"It's your anniversary."
"And you brought me flowers!" Bakugou snorted at the other's enthusiasm and knelt down in front of Kirishima's marker.
"I brought your cross flowers," he said. Bakugou dropped the box he had been carrying under his arm on the grass beside him, placing the vibrant summery bundle of peonies, cornflowers, and dahlias on top of it. Kirishima shuffled closer, pointedly staring at that box and Bakugou pointedly ignoring him staring at the box.
"Probably for the best," Kirishima replied, and Bakugou smirked. "It's a pretty bleak anniversary."
"How was the void?" Kirishima looked away from the box, disappointed and impatient, and leaned back onto his palms instead. Bakugou still didn't acknowledge the other's intrigue, definitely out of cruelty, and began pulling the dead flowers away from the cross. He threw them absentmindedly towards the edge of the cliff, some going over and some not, and began to take the healthier flowers away, too.
"I saw Mina and the boys, actually."
"Yeah?" Bakugou made a neat pile of the still-living flowers off to the side and started to move the other items as well; plastic candles, a small teddy bear, and a few now water damaged photos that had been distressed by the weather. His fingers hesitated around the one that matched the missing posters, Kirishima's giant smile and red hair still astoundingly visible despite being faded by the sun. Bakugou rested that photo onto the pile and gave Kirishima his attention, the other watching him idly with the same smile from the photo and not at all concerned about what Bakugou was doing with his mementos.
"Yeah, they're having a get-together in my honour," he said proudly, the grin growing wider as he said the words.
"They invited me." A loud, dramatic gasp was wrenched from Kirishima and he placed his hand to his chest with a mock-offended look.
"And you didn't want to go?" The theatrics were quickly replaced with curiosity, humorously so, when Bakugou slid the box over in front of them.
"I wanted to see you instead."
"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you're trying to woo me."
"Good thing you know better." Kirishima nudged him with his elbow, straightening up when Bakugou removed the cluster of flowers from the top of the box. "I also wanted to bring you this."
The lid was removed, revealing a cross roughly about the same size as the one situated in front of them. The replacement cross Bakugou had brought before hadn't been shoddy and didn't look pathetic, but it had been thrown together in a haste, lacking the care he now knew Kirishima deserved. The wood of the new cross was smooth and undamaged, with beveled edges, flush joints, and a gloss varnish. It wasn't marked with intricate designs, dates, or even Kirishima's name; the surface remained simple and pristine, stained with a rich, red mahogany.
"Wow…" Kirishima said quietly after a long moment, eyes scanning the cross over again in a loss for words. "Holy shit, it's so cool! You made this? For me?"
"Well, the first one you had was a lot nicer than the piece of shit you have now," Bakugou added flippantly, and he felt the tips of his ears heat up, praying the saturated light of the setting sun would mask any tinges of pink. "And I brought you some new candles, some photos from Mina, and this… thing…" Bakugou reached into the box and pulled out a small toy, holding it out to Kirishima.
"Is that Crimson Riot?" He snatched the small action figure from Bakugou's hand, his eyes lighting up so much that Bakugou was almost worried that he'd start crying.
"Mina mentioned you were a big fucking nerd."
"Crimson Riot is not nerdy!"
They bickered back and forth about what was and wasn't nerdy as they removed the old cross from the ground and replaced it with the new one. Once in place, ensuring that the marker was secure in the ground, they took a moment to admire their work. The red of the stain mingled with the honey-coloured light from the remaining sun in a way that nearly made the cross look golden. Kirishima fawned over it some more, shaking Bakugou's shoulder in his excitement, and Bakugou tried to play off the heat rising into his cheeks.
Satisfied with the new marker, Kirishima leaned back against his hands once more and watched Bakugou return the objects to the base. "You saw your doctor yesterday, right? How'd it go?" A loud, unrestrained groan came from Bakugou's mouth and he momentarily didn't say anything, laying the delicate flowers down with a little bit too much force. Kirishima laughed, wincing in sympathy when a cornflower hadn't passed Bakugou's now heated quality check and was popped from the stem.
"She brought up anger management again," Bakugou muttered, "Said I have a lot of anger that I need to learn how to control."
"No, you?" The glare he shot towards Kirishima was most definitely threatening. "The guy who desecrated my grave in a fit of rage right before we first met? The one who just decapitated a flower in front of my very eyes because it was ugly?"
"Shut the fuck up." With the items back in place and Bakugou content with how the flowers were situated, he threw the remaining greenery left over from the bouquet into Kirishima's face. He sputtered between his chuckles, swatting away the leaves and stems, throwing some back in retaliation.
"Gunna do it?"
Bakugou didn't answer right away. He twirled one of the stems between his thumb and finger, and a strange heaviness began to settle in his chest. It was the same feeling he got when he had to do something he dreaded, but it was something that needed to be done. He couldn't shy away from the task, as much as he wanted to, and had to press forward because there was nowhere else to go. If he didn't move forward, he wouldn't move at all.
"I think so…" When the words came out, the air was different. It changed. The words would've seemed like nothing to anyone else, but Kirishima understood. He stopped Bakugou's hand from playing with the flower, easily linking their fingers together, and gave him a reassuring nod. "I wish I knew you when you were alive," Bakugou said quickly and his voice was hoarse, "I think about it all the time. Maybe I could've done something or—"
"Stop." Kirishima tightened his grip on Bakugou's hand to cut the sentence off and looked at him with serious eyes. "We weren't supposed to know each other then. We were supposed to know each other now. Don't go mourning 'what ifs,' Kats. This was always how we were supposed to know each other."
"I hate your cosmic wisdom bullshit," he tried to joke and the seriousness in Kirishima's face softened into a weak smile. The next words Bakugou had to say sat stubbornly in his throat, the only sound coming out when he opened his mouth being a sharp breath. Through the salty sting of tears in his eyes, Bakugou could see Kirishima's smile shift into something comforting and reassuring - something pleading and hopeful. Bakugou didn't want to say the words, but Kirishima needed to hear them. He leaned forward into Kirishima's space, and the other boy met him, resting their foreheads together gently. Bakugou closed his eyes and took in a calming breath, feeling cool thumbs brush against his cheekbones when Kirishima brought his hands to his face.
It had been a year and so much had changed. Not everything was perfect and not everything was fixed. Bakugou was maybe only a few flights of stairs up the mountain, but it was a significant improvement from when he first met Kirishima. Back then he was at the base of the mountain, shovel in hand, and digging himself a hole.
"I think I'm going to be okay."
He opened his eyes and Kirishima pressed a chaste kiss to the crown of his head. He pulled away and looked at Bakugou knowingly, smile still ever-present.
"I think so, too."
. . .
Neither said anything else. There was a strange mix of peaceful acceptance and aching loss; ease and unease blending together seamlessly. It was the perfect mix that somehow had both boys feeling simultaneously happy and heartbroken. They spent hours in silence, basking in each other's remaining company, and watched the stars appear like grains of salt against a lavender sky. Maybe it was crazy how many stars there were, Bakugou mused.