Sweet Scent 2

Stages

ACK I LIED THIS ISNT THE LAST CHAPTER I WAS PLANNING IT TO BE BUT I FELT LIKE IT WOULD BE BETTER IF I JUST SPLIT IT

ANYWAY

Bakugou jolted awake, looking around him frantically.

Ah. I'm back here again.

A nurse walked into the room.

"Ah. You're awake. Do you need anything, right now? Water, food?"

"Where are the kids?"

The nurse went silent.

Bakugou's heart sank. His breath hitched. "Where are the kids???"

The nurse looked away. "Let's... make sure your health is well first. Also, do you have any idea who started the fire? A lock of your hair was found next to where the fire was presumably started but given the way you ac-"

"Where are the kids, ma'am?"

The nurse sighed. Looking to the ground, she muttered something. "Sorry...loss..."

Bakugou felt tears come to his eyes. "Wh-what did you say?" Please let me have heard wrong... please... please...

The nurse sighed once again, and with a louder voice she said "I'm sorry for your loss. There was one survivor other than you, that being Vanilla."

Bakugou's thoughts swirled. His ears were ringing. No. They can't be dead. Please. Don't take them away from me. Please...

He slowly descended into a state of hysteria. A combination of crying and sad laughing. "This has to be a joke, right?"

Silence.

"THIS IS A JOKE, RIGHT??"

The silence was deafening.

"PLEASE, TELL ME IT'S A JOKE, TELL ME THAT THEY'RE ALIVE. PLEASE. PLEASE THEY CAN'T BE DEAD PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE..."

Denial. The first stage.

Bakugou was sobbing again. He couldn't handle this. They were dead. Gone. His only joy. Please, please, let him wake up and be a horrible dream, a nightmare...

"I'll leave you alone for now..."

The nurse slowly exited the room. Bakugou barely noticed her.

"YOU FUCKERS! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE DOCTORS! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE ABLE TO SAVE THEM!! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE ABLE TO HEAL THEM!! THEY WERE TOO YOUNG TO DIE!! YOU FUCKERS YOU FUCKING- I HATE YOU ALL! I HATE EVERYTHING, YOU- You..."

Anger. The second stage.

Please, god please, bring them back, take my life instead, please, please, please, they were too young to die, please bring them back...

Bargaining. The third stage.

If you were outside of his room that night, you would know that he replaced sleeping with crying that night.

Depression. The fourth stage.

At 6 AM, he was done. He was tired, he was empty. He was done. He hated everything, and everything hated him. Anything good in life was ripped away from him, anything bad was shoved into his face.

Acceptance. The fifth stage.

(Suggestion, listen to Hanging Posters by Arrested Youth while reading this part. This was heavily inspired by that song.)

They were his only friends, or maybe even family.

Friends? Ha. Pushed away, or drifted away, or dead. Sure, the Bakusquad would call them his friends, but really, to him, friendships were like yearbooks. The pictures would always stay, but rarely do those pictures call him up and ask "How have you been doing?"

No. Friends were built to drift apart. That was the only thing he learned by ever having friends.

Ha. Could the Bakusquad even call themselves friends of him? They cared for ONE week. And then they didn't. He was friends with friends who weren't his friends. But they painted the picture that they were, and they painted it well.

Bakugou wasn't supposed to be discharged for another week or so. But who cares? He hated himself anyway, he hated life anyway. Who cares if he was endangering himself? He was done.

Afterall, his promise was that he wouldn't kill himself if the kids were alive.

They weren't alive now, were they?

Huh. So that's one promise that he kept.

Hm. Maybe he hasn't gotten through acceptance just yet.