When Bakugou next opens his eyes his brain slowly processes multiple things.

He first notices he is in his waiting room.

He next notices that it is silent and nobody else is present.

Then he notices the weight on his face and arms.

Looking down, Bakugou takes a moment to recollect what had happened in his last battle and afterwards. He groans, leaning back in the chair he sits in, in front of a simple wooden table. How much weaker could he get? He had a panic attack at his own school for fuck's sake! In front of everybody and on live television! And, dammit, he is already starting to panic again, his heart picking up its rate.

A tear slides slowly down Bakugou's cheek as he gazes up at the ceiling. Why is he like this? What did he do so wrong to deserve this? Sure, he can be an ass, but...does that really call for such a thing?

The door opens to Bakugou's left and he gracelessly leaps to his feet, stumbling backwards slightly, eyes once again going wide as his brain puts him on the defense since he is in such a vulnerable position, chained up.

Red and green eyes look sadly and tearfully at Bakugou, whose own crimson orbs narrow at the intruders, incognizant of whom he is seeing in front of him, his body tensing and lowering into a fighting stance.

"Bakugou..." Kirishima's voice trails off, his hand raising towards the blonde, whose muscles strain even more at the movement. The redhead retracts his arm, pain filling his eyes.

"K-Kacchan?" Midoriya attempts to call from slightly behind Kirishima. The greenette sniffles and heaves a large breath, steadying himself. "Kacchan. It's me. It's Deku. C-calm down. We won't hurt you."

Bakugou's eyes narrow and Kirishima follows Midoriya's lead. "Yeah, bro. Come on. I'm Kirishima. Eijirou. We won't pull anything. It's alright."

The blonde seems to relax slightly and his cloudy eyes begin to clear. Suddenly, he seems confused and tries to speak, but only a strangled sound escapes the muzzle.

"Bro.... Hold on. I'll get it off of you, okay?" Kirishima says slowly, fighting tears. At a careful nod from Bakugou, Kirishima walks towards the other boy and carefully unstraps the muzzle, pulling it from the boy's face. Bakugou gasps as cool air touches his flushed skin.

"Wh-what they did w-was wrong. I don't know why Aiz-zawa sensei didn't st-stop it." Midoriya whispers. "I hope he didn't see it..." he says inaudibly.

Bakugou's brow furrows and Kirishima bites his lip, all three look towards the ground. The blonde hesitantly lifts his gaze towards the redhead. "Hey Shitty Hair. Get this damn thing off of me," he says, holding up his arms and the metal attached to them.

"Oh! Yeah, sure, Bakugou!" he exclaims, hurriedly getting to work to remove the metal contraption. As he fiddles with straps, his mouth opens and closes several times like a fish.

"The fuck you want to say, Shitty—"

"Are you okay?"

Bakugou's mouth snaps shut and he clenches his jaw. After an uncomfortably long silence, Bakugou responds, "I'm fucking fine, Shitty Hair. The fuck do you mean?"

Midoriya speaks up from their side nervously, fiddling with his fingers, "Well, Kacchan, y-you were c-crying and—"

"I did not fucking cry," Bakugou growls dangerously.

The greenette seems confused at the response. "What? But you were, Kacchan. When—"

"I DID NOT FUCKING CRY!"

Silence follows the loud lie, neither of the other boys present willing to refute the false statement. Kirishima pauses in undoing the binds for a moment, trying to hold onto his bearings, tears once again trying to push their way out of his eyes despite his best efforts. With a deep breath, the redhead continues in his procedure, teeth tightly clenched.

Midoriya does not attempt to say anything after that, though his gaze shows his worry for his childhood friend.

Bakugou scowls. "Don't fucking look at me like that, nerd."

"Okay, Kacchan. I'm sorry," the green haired boy whispers, gaze falling to the ground as he chews on his lip, the worry never leaving his eyes, annoying the blonde boy who growls and looks away, clicking his tongue.

The room is silent aside from the sound of metal clinking and leather straps being moved around until a few minutes later when Kirishima's voice interrupts the strained atmosphere. "Got it," he says happily, the metal loosening and coming away from Bakugou's arms.

The blonde sighs, rubbing his hands over the irritated skin. "Fucking finally," he says exasperatedly, though the other two in the room hear the relief in his tone. Bakugou abruptly turns towards the door and shoves his hands into his pockets, walking away. When he reaches the exit, he pauses in his stride, hesitating, and turns his head slightly to the side, where his face is just barely visible to the other two, and whispers, almost inaudibly, "Thanks," before rushing away towards the dorms.

The two students still in the room look sadly at one another before they trail behind Bakugou to the dorms.

As soon as they arrive, the three notice the tenseness in the atmosphere. The other students are all in the common room and their eyes track Bakugou as he walks in silence. Many of them seem like they want to say something, but Ashido's timid "Hey, Baku—" is cut off by the door of the stairway being slammed closed behind the blonde, followed by loud stomping moving up the stairs.

The room silently stares at the door for a few moments until Ashido sighs in defeat, turning back forward in her place on the couch next to Kaminari and Sero. "It's alright, Mina, just give him a bit," Sero soothes.

The girl's brow creases. "But we've never seen him like that. What are we supposed to do?"

Kaminari begins abruptly, everyone's eyes moving over to him, "He...he was crying..." he whispers, voice becoming progressively more quiet.

The students pause, room again silent, until Tsuyu comments simply, "Well, there must have been something he was crying about, kero."

Contemplating eyes move to the frog girl and Jirou ponders aloud, "He just didn't want the medal. But why react like that?"

Midoriya's voice draws everyone's attention to him and Kirishima, who still stand just inside the doorway. "There's..." his fists clench tightly at his sides. "There's something more to it.... Kacchan was freaking out. He—he wouldn't be like that without a reason. And it's not just the medal. He would've been angry about that, sure, but there was something more happening. He was..." tearful green eyes look over his classmates, the people he trusts more than anyone. "He was scared. Terrified. And we don't kn-know why.... We don't know h-how to h-help hi-im," he forces out his words as he cries again, pulling up an arm to wipe at his tears.

"Why would we help him? He's just an asshole."

Everyone's shocked eyes turn towards a small purple thing in the room as it lounges in a chair in the kitchen. "What?" Kirishima's low voice asks, barely preventing anger from seeping into his tone.

Mine*a rolls his eyes. "I'm saying he probably deserves whatever it is. He's just an emotionless ass who's mean to everyone, so shouldn't he need to deal with something, too?" he points out factually.

Kirishima growls lowly, eyes shaded by his hair as he looks down, "Get out."

"What?" the grape asks.

"Get out," Kirishima spats again.

"Why?" Mine*a asks with genuine confusion, not realizing the danger he faces.

"LEAVE!" Kirishima roars, head raised and enraged eyes piercing into the purple haired boy. Mine*a squeaks before hopping out of his chair and screaming as he runs out of the room.

Kirishima huffs, irritated, face stuck in a scowl. He feels a hand on his shoulder and looks over. Midoriya peers up at him with a small, sad smile, tears still flowing silently. "Thank you for looking out for Kacchan, Kirishima."

Kirishima's scowl drops and he rubs a hand over his face tiredly. "Um...yeah, of course. He's me bro. Sorry I got a bit too worked up, though, everybody," he says apologetically, looking towards his other classmates.

"That is completely fine, Kirishima-kun. Mine*a-kun was entirely out of line with what he said. What terrible behavior," the class president says from a seat next to Uraraka, hand chopping the air. "I acknowledge that Bakugou's behavior leaves much to be desired, but he should not be left alone to face whatever he is currently experiencing. We are his classmates and must help him in whatever way we can." Nods of agreement meet the declaration.

"So..." begins Kaminari, "what do we do now?"

Ashido responds loudly. "We find out what's wrong, of course!"

"But how?" Kaminari asks back.

The pink girl seems to think for a moment, face twisting as she thinks harder. "I—" she slumps in defeat. "I don't know."

"I think we should all just be there for him." The class turns their shocked faces towards the stoic Todoroki, who had just spoken from where he is leaning back in a cushy chair. He looks back at them in confusion. "What?"

Midoriya smiles. "Todoroki-kun's right. Let's all just be there for Kacchan. We'll figure it out somehow," he says softly.

Iida nods seriously. "And I will make the teachers aware of this, of course!" he announces. "They will know the best course of action."

"Yeah..." Kirishima says quietly. "Even if they were there, we should tell them, shouldn't we? But.... How did they not see it, themselves?"

The room is silent for a moment before Midoriya speaks up. "I'm not sure, Kirishima, but I hope that they really didn't know. I would rather that than them knowing he was crying and doing nothing."

More silence meets the admission and the room is quiet for the rest of the night.

——————————————————

Aaaaaand we are back at the beginning of the Mine*a censorship program: a highly renowned curriculum, especially if it results in the expulsion of a single student with purple hair whose name begins with an "M". Also, who's ready for some ignorant, uninformed, and dumb teachers? Well, only one (maybe two?) is genuinely dumb, but... yeah. Me!

-Angry
Word Count: 1667