Chapter Text
Bakugou Katsuki had always been good at surviving.
That was the problem.
He knew how to fight.
He knew how to win.
He knew how to keep moving even when every part of him was screaming to stop.
What he didn’t know how to do was let someone see him when he wasn’t okay.
Heroes weren’t supposed to break. Heroes weren’t supposed to wake up from nightmares with their heart racing. Heroes weren’t supposed to stare at their scars and wonder if they were enough. Heroes weren’t supposed to be afraid. So Bakugou did what he always did.
He hid it.
He yelled louder.
He trained harder.
He pushed everyone away before they could get close enough to realize he was falling apart.
Everyone except Karishma.
“Dude.”
Bakugou groaned. He didn’t even have to look up to know who it was.
“You’re annoying.”
“Yeah, I know.”
Kirishima dropped onto the bench beside him.
Bakugou hated that.
Not the sitting.
The staying.
Everyone else eventually got tired of dealing with him. They got tired of his attitude, his anger, his walls, But Kirishima?
Kirishima stayed as if it were the easiest thing in the world.
“You’ve been here for three hours,” Kirishima said quietly.
“I’m training.”
“You haven’t moved in twenty minutes.”
Bakugou clicked his tongue.
“Mind your own damn business.”
Kirishima looked down at his hands.The same hands that could destroy buildings.
The same hands that shook after nightmares.
“Katsuki.”
The use of his first name made him freeze.
Nobody called him that.
Not like Kirishima did.
Not like it was something precious.
“What?”
“You don’t always have to be the strongest person in the room.”
Bakugou laughed bitterly.
“Yeah? Then what am I supposed to be?”
Kirishima looked at him.
And somehow that was worse.
Because Kirishima never looked at him like he was angry.
Or scary.
Or broken.
He looked at him like he saw everything.
“The guy who’s tired.”
Bakugou’s expression hardened.
“I’m not tired.”
“You are.”
“I said I’m not.”
“And I’m saying you are.”
Silence.
For once, Bakugou didn’t have a comeback.
Because Kirishima was right.
And he hated that.
The first time Bakugou broke down in front of him, it wasn’t dramatic.
There was no screaming.
No explosion.
No big confession.
It was just a quiet night after a mission that went wrong.Too many injuries.Too many close calls.Too many memories he couldn’t forget.
Kirishima found him sitting alone on the dorm balcony.
“You scared me.”
Bakugou didn’t turn around.
“Why?”
“Because you disappeared.”
“I’m right here.”
“No.”
Kirishima’s voice softened.
“You’re here physically.”
That hurt more than Bakugou expected.
Because he knew what Kirishima meant.
His body was there.
But his mind was somewhere else.
Stuck in every mistake.
Every failure.
Every moment where he wasn’t good enough.
“I don’t know how to do this,” Bakugou whispered.
Kirishima went still.
“How to do what?”
Bakugou clenched his fists.
“Be someone worth staying for.”
The words were barely audible.
But Kirishima heard them.
He always heard him.
“Katsuki…”
“Everyone keeps acting like I’m amazing.” His voice cracked. “Like I’m some kind of hero already. But they don’t know what it feels like inside my head.”
Kirishima sat beside him, closer this time.
“I think they do.”
“No, they don’t.”
“I do.”
Bakugou looked at him.
And Kirishima smiled sadly.
“I know you.”
The words were simple, but they broke something open.
“I know you get angry because you care too much.”
Bakugou looked away.
“I know you act like you don’t need anyone because you’re scared someone will leave.”
His throat tightened.
“And I know you think you have to earn being loved.”
Silence.
Then, barely above a whisper—
“Do I?”
Kirishima’s heart hurt.
Because Bakugou Katsuki, the strongest person he knew, looked so small in that moment.
“No.”
Kirishima reached out slowly.
Giving him every chance to move away.
Bakugou didn’t.
“You don’t have to earn it.”
Their hands touched.
“You never did.”
Bakugou didn’t understand how Kirishima did it. How he made everything feel quieter.
How one conversation with him could make the weight on his chest feel lighter.Kirishima wasn’t fixing him,That was the strange part.
He wasn’t trying to change him into someone softer.
Someone easier.
Someone less complicated.
He just reminded him that being hurt didn’t mean he was ruined.
That needing someone didn’t mean he was weak.
That maybe, just maybe…
He didn’t have to fight every battle alone.