Bakugou bites his lip and scowls at his lap as he waits for Aizawa to continue. The hero looks at him for a long minute before speaking slowly. "Bakugou, some of your classmates—most of them—are worried as to why you were crying on the podium. It is our fault for creating the situation, but we are also aware that the circumstances alone would not have made you cry—"

"I wasn't crying," Bakugou snarls in a dangerously low voice.

Aizawa rolls his eyes. "Kid, you know as well as I that you were, and I am trying to help you." Bakugou freezes. "Please let me."

Fisting his hands in his pants, Bakugou growls, "I was just mad at IcyHot, the fucker. He didn't try—"

"Bakugou," Aizawa interrupts sternly. Bakugou glances at his teacher and quickly looks away from the serious gaze, jaw clenched. Aizawa sighs exasperatedly. "Kid, please. We're here for you, okay?"

Bakugou blinks rapidly as he internally curses the tears that prick at his eyes. "I—" he begins, voice breaking from emotion. "I can't..." he whispers dejectedly.

The teachers look at each other for a moment, concerned. All Might speaks up next, voice soft for such a large man, and queries, "Young Bakugou, why can't you tell us?"

The blonde shakes his head violently as tears begin to fall from his twisted features despite his best efforts to prevent their track downward. He lifts his hands to wipe harshly at his face to be rid of the incriminating evidence indicative of his emotions. "Y-you...you'll th-think I'm f-fucking w-weak.... I am fuck-ing w-weak," he gasps out.

"Bakugou, you are not weak," Present Mic pipes up sturdily. "I speak for all of us when I say you are probably one of the strongest kids we have ever taught. None of this makes you weak, and nothing you tell us could make us feel any different about that. Your crying and any of your feelings do not make you weak, Bakugou. Heroes cry, too."

"He's right, you know," Midnight says from Bakugou's right. "You are so strong and we won't think differently, okay? Do you think Aizawa would've kept you in his class if he thought you were weak?" she asks with a slightly more lighthearted tone.

Bakugou scoffs. "It's not like he has gotten r-rid of the f-fucking grape yet."

Midnight and Present Mic laugh as All Might turns away, hand covering a large grin, and Aizawa sighs like the entire world has been harassing him. "Trust me," Aizawa says with annoyance clear in his tone, "I've been trying. Min**a should be gone soon but Nezu has been going through the legal procedures and gathering evidence and testimonies of his...far less than heroic behavior."

Bakugou smirks. "Hah. Fucker deserves it. He's always fucking harassing the girls and it's goddamn sexual harrassment..." he trails off, temporary good mood vanishing immediately.

"Bakugou?" Midnight queries worriedly, but receives no response. The boy is once again blocking any view of his face with his hair hanging around his downturned face.

Aizawa's brow furrows. "Hey, kid, what is it?" What happened that caused this, this time? Aizawa thinks back on the conversation. Bakugou was getting better, head-space wise, though they didn't get an answer for why he thinks he is weak. Then all the kid did was start talking about Min**a before he went quiet. But why? What was it in what he said? Or it could have been that he had a thought prodded somehow. It was right after he called what Mi***a does sexual assault...

No.

No.

No way.

He can't have been...

Right?

Aizawa looks at Bakugou's downturned head with a shocked expression, and it's all he can do to hide the terror he feels bubbling within himself.

His own student? Could his own student have been...

"Bakugou...were you...have you..." Aizawa starts with a rare case of uncertainty apparent in his words. This is such a delicate topic. "Have you ever experienced it?"

Bakugou's already stiffened body goes absolutely rigid. He does not make any move to so much as glance at his teacher. A strained voice makes its way from his still body. "Experienced what?" he asks stiffly, stoically, though Aizawa knows Bakugou already knows the answer, giving Aizawa a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.

The other teachers look on in confusion as Aizawa slowly forces his next words out of his cautious mouth. "Bakugou...have you been sexually assaulted?"

Each of the other three teachers freeze at the words and turn their gazes towards Bakugou, hoping for a response in the negatory. However, their answer comes to them in the form of the boy's shoulders beginning to tremble and liquid dripping from his hidden face onto his lap. Bakugou, lip harshly bitten between his teeth, drops of blood leaking from it,  gives his head a painfully slow nod.

Midnight gasps, her hands flying to cover her mouth as Present Mic and All Might's breaths catch in their chests, all three with expressions of horror on their faces. Aizawa grits his teeth to force back a scream of rage. He tilts his head back and closes his eyes despite his face being twisted into an ugly scowl that would instill fear in anyone who knows him, if not any sane person in general. He needs to steady himself before doing anything. An enraged teacher is not what Bakugou needs right now, he thinks. After a moment to collect himself, Aizawa takes a steady breath and looks back toward Bakugou. Midnight had resumed in rubbing his back with one hand as tears fall silently from the boy's face, but it looks like the hero is about to burst into tears, herself. He gives her a look and the woman nods, carefully pulling her hand away.

Placing his hand gently back into Bakugou's hair, ignoring a small flinch but storing the data in his mind for later, Aizawa gets the boy's attention back on him. "Thank you for telling me, Bakugou." Aizawa says in a calm voice that almost perfectly conceals his rage and terror at his student's experience. "You know we want to help, right?" Bakugou's shaky breaths stutter at that and he unsurely nods again, spiky hair fluttering around as he does not look up from his lap where his hands are fisted in the cloth of his pants. "Then would you be able to do me a favor, Bakugou?" Aizawa asks calmly. Bakugou glances to the side and up through his fringe at his teacher, teary red eyes curious, and is shocked when he sees the black haired hero glaring daggers into the wall opposite him like it had murdered his loved one. "Would you help us find the person who did this to you?"

Bakugou turns his startled eyes to the floor, fighting against the tears spilling out of his eyes, but only more come out as he nods. A sob wrenches its way from his throat as he says, "I-it wasn't j-jus-st o-one p-p-pers-son—"

Aizawa's eyes flash red and he closes them while carding his hand soothingly through Bakugou's hair. "We will find them all, then.... And they will be punished. I'll make sure of that myself."

Bakugou loses his fight with his tears and his sobs overcome him, wracking his body harshly. He lifts his head as he cries, his tears falling in streams down his reddened cheeks like a dangerous torrent. Aizawa carefully moves his hand to the other side of his sobbing student's head and applies a gentle pressure, pulling the boy toward himself. Bakugou collapses onto his teacher and latches onto him as he soaks the hero's shirt with his tears and runny nose. Aizawa continues to card his hand through the boy's hair, unperturbed by the mess, his other arm around the blonde's back securely as he tries to restrain the overwhelming emotions he feels within him, but he does allow one out. "This does not make you weak, Bakugou. The fact you got through it and are still fighting makes you stronger than anyone I know."

Bakugou's sobs increase in volume and become more desperate as the other three teachers give him and his home room teacher space.

Aizawa pins his angered glare on Present Mic who understands that it is not really being directed at him. It is being directed at the people who did this to Aizawa's student. They will regret it, that is for certain.

Aizawa loves his kids, and he will do anything to protect them, even if he dies trying.

Even if he must seek out their hidden traumas one by one.

————————————————————

Sorry this took so much longer than my usual—I warned you!—but still it's only been like 13 days lol so it could've been a heck of a lot worse. I'm still hanging on a fic I started in Feb 2019 that updated last this past January ;-; (I will not give up hope! It's so good btw and I SUPER strongly recommend it; it's "Elixir" on ArchiveofOurOwn by LadyGreenFrisbee. Btw the fact I still remember its plot means it's super good because that only holds true for a very (And I mean VERY, I can count the number on one hand) select few fics).

If it's not clear, the one emotion he let out for Bakugou is love (duh😉 Dadzawa loves his kids)

Also, that last bit felt kind of foreboding so I will assure you I don't have any intentions of killing off Aizawa (not rn at least, but I most likely won't, but like still no guarantees cuz my brain is strange)

And for those peeps asking me to update, I'll say it for the millionth time:
I DON'T DROP STORIES!
Okay, voila. And even if I got tired of a story I'd still wrap it up somehow

-Angry
Word Count: 1462