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BAKUGO FELL AGAINST THE WALL outside Recovery Girl's office, sliding down it until his knees were level with his chin and he could fold his arms across them, dropping his head onto his forearms and sucking in a deep breath to stop the tears that might come.

He could hear Y/N's choked sobs through the wall, each one of the raw sounds making him want to cry even more.

Why had he reminded himself of Katsumi? As soon as he'd thought of his cousin again, the same sadness that he'd been pushing down for over a year had surged up and overwhelmed him. He didn't know how he could bear to be around Y/N now - not when she was so like Katsumi in every way.

How fucked up ... he'd been so mean to a dying girl. Sure, it wasn't like he was nice to anyone, especially not since Katsumi had died, but he'd made sure to at least tolerate people who were in the same boat his cousin had been in.

I'm a fucking asshole. Bakugo didn't say the words, but he definitely meant them, especially as he heard the pure fear and hopelessness filling every one of Y/N's muffled cries. 

He stiffened, hearing the sound of footsteps nearing the door, and he spun to his feet, hiding around the corner. 

"Bakugo?"

The sound of concern in Y/N's voice made him want to sob all over again, and he couldn't stop a whimpered cry from escaping his lips.

Damn it. 

She followed the sound of his crying - unstoppable now that a tiny bit of his sadness had escaped. He raised his head from his arms, almost starting back at her face only being mere inches from his own. 

"Don't cry," Y/N said, though tears were running down her own cheeks, her tone light with softness uncharacteristic of the usual antagonism that they usually showed towards each other. "Please, don't cry."

Bakugo stopped, mostly out of embarrassment, furiously wiping his eyes with the backs of his hands, and then crossing his arms behind his back.

When he was emotional, he often accidentally caused explosions, and he didn't want to hurt anybody. That was another uncommon assumption people made about him - people got hurt when they tried to challenge him. Bakugo would only do what it took for him to do as well as he could.

"Sorry," she whispered. "I- I didn't mean to make you think of Kats- of your cousin. I'm so sorry."

Bakugo almost laughed at the irony of the situation, but a sob slipped out instead.

"What?"

"You're being so nice now," he choked out. "So nice, even though I was awful. Even though you're ... you're ..." he turned away, throwing a hand through his hair. "Stay away from me."

"What?"

Y/N tried to approach him, but he shot to his feet, backing away down the corridor.

Hurt slid over her face. "Bakugo, please, I'm sorry-"

"It's not you," he interrupted. "Trouble follows me. The sludge villain. People who want to beat me up, because I'm stronger than them. You can't be around that."

The pain slashing across Y/N features slowly morphed to anger. "You can't just act like you did and then push me away. I don't need your protection!"

"Oh, yeah?" Bakugo's voice began to rise. "You weren't exactly a perfect little princess either - you were a bitch! And you didn't stand a chance against me, what chance will you stand against villains?"

Y/N stepped towards him, throwing her finger through the air threateningly. "You're a fucking asshole, you know that? I don't want to fight with you - I just want to say sorry! I was a bitch, okay? I was mean - I get it. But, please, just let me say sorry."

"Maybe it's better if you're angry at me," he responded, mostly to himself. "At least that way, you'll have the common sense to stay away."

"Are you calling me dumb?"

"Yes," the blond replied, somewhat stupidly, in an effort to put his plan of 'make sure Y/N doesn't die' into motion.

Y/N screamed and Bakugo needed to block his ears - the noise was pure rage, but it was also mixed with sadness and pain. She threw out her hands, and almost in slow motion, Bakugo stumbled forwards, trying to stop her.

But she'd lost control. Unbridled telekinetic power burst from her fingers, and he was so shocked he couldn't stop her, couldn't use his explosions to stop himself from flying backwards, hitting the wall with an ugly crack and turning around to see a red, bloody smudge where his head had landed.

He found himself unable to care as he skidded to Y/N, who had collapsed at some point when he had hit the wall. She was curled into a ball, whimpering, blood streaming from her nose, her ears, spitting out of her mouth in wet coughs.

It was horrifying. 

Bakugo had never seen anyone truly in the midst of dying before, and it was terrifying.

He scooped her up, trying to ignore her whimpers of pain as he sprinted back to Recovery Girl.

"She did it," he panted, aware of the eyes of the woman herself, Kirishima, and Kaminari, fixed on him. "She used her Quirk."

"Didn't she just lecture us about it tho-?"

"Shut up, Kaminari."

The boy had been joking for one reason only - a coping mechanism. There was something he didn't like about seeing his best friend of a few hours bleeding everywhere ... dying.

"Fuck!"

Everyone whipped their heads to stare at Recovery Girl.

"Someone had to say it," she muttered, speed-walking to a phone on the wall and dialling 119 [Japanese equivalent of 911/000]. "Hello? Quirk Poisoning - young girl at UA. Hurry!"

Bakugo stared down at the limp girl in his arms with abject horror.

What had he done?

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thank you for reading this
book and i hope you enjoy it!
~ jazzi