There is no response other than the sudden silence that sweeps the room. The rain outside lulls in a sense of calm but the distressing sound Risa hears beneath this keeps her anxious.

“Bakugo, please.”

She begs him to answer her. They’d talked about this a long time ago. Just before they started at UA/

“Bakugo?”

“What do you want?”

Risa smiles at his response and rolls her eyes before continuing.

“I know you don’t like talking about your feelings, or even acknowledging that they exist,” she pauses.

Bakugo stops and looks back at her, the looming UA buildings just a block or so away.

“But if you ever feel burdened by something, I want you to know you can always trust that I’ll be there for you. Even if you don’t need me.”

The boy stares at Risa for a moment, a rare second of calm in his usually explosive demeanor, before scoffing and turning away abruptly.

“I don’t know what the hell you’re on about, but if you make me late on the first day I’ll kill you.”

The girl laughs at his response, skipping to catch up to the boy.

He hadn’t ignored her then. Bakugo took those words to heart and he thought about them frequently. Sure. he acted like he didn’t care about things or that he didn’t have feelings, but that’s because he wasn’t always entirely sure how to express things. He found blowing things up and scaring people was more effective than actually talking.

Risa had mentioned on multiple occasions growing up that she was there for him. Just as she was there for Deku. That always pissed him off. Deku was always pissing him off and watching Risa extend him the same courtesies she shared with Bakugo? That was a line she didn’t know she’d crossed. Bakugo hadn’t even known she crossed it until they got to UA.

It had really pissed him off when Risa started having less and less time for Bakugo all-together. Though to be fair to her, he really didn’t make it easy for her. During their quirk apprehension test when they first arrived in class 1-A, Risa had displayed her quirk beautifully. Bakugo hadn’t realized how strong she’d become. In fact, he hadn’t even remembered what her quirk was. Energy conversion.

He remembers being confused when she asked Aizawa if she could have Bakugo attack her. The teacher, mildly amused and very curious said yes. He doesn’t remember what the said to him to piss him off so much, but he remembers losing it and hitting her point-blank with an explosion. He also remembers watching her grin and thank him before whipping around and throwing the ball so far that no one could see it.

Bakugo remembers hearing Deku start to talk about how Risa’s quirk worked and he also remembers, very clearly, the smile Risa gave Izuku. It was at that moment that he started to dislike Risa. Or he wanted it to be that.

Over time he began to find reasons to dislike her more and more and, as time passed, she began to want to be around him less and less. Not because she didn’t like him anymore, but because this was his way of saying he needed space and she understood that. Risa took this spare time and invested it into her quirk.

After every trial, Risa trained harder and Bakugo took another step further away from her. The villain attack on the USJ facility. The sports festival. Finals. And then it happened.

Risa watched as Bakugo was taken from her. She had been nearly fatally injured looking for him. Her left hip was shattered and there was what felt to be some internal bleeding from overuse and lost control of her quirk. When she found him their gazes locked for only a second before he was ripped away from them. From her. Midoriya blamed himself, of course, but she also blamed herself. They sat in the hospital in separate rooms, torn and introspective about what they had lost.

When it was discovered that Yaomomo had dropped a tracker on the villains before they ran off with Bakugo, Risa stowed away into the night with Midoriya, Momo, Kirishima, Iida, and Todoroki-- despite her unhealed wounds-- to rescue the boy she’d lost.

Risa’s excitement and relief of finding Bakugo was short lived. They had managed to leave with the explosive boy, but had found themselves anxiously awaiting the outcome of a fight between All-Might and a very dangerous villain.

“You’re next.”

It was something about these words that truly changed Bakugo. It was something in these words that made her lose him again. He began to ignore her presence all-together.

After this incident, each student at UA had their parents contacted about on campus boarding. Risa’s parents agreed completely. There had been a long discussion between the three of them about what had happened at the training camp and because they understood the circumstances of recent events, found it’d be safer for her on campus. Afterall, it was time to get ready for the provisional hero license exam.

Everyone settled in properly and after just a couple days everything felt normal.

Except the fact that Bakugo still completely ignored Risa’s existence.

She decided, one afternoon after watching him storm out the room once he realized she was the only one there, that she would confront him about it.

And here they are.

She had knocked on his door and received a loud, ‘Go away.”

And she could hear it. She could hear all of it.

“Bakugo, I’m not leaving until you talk to me.”

Risa shuts the door firmly, a loud click enforcing her words. There was more silence beneath rain. She could smell the water outside and she realizes that it makes her bones ache. Her fingers press against the scars on her previously fractured hip and she sighs. She had a long discussion with Recovery Girl about her troubles and her quirk as she was being healed.

“It sounds like your quirk requires focus. And it seems like all this trouble with that boy was already affecting you before your injury. Then when you heard he was being looked for you lost your focus completely. You should really patch that up before you end up hurting yourself unnecessarily.”

“My hip hurts every time it rains. Not that it’s rained much since this happened, but I know it used to not hurt at all ever so I can assume it’s because of the rain.”

More silence.

“Your special move training looks like it’s going really well. I’m uh, still sort of not allowed to do much until I’m back at 100%, but-”

“You’re talking too much.”

She feels something rushing through her at the sound of his voice. She couldn’t remember the last time he spoke to her.

“Go away, Risa.”

“Not until you talk to me.”

“I’m talking to you now. Go away before you piss me off.”

Risa clenches her fists and glares into the dark.

“No, you know what Bakugo? You’ve pissed me off! First you start acting like you don’t want to be around me, only talking to me to nag at me, and I was okay with giving you space until you started ignoring my presence completely after your recovery. What the hell is up with you?”

There’s a heavy and deafening silence that lasts for only a second before hands reach out to and grab Risa’s shoulders.

“First you started talking to Deku all the time. You started comforting him and hanging out with him and then with everyone else. Then you started pissing me off with how strong you were getting so fast. Then I saw how hurt you were when I was taken and,” there was a heavy pause, “And now you can’t even work on your special move because you hurt yourself because of me and All-Might,” he quivered, “All-Might’s lost his powers because I wasn’t strong enough.”

Risa reaches out to find Bakugo, wrapping her arms around him once he’s found. There is the sound of rain and, now, distant thunder. She doesn’t know when but Bakugo lifts his arms to hold her and they stand there like that for a long time.

“I thought you’d hate me or be more angry with me,” Bakugo mutters.