a lifetime.

The daytime hours pass much more quickly than the nighttime ones did, and Kirishima is almost surprised when he hears more people from his class approaching. "Today sucked," Hagakure announced. "Everyone missed you."

"I can't believe they made us go to class when he's…" Kaminari trailed off, sighed.

"Well, if he truly is going to be unconscious for several weeks, it would be highly impractical to suspend school for that entire period of time…"

"Shut the fuck up, glasses-face!"

"…but I agree with Kaminari and Hagakure. It certainly makes it hard to focus when a member of our class is in such a state."

"On the upside," Ashido says, "we've got the entire signup filled out for the next two weeks! You won't need to spend a minute alone, Kirishima."

"Except for, you know, 9 pm to 8 am, and when we're in school," Sero says morosely.

Ashido sighs. "You're such a downer, dude."

"Ooh," Hagakure squeals, "read the list! Who's with who?"

Kirishima hears the unzip of a backpack, the crinkling of paper. Ashido clears her throat. "So it starts tomorrow," she says. "Since I figured we could just hang out here today. Alright, tomorrow we've got Midoriya, Iida and Uraraka from right after school until 4, then Hagakure and Sato from 4 to 5, Jiro and Yaoyorozu from 5 to 6, myself and Kaminari from 7 until 8, and Bakugou from 8 to 9." She pauses. "Bakugou, weren't you the one who said it should be groups of two or more? Look at this, you guys, he scribbled out the space for the other names to go."

"I just didn't want any idiots signing up with me."

"But the point is –"

"I know the point," Bakugou grumbles. "I can keep him entertained or whatever by myself."

"Don't do anything weird!" Hagakure says, giggling.

"Ahem," Ashido says again. "On Wednesday, it's me, Aoyama and Sero for an hour, then… Hagakure and Iida for three hours? Is that right?"

"It's the day before that big English test, so no one wanted to do it," Hagakure says. "But Iida promised he'd help me study!"

"That's very upstanding of you, Iida."

"It's my pleasure!"

"And then Bakugou for the remaining two hours," she finishes.

"Yeah, yeah," Bakugou grumbles. "I don't need the lecture again."

"Wasn't going to say anything. So on Thursday…"

Kirishima can't keep track of all of the names, but his heart positively swells with happiness and pride. Everyone in his class is volunteering to spend time with him, it seems like, and even a few people from outside of it.

On all sides of him, Kirishima can hear them getting out their things and starting homework. How many people are even in the room? It seemed like half his class.

A few hours later, he hears some of the group leave and return shortly with food. Kirishima can smell it, can nearly feel his mouth watering. "Don't even say anything, Iida!" he hears Hagakure say. "This is probably against the rules, but desperate times call for desperate measures!"

"I-I wasn't going to, I swear!"

The room is lulled into a sleepy calm as the evening goes on. Kirishima can hear people leaving, one by one. "Oh, yeah," he hears Jirou say from quite close by, "what kind of music does he like to listen to?"

"Good question," Ashido says. "Pop? I think?"

"Yeah, pop," Kaminari says. "That's what he works out to."

"Got it." Kirishima hears the rock station start up, then the buzz of static as Jirou reconfigures the radio. After a moment he hears a more familiar song. It makes him feel warm that they know what he likes to listen to, and that they care.

The remaining handful of people say goodbye. He feels Ashido stroke his forehead the way you might to comfort a sick person; Kaminari ruffles his hair. Slowly, one by one, he hears his friends leave, until all he can hear is the radio.

About an hour later, someone turns the radio off.

.

His hell stretches longer the next day – from, he estimates, ten at night, until school lets out in the mid-afternoon. Anything would be better than that agonizing boredom.

Thank God that as soon as he hears the sound of people approaching, just a moment after they enter the room, he hears Midoriya's voice: "The radio's off!"

"What did you say?" Uraraka asks.

"The radio. The one Jirou brought. I thought it was going to be kept on all night."

"I guess someone turned it off?"

"I'll let Ashido know," Midoriya says.

He must have, because when she and Kaminari arrive she addresses Kirishima directly. She's one of the few people who does, and he likes it – it makes him feel less like he's a ghost. "I heard someone turned the radio off last night," she says. "I'm sorry about that. I'll write a note. Hey, Kaminari, you got a pen?"

Kirishima hears a shuffling, the sound of a pen being uncapped. "Here. It says, 'Please keep radio on at all times!' with three exclamation points. Do you think that's enough?"

"Maybe you should say why or something?"

"There's not really enough space. I could do an asterisk and explain it on the back, maybe…"

"Should we, like, tape it to his face? So they can't miss it?"

He hears Ashido's giggle. "Not a bad idea, honestly. Nah, I'll stick it… in front of the radio. They can't miss that. Hopefully."

Even without the radio on, that evening he can mark the passage of time by who's in the room with him. So when he hears a new person approaching, and Ashido says, "Oh, there's Bakugou," he knows it must be about eight o'clock.

"We were just heading out." A pause, then she adds, "Apparently the radio was switched off overnight. It was off the whole day, too."

Bakugou grunts. Kirishima hears Kaminari and Ashido saying goodbye, then the scrape of a chair that must be Bakugou sitting down. A minute of silence, but a silence that, for Kirishima, is loaded; just knowing he's not alone in the room changes the atmosphere somehow.

"I guess I should talk, shouldn't I. Can't believe I volunteered to entertain your ass." A pause. "So I got this idea. You're missing a fuckton of school, probably, and you're gonna have a lot of catching up to do. So I figured… why not just get a head start on tutoring you? Since I'm probably going to be the one doing it anyways." A sharp laugh. "Yeah, it's not going to make your little nap any more fun, is it."

He didn't know what to expect when he learned Bakugou had volunteered for at least an hour (and sometimes two) every single day of the entire two weeks, with the exception of just a couple of days. It makes a little more sense now, Kirishima figures. And it's nice of him. Really nice.

It's a little out of character for Bakugou, maybe, but Kirishima knows that what Ashido said before is true – he would do the same for any of his friends in the same situation without hesitation (although he isn't actually sure if Bakugou would appreciate that or not, were the situations reversed).

Bakugou begins explaining some math concept they learned today, and it's hard to really picture it without being able to see anything, so instead Kirishima just focuses on the other boy's voice, slipping in and out of focus. Kirishima's tired, not in a physical way, but in an existential way; he hopes he will be able to sleep that night, dreads the hell that is silence stretching for hours upon hours.

Bakugou went silent. Kirishima strained to hear what was going on, if he was leaving or what, and heard nothing for maybe a minute. "I wonder if what Aizawa said is even true," Bakugou says at last, his voice quiet but not inaudible. "Maybe he's just pulling our leg and you're asleep after all. Wouldn't that be a laugh." Kirishima felt something touch his forehead sharply – Bakugou had poked it or flicked it, probably. "This fucking sucks. You're the laziest hero in the world, you know that? Get your ass out of bed for once. Jesus."

There's no bite in his words, and towards the end his voice takes on a strange tone, one Kirishima hasn't heard before. A pause, the sound of Bakugou unzipping and digging in his backpack, and then it's back to math as if the lecture hadn't been interrupted at all.

The hour passes way, way too quickly. Bakugou turns the radio on. "I should turn this to classical music or something," he says. "Wouldn't that be funny." He doesn't, a fact for which Kirishima is quite grateful – although that would have still been far more bearable than silence.

Bakugou is further away, probably in the doorway, when Kirishima hears him speak for the last time that night: "They better not turn the fucking radio off."

.

They turn the fucking radio off.

.

The next morning, just as Kirishima is beginning to hear the ambient noise of the hospital again, someone enters his room, turns the radio back on, and leaves.

After school, he hears Aoyama, Ashido and Sero attempt to study for about ten minutes, then descend rapidly into gossip and talking about their personal lives. Aoyama, it seems, has a crush on someone, although he's being tight-lipped about who. He won't even say if it's a boy or girl, although Kirishima has his suspicions. "I don't know how to get this person to notice me," he whines.

"I'm pretty sure everyone notices you, sweetie," Ashido says.

"What have you tried so far?" Sero asks.

"Um…"

It's forty-five minutes of Ashido and Sero trying to convince Aoyama to confess to his crush, and Aoyama being pseudo-shy and complaining, but even that's not so bad – Kirishima feels like he knows his classmates a little better now. He'll have something to talk about with Aoyama when he's up again.

"I'm sorry I'm late!" a new voice says – Iida.

"Only by one minute," Ashido says. "Hagakure isn't even here yet."

As if summoned, Kirishima hears her burst into the room. "I've got snacks!"

"I think I can stay for a little while longer," Ashido says.

"Study with us!" Hagakure says. "It'll be like a big study party!"

"Studying and partying do not go together," Iida says, although he doesn't sound particularly convinced.

"It'll be fun!"

They do end up staying a little while longer, maybe half an hour, before taking off. Kirishima finds himself amused at the back and forth of Iida and Hagakure. At first they try to study in earnest, but Hagakure's not nearly as good at focusing as Iida, so not much time passes before she tries to engage him in idle conversation. He rebuffs it again and again until finally he says, "I guess we can take a break."

"Woo!" Hagakure says. "And look at the time. We're halfway there! Thanks, Iida!" There's the crinkling of what might be bags of chips or candy, and silence as Kirishima assumes they're eating. After a few minutes he hears Hagakure speak again, her tone much more restrained: "Were you there when he was hit by that villain's quirk?"

"No," Iida says. "Just Ashido and Kaminari were with him, I believe."

"Do you know much about it?"

"No more than you, unfortunately. I'd suggest talking with Aizawa-sensei or Midoriya if you want to learn more – they might be able to help you."

"Thanks, Iida." Hagakure sighs. "I bet it gets super lonely here at night." A pause. "I've got a great idea!"

"W-what is it?"

"Okay, so, I'll get naked…"

"Excuse me?!"

"…and I'll hide in the room and wait for them to lock up, right, and then I'll hang out with Kirishima until school begins! I'm sure that would be more fun than just lying there all alone!"

"W-while that's very – uh, thoughtful of you, first of all, that's highly against the rules… second of all, with that English test tomorrow –"

"Oh come on, you have to know I was joking, right?" She sighs. "Well, maybe fifty percent joking. Poor Kirishima."

They say nothing until they begin studying again. Kirishima finds himself losing focus, almost as if he's drifting in and out of consciousness. He isn't sure if he's actually dozing or just zoning out, but he's startled into full attention when he hears Hagakure exclaim, "Oh, there's Bakugou!"

They leave soon after, and he's alone with Bakugou again. "I see you didn't take my words to heart," he says. "Still haven't gotten your sorry ass out of bed." There's the squeak of a folding chair, the noises of Bakugou pulling something out of his backpack. "We started this shitty new book in literature class today, and I was gonna read it earlier but I realized, you know, I might as well use my time to do homework." Kirishima's stomach falls, and he prepares for two hours of listening to Bakugou turn pages, when he hears the other boy's voice – unsure at first, a little on edge, growing with confidence as he goes on.

Bakugou is reading to him.

If he could, he'd laugh in surprise and delight. Bakugou's voice is a little stiff but wholly pleasant to listen to. It's better by far than the math concepts, because Kirishima can actually follow the story.

The two hours pass far, far too quickly. Bakugou keeps reading until there are footsteps and an unfamiliar woman's voice says, "Excuse me, but visiting hours are over for the day."

"Alright, whatever," Bakugou says, shutting the book with a snap. A beat. "Hey, wait," Bakugou says, getting up, and Kirishima realizes he must be talking to the nurse – running after her into the hallway. Kirishima can't hear their conversation, though he strains to make out the words.

"I've got an hour tomorrow evening, so I guess I'll be back to read some more of this novel," Bakugou says when he returns. "If you haven't woken up by that point or whatever, I guess."

.

That night, the radio stays on.