He doesn't know what he was expecting when he went down to the kitchen the next night to make dinner.

The only time he'd left his room that day was in the morning when Aizawa woke him up to go to his first ever therapy session.

It was weird to miss class and the reason why was pathetic. Bakugo felt pathetic and he didn't know what to do about it. So the next day after classes had ended and all of his classmates had gone about their day, Bakugo went down to make dinner.

It was around seven and he needed a distraction so he got the ingredients for the hardest dish he could make that day. It wasn't anyone's pick, but he had the right to make whatever he wanted on the extra days of the month.

If the extras wanted something else, they could make themselves something else when he was done.

Kaminari walks in as Bakugo is about an hour into cooking.

He still has around another hour to go. He really wanted to get distracted in what he was doing, but Kaminari completely snaps him out of it.

A hand on his shoulder makes him jump out of his skin and turn around, a gasp caught in his throat.

The other blond backs up, looking at Bakugo with a hint of worry in his eyes.

"Sorry, man, I didn't mean to scare you. I was talking to you and- it's whatever," Kaminari says, shaking his head and waving his hand in dismissal, "I was just wondering how you were. I tried to thank you for dinner yesterday but you just walked right past me like you'd seen a ghost. I thought something was wrong. And then Aizawa came and stayed in your room the whole night."

Bakugo immediately wants to tell him he's fine and nothing's wrong. That Kaminari shouldn't worry about it and he's going to therapy.

But he's supposed to be pushing them away. Actually, he should just tell Kaminari now. Tell him straight to his face that he doesn't want to be friends with him or any of the others anymore. He doesn't really feel much now so this is the best time to do it. He has to stop caring about them.

"Go away Kaminari. We're not friends. I don't want to be friends with you and the others. I never did. Leave me alone. I don't want to be around any of you."

He turns around to go back to what he was doing, but the glimpse he got of Kaminari's expression made him want to turn back around and tell him that it wasn't true. That it was a prank and that he was stupid and it wasn't true. It's not.

But it has to be.

It has to be true because he can't care too much. He can't let himself be caught up in how great they are because they're going to die and Bakugo can't take it.

As he hears Kaminari walk away behind him, he realizes that he's all alone.

His mom is gone and his dad practically went with her. To make it even better, apparently his dad thinks it was Bakugo's fault that she died. That he couldn't save her.

Bakugo's heart hurts at even thinking about it and he has to grab at his chest to make it feel like he's holding it together.

"Bakugo? Are you okay?"

Bakugo stands up straight, realizing he'd crouched over as he held his chest. He lets his hand fall to the side as he looks over at IcyHot.

"Why the fuck wouldn't I be?"

The other teen just stares and shrugs. "I don't know. You just looked like you were having a heart attack. Why did you have your hand up to your chest while you were bent over like that? Are you in pain?"

Bakugo sighs and goes back to what he was doing again.

He came down to relax.

"Fuck off."

"So you are?"

Bakugo glares at the other.

"No."

"You look like you have been for the last few months."

Bakugo has to look away from the intensity in Todoroki's eyes. And, well, also because he's right. He's been in pain for months and so far, he's the only one who's noticed without any clues.

"No. I haven't been. Can you just fucking go? I'm down here trying to make food for you all and you guys keep bothering me. Fuck off or I'm screwing shit up on purpose."

Todoroki really understands that threat as he rushes off. It's almost funny how seriously he takes threats that involve food. He would be down for a fight, but if someone mentions over-seasoning chicken or adding chocolate syrup to steak, he'd break.

About twenty minutes later, with thirty minutes until dinner is done, another voice pops into the kitchen and makes him want to break the damn cooking spoon in his hand.

He came down here to relax.

"Bakugo, Kaminari told me what happened. Are you- did you really mean that?"

Dread fills his chest and he wants the ground to swallow him whole.

Then he finally turns around to the redhead.

"Yeah I meant it. I don't want to hang out with you guys and I never did. Stop bothering me."

The lack of cursing and the tone of voice probably made it that much more convincing because Kirishima walks away without a word. His face had fallen and he looked upset.

Damn it.

Bakugo made two of his closest friends upset.

No.

They're not his friends anymore. He doesn't care about them.

Bakugo sighs, looking down at the food that still needs thirty minutes to finish. He should've made something that would be done in twenty minutes.

It started off fine, but the second hour of this was absolute bullshit.

At least he got to drop his friends.

He finishes up, serves himself a bowl, and heads upstairs, texting Iida that the food was done and to let everyone know. Iida was the perfect person to text.

They didn't hang out at all, but he was the class president, so if Bakugo ever needed to tell the class something, he could do it through Iida.

From now on, he could just let Iida know about dinner and for anything else. Well, if he ever needed to contact the class for anything else. As payment, Bakugo could make his pick three times in the month instead of just once.

It's fair.

It's after he's finished his bowl and lying in bed that he gets a notification on his phone. He looks from where his head is laying on the pillow.

Pinky removed you from a groupchat.

And this time Kirishima doesn't add him back.

~~~~~

Since he's not allowed in class the next day and forced to go to therapy, he takes a nap in the middle of the afternoon.

He has time to kill and since he's not talking to anyone, sleeping is the best way to spend his time. He already knows what he's making for dinner, and although it's not going to take as long as the dinner he made last night, it's still going to take quite some time.

He's ahead of the class work by four weeks, and he doesn't really feel like doing anything further.

Hound Dog said it wasn't 'wise' to cut off his friends because he needed a support system or whatever the fuck. Bakugo disagrees with him, but he does feel kind of lonely like Hound Dog said he would.

There's no one.

Actually no one and he finds himself unsurprised. Like, no fucking shit. He did this to himself. What did he expect?

This was what he wanted and now he'd be able to live his life without the fear of losing someone he cares too much about randomly. Who gave them the right to go off and die and hurt him?

Sleep comes easy when he decides to take a nap. He'd been bored out of his mind before and honestly just felt shitty.

Tomorrow was Friday so he could go see his mom.

When he wakes up, his phone is buzzing and he groans in annoyance at being woken up.

He doesn't check the callerID, just presses the green button and lifts the device up to his ear, running a hand over his face as he answers with a raspy, "Hello?"

Rolling onto his back, it takes him a while to notice that it's dark.

Fucking shit ass balls.

"Bakugo! I apologize, I didn't know you were asleep. I was just wondering if you were making dinner tonight?" It's Iida.

Sitting up, Bakugo curses.

"Yeah I'm going. I slept through my alarm."

"No worries, just checking. I look forward to whatever you decide to make. Goodbye," Iida says before hanging up.

The blond lays back down, stretching and sighing as he relaxes into his bed.

"Dinner. It's dinner time," he says out loud to force himself to get up.

He can't believe he slept for that long. How long was it? He lifts his phone to check and- yeah it's eight.

That 'nap' turned out to be seven hours long.

When he goes down, no one is in the kitchen, but there are people in the common area. He can't see them when he's in the kitchen, but as he passes, he notices the looks he gets.

Jiro and Kirishima are there. They both look sad.

The blond just ignores them and gets to cooking. This recipe should only take an hour and a half.

So, about an hour in, he hears someone walk in and sit at the island, sitting quietly.

With how nosy they seem paired with the silence, Bakugo thought it'd be Halfie. When he turns around and sees who it is, he realizes Halfie would have said hi or just started talking about mochi.

"Bakugo, how are you?"

Said blond rolls his eyes and turns back around.

"I was fine this morning when you asked and I'm fine now. I just want to make dinner and leave."

Aizawa sighs, tapping his fingers on the counter.

"Iida told me you had been asleep until just now. Are you sure you wanna lie and say you're fine?"

The level of the man's voice should not be this loud when discussing shit like Bakugo's mental fucking health, so he whips around angrily, pointing the spatula he was using to fold in the food.

"Don't even start. Not here. I'm tired and I have class tomorrow, and after that, I'm going grocery shopping and no one is going to stop me or bother me."

Aizawa just stares at him blankly.

"I won't talk about anything here, but we are going to talk about this. Hound Dog told me some things that I need to talk to you about."

Bakugo's heart stops and he's filled with shame.

How embarrassing. His teacher knows what he talks about in therapy and what his therapist thinks.

"I don't want to talk to you," Bakugo says, turning around to hide his face. Fuck, this sucks. This is so embarrassing, he can't even explain it.

"I'm not letting you go to class tomorrow either, so we can talk tomorrow at any time before you go get groceries."

Bakugo is beyond mad.

"I can't miss more class."

"You can and you will. You're ahead, Bakugo. This won't affect you and all the assignments are online whenever we assign them. All you need to do is print out a copy or ask one of your classmates to get them to you from when we pass them out in class."

Bakugo knows he's right, but he's still mad. He still doesn't get why he's being punished. He's doing what Aizawa told him to do and he hasn't caused any trouble.

"I'm coming over to talk to you tomorrow at noon. No meeting with Hound Dog, but you're going to have to talk to me about some questions I have. Anyway, I'm staying for dinner. I always hear about your cooking, but I've never tried it, so nows my chance."

As he tries to distract himself, he feels a sort of need to make this the best thing he's ever made because he really wants to impress Mr. Aizawa.

He was already putting everything into this meal, might as well put in some extra work.

There's one part of the meal where he has to cut the vegetables in a way he's never cut them before, so he looks at the instructions over and over and sighs as he looks at the vegetables and the knife he's holding.

He motions how he's going to go about cutting it and nods to himself as he feels like that's right. Then he just goes for it, cutting smoothly and quickly.

Bakugo does that with the carrots, potatoes, and onions.

Just being able to move around the room quickly without being bothered paired with the smell of anything he makes, makes him so unbelievably comfortable and genuinely happy.

Especially when the recipe tastes fucking great and it's actually perfect.

"Hello, Bakugo. Are you making mochi?"

Bakugo sighs and his shoulder fall in annoyance at the sound of Todoroki's voice. Fuck this guy. The blond knew he was going to ask about mochi, especially if they bumped into each other in the kitchen.

He stops his chopping and turns around.

"Does it look like I'm making mochi?" He gives Todoroki an annoyed look.

Todoroki shakes his head. "No, you're right. I apologize."

Bakugo shakes his head, waving the apology off. "Don't do that shit. Just don't ask stupid questions. It gets annoying."

Bakugo is trying to teach Todoroki about social shit. Like how to spot sarcasm and making his facial expressions obvious to Todoroki. It's not really necessary to make his expressions obvious, because apparently he's picked up on more of his emotions than other people have.

The idiot just has trouble with sarcasm and social cues.

If Bakugo tried to do it in a nice way, people would think he's nice, so he's trying in a way that makes it seem more mean than helpful.

Todoroki will understand.

He needs things to be flat out said to him sometimes. Other times, he's quick to pick up on things.

"Okay. Well, what are you making?" He asks, walking up right next to him as he goes back to chopping the rest of the vegetables.

He puts them in the pan as he answers the other. "This new recipe that looked hard to make. Looked weird as shit so I thought it would be cool."

The taller hums in acknowledgment, nodding as he continues to watch Bakugo.

"Sit your ass down, I'll serve you when it's done."

Todoroki turns his body to him, looking at him straight on. "That's not necessary, I can serve myself."

"Just get the fuck out of my way," the blond says, waving the spatula at him, "most people don't like when other people hover."

"Oh- okay."

He was obviously going to apologize, but Bakugo had already told him to cut it out, so he stopped himself.

As Bakugo continues, he sees Todoroki turn around to the counter and freeze. What?

Oh, yeah.

Aizawa is sitting at the counter.

"Hello Sensei, I didn't see you there. I apologize."

Bakugo honestly forgot the man was there. He's too quiet and still. With how sluggish he usually is, Bakugo forgets that he can be subtle and so invisible. Perks of being an underground hero.

"It's okay, Todoroki. I just came to get some dinner."

"It's not a damn restaurant."

"No, it's even better," Todoroki says.

Bakugo is glad he's facing away because that got a damn smile on his face. Of course it's better. As the smile fades, he realizes he's smiling. Again, outside of it being about his mom. He's smiling.

He shakes his head, hoping to shake the thought away, too, as he mixes the food harder than necessary.

"It's true, Bakugo," Halfie says as if he's trying to convince Bakugo. Probably because it looked like he was denying the compliment when he shook his head.

"Yeah yeah."

He leaves it at that, grabbing three plates. He serves Aizawa first, handing him the plate before going to serve Todoroki. After that, he texts Iida, serves his own plate, and then leaves without a word.

Neither Aizawa or Todoroki try to talk to him. Thank fuck.

With how often he gets interrupted in the kitchen, he might just stop making dinner. All that talking is fucking annoying and he just wants to be left alone.

~~~~~

Bakugo is sat across from Aizawa in his office and he wants to run out. He did not want to talk about whatever the man was about to bring up. Especially because the man had brought up his therapy yesterday.

"Okay I'm not going to make this long. Neither of us want to be here."

Bakugo finds that kind of funny.

"Hound Dog brought up that you're trying to separate yourself from the class. I'm sure he's told you, but that's not going to end up how you think it will. Separating yourself will not make you care less. Feeling grief from people dying is necessary. It sucks, I know, but you need to feel it. You need a support system, Bakugo."

Hound Dog said the same shit just in bigger words. Some stuff about 'relationships' and 'connecting with others'.

"You don't have anyone except your dad now, and based on what happened on Tuesday and what Hound Dog told me, you haven't spoken to him."

Bakugo glares at him.

"So he just tells you everything that I say? Great, that definitely makes me so excited to keep going and actually talk about important shit. Isn't that breaking the law?"

Aizawa sighs.

"He doesn't tell me everything. I don't know what you say. He just has to tell me specific things he's concerned about. It's for your safety."

It feels like an invasion of privacy. Bakugo didn't even want to go and now there's people airing his shit out for others entertainment. How wonderful.

The blond shakes his head. "I don't need my teacher worrying about my feelings. It's my life. I'm doing whatever the fuck I need to be a hero. I'm doing whatever I need to do to make my mom proud. You got that? I don't give a shit if you think I'm doing something wrong. I'm gonna do what I know my mom would approve of. And sure, she wouldn't have wanted me to cut off my- cut people off, but she would've supported whatever decision I thought would help me be a good hero."

"And why are you cutting them off?"

Bakugo sighs, shaking his head.

"I'm sure Hound Dog told you why. Go ahead and gossip to the whole staff. Hell, let the students find out. I'm going grocery shopping now."

Bakugo's stands and walks away, beyond mad and feeling betrayed.

He never expected to be talked about behind his back by two teachers. Especially about such personal shit that he thought would be under wraps.

Honestly, he expected it. That's why he never actually talked about his feelings and how sad he was. He just answered whatever questions Hound Dog asked with sarcasm and lies.

Bakugo usually hates lying, but he's found himself doing a lot of that lately. He's got to quit it. His mom hated liars.

"I'm not allowing you to go grocery shopping alone."

Bakugo stops at the door, feeling so many emotions bubble up inside of him and he has to hold back frustrated tears.

"What? It's the one fucking time I get to be away from here and you're just taking that away?"

The man sighs and looks down at his own hands before looking back up to the blond. "I honestly don't trust that you're okay, Bakugo, and it would be reckless of me to just let you go out at such an emotional time. I'm sorry, but someone has to go with you."

The blond scoffs, shaking his head in disbelief, looking anywhere but the man and willing the tears away.

"You don't get how much I need this alone time. It's not fucking fair. You didn't let me train, then you barred me from class, and now you're not letting me go out cause- why? You think I'm gonna kill myself? That I'm gonna go out, buy a gun, run onto the tracks, jump off a building? Which one?" Bakugo stops himself with a hollow laugh.

"That's fucking stupid. You're fucking stupid because you keep thinking I'm gonna kill myself. I would've done it a long time ago if I was. But there's no fucking way, sir," he says, turning to the man completely who's eyes are somewhat wide in shock, "There's no chance in hell I'm killing myself. I told you already. I'm becoming a hero for my mom if it's the last thing I do."

Bakugo's heart is beating so fast and lip almost starts wobbling as he fights back tears. He can't cry. He won't even let his tears well up.

"Your words are very concerning to me, Bakugo. I'm sorry, but I'm not letting you go alone and that's final. Find someone to go with you and send them my way if you still want to go."

Bakugo slams the door behind him when he leaves, letting a sob escape his lips as he walks down the hall with tears in his eyes.

Things are not going his way this week.

***
Word Count: 3610
Yall I'm always busy at 8 when I'm supposed to post so when my alarm goes off at 7:58 I always forget in the moment and don't remember until way later. SO! I will now be updating the fic at 11:30 pm on Sunday. I'm so sorry I feel like I legit have memory issues. Also! My stomach issues that fucked me up for years are back after being gone for a couple of months so guess who's back to barely eating any food and cutting out snacks completely again 😐 anyway rant over. I hope y'all liked this chapter. The next one will go up on Sunday at 11:30 pm central time. I love you all and tysm for reading <3