Midori the Phoenix

Bittersweet Memories

"Bakugo wait up! What's going on?" Kirishima panted as he, Kaminari, and Mineta rushed up with the baby carriage in tow. Baby Midoriya clapped her hands and laughed, enjoying the speedy ride.

"Shut up, don't follow me! There's a villain attack in the neighborhood suburbs!" Bakugo announced. He knew the area, recognized the streets and alleys he'd grown up on, and was swamped by nostalgia that mixed with his adrenaline. They ran by his house, and he was grateful that everything looked peaceful and calm there despite the people rushing down the street. Bakugo could hear it now, the thunderous booms of something hitting concrete, the frantic screams, police sirens, and a deep low growling sound coming from a monstrous man beating his fists into the side of an apartment building...It was Usagi's old apartment building.

God when was the last time he saw this building? It felt like forever ago.

"Oh yeah... now I remember." Bakugo murmured and his mind thought back to the last time he'd seen this building... when it had been engulfed in flames.

~Flashback~

He had followed Usagi on a whim, running after her as she shoved her way through people to get to home. 

How dare she? He thought muttering to himself about his dislike of her brazen attitude. How dare she challenge him like that in front of their entire class? The stupid rabbit was just setting herself up to fail hard and make an idiot out of herself.

He slowed his running when he saw she'd stopped. Her eyes were looking up the hill with an expression that churned his gut. Something had made her face go white as a sheet, and lose all that confidence she'd boasted with. His eyes followed upward in the direction that she was looking. He saw the smoke, the direction it was coming from, and turned his eyes back. Usagi was gone, already running up the road at a full force sprint. He ran after her.

By the time he caught up to her, she was in a frenzy trying to shove her way through the crowd, screaming for her mother.

"Get Back, young lady, it's not safe!" The officials told her, and shoved her back and away from the chaos.

"You don't understand! My mother was in our apartment, she might still be inside! I need to find her!" She tried to push through again, but was met with resistance.

"Usagi!" He screamed at her, and watched her whirl around. The look on her face had his stomach twisting in knots. She ran to him and he grabbed her by the shoulders trying to steady her. "What's going on?"

"Kacchan!" He remembered her crying, desperately clinging to him. "My mother, she's still inside. We need to call a hero, someone has to help!" He saw the absolute fear in her eyes, the desperate expression on her face, and felt that same fear claw at his own belly.

"They are helping, You need to calm down and let the professionals do their jobs." He tried to calm her, but she violently shook him.

"WHAT PROFESSIONALS!? THEY'RE DOING NOTHING! NO ONE IS GOING INSIDE TO LOOK FOR HER!" Hysterical, the girl was down right hysterical. He'd never seen her like this before.

"CALM DOWN!" He shouted at her again. "Going into hysterics isn't going to help!" He pulled her to his chest, stroking her hair as she trembled in his arms. He needed to get her out of here. He needed to keep her calm and find a way to help. Where the hell were all the damn heroes?

"Kacchan..." she whimpered. "I'm sorry."

"Sorry?" He looked back down but she was already pushing away from his arms and sprinting for the fire. Her sudden sprint must have startled the firefighters because she managed to shove them back and off their feet. "USAGI NO!"