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Hitoshi isn't quite sure what he expected as he makes his way down into the common room but it's certainly not everyone gathered in one place. Even Aizawa is there.
Hitoshi takes a moment to take the unfolding chaos in and it takes even longer for him to understand what has everyone in a frenzy like this.
Something happened. Something has to have happened because Mina is very obviously crying as the other girls are fawning over her and Kaminari is shedding a tear or two, too, and Kirishima and Sero are surrounded by people and Bakugou is somewhat to the side, snapping at everyone who even dares to look at him.
"What happened?" Hitoshi asks as he steps up next to Todoroki, who kept himself out of the thick of it and Todoroki's eyes slide over to him before they turn back towards their crying classmates.
"A sinkhole swallowed half a block downtown," he shortly says and fuck, okay.
Going by their luck the Bakusquad was caught in the midst of it and now that Hitoshi rakes his eyes more carefully over them he sees the bandages, the scrapes, the tears in clothes and the streaks of dirt.
It's obvious they weren't hurt any worse than a training exercise leaves them sometimes—or they have been healed up at the scene—but it's more than obvious that at least Mina and Kaminari have been badly shaken.
Even Kirishima doesn't seem as enthusiastic as he normally is and Sero's gaze drifts off into nothing every other minute and Bakugou's bitchy comments are much more cutting than they normally are.
It's obvious that none of them are okay but the longer Hitoshi watches, the more something feels off.
He can't quite put his fingers on it, doesn't know how to put it into words, but something with the scene he's observing is off in a way that leaves him feeling bad about it.
"Okay, now that everyone made sure your classmates are okay, please give them some space if they want it and let them rest," Aizawa says, just slightly louder than the chatter of the fussing classmates but his voice carries anyway and everything goes quiet for a moment before the girls bundle Mina up and drag her away, tugging Kaminari along after them.
Aizawa lets them go with a nod, before he looks over to Kirishima and Sero, who are being swarmed by the Dekusquad and then his eye briefly touches on Bakugou who still keeps himself separate, off to the side and Hitoshi watches how Aizawa's gaze moves on as if nothing at all is wrong with that.
And Hitoshi finally knows what's bugging him.
People were fawning over Mina and Kaminari, easily the loudest and most emotional of the five, but even Kirishima and Sero are being surrounded, asked if they are okay, if they are hurt, if they are feeling good.
No one is doing the same to Bakugou though.
Hitoshi doesn't like it.
So he lingers behind, stays until the Dekusquad ushers Kirishima and Sero away and he watches how Midoriya stops once, his eyes briefly going to Bakugou, lingering on the band-aid on his cheek, the way his hair is still streaked with dirt, and then Hitoshi watches how Midoriya lets Bakugou retreat towards the kitchen without even saying anything.
When he turns back around Midoriya's gaze meets Hitoshi's and he can't help the curt "You're not gonna say anything?" that leaves his mouth before he can think better of it.
Midoriya cringes, his eyes going to the doorway Bakugou just vanished through and there's obvious regret on his face, but he still doesn't follow.
"It's best to give Kacchan some time," he finally mutters and then hurries after the rest, no doubt about to comfort Kirishima and Sero along with everyone else.
And Bakugou is all alone in the kitchen and Hitoshi can't believe this.
Sure, Bakugou absolutely doesn't scream emotional distress like the others did—some more obviously than others—but he was caught in the same harrowing experience and to think that no one, not a single one of their classmates, even stopped to ask Bakugou how he's doing is just—wrong.
It's so fucking wrong that for a moment Hitoshi is glued to his spot with outrage before he shakes it off and follows Bakugou into the kitchen.
"The fuck do you want?" Bakugou asks as soon as Hitoshi enters, because of course he has eyes at the back of his head but Hitoshi isn't deterred by the sharp tone.
He walks up to him, leans his hip against the counter right next to Bakugou and keeps a careful eye on him.
He seems fine; sure, the band-aid is there and the dirt lets Hitoshi know that he was caught up in the same event the others were, but apart from that he seems fine. There are no tears, his face has a healthy colour and his hands aren't shaking at all and still—
"How are you doing? Are you okay?" Hitoshi asks, because someone has to and Bakugou freezes right up.
Hitoshi fears he's going to get an explosion to the face for daring to imply that Bakugou is anything but perfectly capable of compartmentalising situations like the one he was caught up in but instead—
Bakugou starts crying.
It's starts with a shaky breath, one that comes out so unsteady that Hitoshi fears a lung injury for a moment, before Bakugou's eyes overflow with tears and the shaky breath turns into one heartbreaking sob after another and by the time Bakugou hides his face in his now trembling hands Hitoshi moved past his surprise.
And not a second too soon because Bakugou's knees give out under him and Hitoshi manages to catch him moments before he crashes to the ground, but he lowers them there anyway.
Bakugou doesn't even protest when Hitoshi manhandles him into his lap, clutches him close to his chest, hugging him so hard it must make breathing even more difficult and he's absolutely under no circumstances ever going to tease Bakugou for the way he clings to Hitoshi's shirt and cries and wails and sobs into his neck.
Hitoshi holds him through it all, holds him until the sobs taper off into bitten off whines and even when Bakugou starts to move, Hitoshi holds him.
But the kitchen floor really isn't the best place—Hitoshi's ass is starting to hurt—and so he adjusts his grip on Bakugou's form and somehow manages to get back on his feet, Bakugou still tightly clutched to his chest.
He's still making a distressed sound, one that Hitoshi soothes with meaningless words whispered against his temple as he carries him over to the couch, where he carefully puts him down.
Hitoshi wants to right himself back up, but Bakugou keeps clutching at him, his hands digging almost painfully into his shoulders and for a moment Hitoshi is confused, before he reads the panic in Bakugou's form.
"I won't leave you," he promises him and pats his head. "I'm just going to get some blankets."
Still, Bakugou doesn't relax for the longest time and when he finally lets go of Hitoshi it's to curl up small in the corner of the couch, hiding his face away and turning his back to Hitoshi.
He's making it more than obvious just how much he believes Hitoshi, but Hitoshi is not about to make a liar out of himself, so he quickly scans the surrounding couches for any blankets he can pile on Bakugou and thankfully, half the class is into comfort, so it's not hard to find a stash of impossible soft and cosy blankets all tucked into a basket in the corner of the room.
Hitoshi takes two, just because, and when he's back with Bakugou, he doesn't hesitate to pick him up again—hauling himself around on the capture weapon really does have its perks—settling himself against the arm of the couch and tucking Bakugou under his chin before he swaddles them both with the blankets.
"There," he softly says and it's not really a surprise when Bakugou hides his face against Hitoshi's throat again and he feels the hot slide of tears once more.
Bakugou is much more quiet about it now, though, and Hitoshi isn't sure if he likes that.
"It's okay," he awkwardly says as he pats Bakugou as best as he can and he keeps it up until Bakugou's breath turns steady again.
"You wanna talk about it?" Hitoshi asks and Bakugou tenses for a moment before he goes boneless against Hitoshi again.
"Not really," he croaks out, his voice absolutely shot from all the crying and Hitoshi nods, even though Bakugou can't see it.
"Alright," he easily says, because if Bakugou doesn't want to talk about it, then he doesn't want to talk about it and Hitoshi is reasonably sure that he pushed him far enough already.
So they stay in silence and despite his unwillingness to talk, Bakugou also doesn't move away and Hitoshi wonders how no one even thought to ask how Bakugou is doing.
Because it's more than obvious that the answer is "Not good at all" but his snappish nature was clearly enough to fool everyone.
Some fucking heroes they are. Even worse friends, too, and Hitoshi would have words with them if he wasn't reasonably sure that Bakugou would kill him for it.
"The ground just—vanished, right under our feet," Bakugou suddenly mutters out, jolting Hitoshi out of his thoughts. "Stupid, fucking natural disaster."
"Todoroki said half a block got destroyed?" Hitoshi carefully says and Bakugou huffs.
"Not quite. Two houses came down and part of the road. Tapeface, Shitty Hair and me managed to break the fall for Pikachu and Racoon Eyes, but—seventeen people died," Bakugou whispers and Hitoshi feels the breath shudder in his chest.
"Two were right there with us; one got impaled and one slammed into the ground so hard he—" Bakugou cuts himself off with a whine and he presses himself harder against Hitoshi. "We helped as best as we could but. Seventeen died."
"How many made it out?" Hitoshi wants to know because knowing Bakugou, he's only concentrating on the failures instead of the good he did and when he answers, his suspicion is confirmed.
"Forty-eight."
"That's a lot," Hitoshi says, because it is, especially considering that not a single one of the Bakusquad is training for search and rescue and still.
Hitoshi would bet his voice on the fact that the only reason so many survived is because Bakugou and the others did an amazing job.
"You know, it's kind of funny," Bakugou says after a moment and going by his voice, Hitoshi can already tell that whatever he's going to say next is not going to be funny at all. "Even though I've fought in the war, I haven't ever seen a dead body if you don't count my own. Until now."
Yeah, not fucking funny at all.
"I'm sorry," Hitoshi mutters. "You shouldn't have had to see it at all."
They are all still way too young to see things like that, and even though no one's to blame for a disaster like that, no teenager should ever have to deal with anything like that.
"Why did you stay?" Bakugou finally wants to know, and he's still not moving away from Hitoshi, is still not protesting the way he basically keeps him cradled against his chest and Hitoshi tightens his arms around him for a moment before he forces himself to relax.
"No one else did. No one asked you," he admits, because everyone else was busy fluttering around the other four because their distress was so much more obvious and Hitoshi fears that most of the class sometimes forget that Bakugou is only seventeen, too.
Sure, he's been through more shit than any student should have to, but in the end, he's just a teenager, too.
A brash, cocky, confident, capable one, but that shouldn't change the fact that he needs looking after, too.
"Didn't feel right to me, so I thought I would do it."
Bakugou lets out something that sounds suspiciously like a sob again and he presses closer to Hitoshi once more as if he's afraid he's going to get kicked off any second now but Hitoshi only adjusts his grip, and tucks them in even more tightly.
He's definitely not going to let go before Bakugou feels ready for it.
"Tell anyone about this and you'll die," Bakugou says, his voice shaky and thin, and Hitoshi drops his cheek to the top of Bakugou's head.
"Deal," he easily agrees and allows Bakugou to soak up as much comfort as he needs, allows him to fall asleep cradled in Hitoshi's arms, allows him to wake up with a glare and a snapped comment, allows him to untangle himself from the warm cocoon and then also allows Bakugou to drag him to the kitchen where he cooks dinner for them both.
And if Bakugou sometimes stops and stares off into nothing and then steps close to press his forehead to Hitoshi's shoulder, then he doesn't mention that at all, either.
He just makes sure he's available.