Fight or Flight [BNHA x reader]

Baby Pictures

After the Sports festival everyone had mandatory rest time. So, of course, the girls in your class decided they wanted a girls day to get to know one another better. You really wanted a nap but with a bit of convincing and bribing done by Mina, Hagakure, and Jiro, you gave in.

You were seated in-between Mina and Uraraka and across from Momo, who was smiling contently after she convinced everyone to let her pay for the outing. Everyone was deep in conversation, happily talking about nothing and everything...except for Uraraka who, despite her best effort, wore a false bubbly smile as kept glancing her eyes anxiously to her phone.

You, like everyone else just assumed it was her being disappointed from her loss at the festival still, so you all just took to trying to cheer her up instead of looking deeper into why she seemed so off.

Some of the conversations baffled you slightly, girls that weren't Hatsume talked about way different topics and you weren't prepared. What you were confused on embarrassed you too much to ask the girls you didn't know that well so you vowed to ask Midnight or maybe even Kaminari (who always said he was a resident girl expert and you found no reason to disagree).

The conversations switched from hero talk to schooling and finally landed on family. Everyone's family lives were so happy, exciting, loving...normal. When Tsu brought out her phone to show pictures of her siblings she completely and utterly adored, everyone joined in.

That began the parade of everyone showing their baby pictures and giggling and teasing one another for how goofy and adorable they all were as toddlers. You smiled and truly enjoyed seeing all the pictures, hearing all the fun childhood stories but something deep inside you hurt. You knew sadness but this felt different somehow.

When it was your turn to share, Momo gasped in realization and stood up, bowing as low as possible without hitting the table.

"I am so very sorry, it was cruel of us to talk about our childhoods like that without taking into account what yours was like. Please forgive us, we were not trying to rub anything in or make you feel left out." Hagakure gasped and the rest started trying to apologize but you just laughed, stopping them.

"Don't worry about it, I actually... really like seeing all of this stuff. It's nice to see my friends get to have such happy memories." You gave a smile, at least you hoped. Everyone noticed how wobbly it was but there was honesty shining in your eyes and that was enough. The hesitation some still felt in your presence faded in that moment and a bond formed between you and the girls in class 1-A.

"[Name], you're so cute sometimes, kero." You were piled into a hug that squeezed the life out of you.

***

You returned so deep in thought you didn't even notice Aizawa wasn't napping in his sleeping bag like normal. You mumbled a hi to the empty yellow sac and plodded idly to the couch, staring at your phone. Your guardian immediately knew something was up, you were never so unobservant.

As much he wasn't into the touchy-feely, today he welcomed the distraction to the conversation he had planned. It needed to be done before all the backlash tomorrow, but dealing with something not directly involving him was always so much easier to deal with.

You couldn't stop thinking about their baby pictures. Their parents had loved them so much that they documented every big moment. It never occurred to you to care, even seeing Kaminari's baby pictures didn't make you feel so bad. Perhaps it was because you thought it was something only his family did, or because he was Kamniari and that was that, but seeing everyone else able to share such fun stories to go along with the cute pictures...it hurt.

Thinking about it made you feel odd. You were happy for them, truly, you were glad your friends had such happy lives; and yet, you felt sad. The feeling was beyond sadness, that's what confounded you. It was gripping at your insides, squeezing you painfully and leaving your thoughts jumbled and angry, questioning why. Why it couldn't be you too.