First Light || BNHA (ON HOLD)

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chapter xxviii.

( hospitals and visitors )

"Keiko! You're awake!!" Mina shouted, happy tears spilling from her uniquely colored eyes as she barreled towards the ravenette, who was resting peacefully on the hospital bed.

It was nine in the morning of the next day, and Keiko was given soup for breakfast and was told that she would have to stay in the hospital for around a week or so, for her wounds were not yet fully healed.

It felt unusual for Keiko to have her wounds treated in a hospital, since they would normally heal an hour or two after the battle due to Astran's power, but even Astran stayed silent throughout the girl's time there. There was something off about that, but she couldn't pinpoint what would be the reason for Astran's sudden silence.

Well, for now, Keiko will have to just wait and recover like a normal person.

For once, the ravenette decided to accept the suffocating embrace of the pink girl, in contrast to what she usually does when she gets hugged by Mina. "It's nice to see you too, Mina."

"Hey don't hog Keiko for yourself!" Kaminari whined. "We want to hug her also!"

And so, the rest of the Bakusquad followed to her bed, hugging her out of relief.

"Fuck, mind the injuries guys," Her muffled voice comes out of somewhere behind Kaminari's shoulder.

They immediately stepped away and apologized. "Sorry, we're really happy that you're here, since Bakugou..." Sero paused, not even bothering to finish that sentence.

Keiko's small smile vanished at that. "What? What happened to Bakugou?"

"You didn't hear?" Kaminari said, all signs of playfulness disappearing from him and his companions. "Bakugou was kidnapped by the villains last night. We thought you got kidnapped as well."

The following silence was deafening, and unbearable to the visitors.

".... What?" Keiko got out as she tried her best to steady her tone and her breathing.

They all had looks of pity on their face. They knew how close the ravenette was to the ash blonde. They also noticed that she had this urge to protect everyone. Them spilling the beans to her hurt them quite a lot, especially since it seemed like Keiko was quite content up until Sero brought it up.

"We — We tried our best," Kirishima said, cutting the silence before it could flood the entire room. "We really did, but Vlad King didn't let us out of the building after Aizawa left and after Iida said you were dragged into the forest. All we could do was stay put and wait for it to end."

Mina sniffled. "We're so sorry. We should have done something, anything, to save you and Bakugou, but we were — we were afraid."

Keiko took a shaky breath, burying her head in her hands and letting her hair cover her face like a curtain. 

"Keiko?" Kaminari said softly, fiddling with his fingers, a habit he had started to do when he's nervous. 

"I'm fine," Keiko said, suddenly flipping her head back to push her hair away from her face, her expression unreadable but adorned an empty smile. "I'm sorry, I'm just feeling kind of... overwhelmed at the moment. Can you guys just... visit me later? Please?"

Hurt flashed through their eyes, but they understood what she wanted. If she wanted space, she's going to need space. After all, the class had overnight to process the happenings of the camp, but Keiko just found out now. She needed some time alone.