(This flashback takes place in the week before they left for camp)
He loved that abandoned park. The one where he used to go with his friends during the first grade. He'd use his yet-to-grow explosions and march along with them like his own little band of heroes.
He brought you one day. It was sunny and warm and you'd come over after school. Whenever he'd take a look down at your resting face, headphones on, a relaxed, gentle expression calming your features.
Sighing because he knew that you weren't allowed to sleep too much, he decided to grab your hand, squeeze it a few times, wordlessly ask that you follow him out of his home, down the street, past a broken fence that led into the woods and his old playing grounds.
You were enchanted the whole time he told you his stories. Of the little agency that he started at five years old, the times he beat up bullies that were far older, even about the times he and Deku hung out together.
Perhaps you enjoyed getting lost in his childhood because of the smile on his face when he spoke. He hated talking, a lot of the time not knowing how to say what he meant. But when he just forgot his ego, forgot his desperate desire to be strong, there was only nostalgic remembrance in his eyes.
Later on, he finally let your hand go, sat you down on the shore-side of the river. Picking old stones from the riverbed, he started skipping them along the water. And though you could only see the side of his face, shrouded in the shadows of his hair by the sunlight, it was easy just how at peace he seemed.
"What are ya lookin at me for?" Bakugo asked, side-eyeing you as you sat with your knees bunched up close to your chest between your arms.
You just smiled at him as he let yet another stonefly across the water, hummed a joyful tune.
"You look happy," Your eyes were shut, lips stretched into such a blissful expression.
The boy rolled his eyes, tsking and shaking his head. As if it didn't please him to know how much his own happiness contributed to yours.
And the fact that you could just listen to him, hear him with so much investment, so much attention, and interesting- like no one else- it just... It made him appreciate your presence all the more.
"Can you tell me more?" You asked as he wiped his hands off together, rolled his sleeves back up to his elbows. "About your childhood?"
Bakugo looked at you through hooded eyes as he focused on his dress shirt, a bit ticked off he'd gotten his uniform a bit dirty. Stalking back over he made a murmuring noise and himself down in the grass next to you.
"It wasn't enough when my mom showed you pictures of me?" He grumbled, making you chuckle lightly.
As he gazed out at the scenery, enjoyed the trickling of the cascades in the river, the gentle breeze uninterrupted by the congestion of the suburbs, you took him in. Memorized this undistributed version of him without a single barrier keeping you from seeing the realness.
Then, as if remembering, you bit your lip to keep from smiling too hard, mischievously removing your phone from your back pocket. Turning it on, it was impossible to not admire your lock screen: a picture of little Bakugo wearing his All Might costume, sitting on his dad's lap, laughing so hard with balled up little fists.
You could practically hear his baby voice as he scream-laughed from the excitement of finally being able to dress like his favorite hero.
"Oi," Grown-up party-pooper Katsuki sounded at your side, catching you off guard as you held that phone like it was the baby version of him. "What are ya smiling at?"
