Nomu

Part 16

Bakugou stood for a moment longer in shock before it really hit him.

"No! Deku!" Bakugou screamed and fell to his knees in front of Deku.
"No no no! You were here!" He grabbed Deku by the shoulders and stared him in the face before he started shaking him.

He heard the door open and a stream of light came in from the hall.

He paid it no mind and kept shaking Deku.

"Bakugou! What the hell are you doing?!" He heard Kirishima shouting at him from the door. "You're gonna hurt him!"

He wasn't thinking and just continued aggressively shaking the boy in front of him.

The next thing he knew, he was being torn away from Deku.
"No! Get off of me! I need to.. I need..." his voice cut off as he fought against whoever had grabbed him.

Uraraka and Mina had rushed in and were fretting over Deku while Kirishima was restraining Bakugou.

"No! Deku! He was...."
He felt tears stinging his eyes and he stopped fighting against Kirishima.
"He- he was." His voice cracked and the tears that had been welling up in his eyes finally fell down his face.

"Bakugou?" Kirishima turned him around only to see him crying.
He was shocked, he'd only ever seen him cry once before and that was the day they'd rescued Deku.
To Kirishima's surprise, Bakugou didn't run or even get angry, but instead clutched Kirishima's shirt, crying into his chest.

"Hey, hey. It's ok." Kirishima hesitantly wrapped his arms around Bakugou. When he didn't push him away, he held him tighter.

"I- um, is Midoriya ok?" Kirishima asked, looking up at the two girls.

"Yeah he seems fine." Mina answered. "But what the hell happened Bakugou? Why did you do that?" She asked angrily.
"I came to get you to help him! What were you thinking?!" Uraraka protectively pulled Deku closer to herself.

"Guys calm down. I think something happened. Leave him alone." Kirishima gestured to the crying Bakugou. Their eyes both widened in surprise.
Kirishima stood them both up and started walking towards the door.

"I'll talk to him. You guys stay with Midorya." He talked to the two girls over his shoulder as he and Bakugou left the room.

Bakugou was still much to distraught to understand what they were talking about and just blindly followed where Kirishima led him.

"Everything ok?" Shouji asked groggily, poking his head out from behind his door.

"Yeah man, Midorya just had a night terror. Everything's cool." Kirishima smiled at him, pushing Bakugou into his room before quickly shutting his door behind them.

Bakugou was still crying at this point as Kirishima sat him on his bed.

"Hey, Bakugou, it's ok. Just take a deep breath." He started rubbing his back, trying to comfort him and get him to calm down.
"Man, what happened in there?" He whispered to himself.

"Come on, breath with me. It's ok. Take a deep breath in." Bakugou looked up at his friend and took a deep breath.
"Good good, now let it out slowly." Kirishima instructed, giving him a smile. Bakugou did as he was told and slowly let his air out.
"Ok, let's do it again." They both took another deep breath and let it out slowly.

This calmed Bakugou down enough to where he could talk.

"Is he ok?" Bakugou peered anxiously towards the door. "I- I didn't hurt him did I?"

"No, he's ok." Kirishima grabbed Bakugou's hand and looked him square in the face. "What happened, when we were in the hall?"

"Nothing. I'm going back to my room." Bakugou dodged the question and abruptly stood up, keen on leaving.

"No." Kirishima pulled him back down onto the bed.
"Something obviously happened, and it looks like it really shook you up. You don't have to tell me, but I'm your friend and I'm here for you. You can talk to me. Please, talk to me Bakugou."

Bakugou stared at him for a second, deciding what he should do.
He sighed and laid back on the bed.
"He- it's like, he woke up. Not like from sleeping to just how he usually is now, but he was, aware. And lucid. He talked to me."

Kirishima laid back next to him.
"So he was like how he was before?"

"Kind of. But he was scared, no, terrified. And he-" his voice broke but he continued, "he sounded so confused and hurt."

"What did he say?" Kirishima asked, turning his head to look at Bakugou.

"Kacchan...." he trailed off before continuing. "He saw me. He asked what was happening to him." His voice cracked again and he could feel tears welling up in his eyes again. He quickly blinked them away before they could fall.
He sat back up and put his face in his hands, elbows resting on his knees.
"And then he was back in that stupid fucking trance again." He spoke through gritted teeth, trying not to start crying again.

Kirishima sat up and put his hand on Bakugou's shoulder.

"So were you just trying to snap him out of it?"

"I guess? I don't know, I kind of lost it."

"And this never happened before? That's why it shook you up so much?" Kirishima questioned.

"Well, that's not really true." He sighed and seemed to deflate a bit.

"No? What do you mean?"

"You know he has these night terrors every night? Well, after he wakes up from these he has, I think, a few seconds of consciousness. That time's been getting longer though. At first it was just his eyes, looking at me instead of staring blankly like usual. And then last night he - he said my name. It's never been like tonight though. He fell backwards off of my lap as he woke up and then he tried to stand, to get to me. It's like he has no idea what's happening to him." Bakugou rambled, trying to recount everything to Kirishima.
"He's just so scared man, he has no fucking clue what's happening to him and that's got to be so damn scary. Not to mention all the messed up shit that happened to him before we rescued him." He broke down again, putting his face in his hands and trying hard not to start crying again.

Kirishima listened, putting his arm around Bakugou's shoulders. He knew it would be best to let him get everything out now, rather then interrupting him to say something.
If he stopped him now, he didn't know if he'd be able to get him talking again.

"And it fucking hurts, knowing that there's nothing I can do. Is the most I can do really just hold his tense body while he's suffering like this?! And it's all my damn fault-"

Kirishima cut him off here.

"Bakugou! You know none of this is your fault. It's was league of villains, not you."

"It is though. I made him feel like he had to prove himself. He wouldn't have joined that battle if I hadn't been such a jerk to him. And even then, I couldn't even fucking protect the nerd! I shouldn't have agreed to fight, maybe than he wouldn't have either. Or I could've stayed by his side the whole time rather then leaving him to fight alone, or if I had pushed him out of the way, Shigaraki would've grabbed me instead. Or -"

"Dude, you've got to stop with these what-ifs. You'll just drive yourself mad. You did everything you could and it is NOT your fault this happened. You hear me?" Kirishima said very sternly.
"The league is 100% at fault here. And the pros are trying their darnedest to track the rest of them down."

"I just - ugh." Bakugou sighed. "I miss him." He said simply.

They sat in silence for a moment before Bakugou broke that silence.

"I'm going back to my room now." He stood up and walked towards the door.
He stopped, his hand hovering above the knob.

"You'd better not tell anyone about this." He spoke, not bothering to turn around.

"Don't worry dude. And you can always talk to me. I'm here for you." Kirishima gave him a small smile.

"Goodnight Kiri."

"Goodnight Bakugou."