𝐖𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐭𝐡 || ᵇ.ᵏᵃᵗˢᵘᵏᶦ

LXII

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Class 1A watched in terrified silence as the screen went black. They'd watched the mission televised, or at least what went down outside of the building, but that ending left them all quiet with a sour taste settling in their mouths. Jungwon had run out as soon as his twin sister had begun falling, already sensing that something was amiss.

A few of them glanced over at Bakugou who had gone unnaturally still, his face pale and his eyes wide.

"Is she dead?" Kaminari whispered to Mina who had covered her mouth, silent tears dripping down her cheeks and down the back of her hand. Mina cried harder at the mere suggestion that her best friend might be gone.

Bakugou stood and walked out of the room. No one tried to stop him and no one went after him. Aeri was the only one capable of comforting him.

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Bakugou went straight to Aeri's dorm, leaving school early. It was an effort not to break down on the way there but he managed, though as soon as that familiar scent hit his nose, the tears came and it became harder to breathe.

Nari meowed at him, sensing his mood, and beckoned him over to the bed with soft meows. Bakugou fell onto the comforter and buried his face into it, allowing Nari to sneak under his arm and cuddle up to him.

He stayed like that for half an hour before he decided he was ready to know if she was dead or alive. He took a deep breath, and then another and then sat up, pulling his phone out of his pocket and phoning Aizawa.

His teacher picked up on the first ring and Bakugou didn't need to say anything. "Alive and in surgery, get your ass down here." Aizawa hung up and Bakugou's heart jumped from his stomach back up to his chest. He skidded out of the room and sprinted all the way to the hospital. He didn't care that it was a half-hour walk, he didn't care that it was hot out and sweat dripped from every part of his body, soaking his uniform. All he cared about was getting to his girlfriend.

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"How is she?" Bakugou panted as she finally came to a stop in the waiting room. Aizawa, Jungwon and Hyunjin were already there, fiddling with their fingers whilst they waited.

"Laceration to the stomach, fractured clavicle, ripped trapezius, avulsion and exposed bone in the calf, and a sliced larynx..." Jungwon recited as if he'd been repeating the list in his head over and over again. He kept his head down, staring at his shoes. Bakugou could've thrown up at the news.

"Sliced larynx? Does that mean—" Bakugou was cut off by Hyunjin.

"She might not be able to speak again." His voice broke.

"Might. The doctor said it was hard to tell if her voice box was sliced and how deep it was because there was too much blood. There's still a chance she'll be able to talk." Aizawa said firmly. He'd been beating himself up all morning for not doing enough and his daughter had ended up fatally injured on his watch. He couldn't even go to her right away when she landed, he had to deal with Deku and Eri to make sure they didn't kill themselves and everyone around them.

"What about Jinyoung?" Bakugou cleared his throat to get rid of the lump that was forming. No way was he going to cry in front of them.

"Severed arm. It's a clean cut and they can re-attach it. He would've bled out if it weren't for Aeri." Hyunjin replied, wiping his eyes. Bakugou nodded, though none of them were looking at him to see it, and took a seat beside Jungwon. The boy silently handed Bakugou a bottle of water and he took it, needing it after his mini panic attack and all the running.

He didn't bother asking how long it was going to take. He saw just how much blood she lost and all of the injuries she sustained and now with such a fiddly surgery on such a small area, he knew it wouldn't exactly be quick.

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It took six hours for him to finally be allowed to see her. Six hours of sitting on his ass and twiddling his thumbs like an idiot. Five hours of surgery and one hour of getting things sorted out for her and having her family visit first. Luckily, her injuries weren't serious enough that she needed to be placed in the ICU, and Aizawa had put him on the list of people who were allowed to visit past visiting hours, which was usually restricted to family members only.

She was in a coma again. Medically induced this time. They said she lost too much blood and they needed to keep her asleep so her brain could have time to heal from lack of blood circulation. They'd promised it was only for a few days. Her voice box had been sliced, but the surgery was successful. It was a shallow cut and she narrowly avoided being unable to breathe. If it was only a hair deeper, she would've been permanently mute and her air flow would've been cut off. The doctors had ordered that she had to be put on voice rest for a month, though when she woke up her voice wouldn't really work anyway.

Bakugou could've jumped for joy at the news. He went from thinking she was dead to learning she would make a full recovery, albeit slowly. He made an effort to send a text message to Mina, letting her know that Aeri was out of surgery and stable. He knew that she'd tell the rest of the class and Aizawa wouldn't have to deal with staying in contact with them all to update them.

He was left in the room alone when Aeri's dad and brothers went to check on Jinyoung in the room opposite and Bakugou took a seat by her bed, wincing at the deep purple bruises and little cuts covering her exposed arm, and then again when her laid eyes on the bandage around her neck.

He reached out and gingerly took her hand. She mentioned that the last time she was in a coma, she could feel and hear everything and if it was the same this time, he wanted her to know he was there.

"'Scuse me," he said to the nurse who was checking her fluids. The nurse looked up with a professional smile. "Is she allowed to have her jewellery back on?"

"I'd say so, just nothing tight around her neck."

Bakugou nodded and pulled out the gold jewellery he'd taken off her dresser before he ran here. He slipped her two rings on first, the golden band that sat on her right thumb, and then the dainty ring that went on her left middle finger. Then it was earrings, the studs she'd taken off that morning, and finally the necklace with his initial on it.

"Would you like help with that one, mister?" The nurse asked, seeing his apprehension. Bakugou looked to Aeri's bandaged neck, then to the necklace and then to the nurse. Usually, he would refuse any type of help, but he was scared to hurt her so he agreed.

He watched as the nurse gently lifted Aeri's head and shoulders and quickly slipped the necklace around her neck, clasping it as fast as he could so that the nurse could put Aeri down.

"Thanks," he said quietly, slumping back in his seat.

"She wasn't wearing any of that when she came in, did you bring it with you?" The nurse asked, finishing her work with the IV and slipping the clipboard back at the end of Aeri's bed.

Bakugou nodded. "She said she feels naked without jewellery or somethin'."

The nurse laughed politely and bid him farewell, leaving him completely alone in the room. Bakugou wasn't used to the silence when Aeri was around. Normally she'd fill the void by talking to him aimlessly, not expecting a reply, or by playing soft music or a TV show that neither of them was actually watching in the background. It was odd not having her to talk to, he'd relied on her to keep him up with everything that was going on since he didn't speak that much to anyone else, now that he thought about it, he relied on her for a lot of things.

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