B-B-B-BOOM
"AAAHH!" Bakugo cries out in pain and falls face forward to the ground, doing his best to make sure Midoriya doesn't hit the ground quite as hard.
"Kacchan?! Kacchan!" She sits up and kneels in front of him. What was that sound? What could've possibly happened? Everything was fine! How could—?
She gasps as she sees his hips. The Konpeito. They exploded all at once… It must've started when he put his hands in the pouches and heated them up. She hadn't considered that. When they tested it, they only used a small amount of Konpeito at a time to keep from wasting it. There was never enough left over to worry about the rest overheating. She hadn't considered how inherently dangerous it was to keep more than just a little in your pockets. It hadn't even crossed her mind.
She sits there in shock as Bakugo struggles, and fails, to get up. Stupid… How could I have missed that? This… Kacchan is hurt… He can't move… We failed. It's… It's my fault… She starts to hyperventilate. It's my fault. I made Kacchan fail. I couldn't help him.
"Useless Deku"
I can't do anything right. I just mess everything up. And now… even Kacchan is—
"YOU'RE WRONG!"
She snaps out of her thoughts and realizes that Kacchan is starting to kneel in front of her. Blood trickles down his legs, but he sits up to face her, grabbing her shoulders.
"You… Just from your face… I can tell… what you're thinking. You think you ruined everything. That it's all your fault."
Her eyes start to water. "Kacchan…" Yup. He can tell. She wants to apologize even if it'll never be enough.
"…But we haven't lost yet! Don't you dare give up! Not until the very end! You're the one who told me I could do anything if I try! So don't you dare take it back now!" He yanks the pod off of his back. "Help me up!" Midoriya nervously obeys. And when they're up, completely standing, Bakugo aims the pod at the ground, ready to fire. "Hold on'ta me!"
She obeys again, quickly getting the gist of what he's trying to do. "Kacchan, wait! That's—!"
"It's alright! 'Cuz I'll protect you!"
He pulls the pin and braces himself.
An explosion so big goes off that it dislocates Bakugo's shoulder and nearly blows away Aizawa and the class. Come to think of it, they hadn't really tested it yet. It was simply a cool addition to all the other changes and a replacement for the gauntlets, so they hadn't intended to use it this time. Obviously he'd have to get stronger to handle it.
It's so strong in fact, that Midoriya loses her grip and gets blasted away from him.
And now, it's his turn to panic.
As they fly through the air and past the "finish line", Bakugo feels like he's falling in slow motion. Midoriya lost her grip. They're both falling. If he doesn't save her, she'll…
…You…
He reaches out for her, even though she's too far away.
You…
His life starts to flash before his eyes… his life with her. Too many memories to count flash by, most of them bad. Bad memories. That's all he has of her so far. Just bad memories. Memories of when he hurt her, when he never realized how lonely she was or how close she was to being broken, even as kids. If she dies here, all he'll have left are these terrible, awful memories. And if he were to die protecting her, that's all she would have left of him too… No… No more.
You are…
Before he knows it, his body is moving on its own, pointing his palm behind him so that he can blast himself over to her. Even with just one arm, he miraculously aims just right and grabs onto her, wrapping that one good arm around her.
"Kacchan," she sobs into his ear, holding onto him for dear life. Just from that one word, he can hear everything. He can hear how even in this situation, she's still not afraid of dying. She'll never be afraid of something that simple. On the contrary, she wishes he would just let go of her and save himself. The only reason she's still holding on is because of the miniscule but still existing chance that he might win this as long as she doesn't let go again. If she does die, she wants to die knowing she never gave up until the very end. No matter how much she wants to right now, if Kacchan tells her not to give up, if not giving up can be useful to him, then…
You are…
"Don't you dare let go," he warns. He strains his hip to lift his leg. Just enough. Just enough for his hand to reach his shoe. And on the back of his sole, he feels around for a clip, finds it, and flips it off. Out of the sole of his shoe, out pops an inflatable cushion, designed to inflate as soon as it's released.
Forming a large, cushioned wall between them and the ground, it receives them as they all collide, and it bounces them back up into the air. First just once, then a few times until they lose all momentum and lay there, panting, while their teachers and classmates crowd around the large cushion and frantically ask them if they're okay.
Bakugo lies there, his good arm still wrapped around a sobbing Midoriya. He manages to pull off his goggles and just lie there panting, ignoring the roars of concern from his classmates as they try to figure out how to deflate the cushion. Instead, he tells Midoriya, "…There. Stop crying all ready. I told you. We got this."
"But…! But only because of you! I… I didn't…!"
You are…
"…Did you really forget? You're the one who came up with that idea. The inflatable landing pad in the shoes." Yeah, she does remember that. It was just one of the many ideas she had come up with that night, and to be honest, it was a poorly developed idea, so she hadn't really though about it. She had no idea that he actually took that and ran with it. "Hey… I've been waiting to say this, but… you're really amazing, y'know that? It took me this long to figure out the 'desire to save', somethin' so obvious. But you've had it down since we were kids. I didn't even notice… somethin' that obvious… I still don't get how you do it. You kept believin' in me, even though I did all that stuff to you."
"That's why moms love their babies… So you'll know what real love looks like."
"…Do you love me or somethin'?"
Her breath halts. Can she… Can she finally answer that question? Is it possible that… that's what he wants to hear? Does he want her to love him? But even if he does, is that really okay? And what if he doesn't? What if he's actually freaked out by it? What is she supposed to—
"Whatever. Even if you don't, it's still amazing. Or maybe you just love everybody, like everyone in the whole world is your own fuckin' kid."
But to me, you are…
"I wanna… be like that… be the greatest hero and protect everybody… like you."
You are…
"That's what I decided." That was the answer all his meditation brought him to. "So don't… go anywhere…" His voice breaks. Midoriya, slowly, carefully tries to prop herself up and hover over him. He's crying. "Stop… tryin'a do everything by yourself. Don't go off by yourself… and disappear… I need you!" His face is scrunched in pain as his tears roll down the sides of his face.
You are…
"You're not 'Useless Deku'. You never were."
You are…
"You're just… someone important to me… Someone I wanna protect!"
You are…
"So don't disappear… That's… too scary!"
You are…
"Just… stay by my side."
You are…
His voice grows quieter as his consciousness starts to fade. "That's all… you gotta do… just like always. You… are…"
You are my hero.
His eyes close.
"…Kacchan?" It takes her a moment to take all of that in… and to realize he's lost a lot of blood. "Kacchan?! Kacchan! KACCHAN!"
He wakes up. He wakes up in the nurse's office. The first thing Bakugo sees out of his periphery is that it's nighttime outside his window. And as he looks around, the next thing he sees is Midoriya fast asleep in a chair next to his bed. That's when Bakugo fully realizes what happened and rapidly sits up… Or he tries to anyway before he winces in pain and is forced to flop back down.
At the sound of his movement, Midoriya stirs and blinks awake. "…Kacchan!" She almost leaps to her feet but instead leans over him. "Um, you shouldn't move! Or rather… take it easy."
He looks over at her and stares, silently. First, into her eyes, then to different parts of her face, her body and arms.
"Kacchan?"
"…You're okay."
There it is again. That look in his eyes, on his face, like he's looking at something precious and irreplaceable. And it makes her whole face flush with heat. She shoves herself away from his bed, nearly falling back in her chair. "Y-Yeah! You too… You're okay. I'm glad." They sit there in uncomfortable silence, Bakugo staring hazily at the ceiling, until Midoriya realizes this might be the right time to apologize to him. She takes a deep breath and starts, "Um, I'm sor—"
"Stop it."
"Eh?!" She pouts. "Are you… just never going to let me apologize?"
"…For every time you apologize, I have to do it twelve times."
"Wha? What are you—?"
"One for every year since I got my quirk." This is also something he decided during his meditation training.
She's struck speechless by that, but is quick to recover and say, "You don't have to do that. If something is really my fault, I should apologize."
"…You're not the only one who didn't notice the flaw with the Konpeito… Just let it go. I don't wanna hear your apology."
She sits there pouting, and when he looks over at her again, he thinks about apologizing too. But he notices that her eyes look different. Instead of dark and hopeless, they look full of life again. She did look better when they finally met up this morning, but this is different. This is… Did she believe him this time? When he poured his heart out, something he never would've done in a million years if it weren't for her, did his words actually get through to her? It sort of reminds him of… "Hey… What did you say to Rose Omoda?"
She's a little taken aback at that sudden question, and she isn't really sure how to answer. "I… I didn't really say anything recently. A few days ago, she visited me after…" From the uncomfortable silence, he knows what she's referring to. "Um, she said that… if I disappear… so will she… I told her not to do something like that, but she was serious. She said she wanted to help me, so she left, and when she came back…"
"…She was different."
She nods. "Yeah. I don't really know what happened, but I know she took Dr. Shinbyou's memories of our session." Midoriya leaves out the part about Rose figuring out she used to be quirkless. No doubt, they'll have to all talk about it later, but not now.
Bakugo tries to piece it together. Based on what Rose said, she loved Midoriya so much, she was willing to do anything for her, even break such an obvious rule. And when she lectured Bakugo, she said something about being changed by Midoriya, that they both were being changed by this one person. If that's true, then…
"She… She said she wouldn't be here without me. But she's the one who saved me again. She said… she finally got better… because of me. She must be exaggerating… I couldn't have done anything then, but… Those eyes… Those words woke me up. It was like… 'Ah… Finally. Maybe… I really did help her…'" She smiles to herself.
Something about it makes his heart ache. He has no doubts. He wants to protect Midoriya. He needs to get stronger, both inside and out, so that she'll never question whether or not she really helped him ever again. And in order to do that… the first step has gotta be… "Midoriya…" Still not used to hearing him call her that, she snaps up at him. "…Thank you."
"Don't be anything you wouldn't want him to be… Don't let him make those same mistakes again."
Rose's words echo in his mind. "You saved me too. If it weren't for you, I'd still be a jerk who has no idea what a real hero is. You taught me that. Nobody else. Not even All Might. Got it? So give yourself more credit. I wouldn't be here without you either."
This time he sees it coming. He's prepared when her eyes start to water and her lip trembles like a child's. As her tears burst out, she starts to cry in earnest, wiping her eyes over and over again, wailing, heaving ugly sobs.
But for some reason, it doesn't bother him. Instead, he feels relieved. He knows they're happy tears this time. And as much as he doesn't want to ruin this moment, he has to ask, "Hey… Did I finally save you?" Sure enough, the old him never would've asked such a question. But right now, he needs to know. He can feel it.
In between a few sobs, she cries, "Yes! You did… Thank you, Kacchan… You're…"
You are…
"You're my hero," she whimpers.
If she wasn't crying herself, blinded by her own tears, she would've seen Bakugo slowly turn back to face the ceiling, letting his own eyes fill with happy tears, his face scrunching up. He tries to wipe them as they spill out, but whimpers, "Shit…!" and sobs quietly.