Chapter Text
Every bump in the road seemed to throw Bakugo off his train of thought. It had been 45 minutes since the bus with his group departed. Different students were dropped off at different calls in various parts of the city. The gaping hole of emptiness in his mind only deepened as he watched each classmate step off the bus with a confident smile and radiating urge to succeed.
As the time droned on, it was just him, Tokoyami, and Todoroki waiting in the bus. They were about to turn to drop off Shoto, but an alert blared through the system. The bus immediately made a U-turn and sped down their previously traveled roads. Mt. Lady’s voice came through the walkie-talkie attached to the driver. Her panicked voice cut in and out.
“BACKUP!! We----need---som---fucki—Back---up!” The walkie-talkie emitted crackly static as the driver sped up and gritted his teeth as he punched in coordinates.
“The hell do you think is going on?” Bakugo muttered to Shoto and Tokoyami. They all shrugged but kept their serious expressions as the bus lurched and leaned with urgent speed and maneuvers. Bakugo braced himself against the wall of the bus as it approached it’s location. The sounds of sirens filled his ears and he could feel the ground shaking. He licked his lips and leaned toward the exit as orders began being barked through the bus.
“GO! GO! GO!” The driver yelled to the boys as he jumped from his seat and opened the exit. The three sprinted from the bus and only got about 40 feet before stopping dead in their tracks. The entirety of the scene was engulfed in flames, and it seemed all of the students had been pulled from their exams to help at this scene instead. As Bakugo scanned the scene, evacuation was the biggest priority. The three boys nodded to each other before splitting to different areas of the scene. Tokoyami ran to the crowd to create a barricade, Shoto began using ice to still the flames and create supports for the collapsing parts of the building that still contained civilians. Bakugo blasted himself up to the level of the building that was evacuating to help. He stepped inside and the flames met him with no mercy.
“AH FUCK!!” He pulled his mask over his face and quickly began running through the floor looking for civilians. “HELLO?! ANYONE HERE? I’M HERE TO HELP!” He called through the raging fire and heavy smoke. His heavy boots pounded on the stairs as he ushered civilians to the windows with the firemen waiting with ladders. “GO! LET’S GO!” He waved people to the ladders and assisted them.
“Hey, Bakubro!” A raw and familiar voice met him. Kirishima emerged from the flames while he supported and unconscious civilian on his shoulders.
“’Bout time you showed up!” Bakugo yelled in his direction before helping the person he was carrying into the fireman’s arms.
“Watcha talkin’ about? Been here the whole (cough) time.” He leaned forward and placed his hands on his knees as he let out wheezing breaths. Bakugo looked at him. He’d been using his quirk to protect himself from the fire, but it was getting hard to keep up. His pants were singed, his mask was gone, and his knuckles and arms were all scorched from breaking walls and probably some tripping.
“Fucking hell, dude. Was this your test?” Bakugo helped him up straight before they started running to the next staircase to check the lower levels.
“No it was someone else’s. I guess something got really out of control since we’re not supposed to have help.” Bakugo kicked the door to the next stairwell.
“You think?! Does a building on fire look under control to you?” Bakugo said before doing a lap around the floor. “CLEAR!” He yelled out the window to the fireman so he would go to the next descending level. Before they knew it, they were back on the ground level.
Kirishima leaned against a supportive beam for a few seconds and coughed violently. Blood spewed from his lips ad he gripped his chest and heaved.
“RED?!” Bakugo ran back towards him. “C’mon buddy! Just a little further.” He shook Kirishima’s shoulders slightly to get him to stand but Kirishima collapsed to his knees. “Fuck.” Bakugo cursed under his breath. “You really have been in here a while.” Kirishima coughed again, the blood from his lungs spattering onto Bakugo’s hands and uniform. “C’mon, dude! It’ll only get worse if you stay in here.” Bakugo tried to put him over his shoulders, but a low rumbling sound was heard from the floor above them as dust rained from the ceiling. Kirishima couldn’t muster the ability to stand. His lungs seethed at his every breath, his arms were trembling with burns, and his legs gave out from exhaustion.
“THE BUILDING’S GONNA GO!” Bakugo barked through the broken window and he watched as the heroes backed the crowd away. “You heard me right?!! Let’s go!” He pulled Kirishima up onto his shoulder and staggered to the exit. The creaking grew louder and he started moving as fast is he could with their combined weight.
CCRREAAAAKKKKKCRAAAAAASSSHHH
The ceiling began collapsing from the wall furthest to them, and then slowly catching up. He gritted his teeth as he raced the falling debris. He was mere feet from the exit, when he felt Kirishima be suddenly pulled off him. A large beam had caught his foot and pulled him to the ground with a sickening crack of his bones hitting the ground.
“RREEEDDD!!!” Bakugo screamed as he turned back to retrieve him. A large slab of the ceiling fell directly in front of him, cutting Kirishima from his line of sight. He was knocked backward from the force and everything went black.
-
“....yte.....namyte....Dynamite??...Dynamite? Can you hear me?” A pounding ringing noise filled his ears. He lay flat against the pavement, a fireman standing over him, pressing an oxygen mask to his face. He rolled his head to the side for a moment and caught a glimpse of the fallen building. The fire was successfully put out leaving smoke rising heavily from the scene. His classmates stood by the various medics, fireman, officers, and civilians as they continued their learned procedures. Everything looked okay. He got out of the fire. He sat up abruptly and gripped the collar of the fireman’s shirt startling him.
“Where is he?!” Bakugo growled in his face. “He was here, and I don’t fucking see him.”
“Dynamite! Calm yourself! Whoever you're talking about is safe.” The fireman tried to reassure his rage.
“If he’s ok, then where the hell is he?!!” He barked through gritted teeth before releasing his shirt and standing. He scanned the scene and tried to recall what happened.
“I was thrown back....no...before that....We were running....and he....FUCK!” He sprinted to the last place he remembered: The fallen slab by the exit. His bones and muscles ached for him to stop, but he wouldn’t let that happen. He jumped that large piece of concreted and started yelling into the rubble. “RED!......RED RIOT!!...ARE YOU THERE?!” His heart sank deeper and deeper every time he called out and there was no response. He stood still for a moment, and heard a slight shuffling from the direction of where the exit used to be. “RED!” He ran to the source of the sound. He slid down a pile of rubble to the solid ground and immediately froze. He found him.
“Baku-(Cough)-Bakugo?” Kirishima’s voice was raw and injured as he heard his best friend approaching.
“Yeah, yeah, it’s me.” Bakugo knelt at his side to assess his damage. He reached into his belt and pulled out a flare before lighting it into the sky. “MEDICS!!” He yelled, hoping someone was close enough to their scene to hear them. He turned his attention back to Kirishima. The part of his leg that had been caught under the beam that trapped him to start was completely mangled and Bakugo tore his eyes away. He immediately set to moving the rest of the debris off him. He lifted the beam from his lower body and moved the fiberglass and wooden planks from his upper body. He wished he just left them there. What they uncovered just made him sick.
A metal pipe was stuck through his abdomen and protruding through his lower back. He could see the abnormal shape of his torso as many ribs had been broken. What scared him the most, as the puddle of blood pooling under his face.
“Eijiro? I’m going to put you on your back.” He said in the strongest voice he could muster as he felt Eijiro attempt to nod.He started with the lower body and worked his way to the upper body. Kirishima cried out like bloody murder when Bakugo rotated his upper body, and all Bakugo wanted to do was kill himself for causing him to make that noise. Kirishima settled on his back. He was barely breathing through the pain, and he opened his eyes to see Bakugo looking at him. He was crying, his lip trembling, and his eyes searching for hope. When Kirishima opened his eyes, Bakugo knew it was to late. His pupils were two different sizes. ‘A stroke?...A Brain bleed?’ Bakugo sat up and yelled even louder while setting off another flare. “MEDIC!!!”
“Is it bad?” Kirishima choked out through a halfhearted grin. He coughed slightly and rested his arms against his abdomen. Bakugo took his head and rested it on his lap.
“Only when you look at it.” A sob broke at the end of his sentence as he cupped Kirishima’s face. Kirishima knew what it meant.
“Hey, Blasty?” He wheezed as more blood trickled from the corner of his lips.
“Yeah...Sh-Sh-Shitty Hair?”
“At the ceremony...(Cough)...Keep this in your pocket when you walk.” He reached down and took his signature belt buckle from his costume. “You can do that for me, right?”
Bakugo took the belt buckle and gripped it like it were the last thing on earth. “I’m not gonna have to...(Sniff) cause you’re gonna be...okay.” His sentence faltered at the last word, and he openly sobbed over his friend.
“Don’t f-f-forget, man...I didn’t go saying shit for no reason...” Kirishima’s words trailed off as he settled into a fit of bloody, bone crunching coughs. He took a heavy inhale, before his head settled back against Bakugo’s lap, and his tense hands fell limp, and his uneven eyes fluttered closed.
“Red....red....” Bakugo started in a whisper. “Eijiro? You’re gonna make it! YOU HAVE TO MAKE IT!!!” Hot tears streamed his face as hie lightly shook the redhead’s body. “DON’T LEAVE ME!” He screamed into his face. “EIJIROOOO!!!!”