an: cross posted from ao3 (chewhy), two shot

for kiribaku month day 5 prompt: time travel

tw: character death (but its a time loop so uh nonpermanent character death?)

"Fuck!" Bakugou wakes up with a gasp, feeling like he can't get air into his lungs fast enough. "Fuck. Shit. Fuck," he whispers, hoarsely scraping out the words. His hands claw at his chest and neck, ripping his shirt off as if that will help him breathe and lighten the impact he felt in the base of his chest. "Fuck."

"Hey, Bakugou? Bakugou, Katsuki, you okay?" Kirishima slides into his room, his socks slipping on the wooden floor as he barely catches himself on the doorframe. "Katsuki, what's wrong, are you okay? You're okay, you're fine, you're safe," he says, his concern turning into comfort as he holds Bakugou in his arms tightly, gently rocking them back and forth.

Bakugou continues to mutter curses under his breath as he leans into the touch. He focuses on Kirishima's heartbeat, breathing in and out with him as Kirishima guides him.

"Hey, it's okay. Just breathe. I've got a giant birthday cake for you with so many candles on it and we're going to blow them out, okay?" Kirishima says, walking him slowly through each step. "Ready? Blow. In and out, you're doing great."

Some minutes pass with imaginary candles being lit up and blown out, again and again. Bakugou can almost visualize it in his mind's eye; he imagines a sloppily baked red velvet cake with equally atrocious red candles that Kirishima revives with as many matches as it takes for Bakugou to extinguish with his breathing, steadying with each inhale.

The image makes him let out a watery chuckle and Kirishima leans back, smiling down at Bakugou. "You okay, man?"

Bakugou snorts a little, and it's disgustingly wet. He ignores the way Kirishima's nose wrinkles in disgust as he reaches forward to blow his nose on his discarded shirt. "I'm fucking fine, dumbass. Go back to sleep."

"You sure, man? We can talk about it if you want?"

Bakugou just shakes his head, chucking his dirty shirt on the floor so he can roll over to face the wall again. There's nothing to talk about, really. Just his own failures. He waits there, looking at the cracks in the wall of their shitty apartment for maybe ten, fifteen minutes until finally he hears the rustle of the blankets and the creak of the floorboards as Kirishima silently leaves his room.

It's been the same way since they moved in together, since even before all of that, when they were living in the dorms back at UA.

Since Kamino.

The dreams are less frequent now, but still Bakugou will wake up occasionally, drenched in sweat from head to toe, body shaking and arm outstretched as his brain replays that night in his head.

And every single fucking time. Every single time, Kirishima will be there to hold him and comfort him when he wakes up.

Eventually, the sun comes up. Bakugou gets ready for the day.

–

"You're early to work today, Bakugou!" Kaminari greets cheerfully, twisting around to shoot him a thumbs up from the office sofa.

"Says you, dunce face," Bakugou growls, making a beeline for the coffee machine. "You sleep here or something?"

"Ah," Kaminari rubs a hand at the back of his neck sheepishly, shrugging as he answers, "Jirou kicked me out because I short circuited every single kitchen appliance while playing FIFA."

Bakugou raises an eyebrow but decides it's really in his best interest not to question it.

"So anyways, I told her that we could just ask Yao momma to make us a new stove and then Jirou kicked me out of the house and said that she was going to ask Yao momma to make new locks for the apartment," Kaminari continues.

Bakugou has fully tuned out at this point in favor of flipping through some of the files at his desk on various villain cases. He frowns as he flips back to one file he had just passed a moment ago. "Kaminari. Shut up and come look at this," he says, putting two images side by side.

"What's up?" Kaminari asks, walking over to peer over Bakugou's shoulder. "Oh hey, that's Kirishima's company, right?" he asks, pointing at one of the buildings in the backgrounds of one of the surveillance images they have.

It is, Bakugou notes, but that's not really what's important. "Look at this," Bakugou says, pulling out two photographs from two separate files.

The image shows a villain, name unknown, quirk unknown, speaking on the phone with a hat covering half of his face. It's hard to pinpoint any identifying characteristics about him with the angle the photo has been taken at, but on the inside of his wrist is a small tattoo of a bird. A phoenix, to be precise.

In the second image is the villain known as Crow. A fairly unoriginal villain name, if anybody asks Bakugou's opinion, but with a powerful destruction quirk of some sort. On his wrist, barely angled towards the camera, is another tattoo. Red.

"Is that," Kaminari asks, squinting. "Is that a phoenix?"

"It appears," Bakugou says slowly with a grin, "That our two cases may be connected."

Kaminari's already grabbing his equipment off of a printer he'd hung it across, bouncing around the room as he gets ready to head out. "Field work time, field work time!" he chants, running in circles around the room as he waits for Bakugou to actually figure out where they're going.

Bakugou rolls his eyes but doesn't say anything more. He's always loved the solving aspect of hero work just as much as the victory aspect so while not as boisterous as Kaminari, he can't really wipe the vicious grin off his face.

Following the pattern of appearances, the beret motherfucker always shows up at the destruction zone Crow makes a week after the crime. Tracing back to Crow's most recent appearance, that should leave the beret motherfucker… Right at Kirishima's hero agency. The smile slips off his face.

"Come on idiot, we're going. Leave a note for Ponytail and the other fucks," Bakugou says with a growl, strapping on his equipment. He picks up his phone and rings Kirishima as he heads out the door. (He may or may not let it intentionally shut on Kaminari's face.)

"Pick up, shitty hair, pick up," he growls under his breath as he listens to the line ring once, twice, three times before there's finally the click of the receiver.

"Hello, Kirishi–"

"Oi, shitty hair," Bakugou cuts off. "Sparky and I are headed to your district now. We suspect a criminal we've been following might appear on the scene at some point today. Meet us outside of your company building," Bakugou explains in a rush. He hangs up immediately after that.

It's not far and in no time at all Kaminari is running forward with an eager wave, "Kirishima! I've missed you so much, dude!"

"I saw you just two days ago," Kirishima says with an answering laugh. Bakugou snorts and lets them chat for a bit before interrupting.

"Hey idiots. We here on a mission or what?" At that, both Kaminari and Kirishima look at him for further guidance. Bakugou inclines his head and starts walking ahead, "We'll scope out Crow's crime scene first, see if we can pick up any evidence we missed the first time now that we know it's bigger than a one man job."

There's not too much to go off of, Bakugou realizes, but he feels a sense of urgency to figure out what's afoot, and figure it out fast. "Crow's attacks have been increasing in frequency, so we want to catch the next one before it happens. They've also been getting more destructive but we don't know what he's after, exactly."

"Crow," Kirishima repeats thoughtfully. "Destructive quirk? Could be no motive at all, based on the evidence we've found, or lack thereof," Kirishima hypothesizes. "It's not like he steals anything, or gains anything from each hit other than pure notoriety."

"Ego," Kaminari muses. "Could be. Got plenty of those assholes around, yeah?"

They get to the site then, and Bakugou stumbles a little bit. He'd seen it on the news and in the surveillance images, but now that he's here in person, the crater reminds him uncomfortably of that night years ago. It's nowhere near the same scale, but the level of destruction is… eerie.

"We'll scope the area for evidence," Bakugou says, hopping over a line of police tape. "And if the other one shows up, comm links."

"Kaminari, you go ahead," Kirishima says, jogging slightly to match pace with Bakugou. "I'll walk with Bakugou to debrief." When Kaminari is out of earshot, Kirishima turns to Bakugou. "Hey, so… About last night," Kirishima begins hesitantly.

"Don't want to talk about it," Bakugou answers brusquely. "We should focus on the mission."

Bakugou misses the way Kirishima's face shutters down as he turns back to look at the crater. "Right. Right, okay. It's fine, we can talk later."

If Bakugou has his way, there will be no later. For now, he continues forward, stepping carefully around the debris as he goes. There's not much left after the initial combover of the area, and after some time Bakugou's about ready to call it when suddenly he hears a crackle in his earpiece.

When Kirishima stiffens by his side, he jumps off in the direction he'd last seen Kaminari, blasting himself forward the last few paces.

"Chargebolt!" he calls out, sliding around a corner.

There's a muffled thud and a cry from inside one of the nearby buildings and Bakugou charges in. There's a villain fleeing through another doorway and Kaminari is knocked out cold on the ground.

"Fuck," Bakugou whispers, checking Kaminari's pulse. He's still alive. Kirishima finally bursts in and Bakugou takes off running, only pausing briefly to hand Kaminari off.

"Ground Zero, wait!" Kirishima calls out but it's lost in the blasts that Bakugou lets off, twisting around corners and hallways and chasing the villain up the stairwell and onto the rooftop.

It should, by all means, be an easy fight. They're in open air and Bakugou's practiced at both ranged and close up fighting, but somehow the villain manages to blink out of the way every time, popping back up again just out of reach. A teleportation quirk of some kind? If it is, he doesn't seem to be able to teleport very far distances.

As Bakugou continues to fire and lunge, he notices the villain's moves are getting more and more predictable. With a grin, he twists on his feet, grabbing at thin air for a second before he feels something solid in his hands.

"Gotcha."

What, Bakugou thinks. That's supposed to be his line. Bakugou follows the villain's line of vision down to his gauntlets which are wrapped up in the villain's hands. There, on the villain's wrist is a tattooed phoenix.

Before Bakugou can react with a blast, Kirishima comes slamming through the door, a groggy Kaminari by his side. "Ground Zero!" Kirishima shouts out, moving forward but it's too late.

The villain's hands squeeze into Bakugou's which doesn't make sense, he shouldn't be able to feel somebody squeezing his titanium gauntlets, until he realizes that his gauntlets, his very own weapons and gear, are acting against him.

"A shrinking quirk," Bakugou whispers, watching almost in slow motion as he watches his fingers, the very core of his weapon, shatter and crunch into mangled bits and pieces as the gauntlets squeeze tighter and tighter.

"You betcha," the villain says, a fake cheery smile on his face. "Goodbye, hero," he says and with that, easily kicks Bakugou in the chest before shrinking out of sight.

For a moment, Bakugou is suspended, floating among the clouds before a voice breaks through the haze and the pain, "Katsuki!"

"Fuck," is the only word he can get out as he reaches out an arm, feels the tips of hardened fingers barely brushing his own until he's falling, unable to twist himself around to blast himself off the ground.

The last thing he sees as he falls is Kirishima's anguished expression.

–

"Fuck!"

"Bakugou? You're okay, you're okay."

Bakugou wakes up disoriented. He tries to sit up but can't move, panicking for a moment before he realizes it's because Kirishima's arms are wrapped around him. "Kirishima?" he whispers and his voice his hoarse and raspy like the breath has been knocked out of his lungs.

"I'm here, I'm here," Kirishima soothes, rubbing slow circles into Bakugou's back. "Everything's okay, everything is going to be okay. In and out, like blowing out birthday candles."

At those words, Bakugou stiffens.

"What's wrong?" Kirishima asks.

"Nothing. Just… bad dream," he says, letting out the breath he's holding. "I'm fine."

"Yeah, okay, it's fine," Kirishima agrees. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Bakugou shakes his head into the crook of Kirishima's neck.

Kirishima falls silent after that, just slowly rocking back and forth as he holds Bakugou in his arms. Eventually, curiosity must get the better of him and he speaks up, "Was it Kamino?"

"No," Bakugou says. "Not Kamino." Not this time, he doesn't say out loud.

Bakugou isn't sure quite when, but he falls back asleep eventually.

–

Bakugou stumbles into work a few minutes later than usual, having overslept somewhat. Kaminari grins when he spots him, waving at him from where he sits in a chair facing the wall.

"Bakugou my man! You're unusually late today!"

"The fuck are you doing over there, dunce face?" Bakugou asks, grabbing for the coffee pot.

Kaminari pouts at that, twisting in his chair to look up at him with a pleading face. "Yao momma put in me in time out for sleeping in the office. Tell her it's not my fault! Jirou kicked me out–"

"Because you short circuited every single kitchen appliance while playing FIFA?"

Kaminari trails off, gaping at Bakugou as they say the same sentence in sync. He narrows his eyes and Bakugou braces himself for his questions. "Did Jirou already tell the groupchat what happened? Aw man, not cool!" Kaminari pouts, sinking back into his seat.

Bakugou just blinks at him for a second before shaking his head. "No, just… weird deja vu."

Bakugou hurries over to his desk, sorting through the piles of paper until he finds the two files he's looking for. "Bastards," he mutters under his breath. "Kaminari," he calls out, "Get equipped, we're going out on the field."

Kaminari starts to run around in circles, grabbing his equipment off of a printer he'd hung it across, bouncing around the room as he gets ready to head out. "Field work time, field work time!" he chants. This time, Bakugou can only press his lips into a line grimly as he holds up the two photographs side by side.

Beret Motherfucker is a different person than Shrinky Dink, Bakugou realizes then as he takes a closer look at the image. "Who knows how many of these bird fuckers there are," Bakugou mutters under his breath.

Before they can slip out the door, however, Yaoyoruzu walks in the door, frowning when she sees that Kaminari has freed himself from time out. "Where exactly do you two think you're going?"

"Oh, Ponytail, you're here," Bakugou says, looking up briefly. "Good, you should come with." He deftly tosses the two files to Yaoyoruzu who catches them with a frown. "I think there's a connection between Crow and Beret Bitch. We should go out and scout the scene for further evidence now that we have more insight," he says, already out the door.

(The slam of the door shutting on Kaminari's face is just as satisfying as the first time.)

"Bakugou, wait!" Yaoyorozu says, jogging lightly after him. "We should call Kirishima, this is right by his office," she says, waving one of the photographs at him.

"I know," Bakugou says. He already has his phone up to his ear and is rattling off the information as soon as Kirishima picks up.

In another few minutes, Kaminari is running forward to greet Kirishima and Bakugou's stomach twists as he remembers what comes next. "Oi, Ponytail," he mutters under his breath. "Stick close to Kaminari. And be careful, alright?"

Before Yaoyoruzu can ask any questions, Bakugou's already turned down the sidewalk. "Hurry up, you extras! We don't have all fucking day!" he shouts behind him. He hears Kirishima laugh, and footsteps hurrying behind him until an arm slings over his shoulder.

"What's the hurry, big guy?" Kirishima asks, leaning gently into him.

"Nothing. Just. Something," Bakugou sighs. He doesn't know what the fuck is going on exactly, but he'll be damned if he doesn't blow up some villains with this opportunity.

Kirishima raises an eyebrow, but Bakugou's already speeding up his pace, ducking under the line of police tape.

"Kaminari, Yaoyoruzu, you two go that way," he says, pointing to his left. "Kirishima and I will go this way."

As soon as Kaminari and Yaoyorozu are out of earshot, Kirishima is turning towards him. "Hey, so… about last night," he says hesitantly.

Bakugou shakes his head. "It's not a big deal. Focus on the mission." He fixes his stare ahead of him, glaring around the site.

"Right. Right, okay. It's fine, we can talk later."

He twitches off the way his neck crawls at that, and walks back over the same area he'd seen before. Everything is exactly the same, all the way down to the crackle he suddenly hears in his earpiece.

This time, however, it's followed by Yaoyorozu's shout. "A villain has been sighted, we're in the building to the east!"

Kirishima and Bakugou exchange one look before taking off running. Bakugou blasts into the building, only to run smack dab into the villain who had just been on his way out, tailed by Yaoyorozu and Kaminari.

He goes down with a grunt, twisting to leap back up with his hands raised, and then draws to a full stop. "You're not Shrinky Dink," he says, frowning. A stupid mistake.

"No, I'm not," the villain says with a smile full of crooked, blackened teeth. His tongue strikes out between them, sharp and long, stabbing right through Bakugou's chest.

"Oh." Bakugou looks down, putting his fingers against his chest, frowning as they come away soaked with red.

"Katsuki!" Kirishima's voice screeches behind him, and he hears Yaoyorozu giving chase in a very distant, hollow sort of way.

He feels arms wrap around him, cupping his chest and applying pressure while something hot and wet drips down onto his face.

"Oh. Fuck."

–

"Fuck."

Bakugou wakes up and tastes blood. He groans as his brings his fingers to his lips, stumbling towards the door to flip on the lightswitch. Looking into the mirror, he sees his teeth are stained red and his tongue and lips are a bloody mess. He must have bit it while sleeping.

"Bakugou?" Kirishima's voice asks sleepily from the doorway. "Are you okay?" When Bakugou turns to face him, Kirishima's eyes widen. "Oh shit, what happened?" Already, he's stepping forward, taking Bakugou's hand as he leads him to the kitchen.

Bakugou sits at the counter, watching numbly as Kirishima pulls out an ice tray from the freezer, emptying it into a paper towel. His fingers work quickly to wrap the bundle up before gently pressing it to Bakugou's face.

"What happened?"

Bakugou shrugs, unwilling and unable to talk around the ice.

"Bad dream?"

Bakugou shrugs again, stiffly ignoring Kirishima's face. His voice still rings in his ears, repeating again and again, Katsuki, Katsuki, Katsuki.

"Was it," Kirishima hesitates, playing with his fingers. The bright kitchen lights seem too harsh for three in the morning and they draw out Kirishima's dark circles.

Shit, Bakugou thinks. Had he been paying so little attention to his own best friend all along?

"It wasn't Kamino," Bakugou says finally, setting the pink tinged paper towel down on the kitchen counter between them. "It was something else," Bakugou says. He watches Kirishima's hands clench and unclench helplessly as if they want to reach out and hold him, but Kirishima ends up curling them back in, tucking them under his elbows instead.

"Okay. Okay," Kirishima sighs. He sounds so tired. "You should try to get some more sleep."

With that, he leaves the room and leaves Bakugou sitting there at the kitchen table.

–

"You're early to work today, Baku– woah, hey, dude are you okay?"

Bakugou just grunts, grabbing the coffee pot and guzzling the contents without even bothering to pour it into a cup. "Bit my lip, 'sfine." He slams the pot down and glares at Kaminari for a while, wondering for the first time how exactly FIFA could result in short circuiting every single kitchen appliance, before he decides it's not worth pursuing.

"Uh, so anyways," Kaminari pipes up, rolling off the sofa, "Jirou kicked me out because I short circuited every single kitchen appliance while playing FIFA. Do you think I can convince Yao momma to make us a new Sony smart fridge?"

"No," Bakugou snorts. This is, he decides, starting to get fucking annoying. He stalks over to the files and drags out the Beret Motherfucker and Crow, frowning as he looks at the two tattoos. He's sure there's something going on here, some sort of connection to be made but he has no clue where it begins and where it ends, and most of all, why it seems to only be affecting him.

Crumpling up the photograph in frustration, he throws it at a wall. And now there's four phoenix fuckers lurking around out there.

"Stay in the office. I'm heading out to scope some evidence," Bakugou says. This time, he'll go in alone.

"Aw, I wanted to do field work," Kaminari whines, sinking back into the couch.

Bakugou just rolls his eyes and walks out the door. He doesn't bother to call Kirishima this time.

He's at the crater site in no time, blasting his way across the city until he touches down, right at the center of the crater. Looking around him, there's nothing there once again. He steps forward, only to pause and turn back.

"The fuck?" he whispers, leaning down to scrape away the dust and debris left from the explosion. Buried under the dirt, right under his foot at the center of it all is a small carved bird. A phoenix. He clenches it in his hand and twists, unsure what to do next.

The building to his left towers high above him and Bakugou squints at it. Gripping the carving in one hand, he stalks forward, arms held up and ready in front of him. He's stepping in through the doorway when a voice calls out from behind him, "Bakugou!"

His foot touches down on the floor, just on the inside of the entrance as he turns his head and sees a shock of red hair, a hand held out and waving at him, before he feels the impact of the explosion.

"Fuck."

–

"Fuck, shit, fucking shit motherfucking shit piece of shit phoneix," Bakugou wakes up screaming.

"Woah, calm down!" Kirishima says, holding out one steady hand on Bakugou's chest. "Breathe, dude! Relax! Birthday candles, okay?"

Bakugou's voice abruptly chokes off as he realizes Kirishima's in his hardened form. Bakugou's own hands are still sizzling, and when Kirishima sees that Bakugou is breathing steadier now, he pats out the small smolders of his blankets with hardened palms.

"Everything okay?"

Bakugou clenches his fists, glaring down hard at them before he sits straight up. "Fucking no, and I'm going to kill these fuckers," he hisses, leaping out of bed.

"Woah, where are you going?" Kirishima calls after him, but Bakugou is already running out of their apartment, still in his pajamas and barefoot as he runs down the stairwell. He can hear Kirishima running after him, the slap slap slap of his slippers echoing against the concrete walls surrounding them but he doesn't give a fuck.

Bakugou has one mission, and one mission only that he hones his vision in on as he runs out their apartment complex and–

"Bakugou! Watch out!"

Bakugou turns his head to yell some obscenities at Kirishima, but finds himself facing a bright beam of headlights instead. "Oh fuck."

–

"Fuckkkkkkking hell," Bakugou says with a groan, rolling over in his bed. He's really, really, really done with today. And yesterday. And tomorrow. And every other day that's going to come after it.

"Bakugou?" a voice asks from his doorway and Bakugou just turns over in his bed and stares up at Kirishima.

The moonlight hits his face at an angle that highlights his nose and frames his shaggy red hair in a silver light, and Bakugou wishes he could wake up and see it again… tomorrow. The real tomorrow, that is.

"I'm fine, Kiri," Bakugou says with a yawn. "Go back to bed."

Kirishima hesitates, shifting on his feet for a second before nodding and turning back to his own room. He turns back in the doorway as if to say something, but turns and walks down the hallway instead.

Bakugou has never felt more alone.

–

He skips the hero office today. He shoots a text to Kaminari saying that he won't be stopping in, and then another one to Jirou that's a meme saying "Fuck Kaminari, All my homies hate Kaminari" that he'd been saving for ages.

Bakugou watches the road for cars as he crosses, and makes his way to the crater. He walks to the center, shuffles around the dirt, and then stiffens when the carved figure is not there.

"What the fuck–"

"Looking for this?" a voice calls out behind him. Bakugou twists with a start, arms already raised to blast when he comes to a hat.

"You beret motherfucker," he hisses, hands crackling.

"I actually go by Vulture," the beret fucker clarifies. He's holding the phoenix carving pinched between two fingers on his right hand and smiles down at Bakugou. Fucking floating quirk ass bitch.

Bakugou throws himself forward, but the beret bitch has already hovered himself out of reach by the time Bakugou's blasts propel him far enough. "What the fuck," Bakugou growls, throwing punches and explosions regardless of if they land, "Do you want from me."

Vulture sighs, and floats down once Bakugou has tired himself out. "The Phoenix took pity on your gruesome deaths, but in my personal opinion you haven't learned quite enough," he says. "I'll give you another couple of days to calm down, shall we? Oh look, your friend is coming."

"The fuck is that supposed to mean," Bakugou growls, ready to fly forward once more but he's distracted by Kirishima showing up behind the beret fuck.

"Bakugou!" he calls out, "What are you doing here?"

"Red Riot!" Bakugou shouts back, "Stay the fuck back." And with that, he launches himself forward.

Vulture seems to be having fun with this, flying in and out through the air as Bakugou chases him. Below them, Kirishima looks on with frustration as he has no way to get off the ground.

"Bakugou, watch out!" Kirishima calls, and Bakugou twists into a somersault in midair, crashing hard into the ground as Vulture knocks into him from above.

Kirishima is running over to them now, but he's too far away as the floaty asshole leans into Bakugou's space with a sinister smile. "I never did tell you what my quirk was, did I?" he asks.

Bakugou tries to spit back a retort, but there's no air in his lungs and he claws helplessly at his own throat, fingernails ripping into his skin as he sucks in empty breaths.

"I can manipulate air currents," Vulture whispers, leaning in close to press a finger to Bakugou's windpipe. "Now it's time to wake up," he says, tightening his hands into a fist.

Suffocating, Bakugou learns, is a much longer death than he would wish for. His vision fades slowly, and he reaches a hand out to press into Kirishima's face, watching as Kirishima tries to pump breath after breath into Bakugou's lungs, pressing his lips over Bakugou's open mouth to give what little breath he can.

Eventually, Bakugou's limbs start to go slack.

If he had any breath left within his lungs, he might say something along the lines of "Fuck."

–

Bakugou wakes up heaving, hands clawing at his neck as he twists out of his blankets, pushing away the fabric around him.

"F-f-fuck," he stutters out, falling off of the bed in his panic as his vision swirls and he takes sweet, sweet breath after breath. His vocal chords scratch and his speech comes out hoarse.

"Bakugou! Bakugou, stop, you're hurting yourself!" Kirishima's voice is in his ear in an instant, ready to comfort him. "Easy there, Katsuki. Just breathe."

Hands wrap around his throat and for a second, Bakugou panics before he realizes that they're his own, only digging in from the pressure of Kirishima's hands attempting to lift them off. He looks down and sees between the black spots of his vision that there's blood and skin buried under each fingernail and just knows that his neck is fucked up.

"Candles, Katsuki. Candles," Kirishima says, hands trembling even as they hold onto Bakugou's. "Breathe in, blow them out, light them up again," he whispers, and for a brief moment, Bakugou can't tell who he's running this breathing exercise for as he listens to the quiver in Kirishima's voice.

Eventually, they calm down together and Kirishima leads him to the kitchen to grab the first aid kit.

Kirishima's first impulse is to wrap bandages around Bakugou's neck, but when he sees Bakugou tense and his eyes widen, Kirishima nods and deliberately sets them to the side. Instead, he gently dabs at them with alcohol, and then smears some neosporin across them.

The sticky feeling of the ointment on Bakugou's neck still irks him, and he grimaces in distaste as he tries not to scratch at his neck again.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Kirishima asks, and Bakugou shakes his head sullenly. Kirishima sighs, and then stands to put away the kit, walking back to the counter when it's been set down out of sight. "You should try to get more sleep. Goodnight," he says, briefly resting his hand on Bakugou's wrist.

Bakugou isn't entirely sure why he does it, but when Kirishima stands to leave, he flips his hand and grabs on.

"Do you want me to stay?"

Bakugou doesn't say a word.

But Kirishima stays.

Together, they sit there, listening to the clock tick over the stove as the morning light of dawn creeps in through the window.

–

"You're early to – oh shit dude, what the fuck happened to you?"

Bakugou shakes his head and just sits at his desk, not even bothering with coffee. Kaminari looks on in silence, shifting awkwardly on the couch.

"Ah, rough night?" he asks and then quiets down again at Bakugou's glare. The squeaking of the couch springs are impossibly loud, interspersed only by the aggressive flipping of Bakugou's files.

He glares down at Crow and Vulture until his stewing is interrupted by Kaminari speaking up again.

"So, uh, Jirou kicked me out because I short circuited every single kitchen appliance while playing FIFA," Kaminari says brightly.

Bakugou sighs and chucks the two files off his desk. "You should ask Ponytail to make you a new Sony smart fridge." He's feeling spiteful today, and if none of his efforts to catch this bird ass group will work, then he might as well fuck around with Kaminari.

"That's genius!" Kaminari says, sitting up straight. "I'll ask her when she gets into work," he decides with a nod, already scrolling through his phone to eye shop for kitchenware.

Bakugou pulls the stack of more mundane files that he usually pushes off to one side back to the center of his desk. Today, he decides, he will do nothing out of the ordinary. He will simply live his life, make it to tomorrow, and then figure out what the fuck is up with these bird bitches tomorrow.

He's solved about two cases, come up with villain names for the other bird bitches he saw (Hummingbird for Shrinky Dink, Stork for Fucked Up Teeth, and Bitch for the one that made him explode), and decided that hero paperwork is absolutely fucking boring.

Luckily, Yaoyorozu walks in then and Bakugou watches with glee as she creates a chair that looks inhumanely uncomfortable and then commands Kaminari to sit in it facing the wall.

"Bakugou," he hisses, "How could you betray me like this."

"Fuck you too, Sparky."

Considering he may or may not die at the end of the day, Bakugou's feeling pretty good about himself.

"Bakugou," Yaoyorozu says, coming back out of her office. "I'm going on patrol, would you like to join me?"

"Take me with you!" Kaminari begs from his time out corner. They both ignore him.

"Sure," Bakugou grunts, standing as his knees crack from being bent for so long. Patrol shouldn't be too life threatening, especially with Yaoyorozu around.

They gear up in minutes, heading out the door as Yaoyorozu calls behind her, "Hold down the fort, and you better still be in time out when I'm back!" before shutting the door on Kaminari's whines.

The streets are fairly calm and Bakugou finds himself relaxing for the first time in days. (One day? Who knows how time functions in this loop.) "Maybe that's what I'm meant to learn," he muses.

"What was that?" Yaoyorozu asks, inclining her head.

"Fucking nothing, Ponytail. Just thinking," he grunts. They continue to walk on in silence, until Yaoyorozu pauses.

"Red Riot!" she calls out with a wave, and Bakugou looks up to see Kirishima crossing the street.

Shit.

"Creati! Ground Zero!" he calls out, jogging towards them lightly. "Are you guys patrolling? Mind if I join?"

Bakugou just grunts, toeing at the ground and letting Yaoyorozu lead the way forward, the two of them chattering and gossiping as they go.

Maybe that's why only Bakugou notices at first, but he barely has time to let out a warning cry as he flies forward to stop the steel beam from landing on a child.

"Ground Zero!" Kirishima's voice cries out behind him and Bakugou knows, just feels it deep inside that it's happening again.

And then the child is safe, and he's being crushed into the ground as the breath explodes out of his lungs and Kirishima's hand stretches towards him, face crumpling in horror as Bakugou whispers.

"Fuck."