By the time Calliope woke up Saturday morning, it was already past noon. She and the Skelebros had eaten cake and drank champagne til the early hours of the morning. The last thing she remembered was dozing against Sam as they sat together against his headboard listening to music through shared headphones. But considering she had woken up in her own bed, he must have carried her back to her room. Surprisingly, she wasn't embarrassed by the thought.
After washing and dressing, she knocked on the brothers' door and informed them that she'd have to skip brunch.
"I've just got to go and speak to one of the students about something," she told Sam and Russ as they lounged lazily in the midday, sunlit room. They were both in their underwear and Calliope had to refrain from giggling; they looked like a pair of teenagers.
They didn't pry into her afternoon plans, much to her appreciation and simply told her to text them when she fancied grabbing a bite to eat.
"We can all head into the city later." Sam yawned, dressed in nothing but boxer shorts and pink slippers. She didn't know which to comment on first; his footwear or his scar. The old Calliope had surely heard both explanations before- she couldn't help but feel a little silly when she mentioned it anyway.
"GasterBlaster Disaster..." he stated, pointing at his scarred chest, "undeniable comfort." He finished, pointing at his slippers.
Calliope blinked. He grinned and promised to retell her the full story again over dinner later.
She snorted a laugh, shaking her head as she closed the door. Though it would have been easy to mope about her memory loss, Calliope couldn't help but enjoy the fact she could relive meeting the Skelebros all over again.
The student she intended to speak to was Kirishima; she still wanted to follow her hunch that Bakugo was withholding information from her. As she wandered the corridors to the boys' dorms, feeling extremely awkward and out of place, she questioned why she insisted on perusing her suspicions. In the end, she put it down to mere curiosity. There was a lot of mystery surrounding the incident. No one seemed to know what had happened to have triggered her quirk to react in such a way. All she and the Skelebros knew was that it would have had to have been something traumatic. Why then, did she want to find out so badly? Did she really want to know what it was that had happened? In truth, yes. Because to not know would plague her forever. In some sense, to find out would give her closure.
Just then, the sound of a door opening snapped her out of her inner monologue.
"Hey Calli, you need something?" Asked Kaminari brightly as his blond head poked into the corridor.
"Oh, hey there, Kaminari." She replied sweetly, she had always had a soft spot for the class goof.
"I'm actually looking for Kirishima. Do you know which room is his?"
Another door opened and Iida appeared. He politely informed her that she was on the wrong floor and that she needed to go up the stairs. It was Kaminari who offered to take her there first.
As they scaled the staircase, the electric-wielding student chatting merrily to her. He told her how happy he was to hear that she and the Skelebros would be staying a bit longer and he complimented her skills during her fight with Sans.
"How's he holding up anyway? It's good to see him smiling again. We were all worried about him at one point." He babbled as they arrived on the 4th floor.
"He's doing great." Calliope replied with a smile. She was already aware of Sam's downward spiral during her absence; Russ had been the one to tell her. So she made no comment at Kaminari's mention of it.
"That's good to hear! And it's great to see you smiling again too! We all missed you!"
Calliope's smile widened. He was such a sweet boy, it was hard not to feel cheery in his presence. He walked her right to Kirishima's door and bid her farewell. She waited until he had descended the stairs again before knocking.
It took her three attempts before the red-haired teenager came to door. He must have been working out to music or something because his vest was covered in sweat.
"Oh, hey Calli!" He greeted, his face housing delightful surprise.
"Hey," she smiled back.
"I er-I was wondering if I could talk to you about something..." She suddenly felt rather intrusive. But Kirishima only beamed and opened his door wide to let her enter.
Unsurprisingly, his room boasted masculinity.
"'Scuse the mess," he commented bashfully, kicking a few books under his bed.
As her eyes took in the decor, Calliope was reminded of the youngest Skelebro, Russ. Though she could no longer remember what his room back in America looked like, this is how she imagined it to be. She then wondered briefly what her own room must look like...
"So what did you need?" Kirishima asked, halting her train of thought. He had plonked himself down on his desk chair and draped a towel across the back of his neck.
Calliope turned on the spot, not quite sure what to do with herself. Should she sit on his bed? When he gestured with his hand, she took that as a 'yes' and perched lightly at the place opposite him.
"I was actually wondering if you could tell me something..." she said with a small smile that didn't quite mask her nerves.
"Sure, shoot!" He chimed back, flashing her a toothy, encouraging grin. He swerved left and right on his desk chair as he patiently waited for her to continue.
"Well. It's about the day I turned to stone."
At her words, Kirishima's smile wavered and his movements stilled.
"Oh."
Heaving a sigh, she pressed on.
"I know you and some other students were there. And..." she scratched nervously beneath her visor, "and I was wondering if you could tell me what happened- what you saw."
The boy looked hesitant, his eyes trying to search hers but unable to penetrate the visor that shielded him from her quirk.
"What I saw?" He repeated, slow and steady.
Calliope nodded. The silence that followed prompted him to speak. Carefully, making sure to pause before each sentence to gather his thoughts, he recalled how Yaoyorozu had alerted the class to the news. They had all gathered around the T.V and were later joined by the Skelebros. The brothers had then rushed off to find Calli. Kirishima, Deku, Ochako, Mina and Bakugo had followed.
"So you all just stayed at the fountain until the teachers arrived?" Calliope inquired, hoping she didn't sound too obvious. She was fishing for one detail in particular; one that confirmed her hunch was indeed correct.
"Yeah..." Kirishima quipped, then paused again.
"Well, Bakugo took off somewhere-"
I knew it.
"Where?" Calliope asked, trying to keep the eagerness from her voice.
But before the red-haired teen could answer, there was a loud knock at the door. The person on the other side didn't wait for an answer and let themselves inside. They were met with Bakugo's scowling face as his lean body appeared in the doorway.
"Oh hey, man!" Kirishima called, a slight timid tinge to his greeting. He had after-all just been talking about his explosive, blonde friend. Had he overheard?
"Calli. Did you want to ask me something?" Bakugo asked gruffly.
His eyes fixed her with a steely stare, one that was not too dissimilar from when he'd stare down an opponent. The teenager was challenging her to try and act coy. They both knew why she was in Kirishima's room. Calliope suddenly felt quite guilty for her slyness.
Kirishima's eyes shifted from Calliope to Bakugo and back. Before he could drag out the awkward silence any longer, Calliope spoke up.
"As a matter of face, I did."
Pushing to her feet she threw a curt nod at the red-haired boy who still looked rather perplexed by Bakugo's intrusion.
"Thanks for the chat, Kirishima. Enjoy your weekend."
When she gave him her best smile, his shoulders eased.
"Anytime, Calli!"
He bid Bakugo an enthusiastic 'see ya later!' as the blond turned to leave without another word.
Closing the door to Kirishima's room behind her, she locked eyes again with Bakugo who stood with his hands in his pockets at the far end of the corridor. He jerked his head in a silent gesture for her to join him, his expression a deep frown.
Straightening her spine in an effort to steel herself, she stepped over to him. He turned and lent against the wall, she did the same, then he addressed her in his usual grumble.
"So, you wanna know what happened that day, huh." It was more of a statement than a question.
Calliope cast him a sidewards stare.
"I know you know something no one else does." She said, her voice low and her lids lowered behind her visor. "You saw something, didn't you?"
Bakugo grunted and turned his face from hers. There was something peculiar about his expression. It seemed as though he were reliving something. What was it he had seen? There was anger in his glassy eyes. But not the usual burning anger that she was so used to seeing when she observed him during training. But one tinged with, what looked like, sadness? The longer she watched him as she waited for a response, the more his scowling face seemed to slump.
"Are you sure you want to know?" He grumbled, his eyes still staring down the empty corridor. For a brief moment, those eyes softened. But when he turned them back towards her, their naturally intense ferocity had returned.
"I have to," Calliope said, her voice quiet but confident. This was a private conversation after all.
A low growl rumbled in Bakugo's throat as he flexed his shoulders, giving him the appearance of someone about to attempt a particularly challenging feat of strength.
"Fine," He grunted.
Casting one last look down the corridor to make sure no one was around to eavesdrop, he relayed his information to her.
"While everyone was distracted by the scene Sans and Papyrus were making at the fountain..." he began, ignoring the flash of hurt in Calliope's eyes, "I followed the trail of statues."
So he had retraced her last steps...
"They lead me to your visor." At this, he reached inside the bag he was holding and pulled out the item in question. He handed it to her with a grave expression.
Calliope took it form him with a tentative hand. She had only ever seen her trademark viper-head visor in photographs the Skelebros had shown her. It was far more sophisticated in design than the one Yaoyorozu had made for her. However, it was badly damaged; a large crack ran straight down the front of it. The decorative scales that so accurately matched her own were deeply scuffed. She continued to turn it over in her hands as Bakugo went on.
"I found it at the mouth of an alley way. From what I could tell, there'd been some sort of a struggle."
When she raised her head to look at him, she saw his hard eyes watching her. They were gauging her reaction, silently inquiring if she were certain she wanted him to go on. If he could have seen hers concealed behind her unbroken visor, he would have known the answer. Instead, her firm nod willed him to proceed.
"I followed the alleyway to the end and found three more statues."
Now it was time for Calliope to frown. Only 9 statues, including herself, had been accounted for. All but 2 had been restored. Mouth dry, she awaited Bakugo's explanation.
"They were men. Probably around your age. Maybe older. They were on their knees..."
Calliope felt her head begin to dip.
"...two of the men looked like they'd been holding someone down. I found a blindfold next to them."
Her heart sunk. Her breath hitched. He continued.
"The other had his belt undone."
A small whimper escaped her. Her fingers gripped at her broken visor. The silence that followed granted her a moment to compose herself. Bakugo didn't need to go into any more detail for her to understand what had happened. Cruelly, her mind flashed back to the image of her belligerent father slamming her petite mother against a wall. She heard her screams and pleas for him to stop. He too had reached for his belt. History had a sickening way of repeating itself.
"You wanted to know." Bakugo said finally, as he watched Calliope valiantly hold back her tears.
A slow nod of her head was all she could manage.
"And what happened to the statues after you found them?" She asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
Bakugo pushed off the wall with his foot and took a few steps down the corridor.
"They're gone."
And he needn't say more for Calliope to understand.
"You didn't have to do that," she called softly to him as he began to walk away.
He paused and turned his head to look part way over his shoulder. His eyes were hooded and his jaw locked.
"Well I did."
It took every inch of her will-power not to approach him and take his hand. Always such a brave-faced and hardy boy, Bakugo never showed any sign of weakness. But Calliope couldn't help but wonder how hard it must be to carry around that kind of knowledge at such a young age. The knowledge that you'd wiped three people from the face of the earth. Yes they were criminals, but people nonetheless. Calliope had carried that same guilt with her since childhood after she had turned her father to stone. He too, had been an evil and violent man. But that didn't stop her from feeling that sickening weight in her stomach every time she pictured his frozen face. She didn't know what became of his body but knew for certain that he ceased to exist.
Bakugo was now at his dorm room door with his hand on the handle.
"Bakugo!" She called, causing him to pause.
When she made towards him, his fingers twitched and she feared he was just going to turn the handle and slam the door in her face. But he remained.
"Thank you for not telling anyone." She whispered when she reached his side.
He grunted his acknowledgement and then left her in the empty corridor, her broken visor still clutched in her hands.
Author's Note: Thanks to those of you who have made it this far. Apologies that the last two chapters have been a little flat; just needed to tie up some loose ends before getting back to the romance, drama and laughs. Also, this story will likely be coming to an end soon. Not too soon though, don't fret.