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“Fix your pencil.”
Kaminari looked up from his phone in pure confusion, he’d been waiting for class to start when Bakugou spoke up to him, which was rather unusual in of itself.
“I’m sorry?” He questioned.
Bakugou shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “Your pencil, it’s too close to the edge of your desk.”
Kaminari glanced at his pencil, which was practically hanging off the desk, but hadn’t fallen.
“Why?” He couldn’t help asking.
Clicking tongue, Bakugou shoved his hands in his pockets. “Cause it’s wrong.”
When he didn’t give anymore than that, Kaminari slowly reached forward and pulled the pencil away from the edge, watching as Bakugou let out a breath he’d been holding in.
“There you go.” He mumbled before sitting down at his own seat.
Kaminari suppressed his laughter as he thought over the events. He’d never seen Bakugou like that, he seemed ready to snap Kaminari in half if he didn’t comply.
It was actually kind of hilarious.
“Over a pencil?” Mina laughed, leaning back against her bed in her dorm room.
Kaminari nodded with a grin. “I’m serious, he looked ready to kill me.”
“I mean, that’s pretty normal, but over a pencil? For real?” Sero questioned, raising an eyebrow.
Kirishima frowned. “That’s weird, even for Bakugou. I know he has a temper but still…”
“Anyways, I tried an experiment later in the day, I moved my pencil back to the edge of my desk and I actually heard him take in a breath, I swear if it hadn’t been in the middle of class he would have burst into flames.” Kaminari snickered.
Mina smirked. “Oh tell me this is going where I think it’s going.”
“Game to see who can make Bakugou freak out first.” Sero grinned.
Kirishima’s eyes widened. “Oh come on guys, that’s not cool.”
“It’s not that big a deal Kiri, we can get the whole class on it, it’ll be like a bonding experience.” Mina insisted.
Kirishima shook his head. “No. I don’t want any part of this. I’m not going out of my way to make my best friend mad.” He stood up and headed out of the dorm room.
“CHICKEN!” Kaminari taunted as he left, rolling his eyes. “Alright I guess it’s just us playing, what’s the wager?”
“Winner gets to pick what movie we watch on movie nights for a whole month.” Mina suggested.
Sero grinned. “Sure, prepare to watch a tone of action movies.”
Mina scoffed. “No way, we’re gonna be watching romcoms.”
“That’s where you’re both wrong, we’ll be watching horror movies all month.” Kaminari smirked.
It started small. Just little things, like moving their pencils out of place, or bending the edges of their papers to give them creases.
Each action always earned the same reaction though, just hearing Bakugou suck in a breath, as if trying to hold in his anger.
But after two days, they realized they weren’t really getting anywhere.
But that’s when Kaminari decided to take it up a notch.
“Hey Bakubro, how’s your morning?” Kaminari asked cheerfully as he sat on Bakugou’s desk, shaking everything on it.
Bakugou’s eyes widened and Kaminari noticed the way his eyes followed every pen and pencil that rolled slightly out of place.
“I’m personally having a great morning.” He continued, setting a hand down on the desk to make it shake even more. “I dreamt I was eating this really fancy dinner and every time the plate became empty, it’d refill again! How cool is that?”
He noticed the way Bakugou’s attention seemed split in three different ways, like he was trying to listen to Kaminari, but his attention was focused mostly on the moving items on his desk.
“I…It’s…It’s um…” Bakugou licked his lips and swallowed hard, letting out a shaky breath.
Kaminari’s eyebrows furrowed. Bakugou was looking less and less angry and more…distressed.
“Dude, are you good? You seem kind of-“ Kaminari tried to touch his shoulder, but Bakugou shot out of his seat and blasted Kaminari with an explosion.
“DON’T TOUCH ME!”
The entire class stopped whatever conversations they were having with each other to look at the commotion coming from where they were.
Kaminari’s eyes widened; he’d just barely avoided a blast to the face. Then he wheezed. “HA! I WIN! I TOTALLY WON!” He told Mina and Sero proudly.
But his smile faded when he noticed they weren’t watching him. Slowly, Kaminari turned to look at Bakugou, and choked out a gasp.
Bakugou was clutching his chest with his hand, beginning to hyperventilate as he stared down at the ground. Kaminari followed his gaze and noticed that a pencil had fallen on the ground.
“No, no, no…” Bakugou muttered over and over, shaking his head as he trembled uncontrollably.
Kaminari grew worried. “Dude, what’s wrong-“ He reached a hand out, but Bakugou flinched away, looking at Kaminari with wide eyes filled with terror as he struggled to breath.
The whole class was at a loss, Kirishima tried to come to his side, but Bakugou just backed away from him.
But it was Iida who actually ended up making everything worse.
He stormed up to Bakugou, ignoring his distress, and grabbed his arm.
“Bakugou, there is no excuse for attacking a classmate! I have no choice but to report you to Aizawa-sensei, this behavior is not acceptable!” Iida scolded, unaware of everything he was doing wrong.
Bakugou struggled in his hold, still gasping for air. “L-ET GO!” He practically cried out, ripping his arm from Iida.
And that’s when he started smacking his own arm, making everyone look at him in horror.
“1, 2, 3, 4-“ Bakugou started muttering numbers to himself as he continued to hit his arm over and over again, eyes glazing over.
Kaminari paled in realization.
He knew what this was. It’s happened to him so many times before.
Whenever his ADHD became too much to bear, he’d get all panicky and start to dissociate.
Bakugou collapsed on the floor, sitting up against the wall as he continued to hit himself, mumbling numbers as he did so.
The students found themselves at a loss, even Iida was dead silent as they watched the display. They wanted to rush forward and stop him, but that’s what made it happen in the first place.
And then, like an angel, Midoriya entered the classroom with Todoroki, the two being the last to arrive to class.
“And that’s when-“ Midoriya cut himself off when he noticed everyone looking at something. “What’s going on?”
Kirishima looked at him with terror. “Midoriya help! Something’s wrong a-and we don’t know what to do!” He cried.
Midoriya’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
But then he heard it.
*SMACK* *SMACK* *SMACK*
Midoriya’s eyes widened as he rushed by his classmates and saw Bakugou in the corner.
“Oh my god…” He mumbled with worry. He rushed over and knelt down at Bakugou’s side.
“No, he doesn’t like-“ Kaminari started, but he cut himself off, watching in awe as Midoriya sat down next to Bakugou with a kind smile.
“Hey Kacchan, what’re you doing?” He asked gently.
Bakugou ignored him completely. “87, 88, 89-“
Midoriya hummed softly. “Hey Kacchan, what number are we counting to?”
This got Bakugou’s attention, he breathed heavily as he stared down at his very reddened arm intently. “O-One-thirty-s-six.”
Midoriya nodded. “Hm, interesting number. So why are we counting to that?”
“E-E-Everyone is going to die…” Bakugou explained in a shaky breath, still shaking uncontrollably.
Their classmates could only watch with confusion, glancing at each other as if hoping someone had some kind of answer that would explain what he was talking about.
Midoriya smiled. “I see, can you do something for me Kacchan? Can you take my hand?”
Bakugou seemed torn, looking around the classroom at everything from the ceiling to the floor, his eyes were passing through his classmates as if they weren’t even there. Hesitantly, he reached out a shaking hand towards Midoriya, who grasped it firmly.
“That sounds like a lot of responsibility for someone Kacchan, that must be really hard.” Midoriya told him gently.
Bakugou nodded weakly, swallowing hard. He looked almost ready to cry, which is something Kaminari desperately did not want him to do because god he already felt like garbage.
“Hey Kacchan, what does H E R O spell?” Midoriya asked suddenly.
“H-Hero.”
“L I B R A R Y?”
“Library…”
“R E F R I G E R A T O R?”
“R-Refrigerator…”
Midoriya smiled sweetly at him, glad to see Bakugou was now fully looking at him, and the glazed look in his eyes was fading. “Hey Kacchan, look, I’m still alive, and so are our classmates.” He gestured to all of them.
Bakugou slowly turned his head to look at them, eyes wide with fear, as if scared they’d disappear if he blinked.
“So why don’t we stop counting for now okay? Why don’t we go back to the dorm and make some lunch?” Midoriya suggested kindly.
Bakugou let out a shaky breath before nodding slowly. He let Midoriya help him stand.
Kaminari stared in awe. A second ago Bakugou was having a full blown meltdown, but now he just looked…really tired.
“Hey, Todoroki would you mind helping Bakugou walk?” Midoriya asked him gently.
Todoroki seemed hesitant. “…Izuku-“
“Come on, it’s okay, like I showed you.” Midoriya mumbled to him softly.
The others watched as Todorki pressed a gentle finger to Bakugou’s hand, and then waited a few moments before actually taking his hand in his own. Bakugou seemed so exhausted he didn’t really care, and just allowed Todoroki to lead him out of the classroom.
“I’ll catch up, I have to tell Aizawa we’re gonna be absent.” Midoriya told him, earning a brief nod from Todoroki.
The moment he and Bakugou left, Midoriya turned to the class positively fuming. “Alright what happened?”
Most of the class looked genuinely confused, but the Bakusquad looked rather guilty.
Midoriya glared at them in particular. “Well?”
“I-It wasn’t…it was a game, we just…we noticed how weird Bakugou got with the order of things and stuff and…” Kaminari trailed off uselessly.
Midoriya scoffed. “Weird huh? Are you weird when you have an ADHD meltdown?”
Kaminari winced.
“Hold on, this is not the same thing at all!” Sero snapped. “Kaminari has an actual mental illness, he can’t control it!”
Midoriya fumed. “SO DOES KACCHAN! OR ARE YOU ALL SO UNEDUCATED THAT YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF OCD?”
At the use of the word, everyone seemed to click the pieces together in their minds, paling considerably in realization.
Kaminari covered his mouth in horror. “T-That was…that was…OCD?” He asked weakly.
“Yes it was, your stupid little game was enough to cause Kacchan a complete meltdown.” Midoriya hissed.
“W-We didn’t know!” Mina cried. “If we had known we wouldn’t have done those things…”
“Y-Yeah, he should’ve told us!” Sero protested.
Midoriya raised an eyebrow. “What? You need a list of someone’s mental disorders before they can be your friend?”
The Bakusquad winced hard at that.
They knew Midoriya was right, and that’s what made it so much worse.
Kirishima bowed shamefully. “I didn’t know, and while I didn’t participate, I…I didn’t stop them, even though I knew of their game. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize to me!” Midoriya exclaimed, making them jump. “Apologize to Kacchan! Now if you’ll excuse me I have to go make sure my friend doesn’t start hurting himself again!” Midoriya stormed out angrily, slamming the door shut.
Kaminari and the others were stunned in silence and guilt.
They had…seriously fucked up.
“Drink this.” Todoroki held out a cup of tea to Bakugou.
Bakugou slowly took it, eyebrows furrowed. “I don’t need warm milk.” He’d changed into pajama pants and a maroon sweater.
Todoroki frowned. “Izuku told me to give you some if you have an episode like this.”
“God…” Bakugou cringed, shaking his head. “I can’t believe I freaked out like that in front of everyone, over a mother fucking pencil falling.”
Todoroki slowly sat down on the couch next to him, fiddling with his hands in his lap. “I once had a breakdown because I didn’t know how to ask my sister for seconds during dinner.”
Bakugou looked at him curiously. “Really?”
“It’s…challenging, talking sometimes…” Todoroki admitted rather softly.
Bakugou frowned a little and stared back at the cup of milk in his hands.
Just then, Midoriya stepped in, an ice pack with him. “Kacchan, sleeve.”
“I don’t need fucking ice-“
Midoriya’s gaze turned stern. “Sleeve. Now.”
Rolling his eyes, Bakugou rolled up his sleeve to show his partially purple arm, which admittedly was pretty sore after hitting himself nearly 100 times.
Midoriya gently pressed the ice to his arm, making him wince a little. “Are you feeling better?” He asked.
“Ugh, I’m fine, mom.” Bakugou mocked, scowling a little.
Midoriya smirked. “Careful, or I’ll tell my mom what happened and make you watch her cry.”
Bakugou winced once more. “God no.”
Todoroki watched the two with interest. At first glance, you’d think they hated each other, but then there were times like this. Times most people didn’t get to see.
Times where Todoroki could see they really were like best friends.