Kiri(Baku?)Kami I probably won't finish

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Aizawa POV:

Finally. Shoji had just sent me a text saying that he had heard something tapping SOS very quietly through the ceiling and that he couldn't see Bakugo despite the rest of the class being in the common room all together.

"Nemuri! We've got something. But we can't just burst in like we wanted to. I think we have to be a bit more inconspicuous about it," I said, calling over Midnight.

She read the text. "That's all he's got, huh? I guess Bakugo's alone then, I'm sure that Midoriya would pick up on Morse code pretty quickly."

"That's even better, I think. We just need to get over there quickly." I texted Shoji back before we left.

Let me know if anyone leaves your sight. I'm on my way to check it out.

About halfway to the dorm building, there was a ding from my pocket.

Midoriya just left, I don't know where he's off to. Everyone else is here, though

"Midoriya must've noticed something," I said.

"Or he got bored," Nemuri suggested.

"Let's hurry up."

—

We got to the building about a minute later. "Dad? Midnight? What are you doing here?" Shinso asked, being the first one to notice us.

"Just doing a quick checkup around," I reassured him, and he nodded. The less attention we brought to the situation, I felt, the better.

Once on the elevator, I asked Midnight, "Bakugo's room or Midoriya's?"

She shook her head, laughing. "That's hardly a question. You think Midoriya would give Bakugo the comfort of staying in his own room?"

"That's true," I nodded. Dumb question.

Ding. We stepped out of the elevator on Midoriya's floor. We got to his door and knocked. A second later, it opened, and we were answered by Bakugo wearing the same face as a child knowing he was about to be scolded for something he already felt bad about doing wrong. He seemed surprised to see us, and relieved, too. This is weird.

"Shoji heard you," I said simply. "He texted me that Midoriya left the common room a couple of minutes ago but I guess he didn't come up here."

"Ugh, I need to go to the bathroom, that's probably where he went, though..." he sighed.

"You think he'll flip out if you leave at all?" I raised an eyebrow.

"I don't fucking know what'll make him flip out at this point. You guys couldn't design a dorm building with more than one bathroom?"

"In our defense, we didn't expect a hostage situation inside the building," I pointed out.

"That's fair. Fucking... hostage situation. I swear I'm gonna lose my shit if I stay in here another night," he said, exasperated. "I wish Eiji were here. He would let me punch him in the face." A pause. "No, I think I really just want to punch Deku in the face."

"All fair points. Well, Midnight and I... are gonna go sit downstairs. I'm assuming you can't let us know if he comes back?" Bakugo shook his head. "Then we'll just have to catch him. I'm sure he wouldn't mind a small conversation to distract him."

"This is the worst."

"Agreed."

"...thanks." I might've imagined it, but I thought I saw the corners of his mouth quirk up in a tiny smile.

—

"Midoriya," I said to him when I spotted him in the common room.

"Oh, Aizawa-sensei, Midnight-sensei, fancy seeing you here," he laughed. This was going to be harder than I thought. Listening to the words "Midoriya did this, Midoriya did that" was one thing. Now I was looking at him, face to face, and everything I'd heard about him in the past twenty-four hours seemed unimaginable. He seemed so... himself.

"We're just checking in on you all. Haven't been here in a few days," I shrugged.

"How's everything been going, Midoriya?" Nemuri cut in. I got the feeling that Midoriya would get suspicious if I was spitting out too much small-talk. I was infinitely more proud of myself for thinking to bring someone with me.

"It's been going pretty great, actually," he grinned. Oh, geez, the cinnamon roll grin. Don't hit me with that, I'm weak. "I mean, we ran out of things to talk about, and there's not much to do, but every couple of days, Kacchan and I have had sorta double-date movie nights with Kaminari-kun and Kirishima-kun, and those are always fun. I hate to sound like I'm imposing, but what is taking so long with getting classes back on schedule?"

"Well, the classes themselves wouldn't be hard to get back on track. We've just had to deal with a lot of stuff from parents. Your mom actually called saying she wanted to take you out of U.A., but she said she knew she couldn't because of your... how did she put it?" I turned to Nemuri for help.

She smiled, recalling that phone call. "Oh, Inko! She was the sweetest. She couldn't stop talking about how desperately you wanted to be a great hero and how she couldn't stop you coming here if she tried." His mother has no idea...