Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Denki bit down a little harder on his lightning bolt-shaped chew pendant, watching tensely as Ash and his pokémon fought against Team Rocket. He smiled when Pikachu used Thunderbolt and sent Team Rocket “blasting off again!” because he could do that too! Well, maybe not at the moment. Currently, Denki was laid out on his floor in his Pikachu hoodie watching Pokémon and gnawing on his lightning bolt. These three things were his go-to’s when he was stressed out because they helped him regress. 

Age regression was Denki’s favorite coping mechanism. It was the most effective, the most relaxing, and, honestly, the most fun of everything he had tried. Denki always felt super safe and comfortable in his dorm, especially compared to how he felt at home. So, whenever he could guarantee some uninterrupted alone time, he would let himself slip into his fuzzy headspace. He could pretend that he was just a little kid with no responsibilities outside of playing. Then, after an hour or two, he could ease himself out of his headspace and go about his day feeling energized and refreshed. 

Unless, of course, something unexpected ripped him out of his regression. Denki hated that. He also hated being suddenly triggered into littlespace. It was his coping mechanism that was supposed to be safe and under his control. So, Denki tried his best to keep it super separate from his life outside of his room. But that was easier said than done considering he was a struggling hero student who had to cope with life-threatening situations and academic stress. 

On the topic of academics and stress, some little time before bed was just what Denki needed after the exhausting day he’d had. 

—--------------------

A variety of reactions could be heard around the classroom. Ectoplasm had just handed back the latest quiz and class 1A was buzzing with anticipation about everyone’s scores. Some were much more pleased than others. Kaminari took a deep breath before looking to the top of his paper for his grade. He wasn’t expecting much, but damn . This unit was really kicking his butt, and considering his poor performance in every other unit, that was saying something.

“KAMI!! How did you do?!” Ashido asked after running up the aisle to his desk. Kaminari responded with a slow grimace, to which Ashido nodded in solidarity. “Bitch, me too.”

“It can’t be that bad, guys! There was a bunch of multiple choice!” Kirishima interjected.

“Yeah, but you still have to do the work. It’s not like we could just guess.” Ashido countered with a pout.

Kaminari caught a glimpse of the scores on both Ashido’s and Kirishima’s quizzes. They were both more than ten points ahead of him. They did homework together pretty often, so how was he still so behind? Kaminari zoned out for a minute while his friends continued to discuss the quiz. Sero and Bakugo joined in the discussion before it was time to pack up and go to their next class.

“Oi, dunce face! Lemme see that.” Bakugo snatched Kaminari’s quiz off his desk, jolting him back to the present. “Jesus Christ. Were you even fucking here for the past week and a half?” Kaminari opened his mouth to respond, but nothing came out.

“Leave him alone, Bakugo! Not everyone can be in the top five of the class,” Ashido defended.

“Yeah! And this unit is rough ,” added Sero.

“Well, none of you idiots are gonna pass this unit if you don’t lock the fuck in and get over how ‘rough’ it is.” Bakugo shoved Kaminari’s paper back onto his desk.

Kaminari lowered his head to the desk with a ‘thud’. “You’re right. I’m screwed.”

“Hey, no,” Ashido said as she patted Kaminari on the shoulder. “Not on my watch! I promise we will get through this unit just like every other one that has come before!”

“Hey! Why don’t we all study together?” Kirishima suggested. Before anyone could comment, he continued. “I mean, study study. Like, every night until the end-of-unit exam. We can practice all of our weak areas and Bakugo can tutor us since he understands this stuff the best!”

“No way! I have plenty of my own school shit to do.” Bakugo turned to go pack up his things.

“What? Would it be too hard to work with us?” Sero teased.

“Don’t even start, tape face. I’m sick of studying with you losers since you never take it seriously and don’t pay attention to me. It’s a waste of my goddamn time.”

“Awww Bakubro, come on! I promise to be very seriously studious this time!” Kirishima begged with his best puppy dog eyes.

“Same! I’ll even put my phone on ‘do not disturb’!” Ashido added.

“Come on, man! Look at how sad Kami looks! He’s gonna cry all over you if you don’t study with us.” Sero nudged Kaminari, who got the hint and channeled all of his current feelings into a truly pitiful expression.

Bakugo finished gathering his things, turned around, and stared at the group of begging teens. He sighed. “Oh my fucking GOD , fine! I’ll study with you starting tonight until the exam. But I am NOT tutoring everyone. I’ll just be in the same room.” The squad proceeded to cheer and high-five while Bakugo rolled his eyes and stormed off to the next class.

Chapter Text

Surprisingly, the squad committed to studying. When they met up after class, they agreed to work on math for an hour and a half straight. Afterwards they could decide if they wanted to split up, switch subjects, and/or keep going with math.

Kaminari was slightly apprehensive about the whole plan to say the least. He was known for his inability to focus, and his study skills were almost nonexistent. He sort of planned to just keep quiet and not ask any questions so he could suffer through the material on his own later. However, once everyone settled in, Kaminari became the center of attention.

“So, Kamibro, where should we start?” Kirishima asked. He sat across from Kaminari at the floor table in Sero’s room. The group agreed that the common areas would likely be too distracting for the hardcore studying they had planned, so Sero offered his dorm as an alternative.

“Uhh, why are you asking me? I barely know what’s going on!”

“That’s exactly why I’m asking you, dude! Since you understand the least, no offense, we need to start with your weak points so you don’t get left in the dark. If that makes sense?”

“Yeah, like, Ashido has the next highest grade from yours, so if we started with her missed questions we would completely skip over some of yours,” Sero added.

Kaminari looked down and sighed. “Okay, I get it. I just don’t want you guys to waste your time going over stuff you already know.”

“It’s not a waste though, babes. We still need to practice the concepts we already get. And teaching each other is a way to do that!” Ashido explained.

Kaminari nodded and dug out his mess of math notes, homework, and quizzes. Here goes nothing, I guess. “Okay, so… what exactly is a logarithmic equation?” Kaminari asked slowly, his voice increasing in pitch with each syllable.

Bakugo looked up at him from the corner he had isolated himself in. “Are you fucking serious?”

Kaminari felt his stomach drop. “I- I just want to make sure I have it right in my notes! Before asking my real question! Y’know?” He felt heat rising to his cheeks.

“There’s no shame in being sure, man. No better place to start than from the beginning!” Sero encouraged as he got out his study materials.

Ashido followed suit. “Yeah! And if someone is not gonna be helpful,” she turned to give Bakugo a look. “Then he should keep his big fucking mouth shut!” In response, he just scoffed and looked back down at his own work.

“You’re in good hands Kamibro! I got great notes at the beginning of this unit!” Kirishima claimed while excitedly opening his notebook. “So, logs are the ones that swoop up on the graph and they’re basically exponents. And exponents are pretty much super multiplying.”

“Didn’t he ask about the equations, though?” Sero interjected.

“Yeah, and you have to do the math with the equation before you have all the numbers to do the graphing.” Ashido added.

“I know! I’m just showing him what it looks like!”

Sero interrupted again and Ashido continued to question Kirishima’s teaching style. Kaminari was honestly just getting more confused. The unit was about logs, what did that have to do with exponents? He thought that the graph was supposed to go down on one side and up on the other. Why couldn’t they just make the calculator do it all? How is he supposed to remember all of this AND apply it to word problems? All in a time limit? Without any notes? His head was spinning just thinking about all of the work he needed to-

“SHUT UP YOU IDIOTS!” Bakugo erupted from the corner of the room. He jumped up and slammed his notebook down on top of the mess of papers on the table. “NONE OF YOU KNOW WHAT THE FUCK YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT. I’m seriously losing brain cells just listening to you spout nonsense about shit we learned a month ago. You should AT LEAST be able to explain a logarithm, Shitty Hair. I GAVE YOU THE FUCKING NOTES.”

“Sorry dude! I didn’t realize I had it so wrong!” Kirishima responded sheepishly.

Bakugo proceeded to roll his eyes hard enough to give himself a headache. “Oh my GOD. Listen up, you losers! For the sake of my sanity, I am going to explain this one thing . AND I AM NOT REPEATING MYSELF. So, get your head out of your ass, Sparky!”

Kaminari scrambled for a pencil as soon as he was called out specifically. “Sir, yes, sir! I am all ears Kacchan, sir!” Kaminari declared with a sincere yet corny salute. With another eye roll, Bakugo started.

—--------------------

After two hours of intense math, Denki’s brain was fried. He felt like he was just recovering from a short circuit as he dragged himself back to his room. He knew he was better off for it, though. He could somewhat confidently say he knew what a logarithm was. Bakugo made sure of that. For someone so adamant on not tutoring anyone, he sure took charge of the conversation.

Denki still felt a little bad for having the focus of their first study session be on something so basic. However, it seemed like everyone needed the refresher. The squad kept telling him that it was okay, but he couldn’t help but feel like he was wasting their time.

The exam was still over a week away. Which was ages but also right around the corner. Part of Denki wished he had more time to learn everything. But the other part of him just wanted to go ahead and fail the test like he knew he was going to.

As Denki got ready for bed, he gravitated towards his Pikachu hoodie rather than his usual pajamas. He grabbed his chew necklace as well just in case. He’d started feeling fuzzy as soon as they started to wrap up the study session. Denki had been expecting and planning to regress all day. He always felt the need to on days when grades were handed out.

Instead of thinking about school and dwelling on his shortcomings, Denki decided to pull up his favorite show so he could fill his brain with thoughts of cute, colorful creatures before falling asleep.

I wanna be the very best, like no one ever was…

Chapter Text

For better or worse, the group kept meeting up to study. They fell into a rhythm of allowing each other’s missed quiz questions to guide their focus for the night. Then, after running out of questions, they practiced problems targeting specific areas. Bakugo gave in and started helping more directly. He picked out problems from the homework and previous quizzes to challenge everyone, and then went over their work when everyone finished. 

Kaminari was finally getting some clarity on the things he struggled with, but he was still slow. He was always the last to finish Bakugo’s practice problems. He got caught up trying to read the prompts and label the numbers correctly. Unfortunately, word problems were a big focus of this unit, so he kept having to do them. 

Bakugo tried to coach him on some ways to keep the numbers straight. He brought out highlighters, drew lines from the relevant information in the problem to where it showed up on the graph, et cetera. It wasn’t enough. Sure, Bakugo started helping out in the study sessions, but he still had his own studying to do. Also, Kaminari wasn’t the only person who needed his help. 

He hated constantly needing assistance. He couldn’t ask for help forever. He needed to be able to hold his own. So, after the group’s third study session, Kaminari returned to his dorm like usual. However, instead of letting himself relax and regress like he had been doing the past few days, he sat at his desk and took his math notes back out. He had to be able to do these problems. He was sick of feeling stupid and slow. Maybe he could catch up with his friends if he just worked a little harder. 

What were his problem areas? Well, everything . But more specifically: the words. He’d had trouble in previous units of course, but at least it was just number problems then. Now it was hard math problems with convoluted paragraphs of set-up before them. It wasn’t Kaminari’s fault that all the words and numbers jumped around when he was trying to make sense of them.

He took a breath. He was studying on his own now, so there was no rush. Kaminari grabbed some highlighters and fresh graph paper and got to work.

—--------------------

His strategy seemed to be working out alright! Everyday after the group study session, Kaminari returned to his room and worked for another hour or so by himself. No matter how frustrated he felt, he forced himself to work through it anyways. He read each problem multiple times, color coded the numbers, and checked everything on his calculator. It took him ages just to do one problem, but he was starting to understand what to do. 

Over the weekend the squad agreed to take a break from math to relax and catch up on work from other classes. Kaminari desperately wanted a break from doing math too, but the visions he had of failing grades and disappointed friends wouldn’t allow him to stop. He still met up with his friends when they wanted to hang out, but he brought other coursework with him so that his alone time could be reserved for math. 

By Monday, Kaminari was exhausted. While the rest of his friends were energized from the weekend, Kaminari had a pair of dark circles forming under his eyes that would soon rival Aizawa’s. But! His fatigue was not for nothing. He had finally managed to get a math problem completely correct all on his own! Hopefully it wasn’t a fluke. Now all he needed to do was repeat that success on the test for almost every problem! Totally doable… maybe. 

That night when everyone met up to study, Kaminari had Bakugo look over his successful problem just to make sure it was actually done correctly.

“Yeah. Checks out. Congrats Sparky.”

“YES!” Kaminari exclaimed, throwing his hands into the air.

“How long did this take you to do?” Bakugo asked while looking over the paper again.

“Uhh, half an hour? Maybe? 45 minutes? Why?”

“Hm.” Bakugo pointed at some of the highlighted numbers in Kaminari’s work. “That makes sense. This is super meticulous and your handwriting is actually legible for once.”

“Aw, thanks man!” Kaminari beamed.

“I’m not done.” The smile slipped from Kaminari’s face. “You won’t have time to do all this during the exam. Class is only an hour. You can’t spend half that time on one problem, even if you do get it right.”

“Oh. Yeah, no that makes sense.” Kaminari took his paper back from Bakugo. He was right. Kaminari needed to be accurate and fast. But when he tried to go faster he would make more mistakes. Why couldn’t his brain just work like everyone else’s? He tried so hard and he still couldn’t keep up. He was so tired. He felt so fuzzy. It would be so easy to just give up on this whole endeavor. 

“Denks? Hellooo? Earth to Kamibabe?” Kaminari startled out of his self-deprecating spiral. Ashido was waving her hands about three inches from his face. 

“Huh? What’d I miss?” Kaminari looked around to try to figure out what he missed. Everyone was looking at him. 

“Are you feeling okay? You don’t look great.” Ashido reached forward and placed a hand on his forehead. It felt nice.

Kaminari shook her off before he could get comfortable. “I’m fine! Promise. A little tired maybe, but don’t worry about it.”

Kirishima cleared his throat to break the awkward silence. “So, uh, Bakugo suggested we try to do some timed questions to practice our pacing!” He explained. 

“Oh. Sounds great!” Kaminari smiled reluctantly. If one thing’s for sure, Bakugo was not going to let anyone’s problem areas go unaddressed. For better or worse. Kaminari pushed back his headspace for the umpteenth time and flipped to a blank page in his notebook.

The timer was set for ten minutes. Bakugo finished first, of course. Then Sero, then Kirishima, and then Ashido with about two minutes to spare. Kaminari could feel his friends trying not to stare as they waited for him to finish. When the timer went off, he was just starting to graph the equation. He felt sick. 

Kaminari zoned out as the rest of the group compared answers. Luckily, everyone just let him. The rest of his night was spent chugging energy drinks and racing the clock on his phone. He needed to catch up. He was running out of time.

Chapter Text

The test was scheduled for tomorrow and class 1A was finally showing a fraction of the stress that Kaminari had been experiencing for the past week. Kaminari had stayed up the majority of the previous night working on his timing. Despite his best efforts, he felt like he got slower with each subsequent problem. His accuracy was starting to suffer as well. His eyes were dark and puffy, nails bitten down since he refused to let himself have his chewy lightning bolt. He could slip after the test, but not yet. 

There was one more group study session that night. Kaminari wasn’t sure if he’d get anything out of it. He was too exhausted to figure out what he was doing wrong anymore. 

“What do we even have left to study? We’ve gone over everything, like, a MILLION times!” Ashido stated, laying upside down on Sero’s bed. 

“Oh yeah? How much are you willing to bet on getting a perfect score?” Sero teased. 

“Don’t try me! You don’t have shit to gamble anyway!”

“Okay, I might be a little broke,” Sero admitted while raising his hands in surrender. “So how about whoever has the lower score does the other’s laundry for a month?”

Ashido flipped over to look at him right side up. She grimaced in disgust. “I am NOT letting you touch my underwear, and I don’t want to be anywhere near yours.” 

Before Sero could argue back, Bakugo chimed in. “Enough with the betting bullshit. I’m not trying to be here all night. Pinky’s right though. We have gone over everything.” 

“Woohoo!” Ashido jumped up and grabbed her backpack.  

“Oi! Sit back down! We still have a little time to practice before test day and we’re gonna use it!” Ashido sat back down with a pout. 

“What did you have in mind, bro?” Kirishima asked. 

“Well, we’ve been studying like hell and everyone’s fuckin’ exhausted. So, I think we’ll be fine just doing one practice problem from each chapter to make sure we’re all set for tomorrow.” Bakugo had already picked out the problems, so the rest of the squad just followed along. Kaminari was still slow, but compared to everyone else’s relaxed pace, he didn’t seem far behind. 

After an hour, the group had made it through everything Bakugo picked out and discussed their answers. “Alright you idiots, if you can’t manage at least a ‘B’ I will take it as a personal attack and kill you myself. I swear to god, if you extras wasted over a week of my time, I will blow you to pieces.”

“You don’t have anything to worry about Bakubro! We’re gonna do awesome, guys!! I feel like Einstein!” Kirishima exclaimed.

“I’m just ready for this to be over.” Kaminari mumbled. He hadn’t said much throughout the whole study session, so everyone turned to him when he spoke.

“Woah, you good, man?” asked Kirishima. Kaminari shrugged in response.

“You’re gonna do great, Denks! You’ve honestly improved more than anyone.” Sero encouraged him with a hand on his shoulder. 

“Thanks. But don’t get your hopes up too high. I’ll just be happy if I can finish.” Kaminari stated with a deep sigh. 

“You’re exhausted, dude. You’ll feel more confident in the morning!” Kirishima tried. 

“That reminds me,” Bakugo started as he finished gathering his things. “Don’t let any external factors mess with all the practice we’ve done. Eat dinner and go straight to bed. No gaming! No texting! Put yourselves to sleep or I’ll do it for ya!” 

“Aww, Bakugo’s gonna tuck us in!” Ashido teased, making everyone chuckle. 

Bakugo was unamused. He rolled his eyes as he left. “Not what I meant!”

—--------------------

Kaminari barely slept. He spent the night tossing and turning, equations floating around in his head. He also hadn’t eaten dinner. He felt nauseous from anxiety, but he was starving at the same time. His friends believed in him so much. They saw his improvement. Kaminari saw it too, but none of it mattered if he couldn’t perform on the test. He had to do well. Everyone had given so much time and energy to helping him catch up, especially Bakugo. It would be downright disrespectful if he disappointed them after all they had done. 

Kaminari startled awake. Someone was pounding on his door. “Coming!” He shouted, panicked, as he tried to disentangle himself from his bedsheets. 

“I thought I told you not to stay up late, Dunce Face!” Kaminari was met with Bakugo’s scowling face when he opened the door.

“Huh? I didn’t stay up! I swear! What time is it?” 

“Doesn’t matter. Just hurry up and get dressed so you can eat something. I didn’t make breakfast just so you could take this test on an empty stomach.” Bakugo huffed and left Kaminari to fully wake up. 

Kaminari had only overslept about half an hour, but he woke up in a part of his sleep cycle that left him feeling like he hadn’t slept at all. That, paired with his overall anxiety left him with very little appetite. Still, Kaminari dressed quickly and met everyone downstairs to eat. 

“Kami!!!” Ashido jumped up from her place at the table to greet Kaminari with a hug. “You ready?”

“As I’ll ever be.” Kaminari replied with as much enthusiasm as he could muster. He sat down next to Ashido where an untouched plate of food was waiting for him. 

“You already overslept, so hurry and eat! We don’t have all day!” Bakugo said over his shoulder as he took dishes back to the kitchen. 

Kaminari watched Kirishima roll his eyes at Bakugo’s dramatics. “ He’s just trying to set us up for success in his own way, y’know?” Kaminari nodded and picked up his fork. 

—--------------------

Unfortunately, the test wasn’t until later, so Kaminari didn’t absorb anything from his earlier classes. He felt sick and sweaty and jittery. He had already planned out his evening. He would rush to his dorm, drop into his headspace, possibly cry depending on how the test went, and pass out.

Before any of that, however, was the long awaited unit exam. The room was abuzz with nerves as the test was handed out. Or maybe that was just all of the electricity rushing under Kaminari’s skin. Once the class was instructed to begin, Kaminari took a deep breath. He flipped his test to the front, and started.

Kaminari decided to focus on accuracy rather than speed. Since he didn’t have his highlighters, he just circled relevant information in the problems and made sure his work was neat enough for him to look back on. They were allowed a calculator, so Kaminari made sure to double check all of his arithmetic. He tried to tune out the sounds of his peers turning pages minutes before he did. He also did his best to ignore when people finished and walked their exams to the front of the room. He didn’t care who was done before him, as long as he finished in time himself. 

Much to his surprise, Kaminari completed the last part of the final problem with about seven minutes to spare! Smiling to himself, he flipped the test packet back to the first page. He had time to reread and check over everything, so he did exactly that. Thank goodness for his leftover time. Kaminari was able to catch a few mixed up numbers and mislabeled answers. Just as he finished fixing his mistakes, the bell rang. Perfect timing.

Everyone grabbed their things and rushed out the door to their next class. Kaminari pushed past his peers to turn in his test and was the last to make it out of the room. When he opened the door he almost ran right into Sero who was waiting outside with the rest of the squad.

“Woah! You guys waited for me? You didn’t have to do that!”

“Of course, man! We always walk together!” Sero said.

“Did you finish?” Ashido asked as the group started towards their next class.

“Yup!” 

“Okay, good!” Ashido mimed wiping sweat from her brow. “I was watching you and I got a little worried when you turned it in at the last second.” Kaminari blushed. He hadn’t thought about everyone looking at him. 

“I actually finished a couple minutes before then. So I used the rest of the time to check over my answers again.”

Bakugo stopped walking suddenly and turned around. “You only had a few minutes left over? What took you so damn long? There were, like, six questions.”

“Hey, be nice! Each question had a bunch of individual parts. It was still a pretty long test.” Kirishima argued.

“Yeah! So I had to be thorough! I couldn’t use my highlighters like how I practiced, so I had to read super carefully to keep all the information straight in the word problems. I also made sure to check all my math on my calculator to make sure I didn’t mix up the numbers in my head. Then, writing everything out took forever because I was trying to keep things neat so I could check everything again at the end.” Kaminari didn’t see what was so wrong with his way of doing things. Sure, it took a while, but accuracy was more important.

“You should be able to read without a bunch of fuckin’ highlighters. At least you finished the test, but damn Sparky. How the hell have you made it this far?” Bakugo sighed and continued walking. 

“Ugh. Ignore him, bro.” Kirishima put a comforting hand on Kaminari’s shoulder. 

“Denks, are you dyslexic?” Sero asked suddenly.

“What?” Kaminari felt his world screech to a halt. 

“Do you have dyslexia? I’m just asking because I feel like it would make sense with all of the issues you mentioned having during the test.” 

Kaminari swallowed. “I have ADHD. You guys know that already.” While it was pretty obvious to anyone who interacted with him, Kaminari had also directly told his friends about his ADHD early on. 

“You could have both!” Ashido added. “Have you been tested?” 

“Pfft. It was hard enough to get the ADHD diagnosis. My folks didn’t bother having me looked at for anything else.” Kaminari explained, half joking. The warning bell rang, signaling one minute until the start of the next period. The group started walking again.

“You should look into it, dude. Aizawa helps with accommodations, so he could probably set up a screening or something for you. You should ask him about it before lunch!” Sero suggested.

“Uhh maybe! I really don’t think I have dyslexia though, guys.” Kaminari walked a little faster. 

“It doesn’t hurt to check! And getting help is super manly, Kamibro! We can even stay with you while you ask him if you want!” Kirishima encouraged with a smile. 

Why did his friends have to be so helpful and nice? Kaminari did not want to do this. He did not want to know if there was something else wrong with him. But, as he looked at his friends’ smiling faces, he realized he couldn’t say no. “Okay, I’ll do it.”

Chapter Text

The group rushed to their seats right as the final bell rang and Aizawa began his lesson immediately. Kaminari couldn’t bring himself to pay attention. What had he just agreed to? He couldn’t be dyslexic. He already had ADHD and that was trouble enough. If Aizawa tested him for dyslexia, there could be one of two outcomes: either he was dyslexic and he had to add another item to the list of things wrong with him, or he wasn’t dyslexic and was actually just stupid and not trying hard enough. Kaminari didn’t know which was worse. 

The only reason he had ever even been tested for ADHD was the insistence from his kindergarten teacher. His parents had always found him annoying. Despite having electric quirks themselves, they couldn’t put up with his endless energy. He was often beat and berated for being too loud or moving too much, but he couldn’t help it. His first teacher noticed this and brought it up to his parents during a conference. The school could perform the whole screening process, so his parents agreed since they didn’t have to be involved. Kaminari didn’t remember the testing process, but he remembered what came after. 

His parents’ disdain for him only grew after the diagnosis. They didn’t want to have to take extra steps to accommodate his disability, so they didn’t. They didn’t share the diagnosis with any subsequent teachers and never got him medication. He internalized his parents’ shame, so he never advocated for himself either. Kaminari’s struggles only got worse when he developed his quirk. 

At least at school he could play off his hardships as a joke. He could be the class clown and pretend to laugh with his classmates that were constantly laughing at him. But at home, no grace was given. He was either being berated for bad grades or being ignored. Most of his time was spent alone in his room, trying and failing to do homework. 

In middle school, a new challenge entered Kaminari’s life. His parents divorced and his father moved out suddenly. Almost immediately, his mother’s boyfriend moved in. They got married as soon as the divorce was finalized. Kaminari suspected that his mother was doing it for money because he never saw the two interact romantically. They barely talked much at all.

He hated the guy, and the feeling was mutual. He was a salary man who always came home late with a temper. He would dig at Kaminari’s intelligence in the same way as his parents, but with the added bonus of using his telekinetic quirk to throw things and push Kaminari around. This was also around the time that he started regressing. After violent encounters with his stepfather or passive aggressive conversations with his mother, Kaminari would feel extremely small. He would hide in his closet or under his desk and cry into the nearest stuffed animal. He wanted to get away more than anything. 

So when it came time to test into UA, Kaminari gave it his all. He needed to prove to himself that he was more than what had always been said about him. With hero training and internships, he would also be able to escape home for longer. His quirk was strong, but he still tried really hard on the entrance exam. He didn’t do great, but it was enough. Even so, his mother and her husband made sure to tell Kaminari not to get his hopes up about the new school. They were convinced that he would flunk out.

Kaminari did his best to ignore them. He hoped that he might be able to finally get some help with his ADHD since it had to be shared on his medical records for the school, but he was too afraid to bring it up himself. He didn’t want to be seen as lesser right off the bat. Additionally, he had started short circuiting due to how much he was pushing his quirk. The way people laughed at his disoriented state reminded him of elementary. Once he leaned into that familiar role of class clown, Kaminari felt it was too late to ask for any accommodations. So he didn’t. He just accepted that he’d be treading water at the bottom of the class, and as long as he didn’t drown, he’d be fine. 

But maybe, Kaminari could get a life boat. He was so tired of barely scraping by. He was tired of struggling. He had a group of good friends who supported him so much, and their voices overpowered those of his parents. They accepted and reassured him when he confessed about his ADHD. They would likely do the same if he had dyslexia. He was admittedly still scared, but for once he had people in his corner. 

When class ended, Kaminari stood, took a deep breath, and walked up to the front of the classroom. “Mr. Aizawa, could I ask you something?” 

Aizawa sighed. “Make it quick.”

“Um, would you happen to know what the process would be to get tested for dyslexia?” Kaminari spat out quickly.

Aizawa studied him for a moment, trying to see if he was serious. “Meet me by the teacher’s lounge after school today and I can have you assessed.” 

Kaminari paused. “Woah, really? Thank you Aizawa sensei! I’ll see you then!” Kaminari ran back to the squad once Aizawa shooed him off. He was in shock.

“Good job, man! Told ya it would be fine!” Kirishima gave him a high-five before starting out of the classroom. Kaminari had never been more grateful for lunch. He needed a minute to breathe. 

—--------------------

Kaminari waved goodbye to his friends and made his way towards the teacher’s lounge. He felt his heart rate increasing with every step. He was really doing this. 

“Hello Kaminari.” Aizawa greeted him at the door. 

“Hi Mr. Aizawa!” Kaminari replied with feigned enthusiasm. He followed his teacher into the room and sat at a table. 

“Alright, we can perform the assessment right now and I’ll give you your results before class tomorrow. Sound good?” 

“Yep!”

“Honestly I’m surprised you haven’t been tested for this already.” 

Kaminari laughed nervously. “Ah, yeah. Guess my parents thought the ADHD was more than enough!” 

“Hm.” The two then fell into a slightly uncomfortable silence as Aizawa finished setting up the materials. “Let’s begin.”

—--------------------

Kaminari hadn’t spent the night in littlespace like he had planned. Instead he laid in the dark, stared at the ceiling, and tried to convince himself that he wasn’t dyslexic. It didn’t work. 

Kaminari’s late night musings were confirmed when he met with Aizawa. He felt cold and separated from his body as he listened to Aizawa’s monotone explanation of the results. He only came back to himself when he heard mention of his parents. 

“I’m sorry, what with my parents?”

“I’m going to notify your parents about your diagnosis and the accommodations you’ll be receiving.”

Kaminari’s stomach sank. “Please don’t.”

“Excuse me?”

“Please don’t tell my parents. Accommodations would be really nice, but if my parents have to know for me to get them, then I’d rather go without.”

Aizawa paused. He made a mental note to look into Kaminari’s family life. The boy’s behavior around this situation was troubling. “I don’t have to tell your family. We can still accommodate you without their involvement.” 

It suddenly became much easier for Kaminari to breathe. “Thank you so much  Mr. Aizawa!” Kaminari suppressed the urge to hug his teacher after he was dismissed. He felt sick. He wanted to get back in bed and sleep for a week. 

Kaminari dragged through the morning yet again. His mind spun with all of his conflicting thoughts. He hated that he had another diagnosis. He felt broken and ashamed. Part of him wished he had never been tested. However, he couldn’t help but be curious about what accommodations he could receive. The thought of being able to keep up with his peers and possibly having some academic success was an attractive one. 

Kaminari was so stuck in his head that he was entirely oblivious to his friends’ concerned looks and attempts at communication. Ashido tried and failed to pass him notes. Sero spoke directly to him and got no reaction. When lunch period began, Kirishima finally grabbed him by the shoulders to shake him out of his stupor. “What is up with you, man?”

“Huh? Kirishima?”

“You’ve been in another world all day! Are you okay?” Kirishima let go of his shoulders. 

Kaminari looked around, processing his friends for the first time that day. “Sorry guys! I’ve just been… thinking.”

“Is this about your test last night?” Sero asked. 

Kaminari sighed. “I’ll talk about it at lunch.” The group got their food and sat at a table together, silently waiting for Kaminari to speak. “It’s official. I’m dyslexic,” He confessed before taking a sad bite of his lunch. 

“The turnaround on that assessment was so fast!” Ashido commented. 

“I’m sort of glad it was. I was up all night thinking about it.”

“I’m pretty sure the only person in denial of you having dyslexia was you, Spark Plug. That math test should’ve been proof enough.” The rest of the group turned to look at Bakugo, who had been silent until then. “What? We were all thinking it! Hell, it was Tape Face who brought it up yesterday!”

“Yeah, I brought it up, but not as a dig!” Sero argued. 

“I’m not digging at him! I’m just stating the obvious! GOD, you idiots are soft! Whatever.” Bakugo stood with a huff and left with the remainder of his food. The rest of the group took a collective deep breath as he faded into the crowd.

“Ugh. That guy needs an attitude adjustment. Ignore him, Kamibabe.”

“Ashido’s right. And we’re super proud of you for looking into it. Now you can get the help you need!” Kirishima encouraged with a friendly pat on the shoulder. 

“Yeah! No shame in needing a little help!” Sero added. 

Kaminari flushed. He appreciated his friends trying to make him feel better, but he just couldn’t shake the feeling of wrongness inside of him. Hopefully, their positive words could drown out the self hatred he’d been feeling on the daily as of late. Only time could tell.

Chapter Text

Today was the day. Ectoplasm announced during class that he would finish grading their exams during his planning period and give them to Aizawa to hand back before they went home. Kaminari tried not to get his hopes up. He wanted to believe that he did well considering how hard he worked, but he couldn’t handle another let down. He was still trying to wrap his head around the dyslexia thing. Even with his friends’ encouragement, he still felt defeated. Like he had a weight placed on his back that would never get any easier to carry.

So, when Aizawa gave him his graded test, Kaminari took a deep breath and schooled his expression. Here goes nothing , he thought. Kaminari flipped the test and felt his heart skip a beat. Written in red ink in the upper righthand corner of the page: 76%. A ‘C’. He had never gotten a ‘C’ on a math test. Ever. Kaminari flipped through the pages of the exam, looking at every little correction. He couldn’t believe it. He felt butterflies in his stomach. 

It took every ounce of self control for Kaminari to stay in his seat. He wanted to jump up and cheer and run around the room and shoot sparks into the air. But he contained himself until Aizawa finished handing the tests back and dismissed them for the day. He immediately got up and bounced over to the rest of the squad as people started filing out of the room. 

“Whaddya know? Looks like studying does work!” Ashido said as she showed off her test. A big ‘85%’ written in the corner. 

“Heck yeah! Maybe we should do this more often!” Kirishima said. Kaminari peeked at his test and saw his score of 88%. 

“Uhh, maybe a more casual version of what we did. I don’t think my brain could handle doing that every night,” Ashido countered. 

“I don’t think any of us have the attention span for that tbh. And I’m more than happy with a B+,” Sero said.

“You idiots don’t have the attention span for anything,” Bakugo said. “Which is why it would be literal torture to keep babysitting your study sessions.” 

“Aw, don’t be like that, Bakubro! The study bender helped you too! Looks like someone got a pretty good score.” Kirishima said. He pulled up Bakugo’s arm to show off his test: 94%. 

“Get off me, Shitty Hair! I could do just fine without you. Hell, I probably would’ve done better. I only lost points on stupid little shit.” Bakugo turned to stuff his test into his backpack and spotted Kaminari bouncing on the balls of his feet. “Hey, Sparky, gimme that.” He said holding a hand out for Kaminari’s test. 

“Ooo yeah I wanna see how you did, babes!” Ashido said excitedly. 

Kaminari handed over his paper quickly. He was nervous for his friends’ reactions. They all did a lot better than him. Bakugo held the paper so they could all see. He opened his mouth to say something, but Kirishima was faster.

“OH MY GOD, DUDE!! THIS IS INSANE!!!” Kirishima stepped up to Kaminari and crushed him in a massive bear hug. “You killed it, man!”

“We are SO going out tomorrow. Kami Party time!” 

“So proud of you, man! You deserve it!” Sero gave Kaminari a high-five once Kirishima finally put him down. 

“Thanks guys! I mean, it’s not great, but I’m proud of myself I think!” Kaminari said with a tentative smile. He turned to Bakugo to thank him and take his test back, but paused at his expression. He stood staring coldly at the test he gripped in his hands. It looked like he would rip the paper in half any second.

“Damn right it’s not great. The fuck do you have to be proud of, huh?” Kaminari’s smile slid right off his face. The rest of the squad looked at Bakugo, confused. “You got a ‘C’. After all of that. HOURS of my time EVERY NIGHT for over a WEEK. Teaching you shit you should have learned a month ago.” Everyone who was still lingering in the classroom went quiet. “The BEST you could get was a ‘C’?! And this is after reading and rereading questions, going over every answer, and taking the ENTIRE GODDAMN CLASS PERIOD to finish?! Either I’m a shit tutor, or you really are fucking hopeless. And it looks like everyone else got pretty decent grades, so I guess we know which one of those statements is true.” Kaminari’s blood ran cold. When did the room get so small?

Bakugo stalked closer to Kaminari, the paper in his hand starting to smoke. “What a colossal waste of my time. Did you pay attention to a single thing I tried to explain to you? Or did it all just fall right out of your empty-ass head? We spent an hour and a half TWO DAYS AGO going over how to graph this! How the fuck are you still in this school?” Bakugo slammed the test down on the nearest desk. Kaminari flinched hard. He felt frozen in place. “Oh! You have dyslexia and ADHD and BLAH BLAH BLAH. What the fuck ever. You’d still be dumb as a bag of rocks without ‘I can’t read’ disease,” Bakugo mocked. Denki felt a tear roll down his face. What was happening? Why couldn’t he get himself to say anything?

“BAKUGO, WHAT THE FUCK?” Someone interrupted. Denki couldn’t tell who. As soon as Bakugo’s attention shifted off of him, he ran. 

Somehow, without air in his lungs, Denki ran. Out of the classroom, down the hall, and into the nearest bathroom. He stumbled into the stall farthest from the door and sunk down against the wall. He couldn’t see. He kept wiping his eyes but the tears didn’t stop. He had never felt this way at UA. Only at home. His stepfather was going to find him. He tried his best on the test. He checked all his answers and read carefully, but it wasn’t enough. His best wasn’t enough.

Denki gasped. He kept gulping down air and coughing it back up. He was too stupid to even breathe correctly. Everything was so loud. He was being so loud. He was going to be found.   

—--------------------

“BAKUGO. What the fuck is the matter with you?” Kirishima stepped in front of Bakugo before he was able to follow after Kaminari. 

“MOVE ROCKS-FOR-BRAINS. Am I not allowed to be pissed that that dumbass used me and still ended up failing?” 

“No, actually! You’re not allowed to be pissed at that!” Ashido stepped in. “First of all, he didn’t fail. And second of all, he didn’t ‘use you’.” She said in air quotes. “You inserted yourself as the leader of our study sessions of your own free will! All we asked was for you to join us, you’re the one who decided to play teacher.” 

Before Bakugo could respond, the door to the classroom burst open. “I just saw Kaminari run into the bathroom sobbing. Does anyone know what’s going on?” Jirou stood in the doorway looking concerned. 

Bakugo rolled his eyes. “Fuckin’ crybaby.”

Sero grabbed Kirishima’s shoulder and pulled him away from Bakugo. “Come on, man. We gotta find him.” Kirishima took a breath and nodded in agreement. 

“This conversation isn’t fucking over, Bakugo.” Kirishima spat before running past Jirou and out the door.

Chapter Text

Sero and Kirishima ran to the nearest restroom. They could hear crying before they even opened the door. They easily found Denki in the last stall. If the harsh sobbing hadn’t given him away, the sporadic sparks would have. He was curled up by the toilet with his arms covering his head. His body shook with each wet, gasping breath. The two boys felt their hearts break a little.

“Kaminari? It’s just me and Sero. Can you hear me?” Kirishima slowly inched closer to his friend. He kneeled down and crawled closer, trying to dodge the flying sparks. “You gotta breathe, man. You’re gonna make yourself sick.” Kirishima tentatively reached forward, hoping to get Denki’s attention.

“NO!” Denki sensed Kirishima’s approach. He pushed him away and retreated even farther into the stall. 

Kirishima fell back into the stall door, stunned. 

“Are you okay, dude?” Sero asked quietly. 

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Kirishima answered without taking his eyes off of Denki. He was still crying and sparking, but he had also started pulling his hair and muttering. “Okay, this is not good. Can you find Aizawa? I’m gonna try to calm him down again.” Kirishima sat up.

“Yeah. I’ll be back ASAP.” Sero confirmed before running out in search of their teacher.

—--------------------

“Mr. Aizawa! Sensei!” Sero shouted as he ran back down the hall. He decided to check homeroom first. “Have either of you seen Aizawa?” He asked, slightly panicked.

Jirou and Ashido were the only two left in the classroom. Everyone else had gone back to the dorms for the evening. “Nope. He might’ve gone to the teacher’s lounge after class? What’s going on?” Jirou answered.

“Kami’s seriously freaking out. Kiri’s trying to calm him down, but he’s really stuck in his own head,” Sero explained. 

“Shit. Ugh, Bakugo is gonna get it when we get back later,” Ashido said. “You go run to the teacher’s lounge. I’ll call Uraraka and ask if she’s seen Mr. Aizawa at the dorms.” Ashido pulled out her phone and started dialing immediately. Sero nodded  and ran out towards the teacher’s lounge. 

—--------------------

“Sensei! Are you in there?” Sero shouted through the teacher’s lounge door. He tried the handle and the door was unlocked. He stepped inside. “Mr. Aizawa!” Sero exclaimed when he spotted his teacher laying in his classic sleeping bag by the far wall. 

“You’re not supposed to be in here.” Aizawa responded flatly. 

“It’s an emergency! It’s Kaminari. He’s having a panic attack or something and we can’t calm him down. He needs help!” Sero said urgently. 

Aizawa turned over in his bag and sat up. He took a moment to study Sero’s face. The kid looked genuinely worried. And about Kaminari? Unusual. Aizawa got up. “Let’s go.”

—--------------------

As they quickly made their way back to the bathroom, Sero explained what had happened. Aizawa’s face darkened and he broke into a run. 

He burst into the bathroom with Sero not far behind him. Denki was still crying. Kirishima was holding Denki’s wrists to keep him from pulling at his hair. He had activated his quirk on his hands to better withstand the more frequent sparks Denki was letting off. Despite Kirishima’s constant reassurances, Denki was still fighting him. 

When the door slammed open, Denki flinched hard, almost pulling his hands free from Kirishima’s grip. “NO! No no no no… I’m sorry! Please no!” Denki said through fresh tears and hastened breath. 

Kirishima turned to Aizawa and Sero with a look of panic. “Mr. Aizawa! Please help! I- I don’t know how to help him! I got him to stop pulling his hair, but he hasn’t calmed down this whole time.”

Aizawa knelt next to Kirishima. The sparks coming from Denki were weak, but still a hazard. Kirishima had put up with the shocks for long enough. “Kirishima, let go and back up.” Kirishima did as instructed, rubbing the soreness from his arms. Aizawa caught Denki’s wrists and erased his quirk before he could start pulling his hair again. 

“NO! Please! I sorry! I try harder! I pomise! Pease don’t!” Denki pleaded, voice higher than usual. He pulled weakly at Aizawa, arms tired from all the unintentional quirk usage. 

“Sero, Kirishima, I’ve got this from here. You did a good job. Please get yours and Kaminari’s things from the classroom and go back to the dorms.” Aizawa instructed. 

The boys hesitated. Denki was still extremely distressed. How could they just leave him like that? Sero spoke up. “ Aizawa sensei, is he gonna be okay?”

“Kaminari will be fine. Now, go.” Once the two boys were out of the bathroom, Aizawa got to work on calming Denki. He switched his grip from Denki’s wrists to his hands, rubbing soothing circles into the boy’s knuckles. Denki had stopped pulling away, but was instead shaking in place. His eyes were screwed shut as he continuously muttered ‘sorry’.

“Kaminari, what are you sorry for?” Aizawa had a sneaking suspicion that Denki wasn’t entirely present. He seemed to be scared of a punishment that wasn’t actually coming. 

“Test. Sorry for test,” Denki whimpered. Aizawa had seen Denki’s test score and heard about it from Sero. He wasn’t at the top of the class, but he had improved astronomically. He should be proud of himself, but Bakugo shot all of that down. 

“You don’t have to be sorry for your test, Kaminari. You did well,” Aizawa reassured. 

Denki’s face tightened again as he sobbed. “NO! Failed it! He gonna hurt me ‘cause I fail it!” 

“Kaminari, do you know who I am?” Silence. “I’m Aizawa, your homeroom teacher at UA. Do you know where you are?” A pause. Then a hesitant shake of the head. “You’re in a bathroom stall. Feel the cold tile underneath you and behind you on the wall.” Denki’s face relaxed a touch as he felt around for the textures being described. “Can you feel it? Can you feel my hands?” Denki nodded as he gave Aizawa’s hands a gentle squeeze. His breathing had slowed. “Can you look at me, Kaminari?” Denki slowly blinked his eyes open. He saw Aizawa in front of him and the bathroom around him. He was at UA. “Are you with me, Kaminari?” Denki took a deep, deep breath and nodded. Aizawa stopped erasing his quirk and let go of his hands. Denki clumsily scrubbed at his face, smearing snot and tears all over the sleeves of his blazer. Aizawa cringed. “Here kid, use this.” Aizawa said as he pulled a fistfull of toilet paper from the nearby dispenser. 

Denki took the paper in both hands and blew his nose. “Tank you.” Aizawa nodded in acknowledgement and pushed himself up off of the floor. He stepped back to give Denki room to do the same. After a bit of stumbling, Denki was up. He flushed his used tissue before following Aizawa out of the stall.

Aizawa took a long look at Denki. He was still shaking, eyes wide and lost. He couldn’t in good conscience let him go back to the dorms yet. “You still don’t look okay. We can sit in the teacher’s lounge until you feel better if you want.” Denki answered by nodding and grabbing Aizawa’s hand. He stayed close by the teacher’s side as they walked to the lounge together. 

Once inside, Aizawa led Denki to sit. He curled into the arm of the couch as Aizawa retrieved a box of tissues and a chair for himself. Aizawa put the box on the cushion next to Denki and sat in his chair across from him. He had a lot of questions, but where to start?

Chapter Text

Aizawa thought he might as well check in with the kid again. He wasn’t crying, but he still looked shaken. Which wasn’t surprising considering the length and intensity of the panic attack he just experienced. “Are you feeling more stable now, Kaminari?” 

Denki looked down and shrugged. 

“Do you want to talk about what happened? I mean, we will have to discuss it at some point, but whether we do that now or later is up to you. We could also just sit here for a while. I’m not going to send you back to the dorms with all of your classmates until you seem more able to handle them.” 

Denki took a moment to process everything Aizawa just said. He was tired and his brain was mush. His little brain wasn’t making things any easier either. He had realized he was regressed once they got into the teacher’s lounge. He felt vulnerable and exposed, but Mr. Aizawa was safe. He helped him calm down, and even held his hand! If he were to talk about any of what had happened, he would inevitably expose his regression. He didn’t have the energy to hide it, even if he wanted to. But he had already been acting unlike himself in front of Aizawa for a while, so he couldn’t fool him if he tried. The cat was out of the bag. 

“Wanna talk. Just. Words is hard right now. ‘m all small,” Denki confessed slowly. 

Aizawa’s expression shifted minutely. Small? Nothing had really changed about Denki’s physical appearance. He looked a little rough, sure, but nothing was inherently different about how he looked. Denki’s demeanor, however, could be described as ‘small’. During and after his panic he had been curling in on himself. Making himself smaller. He had seemed to be mentally stuck in the past, where he would have been smaller. Additionally, his speech was choppy and sounded like that of a scared child. Putting all of that together, Aizawa concluded that Denki must still feel like a child despite now being aware that he is no longer in the past. However, just to be sure, Aizawa asked, “Small as in younger?”

Denki nodded a little. “Yeah. Sorry.” His eyes started to well up yet again. 

“No, no it’s okay. Did you feel scared when you were younger?”

The tears began falling. “Yeah. And dad was mad at me ‘cause I did bad at school but I tried! Really hard! And- and the school people said I had A D… HD but mommy and daddy didn’t care! And no one believe me!” Denki tried to explain his past through hiccuping sobs. 

Aizawa felt a tug at his heart. He couldn’t keep sitting and watching. So he moved from his chair to sit next to Denki, who promptly leaned into his side. 

“And- and dad got really mad and yelled a lot and mommy did too! And they h-hurt me! And now I did bad again and Bakugo yelled too!” Aizawa wrapped an arm around Denki and rubbed his shoulder as he continued to cry. There was a lot he’d have to look into later. But at this point, he would do just about anything for this kid. 

The two sat in silence until Kaminari’s tears slowed to a stop. Kaminari reached over Aizawa for the box of tissues before sitting up to clean his face. He sighed. “I’m tired, sensei.”

Aizawa leaned back to get a look at Kaminari’s face. He sounded more like himself. He somehow looked older as well. “You seem more like yourself, so I’d be okay taking you back to the dorms now.”

“Yeah. I’m not regressed anymore either, so I can go on my own. I don’t want to be any more of a bother.”

“You aren’t a bother, kid. I thought you might want to take the staff entrance to the dorms so you could avoid confronting all the other problem children until tomorrow. Knowing your class, they’re probably all still downstairs.”

Kaminari nodded. “That would be really nice, actually. I don’t think I can handle anymore people today.” 

Aizawa stood from the couch. “I can relate to that. Come on, kid.” 

The two slowly and quietly made their way to the dorm building. Each a different kind of exhausted. Aizawa mentioned that Kirishima and Sero had retrieved his things from the classroom earlier, so he didn’t have to worry about getting them tomorrow. Kaminari nodded. There was a lot he’d have to thank them for in the morning. 

Aizawa quietly let them into the back entrance of the dorms and led Kaminari to the elevator. Once they were both inside, he spoke, “Just so you know, we’ll need to have another discussion about everything that happened today. Your diagnoses, your home situation, et cetera. But not until later when you feel ready, ok?” The pair stepped out of the elevator on Kaminari’s floor. 

“I understand. I wasn’t exactly well-spoken earlier.” Kaminari looked at his feet while they walked. He didn’t want to have to keep talking about this. Why couldn’t he have just kept it together? Now it was a whole thing. At least it was Aizawa who was involved. His apathetic facade was actually quite calming. He was comforting in a quiet way that soothed the loud of Kaminari’s brain. He couldn’t imagine having to go through this with any other teacher.

“Alright, get some sleep, Kaminari. You know where to find me.” They had reached Kaminari’s dorm quickly. 

“Thank you, sensei. For everything. Thank you for being… cool about all of… that.” Kaminari sucked in a breath and tore his gaze away from his feet to look Aizawa in the eyes. Before he could change his mind, Kaminari hugged him. “Thank you so much .”

Aizawa was a little stunned by the sudden hug, but recovered quickly. He gently wrapped his arms around his student in return. “You’re welcome, Denki.”

—--------------------

Earlier

When Sero and Kirishima got back to the dorms, things were already a mess. They immediately heard the confused whisperings of their classmates who were gathered in the common area around the dramatic scene. Ashido and Jirou stood in front of Bakugo, who reclined across one of the couches. 

“You better apologize to him, you dick!” Ashido screamed. 

Bakugo rolled his eyes. “I don’t have shit to apologize for, Racoon Eyes.” He pulled out his phone to further ignore her.

“Sero and Kirishima are back,” Jirou pointed out to Ashido before she could keep yelling at Bakugo. She gave Bakugo one last glare before walking over to the boys.

“Sero! Omg did you find Aizawa? Uraraka said he wasn’t here and we couldn’t find him in any of the classrooms, so we just came back.”

“Yeah, he was in the teacher’s lounge. Sorry I didn’t text you. I wasn’t thinking.” 

“Don’t worry about it! How’s Kami? Where is he?”

Kirishima and Sero shared a concerned glance. “Uh, he wasn’t doing so hot when Aizawa told us to leave. But, I’m assuming he has it under control,” Kirishima explained.

Ashido looked at the boys with sympathy. “I’m glad you guys could be there f-” 

“I don’t know why you morons are making such a big deal about this. Dunce Face is whining about a bad grade. What’s new?” Bakugo interrupted from the couch.

Kirishima could feel anger rising in him once again. He couldn’t believe Bakugo was still acting this way. “Sero, can you drop Kami’s stuff in his room? I gotta deal with this now.” 

Sero nodded. “You got it, man. Good luck. I’ll be back down soon.” He gave Kirishima a quick pat on the back before rushing towards the stairs. 

Kirishima walked up to Bakugo and roughly pulled him off of the couch by his shirt collar. “DID YOU LOSE YOUR FUCKING MIND ?! WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU?” The room went quiet.

“Get your crusty hands off of me!” Bakugo said, ripping Kirishima’s hands away from his shirt. “I have every right to be mad that some idiot used me as a cheat sheet for a week and a half just to barely pass the damn test. You must be as stupid as he is if you thought I was gonna let that slide.”

Kirishima’s face grew impossibly redder. “‘Some idiot’? The only idiot is you , Katsuki Bakugo. You have the emotional intelligence and observational skills of a fucking corpse. Kaminari worked harder than any of us for this test,” Kirishima said as he jabbed a finger into Bakugo’s chest. “He got a whole letter grade better than last time! And you , his so-called friend, can’t look past your own fuckass standards for a second to celebrate an achievement that isn’t your own!” He paused, and took a breath. “I don’t think I have ever seen anyone cry so hard, and it makes me sick that someone I called a friend is the cause of it.” 

Bakugo looked at Kirishima incredulously. “When did you become head of the Dunce Face protection squad?” He scoffed and crossed his arms.

“When you bullied our friend into a violent panic attack , you sociopath! If anyone should question their place at this school, it isn’t Kaminari, it’s you!”

Bakugo bristled at that, face turning dark. “Yeah, sure. Score higher than me on literally anything and then we’ll fucking talk. I’m losing IQ points just breathing the same air as you.” Bakugo shoulder-checked Kirishima and pushed through his other classmates on his way to the front door, which he angrily slammed behind him. 

Sero raced down the last flight of stairs and was met with a deadly quiet common room. He followed everyone’s gaze to the front door where he could just barely see Bakugo’s hair through the window. “What happened ?”

—--------------------

It had been about an hour since the big fight, and Bakugo was still nowhere to be seen. Iida had butted in and suggested that most people retire to their dorms for the night. He was majorly ignored. Kirishima, Ashido, Sero, and Jirou specifically wanted to be downstairs when Kaminari got back, or if Bakugo decided to return. 

The group filled each other in on various details of the afternoon that they each had missed, other classmates intently listening in. But afterwards they all just sat in silence.

“Problem children,” Aizawa called as he appeared from the elevator. The teacher waited for the startled screams of disbelief to end before he continued speaking. “Where is Bakugo?”

“Sensei? When did you get in here? How?”

“Where’s Kaminari?”

“Is he okay?” 

“Bakugo stormed out of here about an hour ago.” Kirishima said seriously. 

“Thank you for answering my question, Kirishima. Now, did anyone see where he might’ve gone?” Aizawa looked around the room to see everyone shaking their heads. He sighed. “I take it that you’ve all been waiting here the whole time?” Lots of nodding. “Hm. Well, I guess I’ll answer some of your questions so you’re not up all night. Kaminari is okay. He’s in his dorm, probably sleeping. Please let him rest. Do not interrogate him tomorrow morning. You know him. He’ll talk if he wants to. Understand?” 

“Yes, sensei.” 

“Good. Now I’m gonna go find this kid.” Aizawa started walking to the door. 

Kirishima stood. “Wait Mr. Aizawa!” The teacher stopped. “Before Bakugo left, he and I had a really big fight about… all of this. And sometimes when we’d have fights in the past, he would blast up to the roof to be alone for a while. So, he might be up there,” Kirishima admitted.

Aizawa turned to look at him once more. “We’ll talk more about that later, but for now, thanks for the tip, kid.” This long night was about to get longer, and it wasn’t even 9pm.

Chapter Text

“Who the fuck does that idiot think he is? Talkin’ to me like that. Fuck Shitty Hair. And fuck Racoon Eyes. And FUCK stupid fucking Dunce Face!!” Bakugo grumbled to himself as he walked around the back of the dorm building. Not only was he pissed about the grade situation and his friends, but he was also mad that he had to get to the roof from the ground floor. 

Usually when he got in a mood and really needed to escape, he’d blast up from his balcony. But not this time! He was too filled with rage to realize his mistake until after he’d left the building, and he had too much pride to go back in and take the stairs. It wasn’t really a problem, though. As the future number one hero, he could easily make it up a couple stories. He just had to be careful to not burn down any trees.

Bakugo paced, kicked rocks, and threw random debris into the distance with excessive force. Eventually he settled on dangling his feet over the edge and sulking. He was still mad, but mostly he was just bored. He was about to pull out his phone to aimlessly scroll when he heard the roof access door slam open.

“ Katsuki Bakugo .” Aizawa said, darkly. 

Bakugo took a deep breath, preparing himself for yet another conversation he didn’t want to have. He was so sick of this endless evening. “What?” He called over his shoulder, annoyed.

Aizawa quickly stalked over to the edge of the roof, stopping just close enough that Bakugo could feel his presence. “You know exactly ‘what’, but I’ll give you a chance to explain your behavior.”

Bakugo rolled his eyes. “All I did was express my frustrations to Sparky about him wasting my time. Our group spent the past week and a half studying together after class. But for me, most of that time was spent trying to help Kaminari catch up to the rest of us. So, when he comes up and shows us this barely passing grade, hell yeah I was mad! I volunteered all this time working with him and he just threw it away!

“And then he runs away and cries about it like a baby. Now everyone’s mad at me like I’m in the wrong? Puh-lease. Whatever, I know you’re gonna give me detention or something so let’s hear it.” Bakugo finally pivoted to face Aizawa. He immediately regretted the decision. 

The teacher stared down at him, eyes glowing with fury. Bakugo refused to show it, but he was just a little scared. “That was an excessive amount of BS, even for you, Bakugo. Clearly, you know what you did wasn’t justified. Otherwise, why would you be sitting up here, by yourself, hiding . Once again your massive ego is standing in the way of the shame you should be experiencing.

“It was utterly reprehensible of you to belittle your friend and classmate’s achievements in the way that you did today. Kaminari scored nearly 100% better than he had on any previous math exam, and you took that moment from him. I don’t care about your personal standards, but, objectively, Kaminari improved greatly. And instead of celebrating that success, you triggered him into the worst panic attack I’ve seen a student have this year.”

Kirishima had also mentioned a panic attack, but Bakugo was too angry at the time to care. He knew those could get pretty nasty. Unfortunately, they were common in the hero industry, considering what all people go through. He would have never expected Kaminari to be the type of person to have one, though. He never seemed particularly sensitive or anxious, but maybe Bakugo just wasn’t paying close enough attention. 

Aizawa squatted down to Bakugo’s level before continuing. “So, yes, you will be getting detention. An hour after school each day for a week. Additionally you will be required to write a five-page research paper on the struggles of people with learning disabilities, due at the end of next week.”

Bakugo’s eyes widened. “Are you serious?! That’s not nearly enough time!”

“You’re lucky I’m not suspending you. If you behave, for once, maybe I’ll allow you to work on it during detention.” Aizawa stood. “I also expect you to apologize, genuinely. Not just to Kaminari, but to everyone you harassed today. Come up with something thoughtful, give them a chance to cool off, and maybe they’ll forgive you.” Aizawa gave Bakugo one last disappointed look before walking to the door. “And do not let me catch you on this roof again,” Aizawa finished, slamming the door behind him.

Bakugo knew he was an asshole a lot of the time. It was part of his brand. But he had stopped trying to actually hurt his classmates a while ago. Despite his best efforts, they had grown on him. Especially the self-proclaimed ‘Bakusquad’. He teased them and they teased back. If he went too far, they’d push him back into place. Kaminari was an easy target most of the time. Bakugo’s insults usually slid right off of him. 

Bakugo was expecting the usual pushback when he went off earlier, but Kaminari running away threw him for a loop. So, he kept pushing, waiting for someone to push him back. When Kaminari still hadn’t shown up, over an hour later, Bakugo should have known he fucked up. But instead, he kept pushing to try to get the response he was looking for. Ashido pushed back a little, and Kirishima pushed back a lot, but it still felt off. He had insulted Kaminari, so he was still waiting for his response. 

Aizawa put an end to the hole he was digging himself, thankfully. He could have easily stayed on the roof all night. However, Aizawa also made it serious. Not just because of the punishment, but because he forced Bakugo to come to terms with the fact that he actually hurt people. Kaminari. He hurt Kaminari, and he cared that he hurt him. 

Stupid remorse. He hated that feeling. Bakugo stood and blasted back down to the ground floor, hoping everyone cleared out of the common area. He needed to write some apologies. “Fuck.”

Chapter Text

Kaminari slowly woke from a deep sleep. He felt heavy, like he was sinking into the mattress. He closed his eyes again, about to give into the sensation, when suddenly, he remembered.  

The test, the yelling, the panic, the crying. He shot up in bed. He’d regressed. He’d regressed in front of his friends and his teacher . Kaminari ran a hand down his face and groaned. Maybe if he didn’t acknowledge anything, then everyone would pretend that nothing happened? Who was he kidding. For better or worse, his classmates were the nosiest people he had ever met. Even if no one asked him about it directly, there would still be stares and pity . Ugh. He had no choice. He had to face the music.

Kaminari reached around for his phone and turned it over to see that it was well past 9AM. Most people would be awake already, lucky him. Kaminari briefly scrolled through his notifications: multitudes of texts from Ashido, Sero, Kirishima, and a variety of other classmates. He would rather respond to everyone at once and get it over with. 

Kaminari slid out of bed and freshened up a bit for the day. He dressed himself in comfy sweatpants, cozy socks, and a loose t-shirt. He slipped on his Pikachu hoodie as well, craving the extra security. As a finishing touch, Kaminari pushed his hair back with some random barrettes and put on his chewy lightning bolt, hiding the pendant under his shirt. He took a deep breath, and stepped out of his room.

Unsurprisingly, no one was in the hallway outside of Kaminari’s room. People were probably lingering around the common area and having breakfast. Kaminari took the elevator down to the ground floor. He stepped out to the sounds of light conversation and the smells of delicious food. He was quickly reminded that he had unintentionally skipped dinner the night before. Maybe he could sneak into the kitchen before someone saw him and caused a scene. 

Kaminari flipped his hood up and quietly stepped around the corner towards the kitchen. He had almost made it when-

“Kaminari?”

All conversation stopped. Damn it. Kaminari slowly turned around, grimacing. “Hey guys.”

He should have run when he’d had the chance.

“OMG ARE YOU OKAY?!”

“What happened last night?”

“Did you see my text?”

“I swear I’m gonna kill Bakugo the next time I see him.”

“Did you hear about Kirishima and Bakugo’s fight?”

“You were gone for HOURS!”

“Did you see where I left your stuff?”

“What did you get on the test?”

“Did you really have a panic attack?”

“Did Bakugo apologize?”

“How did Aizawa sneak you in?”

“What did Bakugo say to you?”

“Did Aizawa tell you what Bakugo’s punishment is gonna be?”

“Guys, Aizawa said not to interrogate him!”

Everyone was speaking at once. Denki couldn’t get a word in if he tried. Why did he even leave his room? He knew this was going to happen. He loved these people but, man, could they get overwhelming. He was hungry and drained and frustrated with himself and everything felt out of control and fuzzy and… Crap. Just his luck. On top of everything, he was slipping. His clothing choices should have clued him into his headspace, but he was too caught up thinking about everything else. Denki had to stay big. Once he got everyone off his back, he could run back to his room and be as little as he wanted for as long as he wanted. But first, he had to get this over with.

“OKAY” Kaminari shouted. Voices stopped mid sentence. Mouths snapped shut. All eyes remained on Denki. “You wanna know what happened?! I’ll tell you what happened! Bakugo yelled at me about my stupid math test grade and that triggered a horrific flashback/panic attack combo that made me regress and cry all over Kirishima and then Aizawa, who I later trauma dumped to, before he snuck me into the dorms so I could pass out.” 

The room remained silent. Denki was proud of himself for being able to articulate all of that. Then he realized that he mentioned his regression. Maybe no one noticed? He hoped no one noticed. “Any more questions?” Denki quickly scanned the room. “No? Awesome.” He turned to leave. Maybe he had snacks in his room that he’d forgotten about.

“Wait! I have a question!” Denki turned back around to face the source of the voice. It was none other than Midoriya, with one hand raised straight up in the air. 

“Mhmm?” Denki responded, trying his best not to sound annoyed.

Midoriya smiled apologetically and lowered his hand. “I was just wondering if there was anything we could do to support you? Like, are there any triggers we should know about? And what sorts of things could we do to help you if you regress or have a flashback or panic attack? We’ve all been worried about you, Kaminari. I hope you’re feeling a little better today, at least.”

Denki took a deep breath, releasing some of his prior irritation. He could not handle the care and consideration radiating off of Midoriya’s comment. It made him feel even fuzzier than he already was. “Don’t worry about me, guys. I’m okay. Like, I only had panic attacks like that as a little kid. It hasn’t happened at UA. Everything just got… too much,” Denki trailed off.

“What kind of ‘too much’? Is this too much? Oh my god, we’re totally overwhelming you and you just woke up!” Ashido spoke up. 

“No, no, no! That’s not what I meant! I mean, this was a lot , but I was talking about school stuff. Hard math and dyslexia stuff and yelling just mixed together in my head and reminded me of… stuff...” Kaminari paused. He would rather not unload his whole traumatic backstory right this second. He looked around to see sympathetic faces. His classmates filled in the blank, and that was good enough for him. 

Kirishima stood from his place at a nearby couch and took a few steps towards Denki. “I know you said this doesn’t happen super often, but do you know anything that helps? I want to be able to do more for you, bro,” He said apologetically.  

 Denki thought for a moment. “I think it helps when I feel, um, grounded? Mr. Aizawa helped with that, but you did too! Can’t ‘member any other stuff right now. It’s all blurry.” Denki shook his head to try to clear some of the brain fog. It didn’t work. He hoped the questions would stop soon. Words were becoming difficult to come up with. 

“That’s totally okay, dude. I’m glad I was able to help at all,” Kirishima said bashfully. “You also said that you ‘regressed’. I’ll admit that I don’t know what that is, but does grounding help with that too?”

Denki froze. Maybe Kirishima wouldn’t press if he just answered simply? “Yeah, it helps.” Kirishima nodded in understanding. 

Before Denki could breathe a sigh of relief, he received another question. “But, what is it?” Sero asked. “Is it that thing where you were sparking randomly?”

Denki shook his head. He had to explain, but he didn’t know how. He didn’t want to. He was scared. He was little. Despite the gentle, concerned faces of everyone around him, Denki still felt shame. All of his biggest weaknesses had been put on display in the last 24 hours and he was sick of it. He was sick of talking about this. “Um, so it’s like… um… it’s when…” Denki trailed off with a small whine. He started fidgeting with his necklace under his hoodie. He really wished he could be chewing it right then. 

Midoriya looked at Denki knowingly, and interjected. “I can explain it, if Kaminari doesn’t mind?” Kaminari quickly nodded his approval, happy for the out. “So, age regression is a phenomenon in which one’s mind reverts to a younger state. This can happen as a reaction to a traumatic event or as a symptom of mental illness. Regression can affect speech and behavior, but the state is usually temporary. People can also regress voluntarily as a coping mechanism.” Midoriya looked at Denki again. “Was that right?” Denki responded with a thumbs up.

“Huh. Thanks Midoriya! The more you know, I guess.” Sero’s sentiment seemed to be shared by the rest of class in the common room. 

“Wait, so you’ve regressed before?” Ashido asked. Denki was past the point of trusting his voice, so he was thankful for the easy question. He nodded. “Does it happen a lot?” He shook his hand in a ‘sort of’ type gesture. “How young do you feel?” He held up four fingers. 

He was starting to feel a bit exposed. People were looking back and forth between him and Ashido as she peppered him with questions. Some were whispering. Some looked like they were reading more about regression on their phones. No one looked upset or disgusted, more so just curious. Denki was still sick of being the center of attention though.

“Do you hav-” 

“So you felt that little while all of that was happening?” Kirishima interrupted before Ashido could ask another question. He looked heartbroken. “That must’ve been so scary! I’m so sorry I couldn’t do more to help you, bro!” He pulled Denki into a hug. Denki squeezed him in return. 

“Alright, man, I think we’re done grilling you now! You’re free to go!” Sero joked. A few people laughed, others gave Denki encouraging smiles.

“Tanks,” Denki said quietly into Kirishima’s shoulder. He couldn’t believe it. Everyone was so cool about his regression. The crisis wasn’t averted, but the outcome was much nicer than predicted. The room relaxed as everyone picked up where they left off. Kirishima pulled away with a sympathetic smile and stepped back to give Denki some space. He got a few more words of encouragement and support along with some friendly pats on the back, but then the morning could finally continue. Denki took that as his cue to leave, and ran to the elevator before anyone could ask him anything else.

Chapter Text

Bakugo had gotten very little sleep. Guilt and anger weren’t exactly soothing emotions to end the day with. So, after several hours of tossing and turning, he had gotten up and went for a run. When he got back and cleaned up, he got stuck. He could clean his room, maybe? It was usually kept pretty tidy, but he straightened it up even more. He didn’t have any laundry to do either. This stupid tension with his friends was fucking up his whole routine. 

He couldn’t text anyone to ask them to train with him. He couldn’t cook breakfast for himself and “accidentally” make enough for everyone. No! Past Bakugo had to go and ruin everything for present Bakugo once again! He was stuck in his room and it was no one’s fault but his own. 

Bakugo sat down at his desk and sighed. He could do homework or start working on that research paper, but Bakugo knew what he really needed to do. He got out some spare paper and a pencil. He had been an asshole, more so than usual, and he needed to apologize for it. He had to be sure that he would say the right things so he wouldn’t dig this hole any deeper. He started writing.

At about 10:30 Bakugo decided to take a break. His classmates were usually out and about at this point, so he thought he might be able to sneak past whoever was still in the building and make some breakfast. If he got dirty looks, so be it. He was hungry. 

Bakugo threw that plan away once the elevator opened at the ground floor. He heard Deku asking a question, but it sounded like he was speaking for more than just himself. What was going on? Bakugo started to peek into the main living area when he heard Kaminari start speaking. He paused. He didn’t sound like himself. Maybe it was because of the subject matter? Bakugo heard him say something about panic attacks, so he was probably talking about last night. Of course his stupid, nosey classmates would want to know every detail as soon as possible. 

As Bakugo continued to eavesdrop, he felt worse and worse. It wasn’t the hypocrisy of himself being nosey, but rather, listening to Kaminari. It felt like a punch in the chest. He sounded so quiet and exhausted. He would never admit it, but Bakugo was glad when he heard Deku answer a question for Kaminari. It was like he couldn’t find any more words to say, which Bakugo thought impossible before that moment. 

Conversation picked back up again and Bakugo took that as his cue to leave. He was not at all ready to talk to his friends, and he had heard almost all of them just around the corner. Ultimately, he was glad he had heard what he’d heard. He had some insight on Kaminari that he probably never would have learned about otherwise. Panic attacks, dyslexia, regression. Hmm. Maybe this “regression” thing could be the key to making things right with Kaminari? Bakugo had some research to do.

Chapter Text

Once he was back in his room, Denki remembered that he was hungry. Except now he was starving . He didn’t want to go back out! Everybody was still there! And what would he even make! He could barely cook when he was big, so he was pretty much hopeless when he was regressed. Denki whined and flopped on his bed. He took out his lightning bolt pendant to chew on in place of food. It would have to do for the time being. 

Knock Knock

Denki looked towards his door. He could hear people outside. Did he leave something downstairs? Did his friends have more questions? Couldn’t they give him a minute of peace?

Knock Knock Knock

Denki got up and shuffled his way to the door. He threw it open to find Kirishima poised to knock yet again. “Hey! Sorry to keep bothering you, but we just wanted to check in!” Sero and Ashido stood behind him.

Denki went to respond, but was stopped by the chewelry in his mouth. He spit it out. “‘M okay.” 

The three exchanged concerned glaces. “Look, uh, can we come in for a sec?” Ashido asked. Denki tilted his head in confusion, but ultimately stepped aside to allow his friends through the doorway. He settled back on his bed as the others sat themselves around the room. “So, um, are you regressed right now, Denks?”

Denki sucked in a breath. He wasn’t expecting that question, at least not directly. It seemed that everyone already knew the answer, so he just nodded to confirm.

“Okay. That’s okay! Midobro had a hunch that you might have ‘slipped’ towards the end back there, so he suggested that we check up on you,” Kirishima explained.

“Sorry. Didn’ mean to be little yet.” Kaminari spoke quietly while playing with the hem of his hoodie.

Ashido gasped. “No! It’s totally okay babes!” She moved to sit next to Denki on his bed. “You’ve had a rough couple of days, huh?” Denki nodded and Ashido smiled sympathetically. “This is a coping thing for you, right? So take as much time as you need.” 

The boys nodded in agreement with Ashido. Denki muttered a quiet ‘thanks’ and the others had to hold in their coos at his cuteness. 

 “Do you want to be alone? Can we get you anything?” Kirishima asked.

Denki thought for a moment before his stomach answered for him with a loud rumble. He blushed. “Um, can I have breakfast pease? Hungy.” 

“Absolutely dude! What do you want?” Sero asked while walking over to the door. 

Denki fiddled with his necklace before ultimately putting it back in his mouth. He wasn’t used to talking so much when he was little. Even if he felt like talking, he couldn’t think of anything specific he wanted to eat. Denki gave up after a moment of trying to sort through his fuzzy thoughts and shrugged. 

“No worries, man. I’ll get you something you like. Be back soon!” Sero rushed downstairs, leaving Denki with Ashido and Kirishima. 

—--------------------

Sero stepped out of the elevator and made his way to the kitchen. There was usually fruit available for everyone, and he was pretty sure someone made muffins. So, Sero was confident that he would be able to gather an assortment of foods for Denki. He stepped into the kitchen, ready to execute his plan when-

“Ahem.”

Sero turned around. He hadn’t noticed anyone else in the room initially. Especially not- “Bakugo?” 

Bakugo stood next to the stove, arms crossed, avoiding eye contact. He didn’t look like his usual confident self. Sero almost felt compelled to ask him what was wrong, but, remembering what he did, he quickly lost all interest in the other boy’s feelings. “Look, I’m just grabbing some breakfast for Denks real quick and then I’ll be out of your way. I don’t want to start anything right now, man,” Sero said as he rummaged through the fridge. 

Bakugo cleared his throat again. “That’s fine. Uh, I can help? If you want. I know he likes pancakes, so I can make some.” 

Sero looked back at Bakugo skeptically. “Is this your attempt at an apology? ‘Cause you’re gonna need a lot more than a plate of pancakes to fix what you did.”

Bakugo started to say something, but paused to take a breath. “I know that, Tape Face. I- I know I fucked up, and I’m sorry. I don’t want to make him panic again, though. So, I’ll formally apologize later, once everyone’s had some time.” Bakugo looked at Sero for the first time since they started talking. He wore a rare expression of remorse.

Sero closed the refrigerator and fully faced Bakugo. He couldn’t recall one instance where he had ever seen Bakugo look like this. He was still upset with him, but that was a conversation for later. Bakugo was right about everyone still needing time. For right now, though, some pancakes couldn’t hurt. “Heat up a pan. Let’s see how fast you can cook.”

Extremely fast. Bakugo could cook extremely fast. Sero was honestly a little scared of how quickly he whisked and chopped and flipped. But, in less than ten minutes, Sero was presented with a beautiful plate of pancakes and freshly squeezed orange juice. “Dude, I’m impressed!”

“Wait! I’m not done.” Bakugo decorated the top pancake with a smiley face made of banana slices and strawberries, dispensed some syrup into a small container to use later, and poured the orange juice into a cup with a sip lid. “There.”

Sero looked at the display and found himself smiling. “This is really cute, man. And it looks delicious! He’s gonna love it.”

Bakugo smiled to himself as he loaded everything onto a tray for Sero to take upstairs. “Hell yeah, he’s gonna love it! It’s the best pancake recipe, after all. I, uh, tried to make it kid-friendly too, I guess.” 

“Wait.” Sero looked at the plating again, the cheerful garnishes taking on a new meaning. “How do you know about…”

“I overheard when Kaminari was talking this morning. I was planning on making myself breakfast, but I stayed. I did some research after.” Bakugo shrugged. “Is he… regressed? Right now? That would explain why he isn’t getting his own food. That kid can barely feed himself normally,” he wondered.

“Yeah, he is. The other two are with him right now.” Sero didn’t see any harm in confirming Bakugo’s suspicions. He seemed to know already anyways. “I should probably get going. He was pretty hungry when I left.”

“Yeah, don’t let it get cold. I got the dishes. And no one’s stupid enough to think that you made that, so just make up some excuse.”

Sero laughed. “Okay, man. Thanks again!” He grabbed the tray and started walking out of the kitchen.

“Oi!” Sero paused and turned back to Bakugo. He tilted his head quizzically. “Uh, I’m sorry, Sero. Really. And thanks for letting me do this,” Bakugo spoke softly. Sero smiled in response and nodded before finally leaving the kitchen.

—--------------------

“Mina?” Denki said softly. He was still sitting next to her, leaning on her shoulder.

“Yeah, babes?”

“Where Sewo?” 

Ashido took a slow, deep breath to stop herself from squealing. Denki was too cute like this! 

Kirishima took the opportunity to answer for her. “He’s probably still making you something to eat, bro. Don’t worry! He’ll be back in no time.” Kirishima offered a, hopefully, reassuring smile.

“Otay, Kiwi.”

“Kiwi? Like, the fruit?” Ashido asked, amused.

“Noooo. Kiwishima!” Denki explained through giggles. 

“Oh my god you are the cutest baby in the world! Ah! I can’t take it!” Ashido ruffled Denki’s hair playfully while he blushed and hid his face in her shoulder.

“Wait, are you a baby, Denks? I forget how young you said you feel when you regress,” Kirishima asked. Denki looked up at him for a moment, blinked slowly, and then shrugged. He threw out a general age range earlier, but he never actually knew for sure. All he knew was that he felt nothing like a teenager. “Ah, no worries. I guess it doesn’t really make sense to ask a baby how old they are,” Kirishima mused.

“I don’t care how old you are, you’re the baby right now!” Ashido said before surprising Denki with a tickle attack. 

“AAAH!!” Denki squealed and fell back into his pillows. He tried to lightly bat Ashido’s hands away. “KIWI!! Help! EEEEE!!” He laughed.

Kirishima hopped up from the floor, and joined in the giggles. “Don’t worry, little dude! I’ll save you!”

 —--------------------

“Did you text him?”

“Yes! I texted him multiple times! I don’t know why he isn’t answering!” 

Ashido and Kirishima bickered while Denki whined softly. The playing had subsided once Denki’s stomach started complaining again. “Oh, you poor baby,” Ashido cooed. She hugged Denki closer and stroked his hair. “Sero will be back soon with something. Right, Kirishima ?”

“Yeah, totally.” Kirishima looked at his chain of unanswered messages sent to Sero. “You know what? How about I just go check on him, hm?” Kirishima stood and crossed the room. “Be right back!” He said over his shoulder before throwing the door open. 

“Hey! Just in time!” Sero smiled on the other side of the threshold. 

“Sero! I was just about to go looking for you, bro! What took you so long?” Kirishima stepped aside to allow Sero through the doorway with his tray. 

“Let’s just say a secret friend of ours heard that Denki was hungry and insisted on cooking up something special. Hope you’re ready to eat, Denks!” Sero placed the tray on the low table in the center of the room. Denki had pulled away from Ashido’s embrace the moment he heard Sero’s voice. Once the smell of delicious food reached his nose, he was up on his feet and bouncing with anticipation. Sero chuckled at how excited he looked. “Alright, man, go ahead!”

“Pancakes!!!” Denki cheered before digging in.

“I was so ready to go off on you for making the baby wait, but this makes up for it 100%,” Ashido commented. “The smiley pancakes are adorable!”

“So, who is this ‘secret friend of ours’?” Kirishima asked. 

Sero mimed zipping his lips shut and flicking away a key. “That’s for me to know and you to find out,” Sero said with a wink. “I’m just glad I didn’t have to cook anything.”

“Tank you, Sewo!” Denki mumbled through a mouthful of food. 

“You’re welcome! Slow down, though. You don’t want to choke!” Denki nodded and then continued to eat at the same pace. The other three laughed as they watched Denki immediately make a mess of himself while he shoveled down chunks of pancake and fruit. At least there was a sink nearby, they were going to need it.

Chapter Text

After a delicious breakfast (and a good deal of face-washing), Denki was unsure of what to do. He was still little, but his friends were also with him. Should he try to get out of headspace so they could hang out? Should he ask them to leave? He didn’t want them to leave though. Denki had considered telling his close friends about his regression at some point, but he never thought he would be little around them. But, after spending some time with them and seeing how well they’re handling everything, Denki enjoyed having them around while he was regressed.

“Whatcha thinkin’ about, little guy?” Kirishima asked, nudging Denki’s shoulder lightly as he sat down next to him. 

Denki shrugged. “I dunno what to do.” 

“Huh? You ‘don’t know what to do’ about what?” Ashido sat on his other side and looked at him quizzically. 

“Still small. Don’ know whadda do wif you guys. Don’ wanna be ‘lone yet,” Denki mumbled, playing with his sleeves. The other three teens all did their best to contain their reactions to Denki’s unintentional cuteness. After a moment of shared glances and deep breaths, Sero spoke up. 

“What do you usually do when you’re little? We can just join you in that!”

“I watch Pokémon a lot! Or nap.”

“Pokémon is awesome, dude!” Kirishima said. “Let me guess, Pikachu is your favorite?”

“Nuh uh!” Denki passionately shook his head ‘no’. 

“What?! But, your hoodie! And your quirk!!” Ashido said exaggeratedly. 

“So, who’s your favorite?” asked Sero. 

“Jolteon! He’s like a lightning puppy!” Denki exclaimed. He excitedly bounced where he sat on his bed. “Pikachu’s cool too though. He gots more stuff.” 

“That is true, but we are so gonna get you some jolteon stuff!” Kirishima said, sticking his pinky out towards Denki to seal the promise. Denki smiled and linked his pinky finger with Kirishima’s before swinging their hands back and forth. 

“Alright, enough pokémon talk . I thought we were gonna watch ‘em?” Ashido reminded. 

Denki gasped and nodded before hopping up from his bed to fetch his laptop. Luckily his bigger self had the first season downloaded for easy access. All little Denki had to do was open the folder, pick an episode, and hit ‘play’. Denki’s face lit up even brighter as the theme song began. The others crowded around him on his bed and sang along with him as it played.

 —--------------------

“-and Blissey help… Nurse Joy take ca… care of everyone!” Denki explained through a yawn. The group had watched about four episodes already, but Denki was determined to start a fifth. 

“Blissey seems really nice, huh Denks?” Kirishima commented.

“Mhm. She… she nice an’ pink wike Mina,” Denki said quietly, rubbing his eye with a loose fist.

“Aw, babes! You’re so sweet!” Ashido exclaimed. She pulled him half into her lap and nuzzled his hair. Denki just melted into the embrace.

“I think someone might be a little tired,” Sero said. Denki was too comfy to fight the accusation. 

“You wanna take a nap?” Ashido whispered into his hair. Denki nodded. “Okay sweetie, we’ll just clean up real quick and leave you to sleep, alright?” Ashido moved to get up and lay Denki down on the bed, but found his arms wrapping around her. “Denks? What’s wrong?”

“No leave. Pease?” Denki’s soft tone and even softer gaze made his request impossible to deny. 

“Okay, I’ll stay with you, cutie! But can the boys clean up?” Denki nodded and fully curled up on Ashido’s lap. 

Kirishima and Sero quickly and quietly moved around the room to collect dishes and put away Denki’s laptop. By the time they finished, the little was already out cold. “Should we stay?” Sero loudly whispered. 

Ashido shook her head while slowly stroking Denki’s hair. “You guys have already done so much for him. I got this.”  

“Text us if you need anything, okay?” Kirishima said. Ashido gave a thumbs up and waved goodbye as the two boys quietly left the room. “Uhh, what should we do now? Just wait?” 

“I don’t know about you, but I have some homework to finish up after we put those dishes away,” Sero said.

Kirishima looked down at the tray he was holding, having forgotten it was there. “Oh, yeah! Don’t worry about it, man. You brought breakfast up, I can take it back down. And I’ll probably do some homework too while we wait for Kami to wake up.”

“Sounds like a plan! See you in a bit.” The two parted ways to their respective floors. 

 —--------------------

Bakugo still didn’t know what to do with himself. After Sero left with the pancakes, he cleaned the kitchen and went back to his room. He tried to start on the punishment research paper Aizawa had assigned, but he couldn’t focus. Ironic. His mind kept drifting back to his friends. 

He seemed to be at least on speaking terms with Sero now, so that was some progress. Ashido would likely be the next easiest to make up with. But, then again, she’d probably refuse to talk to him until Kaminari and Kirishima forgave him. And would they? Bakugo didn’t know what to say. And he didn’t know how to say it. ‘I’m sorry for calling you stupid and triggering your childhood trauma!’ and ‘I’m sorry for yelling at you for being a better friend than I ever could be!’ were both apologies that needed some work. 

Maybe he could go for another run? Every draft he had written was utter garbage, and he was out of ideas, so maybe a change of scenery would help. That, and he was sick of pacing around his room. It was decided. With a huff, Bakugo threw open his door, stepped into the hall, and found himself face-to-face with Kirishima. 

They stared at each other for a beat. Then Kirishima narrowed his gaze and rolled his eyes before continuing his interrupted motion of entering his dorm. 

“Wait!” Bakugo called, taking a step closer. Kirishima paused again, sighed, and opened the door. “I’m sorry! ” Bakugo hadn’t meant to raise his voice, but when had he ever been able to help that? “Shit. This isn’t how this was supposed to go. Fuck!” Kirishima had turned back to face him. Bakugo had to speak while he had his attention.

“Kiri… I’m such a goddamn moron. I didn’t mean any of what I said yesterday. I was frustrated and tired and so out of bounds and I took it all out on you and Kaminari. I was expecting you all to just… nudge me back into line like you usually do, but I took it too far. My dumbass outbursts are not your fucking responsibility. 

You’re not stupid. None of you are. And you’re a better friend than I could ever hope to be. I don’t expect you to want to be around me after all the disgusting crap I said last night, but, I just need you to know how genuinely sorry I am, Kirishima,” Bakugo finished softly, bowing his head. 

“Bro… I don’t think I’ve ever heard you sound so sincere. It’s honestly a welcome change of pace,” Kirishima said with a small smile. “Yesterday was awful, you were way out of line, but I can see that it wasn’t on purpose. I could tell you were just pissed and ranting, and I honestly don’t care about what you said to me, but I’m super not cool with what you said to Kaminari. Whether or not you meant it, you cut deep. 

So, I can forgive you, Bakugo. But, as head of the ‘Denki Defense Squad’,” he said with air quotes, “his feelings about you matter the most.”

“Thank you, Kirishima. And, I know I need to talk to Kaminari. I just don’t want to trigger him again. From what I could hear this morning he still didn’t sound great.” 

“Wait, you were downstairs earlier? How did no one see you?” 

“I was going to sneak into the kitchen, but when I heard everyone interviewing Sparky I decided to eavesdrop by the elevator,” Bakugo explained. “How is he, by the way?”

“Oh, okay. He’s doing alright now I think. All the questions and stuff kinda wore him out so he’s taking a nap. Ashido stayed to watch him while Sero and I cleaned up his room from breakfast. Someone made him these super cute pancakes! Sero said it was a ‘secret friend’ so I don’t…” As Kirishima was recounting the events from earlier, he noticed a change in Bakugo’s posture. “Wait…” He squinted and leaned forward, searching Bakugo’s face for something. He found it. “It was you, wasn’t it?!”

Bakugo rolled his eyes and sighed. “Yeah. I felt bad, okay? Sero was about to just throw a bunch of random shit together and I knew Denks was feeling crappy enough without being served raw ingredients for breakfast. So I thought ‘why not’ and whipped up some pancakes ‘cause what little kid wouldn’t like that.” Bakugo crossed his arms defensively. “What?”

Kirishima was beaming. “Bro. That’s ADORABLE!” He shot forward and wrapped Bakugo in a hug. “You’re such a softie on the inside, you know that?” Kirishima pulled back before Bakugo could shove him off. “Did Sero tell you about the age regression thing? Or did you overhear that from Denki this morning?”

“I heard Deku explain it to everyone earlier, but I did my own research afterwards and kinda guessed that Sparky was regressed when he was trying to talk to you guys. Tape face just confirmed it when we talked in the kitchen. That’s the main reason I didn’t want him to mention that I cooked breakfast.”

“Yeah, none of us have brought up anything about yesterday since we found out he was still feeling small. I don’t know how he’d react, and I don’t want to risk upsetting him again. Maybe he’ll feel normal when he wakes up? It was probably a good call to give him space this morning, but I think you should talk to him as soon as possible. Dragging this out won’t be good for either of you, man.” Bakugo nodded in agreement. “I’ll text Ashido to see if he’s still asleep. Maybe we could go-”

“Kirishima,” Bakugo whispered urgently.

“Huh?” Kirishima looked up from his phone and followed Bakugo’s gaze over his shoulder. “Welp, I guess that answers my question,” he mumbled. Down near the other end of the hallway stood a familiar blond in a bright yellow hoodie. “Hey Denki!” Kirishima called. “How was your nap?”

Chapter Text

Denki breathed deeply and stretched, exhaling a yawn. He rubbed his eyes and blinked a few times to adjust to the soft afternoon light coming in past his curtains. He sat up and turned to get out of bed when he heard a soft snore. Denki whipped his head around to look in the direction of the sound and saw Ashido sleeping soundly against the wall. 

Denki then remembered what he had been doing prior to falling asleep. Everyone watched Pokèmon with him! And he got cuddles! Denki smiled to himself just thinking about it. Ashido had stayed with him, but the other two boys were noticeably absent. Denki had much more energy after napping and wanted to keep playing, but first he needed to find the rest of his friends.

Denki slowly slid off his bed and tip-toed to his door. It would have been mean to wake Ashido, so he tried to be as quiet as possible. Once he successfully made it into the hall, Denki released a sigh of relief. Now, where could the others have gone? 

As long as Sero and Kirishima were still in the dorms, Denki would have a good chance of finding them. He’d check their rooms first, and then the common areas and kitchen. With his plan figured out, Denki set off to the elevator. He felt like he was going on an adventure! Denki usually stayed locked in his room whenever he regressed, so walking around the building in littlespace was completely new. He was a lot more comfortable than he imagined being as well. His classmates had handled the morning’s information dump pretty well, and that put him at ease. No one was in the hallway at the moment, but even if someone were, Denki felt safe to still be small. 

He took the elevator up one floor to check Kirishima’s room first. When the elevator doors opened, Denki could hear some people talking in the hallway. Maybe Kirishima? Denki stepped out, turned in the direction of his friend’s room, and froze. Kirishima was there, just as he had hoped. However, standing right next to him, was Bakugo. 

Kaminari had somehow entirely forgotten about Bakugo and the whole situation that went down last night. He had been so at peace in his headspace with his friends that the reason for his regression had completely slipped his mind. Of course Bakugo would be there. It was just his luck. Why did his room have to be right next to Kirishima’s? Speaking of Kirishima, why was he talking to Bakugo? And smiling? Hadn’t they had a big fight last night too? Did they make up already? Did Kirishima leave to hang out with Bakugo while Denki was sleeping? No, that couldn’t be it. They had been having fun together, right? 

Kirishima said something to him, but Denki didn’t process it. He needed to leave. Kaminari started spamming the elevator button, but unfortunately it had already been called to a lower floor. He looked up as he continued to mash the button and saw Kirishima jogging towards him. 

“Denki? Are you okay, buddy?” Kirishima asked as he slowed to a stop. 

Kaminari turned to him and swallowed. “Yeah, I’m good. Sorry to interrupt.” He responded while looking between the elevator and Bakugo still standing at the end of the hall. 

“No worries, man. Are you not little anymore?” 

“Uh.” Denki shook his head. “Um. I dunno.” He could figure out his brain once he got back to somewhere safe. This was why he stayed in his room while regressed. What was taking the elevator so long?

“You don’t know? Uh, that’s ok! I think. Um. Are you okay, though?” Kirishima asked. Kaminari shrugged, hugging himself, and glanced over Kirishima’s shoulder again. This time, he followed his gaze. “ Oh . Do you want me to tell him to go? I totally get it if it’s too soon.” Denki took a step back. He looked like a deer in the headlights. “You know what? Yeah. I’ll do that and then we can go back to your room and calm down, okay?” Kirishima turned around and came almost nose-to-nose with Bakugo. “WOAH.”

“Sorry, Shitty Hair. Bad timing.” Bakugo stepped around Kirishima to face Kaminari, but kept his distance. 

“Bro, I don’t think now is the best time-“

Bakugo cut Kirishima off with a glare. “Just… just let me say this, and then I’ll leave you all alone.” Bakugo took a deep breath and redirected his attention to Kaminari. “Hey, uh-”

Denki turned and booked it towards the stairs. He couldn’t do it. Despite feeling in between headspaces, the one thing his whole brain could agree on was getting away from there. When Kaminari got to his floor he wasted no time in running to his room. Before he even reached the door, someone opened it and poked their head out. 

“There you are, kiddo! We were worried about you!” Sero said as he stepped out to greet Denki. His relief quickly morphed to concern when he got a closer look at Denki’s face. “Woah, what happened? Are you okay?” 

Those questions were the final straws that sent Denki into tears and fully into littlespace. “Noooo! I- I scawed!” Denki reached out to Sero for a hug which was quickly reciprocated.

“Oh, buddy. You’re okay,” Sero soothed as he guided Denki into his room. 

“Omg! Sero, what happened to the baby?” Ashido shot up from where she was sitting and rushed towards the door. 

“MINA!” Denki cried, reaching out for the girl with both hands. Ashido pulled him from Sero’s arms into her own and started gently rocking. “I- I sowwy for leavin! I wanted to- to find Sewo an’ Kiwi a’cause I wanted to pway more! Bu- but den Kiwi was talkin’ to- to Bakugo-o,” Denki tried to explain through tears. All the while, Ashido continued to rock and rub his back as she held him.

“Did Bakugo scare you, Denks?” Sero asked.

“Mhm! Kiwi was gonna make ‘im go away, b-but he came up anyways! An- da ‘levator didn’t come back, so I had to used da staiws to get away.”

“I’m so sorry that that meanie scared you like that, baby. You’re safe now with us,” Ashido soothed. “Let’s go sit and calm down, okay?” However, before Ashido could get Denki settled on his bed, frantic knocking sounded at the door.

“No! No no no-” Denki mumbled as his tears came back with a renewed vigor. 

“You’re gonna be okay, buddy. I got this,” Sero reassured. He turned to the door with a hardened expression, and threw it open. 

 —--------------------

“FUCK!” Bakugo cursed, looking back and forth between Kirishima and the stairwell. “Dammit Kirishima! I didn’t want to scare him and I fucking scared him! Was he still little?!”

Kirishima held his hands up placatingly. “I don’t know! But that’s why I tried to stop you! He didn’t sound small when I started talking to him, but when I asked he just said ‘I don’t know’!” 

“Are you serious.”

“If he didn’t know, then how could I know? I LITERALLY just learned about all of this a few hours ago!”

“Oh my GOD.” Bakugo pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Hey! It’s gonna be okay!” Kirishima said with a pat on the back. “He probably went back to his room, and Ashido should still be there to help him calm down. That means we should be good to go down there and try this whole thing again!”

“What part of ‘I scared him’ are you not understanding, rocks-for-brains? I’ll just make it worse if I go near him again.”

“You need to try! I feel like waiting will just ensure that this never gets resolved. Look, I’ll talk to him first to see what exactly is happening with him and try to explain. Then you can poke in and apologize. And if he’s still small then you can have a more serious conversation later.” 

“...Fine.”

“Great! Let’s go!” Kirishima led the way down to Kaminari’s room and Bakugo reluctantly followed. However, once they were within earshot of the dorm, Bakugo reached out for Kirishima’s arm to stop him. “What is it, dude?”

“Can’t you hear that?” Bakugo let go of Kirishima as they took a moment to listen. Barely muffled sobs from just a few doors down.

“Crap.” Kirishima hurried the rest of the way down the hall.

“Wait!” Bakugo called after him. He ran to catch up, but stopped himself once Kirishima started pounding on Kaminari’s door. 

Just as Kirishima was about to wave Bakugo over, the door flew open. In the doorway stood a very pissed Sero. “Took you long enough,” Sero spoke lowly. 

 “I’m so sorry! Kami just caught me at a bad time and I couldn’t explain. But I can clear things up now!”

“Kiwi?” Denki asked through tears. Ashido loosened her hold on him slightly so he could turn and look towards the door.

Kirishima looked past Sero’s shoulder and waved. “Hey Denks! Yeah, it’s me buddy! I’m so sorry you got scared, but I promise we’re gonna make it all better, okay?”

“You better,” said Ashido.

“Yeah. Explain how we got here, Kirishima,” Sero said, crossing his arms.

“I pretty much just got caught at a bad time. Bakugo and I were talking things out right before Kaminari showed up. When I noticed he was there, I ran over to check in and he was talking like normal. He seemed sort of anxious though, so I offered to walk him back to his dorm to calm down. But then Bakugo came closer to try to apologize and really scared Denki. It was an accident though! I promise!”

When Kirishima finished, Denki took a moment to wipe his remaining tears on his sleeve, take a deep breath, and inch a bit closer to the door. “You promise?”

“Yeah buddy! Can I give you a hug?” 

Denki nodded and Sero stepped aside so Kirishima could pull him into a tight embrace. “Sorry I ran away, Kiwi,” Denki mumbled.

“It’s okay, little guy.”

“Mmnn.” Denki whined. He pulled away from the hug and shook his head. “Don’t wanna be little anymore.”

“Oh, okay! Uh.” Kirishima looked to the others for assistance. 

“What’s with the switch, Denks?” Ashido asked. 

“Kiri said Bakugo wanted to say sorry. I gotta be big,” Kaminari explained, shaking his head again.

“You don’t have to pull yourself out of your headspace. You two can talk later today, or tomorrow,” Sero said.

“Yeah! I can tell Bakugo to leave and come back later,” Kirishima added. The other three immediately directed their attention to him. “What.”

“You brought him with you?”

“Has he been outside the whole time?” Sero and Ashido spoke at the same time. Kaminari stepped closer to the door. 

“Listen! I thought it would be convenient if he was available to apologize as soon as I made sure Kaminari was okay.”

“Convenient for who?” asked Sero.

“I think it’s pretty convenient,” said Kaminari. Attention returned to him. “Look, I kind of just want to get this over with, guys. Nothing has felt normal for over a week now, and I just want to try to put my life back together.”

“Oh, Kami,” Ashido sighed. “We just want you to be okay. So, if talking this out with Bakugo is what you really want, I won’t stop you. But I will beat his ass the moment I hear anything suspect.”

“Same,” added Sero. Kirishima nodded in agreement.

“Thanks guys. It’ll probably be fine. Just wait in here, I guess. I’ll be back in a minute,” Kaminari said before stepping into the hallway and shutting his door behind him. He closed his eyes and took a quick breath before turning to look down the hallway at Bakugo. “Hey.”

Bakugo straightened up from where he had been leaning against the wall and faced Kaminari awkwardly. He almost took a half step forward, but pulled back at the last second. He snuck another glance at Kaminari before focusing on the floor. “Hey. Uh, we don’t have to do this right now, if you don’t want to. Especially if you’re still, uh, regressed.”

Kaminari felt his cheeks warm. “Wait, how do you know about that?” 

“I heard you talking about it this morning. I listened in because I wanted to know how you were doing, but I stayed out of sight so I wouldn’t make it worse. Then I left to do my own research.”

“Oh! Uh, wow. Well, I’m big now, or whatever, so…” Kaminari trailed off.

“Right. Uh,” Bakugo cleared his throat and committed to taking a step forward and looking Kaminari in the eyes. “I guess I’ll just start by saying, I’m so, so fucking sorry, Kaminari. I’m sorry that I ruined that moment for you yesterday. I’m sorry that I brought up bad memories. I’m sorry that I was more of a damn villain than your friend. I’m sorry that I scared you earlier and am probably still making you uncomfortable right now.

You’re… you’re really important to me, Sparky. I know I suck at showing that, but I mean it. You’re one of my best friends and I am so fucking sorry for hurting you. Nothing that I said yesterday was true. None of it. You deserve to be at this school way more than I do. You’re smart and kind, which is something I clearly still can’t figure out…

I wouldn’t blame you if you never want to be around me again after this. Say the word and I will fuck off entirely and leave you in peace. I just needed you to know that I sincerely apologize, Kaminari.”

A beat of silence. A shaky breath. Kaminari couldn’t recall ever hearing an actual apology come from Bakugo, let alone one so… heartfelt. He hoped that he meant his words.

“Thank you,” Kaminari said softly, tears beginning to well up yet again. “Yesterday was… a lot, and any other time I would’ve fought back but I just… I didn’t have anything left. It was all too much like my family and I… I really just wish you could’ve been proud of me.” Kaminari sniffed, hugging himself.

“Goddamit, Pikachu, I am proud of you!” Bakugo asserted as he moved directly in front of Kaminari. He placed his hands on his shoulders, shaking him a little. “You improved more than anyone in our group, and learned it all fast as hell. I’m the moron for ignoring reality and deciding to act an ass. You did great, Kaminari.” 

Kaminari leaned his head onto Bakugo’s shoulder and pulled him into a hug. Bakugo returned the embrace. Kaminari sobbed. “I’m so tired of crying.”

“Just let it out, Pichu.” Denki let out a whine before starting to cry harder. “Woah! What the hell did I say?” Bakugo asked, holding Denki tighter.

“I- I wike P-Pichuuu!” Denki cried. 

Bakugo took a moment to think while still attempting to soothe Denki. “So, you like pichu?” Denki nodded. “Did you like me calling you ‘Pichu’?”

“Mmhmm!” Denki answered, pulling back from the hug just slightly to look Bakugo in the face. He took a steadying breath. “It feeled nice inside, ‘cause Pichu is super cute an’ small like me!” Denki said excitedly, tears nearly forgotten. 

Bakugo let out a laugh through his nose. “Yeah, well, I’m just glad you’re okay.” Bakugo gently wiped Denki’s remaining tears before stepping back from the hug. “Thanks for hearing me out. You can go back to your afternoon plans with those three stooges now,” Bakugo said, nodding at Denki’s door. “I won’t hold you up any longer.” He moved to turn away, but was stopped by Denki grabbing his arm. 

“No!” Bakugo was confused, once again. Denki continued, “Stay! Please?” 

“Uh, you sure?”

“Mhmm! We all watch Pokémon together! Come on!”

Bakugo playfully rolled his eyes and allowed himself to be dragged over to Denki’s door. “Whatever you want, Pichu. Whatever you want.”