A/N: I'm going to go back and fix the other chapters, but I have such a hard time formatting on here vs AO3. So, for your consideration and legibility, "." is a break within a scene and ". . ." (Bold) is a jump to another scene. Hopefully that'll help smooth things over.

Getting accustomed to life away from Earth was easier than expected. If Bakugou were to be honest with himself, the changes probably would've felt more monumental had he not been actively trying to get away from said planet to begin with. He'd escaped the structured life that had left him feeling suffocated and was free to do nearly everything he was denied before. Of course, he didn't really know what he had been missing out on and precautions still had to be set in place, but those were on his terms, not theirs. He finally had some kind of life to live and things were new.

As weeks turned to months, new became normal. New became everyday life. He still needed to leave Oterra - he went on contracts, saved Units, researched potential planets - but the urgency had died down. In one way or another, Bakugou had grown comfortable. The feeling was foreign to him, but not unwelcome and he couldn't find the harm in pushing his priorities away just a little. Was it wrong to want to experience life? He didn't think so.

Kaminari had made it a habit to try and hold conversations with Bakugou when Kirishima wasn't around or was otherwise preoccupied. The lack of responses, snapped words, and sneers weren't enough to deter him and Bakugou was often subjected to questions that revolved around what he wanted to do. Kaminari had dutifully reminded him that he no longer had just one planet at his fingertips, but a whole universe full of them. Bakugou could quite literally do everything he'd ever dreamed, no matter how outlandish, and still wouldn't run out of unique experiences.

Bakugou didn't want that, though. He wanted mundane. He wanted to lie on the grass and watch the clouds. He wanted to feel rain. He wanted to cook and eat what he wanted and how he wanted and when he wanted. He wanted to sleep without nightmares and wake up when his body told him to. Being introduced to all of the bizarre and incredible things of the universe was exciting and he'd be lying if he said that he didn't find any interest in it, but he didn't leave Earth for an adventure. He left it to live.

...

Kirishima was a mix of supportive, poorly concealed worry, and mild panic when Bakugou decided that he wanted to wander Oterra alone for the first time. They had already gone on a handful of successful contracts and Kirishima usually invited Bakugou to go with him on walks or to the shopping district to get him out of the apartment. Kirishima's presence had begrudgingly become tolerable to Bakugou, but the need for independence was gnawing at him. There had yet to be an issue on Oterra and Bakugou felt as though he knew the layout and mechanics of the surrounding area pretty well. It wasn't like he was bounding off to some distant planet he knew nothing about and he wasn't about to strike up conversations with the locals. He just wanted to go out, on his own, with no one else with him.

He also really didn't need to tell Kirishima anything. He was free to go and do as he pleased, after all. But he knew Kirishima would worry if he just vanished and chose to talk it over to avoid an annoyance and nothing more.

Bakugou left early the next morning and, even though it was just to walk to the park, Kirishima fretted around him like a nervous parent. He told Bakugou roughly ten times that he wouldn't put his comm down, even for a second, just in case something went awry and that he'd come looking if he hadn't heard anything in an hour. With all his nervous rambling, Bakugou half-expected Kirishima to follow him right out the door, but they parted ways when Kirishima chirped a cheerful, "Have fun!"

Now, a walk shouldn't typically be all that thrilling. Certainly not one to a patch of grass and a sprinkling of trees, but as Bakugou walked down the narrow stairwell and out onto the street his heart began to beat rapidly against his ribcage. He was nervous, a little scared, and excited. Excited. Excited to walk without anyone around him, with no one breathing down his neck and watching his every move. The comm was a comforting reminder in his pocket; a safety net of sorts. He was alone, but not truly. He was allowed to do this by himself without anyone else and when he reached the park to watch the clouds sluggishly glide across the sky, he exhaled a heaviness that had sat with him for most of his life.

Kirishima greeted him at the door when he returned, relief and pride all swirling into one expression. He wanted to know everything, as though Bakugou had completed some big expedition. It was hard to be irritated by the sincerity, so Bakugou told Kirishima about the walk and ignored the confusing warmth and nervous thrumming under his skin.

. . .

Just like every time Bakugou wandered to the shopping district, the area was relatively empty. He volunteered to be the one to go shopping, a job neither Kaminari nor Kirishima protested against, and used it as a reason to leave the apartment. Kaminari's life hadn't changed too much, save for keeping a looming secret hidden. He still saw friends and ran errands and did contracts. He was free to walk Oterra and other planets without worry. Kirishima was very much the same. He spent more time at home than Bakugou imagined he did prior to meeting him but managed to leave to do his own things when needed and see his friends to keep up appearances. Bakugou didn't have that, so he seized what opportunities he could when he could.

Besides, he was the one who cooked the most now; another thing Kaminari and Kirishima didn't seem to mind. Unlike Bakugou, their palates weren't as particular, having grown up with cuisine that spanned the universe. Bakugou wasn't picky in what he ate, but his options on Earth were vastly limited in comparison. The other two took to human food just as easily as any other food they could safely consume and were happy to eat anything shoved their way, even if they did whine over the spice in some dishes. Having something familiar to eat, albeit synthetic, did help Bakugou become more adventurous in trying new food as well. Every trip to the district had him returning with something different to cook, though he never opted for anything too unfamiliar looking.

He eyed the stalls of proteins and meats as he passed by and momentarily considered taking a step that large. Kirishima assured him that even though the food was sitting out in the open all day long it was still safe to eat. Bakugou wasn't so sure of that. He had yet to see even one vendor on his outings and had never seen the stalls emptied. Were the meats ever replaced? Were the meats ever fresh? He wrinkled his nose and continued to walk, mentally scolding himself for even entertaining the idea. He was sure Kirishima would be able to digest rocks if he ate them so of course he wouldn't be worried about eating the limb of an animal that had been baking in the sun.

As Bakugou drew closer to the stalls he was more familiar with, ones that carried fruits and vegetables from around the universe, he stopped short upon seeing two other patrons huddled together in conversation. They were a species he hadn't seen yet, with hair protruding from their heads in feather-like plumes. They hadn't so much as spared a glance in Bakugou's direction, but approaching the stalls was a risk he didn't feel like taking.

Clicking his tongue against his teeth in quiet frustration, Bakugou skirted behind the customers to wait until they carried on and feigned interest in the jars of preserves and spices on a nearby shelf. He kept an ear tuned on the voices; not so much the discussion, but to monitor when they started to depart. The conversation droned on as white noise broken up by laughter and gradually faded into the background the longer it continued. It was clear that they were more interested in socializing than shopping so Bakugou absentmindedly picked up a jar to inspect it out of impatient curiosity while he waited.

"Did you get to see the humans?" Bakugou hadn't really been listening to what was being said, but that - that - had caught his attention. The words were sharp and piercing and so unexpected that he was sure the stuttering of his breath was audible to those near him.

He heard wrong. He had to have heard wrong. He stared at the jar clutched in his hands unseeingly, willing himself to breathe even again. Time slowed as he waited for the next words to be spoken, stretching on for what felt like an eternity and holding confirmation just out of his reach.

"Humans?" The container nearly slipped from his grasp and he held on in a white-knuckled grip. "When? Here?"

"Yeah, two days ago. They came in this really primitive looking ship. Didn't stay long. Maybe an hour?" Whatever was said next blurred out into the edges of Bakugou's brain and the only sound that filtered in now was his own breathing.

Two days ago. Two days. The words were spoken so casually. Just a strange occurrence discussed between friends, but the information had left him reeling. A lot could happen in two days - a lot could be planned in two days. There was a quiet voice in the back of his head trying to force rational thoughts through the frantic ones, but it was futile. That voice was drowned out by an even louder one, one that screamed and thrashed around in his skull, repeating one phrase over and over and over until it was all Bakugou could focus on.

They had found him.

They hadn't done anything yet and they had left the planet, but they had found him.

With trembling hands, Bakugou slid the jar back onto the shelf in a near-robotic fashion. He recognized the feeling taking over his body - the static blooming over his brain in rippling waves from the port to his eye. The world tunneled around him, pinholing and dropping away only to return in quick, flashing bursts. He staggered back a step, two, three, until his heels bumped into the edge of a stall, and heat blossomed through the palms of his hands and snaked up to his fingertips at the sudden contact. He shook them when the district reappeared briefly, attempting to drive the feeling away, but the warmth grew burning as distorted voices came closer. Concerned tones and hesitant questions.

Bakugou pushed himself to move. Move away from the voices, away from the market. His legs felt like lead as he forced them forward, concentrating on keeping his head down and counting his steps. Each one felt uncertain. The ground looked too far away and too close all at the same time and it pitched and churned under his flickering vision. A veil of orange light took over and he was momentarily sent careening back into a void of nothingness. He fought against the black static to claw back into his own consciousness and picked up where he had left off watching his boots against the pavement.

Panic slithered into his throat and writhed in his chest, threatening to choke him out. The air around him was too thin for a proper inhale and each laborious breath scraped the inside of his lungs like jagged pieces of glass. A ragged gasp echoed loud when the orange returned followed by the black and it took everything within Bakugou to pull himself back out. His head throbbed, his jaw ached, and his hands stung, but he focused on keeping one foot in front of the other.

Orange took over again.

And then the black.

. . .

It wasn't the sound of the main door sliding open much earlier than expected that caught Kaminari by surprise. It was the crashing of something nearby, the chaotic thumps and thuds of stumbling feet, the obvious sound of someone hyperventilating in short, choppy breaths. His comm was quickly discarded at his side and he hurried towards the commotion, already anticipating who it was but not what had happened.

He rounded the corner and nearly tripped over his own feet in his haste to stop moving once he laid eyes on Bakugou. The human was hunched over by the door, his shoulders shaking and chest heaving. Even from the distance, Kaminari could see a cold sweat covering Bakugou's body, the faint sheen highlighting the sickly ashen colour of his skin even more. He fumbled for a moment, at a loss for words.

"Dude… Are y—" Bakugou's head jerked upwards suddenly and his eyes latched onto Kaminari's face causing the question to die off in his throat. Bakugou's left iris was glowing molten bright, but besides that and the harsh breathing escaping his lips, his face was entirely devoid of emotion. Though scowls were something almost permanently etched onto Bakugou's face, Kaminari had also grown accustomed to his blank, unimpressed stares. Even those were paired with a slight furrowing of the brow and downturn of his mouth. This expression was different. It was empty. It was as if Bakugou wasn't there at all.

Out of the corner of his eye, Kaminari saw a slight movement where Bakugou's hand was pressed against the wall. The surface had been scorched by his touch. Blackened edges fanned from underneath his palm and wisps of smoke trailed upwards towards the ceiling. "What the fuck…" Kaminari breathed out, his eyes darting between Bakugou's stare and his hand.

Bakugou then made a noise in the back of his throat, one that sounded pained and uncomfortable. His eyebrows knitted together and he straightened up from his position, letting his hand slide from the wall and leaving streaks of soot in its wake. He blinked rapidly, as though he was clearing his mind of the confusion, and began to lift a hand to head. It was the same hand Kaminari had just watched burn the wall into a charcoal-like state and, without even thinking, he rushed forward.

But so did Bakugou.

The empty stare was back and with it came a searing hot hand curling around Kaminari's forearm in a bruising grip. He attempted to jerk his arm free and out of Bakugou's grasp, but the hand held tighter, disintegrating his sleeve and soon the flesh beneath it. It happened too fast, too fast for him to even yell out a protest, and Kaminari's body acted on instinct in order to protect itself. He sent out a charge much stronger than the one he did when he had first tased Bakugou back near Alduous.

The unmistakable sound of electricity crackled through the air causing the lights to flicker, and Bakugou was sent recoiling from his hold on Kaminari's arm. He fell to his knees a foot or two away and stayed put in that position as the remnants of the electrical charge surged through his muscles. The commotion was more than enough for Kirishima to come hurtling down the stairs in a frenzied mess of panic and confusion.

He froze at the sight; Bakugou crumpled to the ground and Kaminari's face twisted in pain with his hand closed tightly over a singed sleeve. "Denki—" With Bakugou looking relatively unscathed, Kirishima started towards Kaminari and was stopped by the way his friend took a step back, his yellow eyes wide in shock.

"Help him," Kaminari said, sounding significantly more calm than he looked. "Help him before he burns the place down." With a wince, he raised his injured arm to point at Bakugou, and only then did Kirishima let himself look away from his friend, following the direction.

He looked at Bakugou again, properly now, and saw the smoke licking up from between his fingers. The floor was burning under his touch and tiny flecks of bright embers were visible as they rose into the air. Kaminari's words sunk in. Bakugou really would burn the place down if he didn't do something now.

"Shit. Shit. Okay," Kirishima cursed to himself. He fell to his knees in front of Bakugou and held his hands out placatingly. He didn't know where to start. They didn't have a routine for this, unlike his nightmares. This was real and this was different. Kirishima sucked in a calming breath and attempted to pay no mind to the way his hands shook outstretched in front of him. "Bakugou, can you hear me?" When there wasn't an answer, Kirishima reached out to one of the hands flexing against the floor and covered it with his own. The heat radiating upwards bit at his skin uncomfortably and he resisted the urge to recoil as soon as he felt the first sting. "Bakugou," Kirishima tried again and gave the hand under his own a comforting squeeze. The pads of his fingertips protested the burn, begging to pull away, but Kirishima held firm. "You're okay."

Kirishima waited for a response and his heart skidded high into his throat when he didn't get one. The longer the silence grew, the more worry Kirishima felt. He couldn't focus. Something had obviously happened to Bakugou, but in turn, something worse happened to Kaminari. He knew he inadvertently pulled his friends into a web he spun, but he didn't want them to get hurt. He promised himself he wouldn't let them get hurt. He couldn't fret over Bakugou when Kaminari was standing right there, injured and frightened.

"He's not…" Kirishima trailed off into a frustrated sound. Bakugou didn't want to answer, so Kaminari came first. Kaminari needed to come first. Maybe he could move Bakugou's hands. Maybe he could just leave for a few minutes to help Kaminari. Kirishima could hear his heart pounding in his head and with each beat, he felt sicker and sicker. "Denki, your arm."

He looked over his shoulder as he spoke and cringed with Kaminari when he pulled his hand away to take a peek at the burn. His face paled and Kirishima felt his pale as well. "I need to get this under water." Kaminari spoke almost mechanically like he was reading instructions instead of deciding on the best course of action. A cold wash of fear flooded through Kirishima's body when they met eyes and Kaminari started to say something before deciding against it. "Just stop him, okay?" He left the room before Kirishima could argue.

Now alone with Bakugou, Kirishima stared at the doorway Kaminari had just walked through and tried to ignore the sting beginning to form behind his eyes. "Do you even know what you did?" He spoke without turning back to the human and he barely even managed to get the question out with how tight his throat felt. Part of him was angry, most of him was hurt, and the lack of response from Bakugou was deafening.

But he chose this. This was his decision and while the risks weren't always clear, they were always there. Kirishima narrowed his eyes in determination and attempted to collect himself. He'd help Kaminari; he'd help Bakugou. He made a promise he intended to keep. Sniffling, Kirishima pressed his free hand to his eyes and willed back the tears. He turned to face Bakugou again and leaned down to try and catch his eyes. "Bakugou," he said again, this time with more conviction, and placed his hand on the side of Bakugou's face. "You're safe."

Finally, there was a sign.

A quiet breath spilled from Bakugou's mouth and he shook his head. "They found me." The burning at Kirishima's hand began to dissipate as Bakugou slowly came back to himself. "They found me," he repeated. His voice shook as he spoke and Kirishima found that he didn't know what to say. He knew who Bakugou was referring to, but it didn't clear up what had happened. If they found him, why was he still here? Why'd he hurt Kaminari? Bakugou pulled his hand away from Kirishima's grasp but seemed to press more into the palm at the side of his face.

"Humans…" The word left Kirishima without much thought, more of a confirmation than anything else, and Bakugou nodded. This time he did pull away from Kirishima's touch entirely, pressing his forehead to the floor just below the burned handprints.

"They were here," Bakugou said, stressing the last word. He didn't sound like himself still; caught somewhere between the waning adrenaline and normalcy. Aware, but distant. The pieces slowly began to fall together albeit roughly. Humans had been on Oterra. Bakugou somehow found out. But while Bakugou was focusing on the word 'here,' Kirishima could only focus on the word 'were.' They were here. They were, but they left and they left without Bakugou.

"If they knew you were here, would they have left without you?" Bakugou hissed something quiet and broken and in what Kirishima was pretty sure was his own language. He was frustrated by the question, but he wasn't listening to what he was being asked. Kirishima needed to know. "Bakugou," he said more firmly and sought out Bakugou's hand again to bring his attention back, "I need you to focus and I need you to answer. If they knew you were here, would they have let you go again?"

Bakugou didn't speak this time, not right away. He seemed to be processing the question instead of folding in internally on himself and that was a start. When Bakugou decided to shake his head 'no,' some of the tension eased from his muscles at the realization and Kirishima felt the same tension begin to leave his body as well. A relieved sort of smile crossed his face - tired and strained - and Kirishima nodded. He didn't know where Bakugou had got his information from. He couldn't speak on how valid it was or if it was even something they should be worried about. He knew that if the humans were still on Oterra though, he would've caught wind of it by now. Something like that doesn't go unnoticed.

"Yeah," Kirishima agreed and let out an airy chuckle. The humans wouldn't have left without Bakugou. They wouldn't have; simple as that. "I don't think so, either. They were probably just doing their rounds, right? We were told to expect them looking around." Bakugou grunted an acknowledgement and kept his face hidden against the floor. He was seemingly stabilizing - his shoulders rose and fell at a slower, more relaxed rate and his breathing had evened out into something less erratic. Kirishima wanted it to be the only situation at hand, but Kaminari's pale, pain-ridden face flashed in his mind.

His stomach churned.

"Hey, uh…" Kirishima pulled his hand away slowly, almost apologetically, and straightened up. Bakugou was still recovering and there was a pang of guilt leaving him so soon after, but Kaminari's injury was now the first priority. "If I go check on Denki, will you be okay here?" Although it was hard to tell from the angle, it looked like Bakugou flinched at the mention of Kaminari. The muscles in his back tensed up momentarily and he curled in on himself more, but he nodded. The barely-there gesture was enough for Kirishima to stand up and edge towards the doorway Kaminari hurried through moments ago, assuring Bakugou that he'd be right back as he did so.

...

Kaminari was where Kirishima expected him to be, standing with his arm under a steady stream of cool water. His face was pulled into a grimace as he fought against the pain and Kirishima felt his stomach flip with the same sickness as before. It didn't look like Kaminari had made any more progress in regards to how they were going to handle the burn. Kirishima couldn't blame him. Even without speaking to him, it was obvious that Kaminari was still rattled about what had transpired. Kirishima could hardly get his thoughts straight himself, he couldn't imagine how Kaminari was doing.

He crossed the room in a few strides to be at Kaminari's side and swallowed down that feeling rising up from his guts as he tried to eye the wound through the water. It was distorted and impossible to tell the extent of the damage, but the redness was obvious.

"Let me see." Kirishima was already lightly grasping at Kaminari's elbow before he spoke, guiding his arm away from the water to get a better look. It was a clear handprint; four fingers wrapped around the top of his forearm and a thumb underneath. The burn was blistering and shiny, already looking worse than the one Kirishima had around his neck. There was no doubt that it had caused damage to multiple layers of Kaminari's skin and was still possibly burning underneath. From one look, Kirishima could tell that it was going to need more medical attention than they could provide. "Fuck, this is bad…"

"I don't know what happened," Kaminari blurted out. "He was freaking out and then he was going to grab at his face or something and—" Kirishima moved Kaminari's arm back under the water and he cut himself off with a stifled grunt. There was a moment of silence as Kaminari's sensitive skin readjusted to the sensation before he continued, voice still pitched up in a panic. "He had just burned the walls. They were completely black! I didn't want him to do the same thing to himself!"

Kirishima found himself half-listening to the frantic rambling. He was nodding along as he assessed the wound again and continued to do so as he scanned the room for anything that would help, but his mind was preoccupied. He was trying really hard not to fall into a hole of guilt, but the longer he stared at the burn - the more he saw the pain on Kaminari's face - the easier it was to slip in.

"I'm sorry he did this," Kirishima said quickly and Kaminari's mouth snapped shut. Kirishima was sorry. On his behalf, on Bakugou's behalf. Even now he didn't think Bakugou intentionally attacked Kaminari, but lashing out in panic or fear very nearly had the same outcome. There were going to be a lot of things Bakugou was going to face that would frighten him and if he couldn't control himself then… Kirishima stopped entertaining the thought and forced himself to focus. The apology would have to be enough for now. They'd deal with what this meant later. He'd deal with Bakugou later. Everything was going to have to come later because the longer they waited, the worse the burn was going to get. "We need to get this looked at," he said, more to himself than Kaminari, and twisted around to find something that would protect the burn on their way to a med unit.

"It wasn't his fault." For some reason, Kaminari's words struck something in Kirishima and that frustrating burn returned to his eyes. He wanted to drop it. He actually didn't even want to think about it and what had happened at all. "I shouldn't have grabbed him—"

"He shouldn't have burned you."

Kaminari tugged on his arm, just enough to pull himself away from Kirishima's hold to get his attention again. When they looked at each other, Kaminari's eyes were narrowed and serious; there wasn't fear anymore. "I don't think it was him," he said, keeping his voice just above a whisper. "It didn't look like him." The words hung heavily in the air waiting to sink in. It didn't make sense and when the confused expression on Kirishima's face deepened, Kaminari just shook his head as though he didn't know how to explain what he saw. "That stuff he has does some weird shit and I think… I think he was fighting it?"

"Fighting…?" Kaminari raised his shoulders in a shrug.

"I don't know, man. I don't know, but when he looked at me, he wasn't in there."

The new information was overwhelming and just as perplexing. Bakugou continued to be an unending source of unanswered questions and one day Kirishima was sure it would come toppling down with disastrous consequences. There was a relief, though. Concern was still at the forefront - concern for his friends and concern for Bakugou - but there was a relief. The matter of control was still an issue and Kirishima didn't know if Bakugou being cognitively unaware of it was better or not.

He'd talk to Bakugou after to try to get some answers. Try. He wasn't holding his breath.

"We'll worry about that later," Kirishima settled on saying. There was a clean towel nearby, but when he approached Kaminari to cover the burn, the arm was pulled out of his reach. They already wasted too much time and Kirishima let out an impatient sigh. "Dude, we need to go!"

"They'll want to know how I got this, Kirishima." He hadn't considered that, but Kaminari was right. There were a lot of strange things that happened around the universe. One could get injured in a variety of ways by a variety of things, but some wounds were common and some were not. Burns were normal; hand-shaped ones weren't. There were going to be questions and the questions could lead to Bakugou.

Kirishima pushed away the hesitation and wrapped Kaminari's arm as gently as he could, keeping the fabric loose around the burn. "Doesn't matter. We can't fix this here."

"I suck at lying, though! It's hard enough keeping him a secret in general!" Kirishima wasn't sure what he was supposed to tell him. They didn't have a choice. Scenarios of infections and amputations spiralled in his head as he considered the repercussions of leaving it untreated and that was something he wasn't going to let be on his conscience. Not when they had a solution. He owed his friends so much already and asked of them even more. He couldn't deny Kaminari treatment even with the secret of Bakugou on the line.

He smiled up at Kaminari, nowhere close to a convincing one, and gave his bicep a reassuring squeeze. "It'll be fine! We'll… We'll think of something to say." Kaminari wasn't swayed. "It's not like they'll believe us if we tell them the truth anyway," he tried to joke, smile falling when Kaminari's expression didn't shift. He was thinking of something else now, more than the possible questions, and the knot inside Kirishima's chest wound tighter.

"I think Mina should come with me." Kirishima tried to urge Kaminari forward by his arm and failed.

"We don't have time to wait for Mina."

"Then I'll meet her halfway." Kirishima's hand dropped to his side and he eyed Kaminari, silently asking him what was going on. Kaminari took in a slow breath and forced a small smile to his face. "You look worse than I do," he explained. "You look guilty like you were the one who did this, dude. But you didn't. And he didn't. Not… Not really. You know it's not your fault either, right?" Kirishima clamped down on the inside of his cheek, feeling the sharp sting of his teeth, and found himself looking at the floor instead.

He wanted to argue that it was his fault, perhaps more his fault than Bakugou's, and that Kaminari shouldn't be so understanding. The burn was bad, horrible even, but it could've been worse. Bakugou was still with them. It could get a lot worse.

"I think you're dumb as a rock," Kaminari said next, snapping Kirishima from his thoughts. He looked up and Kaminari tried to fix him with a wider grin but gave up with a wince. "But," he continued in a voice full of fond exasperation, holding his arm closer to his chest, "your heart's in the right place. How chivalrous of you." The knot inside of Kirishima loosened, just slightly, just enough for him to huff out a weak chuckle and that earned him one from Kaminari as well. "I know this is important to you and that he, for some reason still unknown to me, is important to you. If you come with me, he's going to be alone here and I don't know if that's a good idea. For either of you."

Reluctantly, Kirishima agreed. He nodded and Kaminari patted at his shoulder with his good arm, a smile returned to his face. "You need to talk to him," he added on, softer this time, "and I think he needs you to talk to him, too. Mina can meet me."

...

Bakugou was roughly in the same position Kirishima had left him in. He had his arms wrapped around his midsection now but was still doubled over with his face pressed towards the floor. He didn't look up when Kirishima approached but acknowledged his presence with a question.

"Is he okay?" Kirishima didn't know how to answer that truthfully. Kaminari wasn't about to die, but it wasn't going to be a quick and painless heal either. Even with the more advanced technology available to the doctors, there would still be a nasty scar. Bakugou wasn't fragile, but Kirishima didn't think he could handle the answer, not at the moment.

"Mina's going to go with him to get it looked at," Kirishima said instead. Bakugou's breathing shook as he took in a long inhale.

"I'm not dangerous," he whispered and Kirishima strained to hear the voice muffled against the floor. He wasn't sure if the words were meant for him or Bakugou, but his heart lurched either way. He crouched down in front of the human and laid a hand on his back, a grounding gesture he hoped would help.

"I know…"

"I don't know why I…" Bakugou stopped and Kirishima could see how his jaw flexed in anger and how his fingers dug into his shirt at his ribs. "I didn't mean to…"

"I know."

"Don't… fuck." Bakugou thumped his head lightly against the floor and gripped at his sides tighter, trying to push back the anger and the frustration and the fear. He opened and closed his mouth, wrestling with what he wanted to say, and then, "Don't contact them, okay? Don't contact the Federation."

Slowly, Bakugou pulled himself up from the floor and when he looked at Kirishima, his eyes were pleading. He was desperate and begging and Kirishima realized that the warning he had given Bakugou all those months ago was something he had taken seriously. It was something that scared him. Kirishima's chest began to ache all over again.

"I… Let's go for a walk."

A/N: I don't think I've mentioned it, but Supernova has a glossary! Can be found at "citrusveins . carrd . co" As usual, can read other stories on my AO3 (CitrusVeins) and follow me on Tumblr (CitrusVeins) and Twitter (Citrus_Veins.)