⚠️Warning: LOTS of Cussing! ⚠️
Date: October 23, XXXX
Time: 4:48 p.m.
Location: Abandoned Apartments (Eastern Tokyo)
The sound of a wooden door making impact with the adjacent wall and cracking falls on deaf ears as they run. The room is searched and left, then another door is thrown into the flimsy drywall, creating a hole where the doorknob knocked it in. They run out again, in and out with each empty room that's checked and promptly left behind like a child's broken toy.
Nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
Every goddamn room is empty.
Every.
Last.
One.
Coming up on the last hallway left unchecked, the blond breaks four more doors before his rage empties into a sudden feeling of nothingness. As if all of his emotions were drained from his body like an untreated wound left to bleed out. The lead the heroes received wasn't a good one, but it was a lead nonetheless and it was all he had to hold on to. Now though, every room in the abandoned building has been searched by the team and thoroughly scavenged for clues. But, all of their efforts came up empty.
Goddamnit.
Turning to the nearest wall with a piercing glare, Bakugo throws his fist in a wide arc, punching the surface and leaving a hole the size of his fist in the drywall. He knows it's not the stupid damn wall's fault that you're missing, that you haven't come home to him in a month now. It's not the fucking wall's fault that the other half of his bed is cold and empty. And deep down he knows, it's no one's fault but the person who took you's for why you disappeared in the first place.
But, he's still pissed.
Pissed at everything.
School.
Training.
His friends who make him take care of himself.
The Hero President.
The entire goddamn city.
The world.
Everyone.
Everything.
Himself.
And especially, you.
You and your fucking perfect smile that he can't fucking live without. Your adorable fucking face that gets covered in goddamn drool every time you fucking sleep. And, the way you get so fucking excited every damn time he cooks something for your needy ass. You just had to get kidnapped like a fucking, reckless idiot.
Of-fucking-course.
Not to mention your stupid fucking promises of always coming back. Because look how that turned out!
The damn promise ring on his finger feels like a cruel joke, the world's way of messing with him and messing up his entire fucking life. The cold, metal band is nothing but a reminder of unkept promises and lonely nights.
That's not to say that you won't still come back, because you will. Bakugo already promised himself he would make fucking sure of that. But, going a whole month without your needy ass tackling him and forcing him to lay down to watch your dumb favorite shows together is too much.
A.
Whole.
Fucking.
Month.
And every goddamn lead they've gotten has ended up as nothing but a dead end, just like this one.
Without warning, a gloved hand is placed on Bakugo's shoulder from behind, squeezing firmly as he continues resting his head against the wall. The muscles in his arm clench and unclench a few times before he sighs and turns to face the figure behind him. Sandy blond hair ruffled like the feathers of bird with matching, golden eyes gaze back at him, and a sad smile, almost like a grimace, appears on the figure's face.
"What do you want, Birdbrain?" Bakugo grunts, shrugging off the arm of the now No. 2 Hero.
Bakugo doesn't wait for a response, already knowing it's time to group back up with the rest of the team to report their failure and turning to storm out of the room. The winged man follows closely behind, feigning boredom with his hands clasped behind his head and whistling a careless tune. But, the dead look in his usually bright, golden eyes as he scans the water damaged hallway around them doesn't match the carefree body language he gives off.
"Just checking on you." The man replies quietly after a long stretch of silence, pretending to be interested in some graffiti sprayed onto the dirt crusted brown walls.
"I don't need you to check on me."
A half-assed chuckle sounds from behind him, followed quickly by a response, "I know you don't."
Bakugo begins walking faster in the silence that follows, only deciding to grunt in recognition of the man's statement before turning the corner into the main living area of the building. The place looks like it's on its last legs with drooping, stained ceilings and ugly walls full of holes and covered in graffiti. All the furniture that used to occupy the empty space is either torn to shreds or missing. And, the smell of mildew permeates Bakugo's nose, making him scrunch it in disgust before quickly sneezing at the buildup of dust.
Knowing that you aren't being kept in a shitty place like this brings a little peace to Bakugo's mind. But, the fact that he still doesn't know where you're being kept weighs even heavier. Besides, if you were being detained in a trashy place like this, you would've already punched a hole in the wall to escape without even needing your quirk.
The sound of the pairs' footfalls announces their arrival to the others standing in a circle in the center of the room amongst broken glass and dust. There are six other heroes/heroes-in-training, each raising their gazes hopefully to the two blonds entering the room.
"Anything?" Endeavor questions, looking down at the two with crossed arms, almost as if he's disappointed with them already.
"Nothing." Hawks responds, letting his arms fall to his sides and shedding his carefree attitude like a coat.
The group falls into complete silence except for the sound of muffled sobs as they let their minds soak in the information. A dead lead means no new information and they're no closer to finding out where you are.
Fuck this.
Fuck that.
Just fuck everything.
After another moment, Mina breaks down and starts crying aloud, shattering the silence in the room with her echoing sobs. Kaminari and Kirishima are quick to rush to her side. They pat her fluffy, pink hair soothingly as her sobs grow louder and she grabs hold of Kaminari in a death grip. Her face buries itself in his shoulder as he adjusts his hold to awkwardly pat her back, not used to being in this type of situation. Usually you're the one to comfort the pink alien when she's upset.
Other than Kirishima's whispered reassurance, the rest of the squad remains quiet, only drifting closer together unconsciously for companionship in these hard times. Even Bakugo makes his way over with heavy feet, the metal lining the toe of his boots scraping the ground with every step. Once together, they stand in utter silence, letting Mina wet the shoulder of Kaminari's hero costume with tears and snot.
"I miss her!" Mina wails, earning more whispers of reassurance and hope from the other guys in the group.
Bakugo watches silently from Mina's left as the girl falls apart like he's wanted to do so many times. But, it won't help you. Even though he knows everyone grieves in their own way, he can't just sit by and watch his group fall apart.
Shifting his weight, Bakugo stands straighter and moves in, catching the attention of the rest of his so-called "squad". He raises a hand, letting it fall between the curled, yellow horns on the pink haired girl's head, causing her to turn her black eyes towards him from where they were shielded by Kaminari's jacket. Her gaze is questioning, not daring to move too much and scare off the odd sign of affection from her squad leader. Bakugo's gaze remains dull but piercing, removing his hand without a sound.
The squad watches as he turns away to face the door, even though deep down, none of them are ready to leave. Maybe, just maybe, if they keep looking they can find something. But, their leader continues to the door, throwing it open with a loud creak and then a bang as it hits the wall, all while keeping his back to them.
"I'm hungry," Bakugo grumbles, stepping outside and knowing his squad will follow close behind.
•••••
Date: October 23, XXXX
Time: 5:23 p.m.
Location: Oka's Diner
"Hey, kiddos! Long time no see!" Oka shouts, spinning her way over to the Bakusquad who stands cramped in the small entryway, still in their dusty hero costumes. A few of them manage a smile at the kind woman, doing their best to not look miserable.
The squad is quickly seated at their usual table near the front window and Oka runs off without having to take their orders since they frequent the diner so often. It is one of your favorite places, so it was always your first pick when it was your turn to choose where the squad would eat. And, on top of the delicious food, you've known Oka personally for years. To the point the older woman dots on you like a grandmother and then smacks you over the head with paper menus when you don't visit her enough. Your relationship is an interesting one to say the least.
Within a couple of minutes, Oka hands them all their drinks with a smile and turns to leave but then thinks better of it and stops mid-step, worrying her lip between her teeth. She turns back to the squad slowly, looking slightly sadder than just a moment ago.
"Has there been any news?" Oka asks softly and it doesn't take a genius to understand what she's referring to.
Everything falls silent for a moment, almost as if the diner melted away and it's only their small group left. Bakugo's ears start to ring as he turns away from the older woman's questioning gaze to rest his forehead against the window and stare outside. The world still exists and moves outside of their small bubble, but it doesn't feel like it all of the sudden. The cool glass of the window is a small relief to the pressure building behind his temple. And, Bakugo closes his eyes to the sight of people hurrying past outside like blurs.
Slowly but surely, the world comes back into focus with a low ringing fueling it. Bakugo is just coherent enough to process Kirishima responding to Oka's question, being the first of the squad to recover enough to answer. The woman's hope is crushed as he shakes his head with a soft 'no'. She heads off a moment later, plastering on a fake smile as she tends to the rest of her customers.
The rest of the crew starts to pick up a conversation, talking about the training exercise from earlier as a way of distracting themselves. A game of capture the flag, just like the one they all participated in on your first day at UA. You were undercover of course, none of them had any idea who you really were at the time and to top it all off, Bakugo absolutely hated you back then. You came into his class with that damn, emotionless face of your's and kicked his ass three different times before he even remotely started to like you. By then, the two of you had an intense rivalry going on, and Bakugo had no clue he wasn't even close to being on your level.
To think that back then he had no idea he was picking a fight with the No. 3 Hero in Japan. It's almost laughable now, he never stood a chance during any of those fights. But, things have changed a lot since then. You have changed a lot since your first day at UA.
You can smile, laugh, joke around.
You have friends.
A boyfriend.
The Bakusquad starts reminiscing about your first day as well, thinking the same thing Bakugo was, and start excitedly chattering about how you whooped the entire class's ass. You had punched Mina in the face, sucker punched Kirishima, and absolutely packed Bakugo while your teammate, Todoroki, froze Kaminari and Sero to the ground to steal their teams' flags.
Kaminari starts going on with a thoughtful face, mentioning that there were supposed to be three to a team back then.
"Three? I only remember (Y/n) and Todoroki together," Mina chimes in, furrowing her brows with a pout as she tries to remember back to that training session two years ago as well.
"Yeah! Because it was me, Aoyama, and Hagakure!" Kirishima interjects, causing a moment of awkward silence as everyone pauses at the mention of their traitor classmate.
"Uh-h yeah! I was with Midoriya and Ojiro!" Mina jumps in to save the conversation, being successful as the group keeps going with renewed smiles.
"Oh! Oh!" Sero suddenly exclaims, pointing a finger in the air, "It was Mineta! Remember! She threw him in a dumpster with their flag on his head!"
The memory pulls a chuckle out of the group, "Right! She knocked him out because he tried to grope her!" Mina giggles, remembering how you made Todoroki hold the creep so you wouldn't get any of his germs on you. Everyone starts laughing loudly, talking about how you that is, while Bakugo frowns at the mention of the perverted creep from their class.
"That fucking grape," Bakugo grumbles, talking for the first time since arriving at the diner.
Mina snickers at his grumpy face, enjoying getting to see Bakugo pop back out of his shell a bit after a month of nothing but worrying. "If I remember correctly, Blasty, she absolutely kicked your ass during that exercise."
"Shut up!"
"Yeah dude!" Kirishima manages to get out between chuckles at the pissed look on his blond friend's face, "(Y/n) wiped the floor with you."
Bakugo glares at the redhead, turning his angry, crimson gaze to the window as Oka comes back with a platter of food. The rest of the squad thanks her loudly before diving in like vicious animals, meanwhile the blond only grumbles his thanks quietly while taking small bites off his own plate. Kirishima throws his arm around his friend's shoulders, pulling him into a half hug while still munching on his burger with a smile, noticing quickly that Bakugo was barely eating despite saying earlier that he was hungry.
The rest of the squad continues on, undeterred with other stories of the stuff you used to do that cracked them up. Most of them included stories of the many times you beat the shit out of Mineta for being a creepy little pervert.
Your first day.
The Sport's Festival.
The changing rooms.
The summer camp.
And, there have been several more instances over the last two years. You became the designated 'Mineta Puncher' over time with the girls running to you anytime the pervert acted up. Somehow, he still hasn't learned his lesson despite the multiple concussions, bruises, bloody noses, death threats, etc.
From there, the conversation grew and grew, the squad getting louder with each comment to the point other patrons were starting to send them dirty looks. But, they were smiling. The topic changed and morphed over time as comments were made that inspired a new conversation among the easily excited peers. They stayed at that table for over three hours, ordering several rounds of extra milkshakes and fries. And, by the end of the night, Kaminari had laughed so hard that chocolate milkshake had shot out of his nose twice and everyone's cheeks were flushed from happiness.
Once the diner was set to close, they stayed behind to help Oka clean and close up the restaurant for the night. She thanked them and patted each of them on the cheek endearingly as they passed out the door.
"Take care, loves!" She calls to them as the squad turns to head back to UA together.
•••••
Date: October 23, XXXX
Time: 9:42 p.m.
Location: UA Height's Alliance
"Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhh," Bakugo groans, face planting onto his bed and into the familiar black sheets that smell too strongly of caramel and not enough of your sweet strawberry/coconut scent.
He takes a minute, soaking in his surroundings in full with the clearest head he's had in almost a month. He really needed a night like this, even if he didn't add much to the conversation at the diner, it was still nice to see his idiots having a good time and finally shedding some of their worries, even if for only a few hours.
A ghost of a smile lingers on his sharp face at the thought, turning his head just enough to stare at his desk where all of your papers linger. Usually, by now he would be seated at that desk in the spinning chair you insisted on bringing in here, flipping endlessly through those files. But, not tonight.
Tonight, Bakugo just wants to sleep.
After his shower, the pull of exhaustion is noticeable and encourages the blond to slip under the covers and close his eyes. He grabs your stuffed dinosaur off his pillow where he left it, rolling to the top of his bed lazily and wiggling his way under the comforter. With his head on the pillow and your dumb dinosaur wrapped protectively in his arms, Bakugo tries to let the last of his worries disappear.
Just for a couple of hours, he tells himself.
Just long enough for a good night's sleep.
Bakugo lays still, hoping, praying, but the more he wants to fall asleep the more awake he starts to feel, much to the blond's dismay. With a sigh, the boy sits up after a few minutes and reaches over to turn on the lamp, eyes catching on the items laying on his nightstand, most of them being yours. Your hairbands/clips, a book you were reading, and next to your half-full water bottle is a pair of green earbuds with little alien emojis on the sides that your were gifted.
The sight sparks an idea in Bakugo's head as he sits up and snatches his phone along with the earbuds. He plugs them into his phone and quickly opens his music app that is mostly filled with heavy metal music that he listens to while training, but amongst it all, is the single playlist you downloaded into his library. The entire thing is full of your favorite songs that you added to his device for when your's is dead, so you can steal his phone and keep listening. You encouraged the blond to listen to it, but after playing one song, he had turned it off with a grumble of it being 'too girly' for him, even though it wasn't, but he wouldn't admit that to your Shrimpy ass. The pissed look on your face was too funny for him to take back his statement.
Though, much to his displeasure, you had flipped him off and left to listen to your amazing playlist with Todoroki after that.
Scrolling quickly through all of the songs in the list, Bakugo clicks on a random one that seems faintly familiar and turns on shuffle before closing his eyes.
The song plays in his ears and he immediately recognizes it from the many times you played your music out loud in his dorm room while working on mission reports at his desk. A small smile appears as he lets himself fall into the lyrics, clutching the dumb dinosaur tightly in his arms.
Moments later, the night fades away into a beautiful melody.
————————————————————————
The inspiration for the end of this story is due to me listening to music while writing this. 😂
I'm now playing this on repeat ↓
Kind of fitting isn't it? LOL
Love you Dumplings!!! ♥️