Chapter 12
Bakugou woke up Monday morning, finally recharged from the exhausting weekend he had had. He had used the entire Sunday to blast things and to get his own temper down. He had also messaged Kirishima to get his butt over for a few hours of training, it was perfect to be sparing with someone who had a hardening quirk when he was feeling frustrated. A true win-win situation. Even better was that Kirishima hadn't asked any questions about his mood.
The first thing Bakugou noticed when he entered the classroom was that Uraraka wasn't in class yet which was odd, she usually was there in the corner sitting with her friends, talking about something he never bothered to listen to.
He sat down at his seat, pretending like it didn't bother him while his stupid friends sat by him, blabbering about something that had happened this weekend.
When their teacher came into the classroom to interrupt everybody, Bakugou silently noted that Uraraka still hadn't come yet and it puzzled him, was she ill? He quickly shoved the thought away as he took out his pencil and notebook to scribble notes for the class, looking forward to the subjects he actually came for, the hero courses.
By the time they finally were on a break for lunch, a big sigh was heard throughout the class. The lecture on modern literature with Cementoss had been brutal - as usual. Everybody got up from their seats and started to move over to the cafeteria, including Bakugou. Although as soon as he got out of the classroom he rushed over to where Midoriya was walking together with his friends and yanked him by the collar away from them.
"H-hey! Wha- Kacchan!? What are you doi-"
"Shut up and follow me for a second," Bakugou nearly whispered as he kept on yanking his rival by the collar to the nearest secluded spot he could find. An empty classroom.
Bakugou let go of Midoriya's collar when they got inside, letting him recollect himself, as he was understandably rather confused by what was happening.
"Kacchan, wha-what are you doing? What do you want? This is very unusual for you - I mean usually you don't want to have anything to do with me," Midoriya rambled.
Bakugou held his tongue; he had never felt like he had to stoop this low before and it was killing him. He paced slowly around the classroom, letting Midoriya ramble on as usual.
Finally, Bakugou clicked his tongue and ruffled his hair in frustration as he walked closer to where Midoriya stood.
"Okay Deku, you talk with her all the time, so tell me where she is and why she didn't show up today," Bakugou's voice was hoarse from restraining himself-
"Huh? What are you…?" Midoriya looked with confused eyes as he saw Bakugou in front of him, still didn't understand the whole situation.
"Cheeks! Goddamnit. I know you're in contact with her over your phone. You must be like one of her only ten contacts or something." He had to put his hands in his pockets in order to calm himself down. Damn, just talking with the nerd could easily rile him up, and he was not in a good mood to begin with.
"Oh, why do you care?" Suddenly Midoriya understood what this was, and he relaxed in his body.
"She's not here," Bakugou stated as flatly as he could muster.
"I know she isn't, but you usually don't care whether people show up or not."
Bakugou went silent by Midoriya's words. He didn't know what or how to respond to it. He could feel his palms beginning to sweat and his heart was beating particularly harder than normal. He didn't like this, and he especially didn't like it when Midoriya's eyes went wide with realization.
"Oh, you do, don't you? Kacchan, you like Uraraka?" His face started to panic as he pointed at Bakugou with a finger in utter surprise.
Bakugou had to rush over to where Midoriya stood and held his sweaty hands across Midorya's mouth in panic.
"Not so fucking loud, nerd!" He whispered roughly, using the other hand to balance himself against the wall next to Midoriya.
Midoriya just looked at Bakugou's red eyes and held his hands up in surrender to show that he wasn't going to yell out something others would be able to hear and Bakugou let go carefully, letting him speak freely again.
"You like her..." he repeated. His mind was thinking a hundred thoughts a minute as he was trying to process what was happening.
Bakugou started to look bored. Was this really his rival?
"Look, I just want to know why she isn't here," Bakugou sighed, practically swallowing his pride. It certainly hadn't been easy.
"Well, she's at the hospita-"
"What!?" Bakugou went for the door immediately, leaving Midoriya behind.
"You know that I'm not going to give up on her just because you like her too, right?" Midoriya called after Bakugou, making him stop shortly.
He looked over his shoulder with a smirk, "Bring it."
Bakugou rushed out of the U.A. Grounds, wishing he could just use his quirk, though he knew that wouldn't be a good idea. Instead, he settled for running. His heart was in panic mode.
He was breathing hard when he finally got to where the bus stop was. Lucky for him, the next available bus would be there in a few minutes, so he had a moment to catch his breath.
He couldn't believe this. What had happened? How severe was she hurt?
The bus finally came and his mind went blank as he finally sat down on an empty seat. He couldn't sit still. He could feel his palms getting sweaty and the scent of caramel started to fill the air. And for the rest of the ride, his mind was blank.
When Bakugou stood at the hospital entrance, he didn't even hesitate, he stomped inside and walked towards the front desk.
"Yes, what can I help you with? Are you here to visit someone?"
"Uraraka," Bakugou almost growled out his nerves.
"Ah, yes, let me see," the secretary at the desk started to look at the computer for a while, "yeah, it's on the 5th floor, room 57,"
The second he heard the room number, Bakugou was already headed towards the elevator in the blink of an eye.
When he finally got to the fifth floor, he started to analyze every part of the floor. There weren't a lot of people around. The few that were there were mainly near the coffee truck farther ahead. A man, maybe in his late thirties, was holding his daughter's hand while walking away, each with a cup of beverage in their free hands. A blonde woman was sitting on a chair, talking on her phone while looking out of the big hospital window, looking at the scenery of the city. And a young, short-haired brunette was pouring some lemonade while she was humming to herself.
Wait, huh? Bakugou had to double-check what he just saw, trying to process it.
"Bakugou? What are you doing here?" Uraraka asked, looking almost flustered as she started to spill the lemonade on the floor.
"What do you mean 'what am I doing here'? Why are you walking around here?"
"What do you mean? I'm just getting some lemonade," Uraraka blinked in confusion.
"Lemonade? You're not the one emitted?" Bakugou raised an eyebrow. His voice was low and raspy as he tried to look as casual as he possibly could.
"What? No, my parents," Uraraka trailed off quickly, gesturing softly against one of the rooms not too far away from where they stood. And true enough, the number of the room given to him was right there. The room that had her parents in, instead of her.
Bakugou unconsciously relaxed his body and let go of the breath he hadn't realised he had held in. She was alright. She was safe and she wasn't hurt. Fucking hell.
"Wait, Bakuou, why are you here?" Her big innocent eyes were batting at him in question, and he almost blushed.
When he got his face under control, he shoved his hands into his pockets and worked a scowl on his face, "my mom made me go see my aunt," he wasn't lying, he just kept part of the truth out.
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear your aunt is here, what happened to her?" Uraraka started to wipe up what she spilled earlier with some paper towels.
Bakugou had to swallow. Okay, there may have been a tiny lie somewhere.
"Nothing big I guess," he shoved his hands into his pockets.
Uraraka threw out the wet, used, paper towels as she was done cleaning up. "Oh that's lucky," she took some extra paper towels and started to clean the spot all over again, which made Bakugou raise an eyebrow.
Bakugou walked closer to her and leaned against the wall, "something is bothering you," an observation, not a question.
"I'm just … I've always been afraid that something would happen to my parents during a job," Uraraka's hands started to shake and her eyes started to fill up with tears.
All Bakugou wanted was to go up to her, pull her into his arms and comfort her, but he knew that he couldn't do that and he had to grit his teeth to make himself calm down, the frustration was starting to get on his nerves.
"I'm sorry, you don't want to hear about my problems that have nothing to do with you," Uraraka wiped away her tears and sniffled.
Bakugou clicked his tongue and did the only thing he could do, "Cheeks, don't fucking apologize. Your parents would want you to kick ass at the hero course instead of sniffling here. And I'll be ready to kick your butt when you come back," he placed his hand reassuringly on top of Uraraka's head for a short while before he walked away from the area, the hospital, from her, while he tried to pull himself together. He felt like he had done something extremely embarrassing just now and it made his face so heated he was relieved she didn't get to see his face after he had uttered those words. Yet, when he was on his way back again, he could feel his heart was more at ease knowing that she was okay. The thought of her upset made his stomach move anxiously. Cheeks, you better pull yourself together. I'll be waiting.