2am Knows All Secrets [Kiribaku]

miles to go before I sleep

He'd kept his voice low, but some nearby classmates were watching their exchange, nodding along.

In Eijirou's chest, a pang.

So, the others had noticed something was up, too. It should've been a relief — yay, it wasn't just in his head! But it also made his concern that much more real. Oh man, and they didn't even know about the late nights, did they? The explosions? They had no idea about any of that, and they were still worried.

All these eyes on him, all these people counting on him for answers like he was some sort of authority on the matter... He couldn't tell them about all of that. He couldn't expose his bro like that.

So Eijirou simply shrugged.

"Dunno," he said.

Around the coffee table, downcast eyes and lips pursed tight in thought. The subject dropped, and they quickly got to work on some summer assignments. All except Eijirou, who spent most of the study session staring blankly at his English packet, his thoughts on a loop.

Bakugou's state had gotten so bad that other people had noticed too. Someone needed to step in, and fast. Before this got any worse.

As evening turned into night, what started out as productive studying quickly devolved into an impromptu game night. Any other time, Eijirou would've jumped right in, but today, his heart wasn't in it. Not to mention he'd been so focused on Bakugou's exhaustion that he'd forgotten how little sleep he'd been getting lately, too, and it was starting to hit him like a truck. Instead of sticking around, he excused himself with a hefty yawn and got ready for bed.

But this time, instead of trying to sleep, he stayed up. That wouldn't help his own exhaustion, but there was no way in hell he was gonna risk sleeping through a round of explosions. Not tonight. He had a plan, dammit!

He took the opportunity to crack down on some English review, and when the words started jumbling around in his head, he switched to pumping iron for a few reps. A few reps became more than a few reps, and when his arms felt like they might pop off, he pulled up a playlist of pro-hero highlight videos on his phone and peered at them with bleary eyes over his cocoon of blankets.

He'd just finished a particularly amusing meme complication when, like clockwork, a series of short booms erupted from Bakugou's room, followed by a stream of colorful cursing.

Eijirou's eyebrows shot clear up.

He knew the guy had anger problems, and probably some demons of his past haunting him, but dang. It was impressive, really, how imaginative Bakugou's language got sometimes.

But enough with that. It was intervention time.

Eijirou leapt out of bed and darted through his door. Upon closing it, he heard a faint "goddamn it" through the wall. So, Bakugou was expecting him now. That was fine, Eijirou nodded to himself. He didn't need the element of surprise. He relaxed with his shoulder leaned against Bakugou's door frame, arms crossed, ready for whatever may come when the door opened.

And open it did. Quite fiercely. He didn't even have to knock.

"I swear to god, Shitty Hair, if you don't get out of my goddamn business right this second—"

"Good morning to you too, Bakugou!" Eijirou chirped, mouth spread in the prettiest shit-eating grin he could muster. He totally practiced it in the mirror earlier. "Thanks for inviting me in!" In one fluid motion, he pushed passed Bakugou into the room, flipped the lightswitch on, and closed the door behind them.

Bakugou gawked at him, mouth hanging wide open, a strained sort of noise coming from deep in his throat as Eijirou strolled over to the desk and made a show of sitting in his wheely chair.