Thirsty? (Bakugo x OC)

Forty-Four - Riled Up Rivalry

You could've run away, you could've fought like I did. But no, you were special, you were perfect, and you knew it.

*

The professionals couldn't have had worse timing, arriving as soon as the concealing mist had faded into nothing, and the villains along with Ren were long gone. At least they were there for damage and crowd control.

Bakugo remained on his collapsed knees until a paramedic draped a shock blanket over his shoulders. He asked him if he was at all injured, to which he could only shake his head before the paramedic told him an inspector needed to ask him some questions. He tried to answer them, to form words, but nothing came out. Broken sentences here and there but overall he couldn't be much help.

Kirishima got him to his feet eventually and the authorities instructed that their class return to their dorm that night for their safety. Endeavour and Hawks both made an appearance at the scene and Bakugo caught Hawks flashing an empathetic grimace his way.

Those who weren't injured spoke to the inspectors and answered as much as they could while medics attended to injured civilians and members of their class, and lifeless bodies were bagged and taken away. The bus ride that was organised to take them back to their dorms was dead silent. Most of them cuddled into their shock blankets, others staring blankly at nothing or repetitively checking their phones for any updates on those who'd been carted off to the hospital.

As expected, the incident was all over the news that night. Interviews with civilians followed one another as they recounted the events of the day from their point of view, plenty of them feeding into the growing opinion that heroes were useless and the future generation weren't much help either.

Those who had the stomach to be downstairs gathered in the living room, their dinner plates still full and untouched. Uraraka drew her knees into her chest on the couch as clips captured on phones circulated through the screen. Images of people running and screaming, badly filmed footage of Ren's attempt to save them all and the disastrous aftermath that followed.

"It appears that no one else is going to say it, so I will." Iida said after they'd been silent for hours, blankly staring at the news presenter who's words sounded like mush. "We failed."

Kirishima clenched his fork tightly and the metal bent to the shape of his fingers from the pressure. He glanced down to the empty spot next to him that would have been Bakugo's and he tried to imagine what his friend was feeling.

"We were outclassed." Tokoyami said with his arms crossed. "They caught us off guard with a goal in mind we could not have predicted."

They went back to their uncomfortable and saddened silence for a while, broken only by the jingles of advertisements on the TV.

"Y-You don't think she meant what she said, do you?" Uraraka asked after a while.

"Of course not." Midoriya piped in immediately. "There's a lot of Ren's past we can't ever hope to understand... I- I truly think she wouldn't go through with what they were saying. We may even be able to get her bac-"

"Midoriya, please." Iida interrupted. "There is no use in giving any of us false hope. Chinami has made her decision. I think it's best we take time over the break to recover and try to forget any of this ever happened."

"But Iida, she's our friend." Uraraka pleaded. Her round eyes becoming glossy and her already tired and strained throat cracking as she spoke. "She's your friend."