⊱ ──────ஓ๑♡๑ஓ ────── ⊰

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" BAKUGO YELLED, staring at the girl slumped at his feet.

The entire cafeteria had gone silent, first, second and third years alike watching him confusedly.

"Y/L/N!" her two friends yelled, rushing over to her in a blur of yellow and red.

Bakugo had dropped to her side now and was checking her wrist for a pulse, frowning at the fact that a girl had just walked over to him and fainted.

"Wait, are you holding her hand?" 

"Shut the fuck up, Dunce Face," Bakugo growled at the smirking blond, dropping the s/c wrist immediately.

Kirishima crossed his arms, kneeling on the other side of Y/N. "She did this to get out of a question about her Quirk?"

"Her Quirk?"

The redhead swivelled to tilt his head at Bakugo. "Yeah. Something's obviously up, if she has more power than you-"

"OI, WHAT THE FU-"

"-but less Quirk control than a newly-manifested Kindergartener." 

"We should take her to Recovery Girl," Kaminari pointed out. "Someone else pick her up, I swear to God, she's almost my height."

"That's not saying much," Bakugo scoffed. "Yaoyorozu's taller than you."

"She's also taller than you."

Bakugo made a strangled noise resembling a keyboard smash as he reached for Kaminari, but Kirishima stepped between the two. 

"Bakugo, you're taller than both Kaminari and I," he reasoned. "So you should pick up Y/L/N - and right now I'm more concerned seeing what's wrong with her than arguing over our height."

The ash-blond bent down, scooping up the girl so she hung from his arms, her head lolling backwards in a concerning show of unconsciousness. She seemed very small and lifeless and Bakugo felt a flicker of worry for his enemy, before he shoved it aside and scowled. 

But the concern worried him - he had a standard to uphold, and Y/L/N had been a prideful bitch. He needed her to explain a lot of things before he could be nice: and it was pretty hard for a person to reach the level of 'acceptableness' before Bakugo started being nice to them.

Stuck in these thoughts, he moved slowly to Recovery Girl's office, lost in his thoughts and idly blocking out the chatter of Kaminari and Kirishima. She stirred, and he almost dropped her, knocking on the now familiar door.

⋘ ──── ∗ ⋅◈⋅ ∗ ──── ⋙

Y/N almost wished she could faint again as soon as she was aware of a throbbing headache directly behind her eyes, but that probably wasn't the most responsible reaction, so she sat up instead.

"What was that, Y/L/N?"

It was her earlier declared best friend who'd asked the question, his golden eyes flashing with brotherly love and concern.

"It was fainting," she responded, like a smartass, dodging the question he'd very clearly implied.

"You walked over to me and fell at my feet," a scratchy, deep voice scoffed. "Don't know where you come from, Y/L/N, but people don't normally just faint."

She tilted her head to see Bakugo leaning against the wall, staring into a cup of (hopefully) water like it held the secrets of the universe. 

"You've been here three times already," a female added, and another head-turn revealed Recovery Girl. "I'll have to write to your parents, and if you injure yourself once more, you'll need to have a serious talk with your teachers."

Y/N understood - she couldn't just keep injuring herself and worrying other people. 

"Sorry, sensei," she mumbled, dropping her head respectfully, though the effect of the gesture was lessened, given that she was mostly lying down. "I won't be a bother to you."

"You aren't a bother, Y/L/N," the elderly woman corrected gently. "But I think you should at least explain your medical history to your friends. They deserve to know."

"We deserve to know what?" Kirishima had been the quietest of the four teenagers, but he spoke up now. "Is Y/L/N okay?"

Y/N nodded at Recovery Girl. "... not medically, no."

"It must have something to do with your Quirk, right?" Bakugo deducted, still not moving from the other end of the room, his voice carrying effectively enough. "You had a really bad reaction from overusing your telekinesis, and you could've flown like I did, except you didn't. Something's ... scaring you, holding you back."

"Kind of," she made a face, tapping her feet together under the sheets of the bed. "My ... my Quirk is incompatible with my body - it's too strong. Telekinesis draws energy from ATP energy, as in the kind made from cellular respiration, but the amount it requires weakens my body because it can't make more quickly enough, causing reactions from headaches all the way to internal bleeding."

"Shit." Y/N wasn't sure who said it, but that summed it up pretty well.

"That's not all," she added. "I-if I keep using my Quirk, not even overusing it, just using it ... I'll end up with Quirk poisoning."

Bakugo swore suddenly, deep emotion in his voice as he whispered something that sounded like, 'fuck, not again'.

"You right there?" Y/N cocked her eyebrow. "Pretty sure I'm the one at risk of dying, not you."

She wanted to take back the words as soon as he responded, "I had a cousin who's Quirk was incompatible, too. Her name was Katsumi, and we were ... really close. Katsuki and Katsumi ... She was exactly like Y/L/N, except she had our Explosion Quirk. We did everything together, until ..."

He drew in an audibly shaky sigh. "Until she got Quirk poisoning, and she- she died."

It wasn't every day that a guy says a girl reminds him of his dead cousin, but it made Y/N regret broaching the 'Quirk' topic at all.

"I'm sorry," she whispered as kindly as she could, sudden fear overwhelming her at his obvious emotion around her death. It must have been ... very painful. "I-"

"What is Quirk poisoning?" Kaminari asked confusedly.

"It's where your Quirk, instead of expelling energy or whatever outwards, builds it up inwards, until, if you try to use your Quirk, it'll backfire on you. It's a very ..." Y/N glanced at Bakugo and rushed her next words. "A very slow and painful death."

"Sorry."

Bakugo gasped out the word, anger for once not prevalent on his face as he ran to the door, throwing it open and escaping into the corridor with a noise that sounded suspiciously like a sob.

Y/N watched him go slowly, before abruptly bursting into tears.

⊱ ──────ஓ๑♡๑ஓ ────── ⊰

thank you for reading this
book and i hope you enjoy it!
~ jazzi