Danny only blinked at Clockwork before he pinched his nose, sighed, and waved in his direction. "So lemme get this straight: you want us to go to another dimension, pose as students, make sure the greatest secret isn't exposed to anyone, literally f...
He'd been stressing about the fact that he'd lost three battles in the span of two weeks since the last sparring match, and the fact that he was seeing what he was seeing now wasn't helping the fact that his mental well-being. He'd nearly blown up his pillow from frustration last night, and when the old hag had been complaining about the fact he was yelling at her more this morning, he'd nearly set fire to the table.
He had stomped out of the house way too early and ran to school, refusing to think about it. He passed the park, where people running and walking their dogs were looking at him strangely —he was running in his uniform, looking like a true mess and honestly, he didn't even blame them— and shot over the streets without properly looking if cars were coming. He heard someone shout at him, but ignored it and kept running.
The gates of U.A. had been opened a few minutes prior —he'd done his research on how late he could get inside the school grounds— and he panted a bit as he walked through them. The main building was still closed to students and would be for a while, so he opted on going to the training grounds instead. The walk around the building took him some time, but when he rounded the second corner, he was ready to leave and call in sick.
"Just...don't break your bones, Midoriya. You'll be fine."
Great. Nerd Two was teaching Damn Nerd how to keep his body whole. In itself nothing bad, but Bakugou wanted to get rid of some frustration by exploding something. The Damn Nerd would suffice, perhaps, but Nerd Two was watching.
"K-Kacchan!"
He turned his head to the Damn Nerd, who was frozen in place at seeing him. He glanced at Danny, who stood passively with his hands in his pockets, looking as if he were calculating the possible outcomes in his head. "Nerds," he said to greet them.
"Bakugou."
He 'tsk'ed and ignored them as he sat down against the side of the building, dropping his backpack next to him and crossing his legs. He could hear the hag scold him in his head for sitting like that, but he gestured at the two to not pay him any mind as he tuned her out. "Get back to whatever you're doing, or whatever." Fenton might've enabled him to make fun of Dunce Face, but that didn't mean he was off the hook for ridiculing him like that during the training and out of it.
He'd get him for that later.
Danny was first to lose interest in the teen and turned back to Midoriya. He was still enthralled by the picture of Bakugou looking relaxed like that, but snapped his attention back as Danny spoke. "Wanna try it on me?"
"Oh no! I'll break something in both you and me! L-let's just...not. Maybe we can do something else to help?"
Danny shook his head. "You have to get control over it soon. Breaking your bones every time you use your Quirk isn't going to help. It's harming you."
"But I can't control it, that's the problem!" Midoriya exclaimed. He ignored Bakugou's look and avoided Danny's gaze. "It's either 100 or 0. No in-between. Not for now, at least..."
"And that's why we're here, Midoriya. To get there. It's okay if you don't get it the first time, but all little bits help."
"Is something still blowing up or breaking or what?!"
"I'll break his leg if he keeps doing that," Danny muttered to Midoriya, who paled. "I'm kidding! I'm just saying it's annoying."
"That's Kacchan for you, I'm afraid," Midoriya chuckled. "He's always like that, so don't bother. Aren't you better than that?"
Danny felt a wave of nostalgia hit him and he didn't hear Bakugou's, "I heard that!" When Jazz had found out about Dan and tried to talk to him about it. Danny had —after a lot of pressuring— admitted he was still scared of turning into that, and Jazz had reminded him about the good things he'd done, and how that made up for it. "You're never going to turn bad if I have something to say about it," she'd said. Danny smiled at the memory.
"Danny?" Midoriya asked as he waved his hand in front of Danny, who seemed to have spaced out. "You okay?"
"Hmm? Ah, yes. Sorry." He rubbed his neck nervously. "Just...thinking about home."
"Do you miss it?" Midoriya immediately said.
Danny caught on to his plan —to avoid using his Quirk— in an instant, but the urge to talk about home with someone he trusted was greater than his motivation to train. "Sometimes. There's also things I most definitely don't miss, but yeah, of course. My parents, older sister, and maybe also my old school a bit. My parents are really supportive of me nowadays, and Jazz has always been that way," he explained, grinning at Midoriya. "She used to get stuck in these situations when she wanted to help, but couldn't really. It was a hassle, but home."
"Was she Quirkless?" Midoriya blurted out. He reddened under Danny's gaze, but continued nonetheless. "B-because you said she couldn't always help. Do you mean because she had no Quirk?"
"Her only superpower was mind reading or something. With mine in particular," he laughed. "No, she doesn't have one— but that's okay, because it's...rare where we're from. And it's not like, you're worth any less or anything like that, and whoever says otherwise can meet my fists."
Bakugou cringed.
Midoriya lit up.
"Can you tell me more about her?"
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Training stopped at that moment exactly.
Danny spent their remaining time before the first bell talking about their home, other friends, and his sister, mostly to Midoriya, with Bakugou pretending he wasn't interested in the background. It was nice to talk about Jazz, since he missed her a lot. They hadn't had...time the past three years, and he didn't think it would change anytime soon. He'd go see her once they were done here, and maybe have dinner. God was he looking forward to that. Maybe he could tell her about this world. She'd be thrilled.
Bakugou slowly itched closer to Danny when they walked into school, Midoriya haven run off to 'do some things'. Of course he'd listened to Fenton ramble on about 'Amity Park' and 'Casper High' and some stupid old man called 'Vlad'. Honestly, what kind of a name was that, even? Apparently, he was a bastard that kinda turned good now, which Bakugou huffed at.
No one would ever change that badly, especially in two years.
He shot a quick glance at Fenton, who was lost in his own mind yet again. Honestly, the guy needed therapy or some shit. He seemed exhausted. Bad sleeper, bad eater, bad attention span. Bakugou knew the variables and was very proud of his schedule. He skipped the "Are you okay?" speech and spoke, in a moment of pure boredom and not-caring-ness, "You look like shit."
"Hmhm," Danny mused as they passed the locker room that was brimming up with some students already. Danny waved at Sam and Tucker and kept walking, leaving Bakugou to do nothing but keep walking besides him, into the quickly filling hallway. "You could've gone somewhere else this morning, you know? Avoid Midoriya and train."
"That was the plan, you moron," he grumbled, stuffing his hands in his pockets. Honestly, what was it with this guy? Acting all caring and selfless towards others. It was making Bakugou even sicker than he already was.
