Stone and Light:Kirishima x OC Reader

Chapter 68: Boxes

I was at the hardware store in town to get some boxes for the big move. I had organized most of my stuff already, but I was holding off packing everything away because, well, it was a lot of stuff. I hated moving, even though I had done it a few times. It always felt so tedious to pack everything up just lug it around to unpack it again.

I steeled myself to go get more boxes earlier this morning, plugged my headphones in, and took off. When I entered the store I popped out an earbud so I could hear just in case something happened or an announcement in the store was made.

I was walking toward the moving aisle when I heard a familiar grunt out of my exposed ear. I rounded the corner to see Bakugou growling at a pile of folded cardboard boxes that had toppled over from their stand.

"Hey." I announced myself, and his eyes shot up at my voice. The scowl on his face didn't disappear as I approached to help him pick up the stack of cardboard.

"I got it, dumbass." he grumbled as I helped him shift and lift the stack back to its original spot.

"Yeah, I know. You here for moving stuff too?" I asked, trying to keep the subject light.

"Why else would I be in a hardware store, lamp girl?!" He growled at me. His hands shot deep into his pockets as he paused for a minute.

"Nice goin' with shitty hair by the way..." he said, almost under his breath, not looking at me.

Did Eijiro tell him about the girlfriend thing? I wondered, but decided not to pry about it.

"Thanks. Despite the situation and the scariness of everything, I think he had fun rescuing you." I laughed as Bakugou shot me a glare and yelled about how it wasn't a rescue.

"Of course! Y-you don't even need rescuing!...I just have no idea what he's gonna do with the costume and the night vision goggles though! Maybe he should return 'em? They're pretty nice though, maybe he'd get more uses out of them." I was basically thinking out loud, knowing it pissed Bakugou off more, but sometimes it was too fun to provoke him. I stopped to turn to him and say

"I'm glad you guys made it back safe though."

His eyes shot down at my sentence, as if he wasn't used to genuine appreciation that he was alright. They landed on my scar, which was very obviously visible below my shorts, and his face took on the slightest hint of concern for a second before he grunted again and grabbed a couple of boxes from the stack.

"What happened to you." he huffed, and I wasn't sure if it was a question or not. I decided to downplay the injury but still tell him the truth.

"Oh, just the training camp." I said, but he visibly stiffened at my response. He took a step closer to me and lowered his voice.

"Don't play with me... What... Happened."

Wait a minute did he actually care? Or did he think this was maybe my mother again?

"...It was a Nomu," I started after a minute, glancing down at my scar. "That would be the work of a drill, but he also took a crack at busting my rib cage open before that. If it wasn't for Awase in class B and Recovery Girl, I don't think I'd be alive, much less walking."

"A drill?"

"Yeah, it was on the end of one of his arms..." I trailed off, remembering the chainsaw and the sound of my flesh ripping and shuddering slightly. Bakugou seemed to pick up on this because his demeanor softened just a bit, like he decided to let me into the victim's club he was hosting.

"They were pretty scary huh..." he said quietly, looking away from me.

WAIT, did he just admit he was scared?! Don't say anything, he'll never let you in again if he thinks you're teasing him.

"Yeah..." I agreed. We stood in silence for a minute before he huffed again, grabbed about eight boxes, and walked off, the folded cardboard underneath his right arm. I reached for a couple of boxes of my own before I heard his voice

"Don't you dare, dumbass! I got 'em right here." He lifted his shoulder a bit to signal that he had grabbed boxes for me too, and I followed him over to the checkout line silently.

-

Bakugou set a few boxes down in front of my gate before turning to go back to the train station. We had barely spoken the whole way home, but it was a comfortable silence. We didn't really need to say anything to each other, and I certainly was in no place to pry about him being kidnapped. He obviously didn't want to talk about it.

I turned towards him as he walked back toward the station

"Th-thank you!" I called out to him. He didn't look back but just shouted sarcastically away from me

"Yeah, yeah, whatever lamp girl!"

I smiled to myself, thinking

Thanks for showing me you're my friend Bakugou. I'm glad you're safe.