bury a friend

Chapter 9

Bakugou opened his eyes to a white hospital room. He saw Kirishima and Mina sleeping on a couch nearby, her head resting on his shoulder and Kirishima's head on her. He remembered why he was there and jolted up and got out of bed. He yanked the IV out and was about to get off the bed when he felt dizzy. He clutched his head and tried to shake it off by thinking about things that made him angry. He ended up waking the duo who sprang up and were by his side in a flash.

"Bakugou, slow down!"

"I have to go see her! Ahh!", he hissed as his body ached all over.

"She's fine. We'll go to her room in a minute. Get yourself together first.", Mina sternly commented.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck!", he clenched his fist. He hated feeling weak.

"I'm fucking fine! Let's go. I need to see her."

"Okay..."

They went over to Keiko's room. Bakugou was confused at what he saw. There was a person with large wings instead of Keiko on the bed, the wings covering them completely. Midoriya was there too. Anger took over Bakugou and brought him to his complete senses.

"The hell is this nerd doing here?"

"He said something about being around Keiko because of the disease? He said that it would slow it down."

"Right. I almost forgot. But who is that? Where's Keiko?!"

"Bro, that is Keiko. She had a really bad attack yesterday and her dragon quirk manifested completely. She almost burned a room and broke things because of her big wings."

"It was quite painful I think, she was breathing fire and she flapped her wings around a lot till the doctors gave her a tranquilizer."

"Oh God... Is she okay??"

"Yeah. Kaminari stayed with her all the time."

Bakugou walked closer to the bed saw a familiar messy yellow head on the edge of the bed. He was asleep soundly but there were eyebags under his eyes. He ran his fingers through it, feeling apologetic and angry. He moved to Keiko who looked, different. Her skin had orange-yellow scales over most of her body, her hair was a shimmery and the colour of a blood orange. Heat emanated from her strongly and he realized that the blanket over her was a cooling one. There were small puffs of smoke coming from her nostrils, dragon breath. He took his hand closer to her face. She caught his hand due to her reflex, opening her golden yellow eyes with a thin black slit, wide. Bakugou winced at her strong grip.

"S-sorry, I, uh...", she trailed off as she let go.

"It's okay. How do you feel right now?"

"I actually feel a lot better right now. Yesterday night was horrible though. Where were you though? I was surprised to see Kaminari here but not you."

"...I kind of fainted."

"What?! What happened? Was it your quirk??", she asked panickily.

"Yeah. I, got emotional."

"I'm fine baby, look. I really feel much better now."

"I was worried but it was, something else..."

"What was it..?"

"Your soulmate, it's probably him...", Bakugou pointed at the green head sleeping on the bed next to her.

"Isn't that Midoriya?! How do you know it's him??"

"He started showing the same symptoms as you. He didn't realize as quickly as you did because that fucker's body can't handle the power of his quirk and coughs up body sometimes. Nobody else from the party is sick so, it's, him..."

Bakugou tried his best to stay calm. A part of him wanted to punch the nerd with senseless rage. A part of him wanted to cry out with pain. A part of him just wanted to stop trying to stay angry and just-

"Katsuki?"

"Huh? Sorry, I was spacing out..."

"Come here. I promised you didn't I? I love you no matter what."

She kissed him, cupping his face in her scaly hands. He melted into it, letting her comfort him. He wanted to stay like that forever but the doctor came in and interrupting them.

"Oh, you're both here! Good! Well, I have great news!"

They both looked at each other in confusion and then back at the doctor. Their friends looked on with a curious expression and listened intently.

"We scanned you after your second quirk manifested completely yesterday, since it's a rare thing to happen. And the hanahaki seems to have reduced by a significant amount! We think it's probably because of the fire breathing abilities dragon quirk wielders have, it must have burned some of the delicate plant parts in the lungs and throat!"

Bakugou broke out into a wide smile and hugged Keiko tightly.

"I knew you would come through this! My strong princess! God! Thank you! Thank you!"

"What's happening guys..?", Midoriya woke up because of all the commotion.

"Oh, Midoriya-san. I didn't know you were in this room. I have your reports too. They're not good. Unlike Tatsugami-san here, your disease has come to a very extreme stage. I'm surprised you're still up and talking... We really don't know what to do about this... I'm so sorry."

Midoriya just smiled at the doctor, with tear flowing down his cheeks heavily.

"It's okay! Thank you so much doctor."