The Universe Listened | Kiribaku

One day we'll reveal the truth

TRIGGERING WARNING: Mentions of molestation and pedophilia

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•Chapter Twelve•

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Somewhere in the middle of the night, when Kirishima was fast asleep, Mina had scooted closer to the wall, dragging Kirishima with her, to make room for Kaminari because the bastard was feeling far too lonely on the floor. Riot snuck into the room at some point and made himself comfortable on their feet

They laid in the silence, the two staring at each other over the sleeping body of their friend.

Together in the silence, they understood that Kirishima was broken. He broke long before they came into his life, and they tried to fix him every time he fell apart. For the most part, or from what they could see, they were able to tape all pieces back together again. But each time they missed something. Something they could never find. There was this part in him that was still broken and after years of trying to find it, they gave up and decided to fix what they could.

Mina and Kaminari, they were broken too. But it was in a different way. Kirishima was missing his parents, the ones who died when he was too young to remember how they loved him and what it was like to be loved by them, and he was still trying to deal with the loss of his vision even though he learned to live without it.

Mina was missing someone. Someone she let in, held them so close to her heart with a grasp she thought was tight enough to keep them in place but they still slipped away. One would call it grief, but not really because the person she loved wasn't dead. Or maybe they were. She wasn't sure. And even though it happened at the beginning of high school, a place in her heart still needed him whether she liked it or not.

Kaminari was angry at his dad for not loving him the way he should have, for not loving his mom the way he should have. For leaving to start a family with someone new and young. Kaminari was missing him too and the bit of bonding they had when he was younger and too naive to understand what was really going on.

Everyone breaks in their own way.

Kaminari and Mina could be fixed, they thought, and in a way they were. The voids in their hearts were filled by Kirishima and his smile, the one who was the most broken of them all but never showed it because he had the mentality that he needed to stay strong for his friends. If he's strong for them after all that's been taken from him and all the times he was able to stand after all falling then they'd be strong too.

He filled those voids too well and now they felt that it was their jobs to either fill the void for Kirishima or to find something, or maybe someone, to fill what they couldn't. They hurt a little a thought of not being able to be there for him but they understood that maybe there was a little something in his life that was missing and they just didn't know what.

Whatever it was, they collectively agreed that night without saying anything that they were going to make sure Kirishima never broke again.

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No one was ready for the sun to sneak out from behind the mountains the following morning. They wanted to stay under the covers, enjoying the warmth of each other, dreaming the kinds of dreams that made them want to stay asleep forever because those dreams were better than reality.

Kaminari practically rolled out of the bed and it was definitely accidental because he hardly had any wiggle room. One wrong move and he was on the floor, a loud thud following and inevitably woke Mina and Kirishima up before the alarms could. Groans filled the room and Mina was the first to call Kaminari a dumbass.