ᴍɪssɪɴɢ || ʙᴀᴋᴜɢᴏ x ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 𝟼

"I miss her!" Mina wails, earning more whispers of reassurance and hope from the other guys in the group.

Bakugo watches silently from Mina's left as the girl falls apart like he's wanted to do so many times. But, it won't help you. Even though he knows everyone grieves in their own way, he can't just sit by and watch his group fall apart.

Shifting his weight, Bakugo stands straighter and moves in, catching the attention of the rest of his so-called "squad". He raises a hand, letting it fall between the curled, yellow horns on the pink haired girl's head, causing her to turn her black eyes towards him from where they were shielded by Kaminari's jacket. Her gaze is questioning, not daring to move too much and scare off the odd sign of affection from her squad leader. Bakugo's gaze remains dull but piercing, removing his hand without a sound.

The squad watches as he turns away to face the door, even though deep down, none of them are ready to leave. Maybe, just maybe, if they keep looking they can find something. But, their leader continues to the door, throwing it open with a loud creak and then a bang as it hits the wall, all while keeping his back to them.

"I'm hungry," Bakugo grumbles, stepping outside and knowing his squad will follow close behind.

•••••

Date: October 23, XXXX
Time: 5:23 p.m.
Location: Oka's Diner

"Hey, kiddos! Long time no see!" Oka shouts, spinning her way over to the Bakusquad who stands cramped in the small entryway, still in their dusty hero costumes. A few of them manage a smile at the kind woman, doing their best to not look miserable.

The squad is quickly seated at their usual table near the front window and Oka runs off without having to take their orders since they frequent the diner so often. It is one of your favorite places, so it was always your first pick when it was your turn to choose where the squad would eat. And, on top of the delicious food, you've known Oka personally for years. To the point the older woman dots on you like a grandmother and then smacks you over the head with paper menus when you don't visit her enough. Your relationship is an interesting one to say the least.

Within a couple of minutes, Oka hands them all their drinks with a smile and turns to leave but then thinks better of it and stops mid-step, worrying her lip between her teeth. She turns back to the squad slowly, looking slightly sadder than just a moment ago.

"Has there been any news?" Oka asks softly and it doesn't take a genius to understand what she's referring to.

Everything falls silent for a moment, almost as if the diner melted away and it's only their small group left. Bakugo's ears start to ring as he turns away from the older woman's questioning gaze to rest his forehead against the window and stare outside. The world still exists and moves outside of their small bubble, but it doesn't feel like it all of the sudden. The cool glass of the window is a small relief to the pressure building behind his temple. And, Bakugo closes his eyes to the sight of people hurrying past outside like blurs.

Slowly but surely, the world comes back into focus with a low ringing fueling it. Bakugo is just coherent enough to process Kirishima responding to Oka's question, being the first of the squad to recover enough to answer. The woman's hope is crushed as he shakes his head with a soft 'no'. She heads off a moment later, plastering on a fake smile as she tends to the rest of her customers.

The rest of the crew starts to pick up a conversation, talking about the training exercise from earlier as a way of distracting themselves. A game of capture the flag, just like the one they all participated in on your first day at UA. You were undercover of course, none of them had any idea who you really were at the time and to top it all off, Bakugo absolutely hated you back then. You came into his class with that damn, emotionless face of your's and kicked his ass three different times before he even remotely started to like you. By then, the two of you had an intense rivalry going on, and Bakugo had no clue he wasn't even close to being on your level.