This story is more or less a crack fic to satisfy my desire for combining fluff and Bakugo, but I also kind of wanted to give our problematic fave a chance to mature on his journey to becoming a hero through a different sort of experience. Or in other words, a series of loosely interconnected drabbles in which Bakugo grows up thanks to the support of one little kid. Hope you enjoy! PLUS ULTRA! (Lol, feel free to slap me for that..)

A stone skittered along along the pavement. It clicked and clattered as it rolled, hopping over a crack in the road until it slowed to a stop. A few seconds later it was sent flying once again by the tip of a brown shoe.

Bakugo huffed, aimlessly glaring at the ground beneath him. As far as shitty days went then this one really took the cake. Not only had Deku made him look like a complete idiot in front of the class, in front of All Might no less, but he had also tried to give him some dumb ass explanation about his fucking quirk. It pissed him off― a kind of anger that welled up in his chest more so than his head and made it hard to reach his hands, made it hard to vent in the violent way he was so used to with his explosions. A wet anger that seemed to have direct access to his eyes, triggering them to produce tears.

He hadn't cried in a very long time.

Catching up to the rock again, Bakugo pulled his foot back and kicked hard. He barely managed to scuff it just enough to send it bouncing about a foot ahead.

Even now he could feel how swollen his eyes had become with every twitch they made. In it's own right it was irritating, but the reason for why they were that way only made it worse. To further his aggravation even more he was utterly exhausted, and he hated feeling that way when there was still daylight burning.

"I've almost got 'im, just a little bit lower!" The sudden shout caught Bakugo's attention. He stopped and looked up, beholding an odd yet rather concerning sight on the road ahead of him.

Having decided a detour, definitely not in the mood to go home right away, the blonde had cut off from his normal route down a side path near Yuuei. (There was no way his mother would let him live it down if she knew he had been crying.) His walk had lead him to a rather calm and mostly empty journey through the suburbs. The trip had a somewhat soothing effect on him, if not downright numbing enough to keep him from completely raging. The current path Bakugo had been walking along ran next to a river with high walls for an embankment. Ahead of him were a few children; two boys, scrawny and bulky respectively, and a set of legs sticking up in the air on the other side of the wall.

Bakugo frowned. What the hell were these guys trying to do― some kind of bravery challenge? No, one of them had yelled about almost having gotten something. So they must have been trying to retrieve an item, most likely a toy.

Drawing closer to the wall and peering over, Bakugo saw the third child reaching for something that wasn't a toy, but rather a small animal that was stuck on a small ledge that jutted out along the entire length of the wall. From this distance it was difficult to tell but if he squinted then he could just make out four legs, a thin little tail, and a set of triangular ears all covered in mottled black and white fur.

'A kitten?' His eyes wandered over the child reaching for the frightened animal, not liking the dangerous way they dangled above the river below one bit. Rotten lead filled his gut and pitted itself uncomfortably as he watched the kid in the sun-yellow hoodie get lowered another inch, tiny hands splayed and at the ready to snatch the poor creature. Bakugo glanced away and down at the water that gurgled below before darting towards the boy that so precariously held onto his friend.

If that big kid were to somehow lose his grip, whether it be from the fatigue of holding onto the other one's weight, or because his meaty hands had gotten too sweaty, then Sunny would be looking at a fall that was the equivalent of jumping from the window a two― possibly three ―story building. And forget whether this kid knew how to swim or not. A fall from this height, head first, would be like hitting concrete and enough to knock them out before giving them a chance to resurface. And though the current wasn't much faster than a leisure whirlpool at a waterpark it'd drag the child further downstream while simultaneously drowning them.

A new, horrible sensation suddenly accosted the pit in his stomach as the cons racked up larger than the sum of pros. It started by robbing him of feeling in the tips of his fingers, replacing it with an irritatingly light, floating sensitivity. It grew in his toes, too, and overtook the space in his chest and clouded the back of his mind. Vaguely he recognized the feeling as a form of panic, the kind that was a secondary cousin to concern and irrational in most senses. Yet with all these facts surrounding him, supporting more bad endings and scenarios than good, this panic felt incredibly rational to him. It wasn't like when he struggled against that slime monster in a time that seemed so long ago, when he had been terrified of the air being stolen from his own lungs, when he had been afraid for himself.

It was a sense of peril that came from watching someone else in potential danger, an overwhelming need to intervene and protect― a desire and concept that was surprisingly unfamiliar to the one that strived to be even greater than the greatest number one hero, All Might himself.

His feet began moving on their own, the only motive, the only direction guiding them leading directly towards stupid kids trying to be heroes. He'd drag Sunny up himself and tell the kid that he'd get the cat, and once he did that then he'd yell at them for being dumb, for not getting an adult or an actual hero. Just so long as no one fell then this dread welling up within him wouldn't get its way. Just so long as everyone was safe then he could relax.

As Bakugo drew closer the kid dangling by their feet crowed, "I got 'im! I got 'im! Pull me up Zeke!"

Instead of following through with the command the boy that held Sunny's legs, Zeke, looked over at the scrawny kid next to him. They seemed to have some silent conversation with each other, which lasted no more than a few seconds, but when the boy looked forward again he had the most ugliest expression ever etched onto his fat little face.

Pure, twisted delight curled the lips on his chubby cheeks into a crooked smile, his eyes wide and shining with a special kind of cruelty that only children seemed to know how to weiled. Bakugo recognized that look, his pace increasing as the boy leaned out a little further, the other kid crying in surprise as they swayed above the water.

He recognized that look because that was always how he had felt just before subjecting Deku to some new form of torture.

"Eh? Zeke what are are you doing?!" Sunny cried out.

"I heard somewhere that if you put a Quirkless under a lot of stress they can mutate a quirk on the spot. Wanna do an experiment for us, Sei-chan?" Fatty and Twig sniggered as they watched Sunny struggle around. The fat kid let go of a leg and a squeal erupted from the smaller child.

Bakugo was running now, flinging his backpack to the ground and fuming hard enough to get his hands smoking. "Oi! What the hell do you punks think you're doing?"

All eyes turned on him― the visible ones anyways ―and Fatty's mouth formed a surprised 'o', right as he let his grip on the other leg go slack. Twig mentioned something about Yuuei and suddenly both boys were booking it away from the river. That hardly mattered though as the blonde's attention fully riveted itself upon the child that freely fell towards the churning water below.

Bakugo barely felt as his coat slipped off his arms, or the way the muscles in his legs coiled when he jumped over the wall; he could feel the wind though, the mild spring air tearing through his hair and cutting through his clothes. That same air whistled in his ears , battling against the roar of blood that resonated through his entire being. There was rage and fear mixing themselves an adrenaline cocktail as his feet broke the water's surface first, creating a cushion that numbed and absorbed the shock of impact. Millions and millions of little bubbles coalesced around him as he sunk. But, when he opened his eyes to the underwater realm, the worst thing he felt as he tried to find the kid in the yellow hoodie, was desperation.

The water was murky enough that he couldn't see very far ahead, and already the lack of oxygen in his chest was beginning to burn, so Bakugo propelled upwards in hopes that maybe, just maybe, the kid hadn't been knocked unconscious. He broke the surface, gasping. Blinking water from his eyes he paddled forward, the lead in his stomach turning into a weight that made him feel like sinking as he saw no sign of the little yellow hoodie. Just as he was about to dive back under and try again a pale arm shot out of the water with a shaking little kitten mewling in fright clinging to the equally small hand. Seconds later the dark head of the kid broke through the surface, gasping, coughing, and choking on water all at once.

But just as quickly as the child had reappeared they dipped back under the water, the ability to stay afloat thwarted by a struggle to breathe properly. With powerful strokes and the lazy push of the river Bakugo glided through the water and latched onto the kid's wrist before it completely submerged, taking both child and feline back into the confines of a watery grave. He dragged the small body towards him and grunted in mild relief once he heard breathless gasps. Snaking his left arm under the kid's arms Bakugo made sure that both animal and child were firmly pressed up against his side before mostly kicking his way towards the high wall that towered above the river. His energy drained quicker with the added weight and only the use of one arm, not to mention swimming with thick shoes like his only seemed to make his movements more slower and useless. Still, gritting his teeth, Bakugo plowed forward like the stubborn fighter he was until his hand was scrabbling for a hold on the flat surface of the concrete wall.

Now to just find a way back up.

Scaling the wall was out of the question― there weren't very many hand holds to begin with, and all of them were spaced too far away from each other. Add in the fact that he didn't have nearly strength to carry a kid up a completely vertical incline, with just one hand, and that idea was absolutely garbage. And, because he was soaked right to the bone, there was no chance in hell of him being able to use his quirk to blast his way up. The only other option was to let the current carry them to an outlet, but Katsuki didn't have the luxury or patience to wait for something like that.

They slowly inched their way further downstream and Sunny coughed and spluttered against his shoulder, the noise itself growing weaker at the same rate they were going limp. Bakugo's arm tightened around the kid and he tried to shake them a little.

"Hey, don't fall asleep!" he barked. The kid groaned in response, followed by a shiver.

"Shit," he muttered. All his life he'd only seen heroes save the helpless civilian from the source of danger. Never had it been shown how to take care of the civilian after if they were injured or dying. It was always death defying feats, explosions, and big, flashy battles in which the hero triumphed over the villain. For all the talk he had about going pro, when it boiled down to it Bakugo didn't know what to do when it came to delivering the most essential help: First Aid.

Which meant that he'd just have to hurry the hell up and get this kid to someone who did know what they were doing.

Bakugo slapped his hand on the highest part of the wall he could reach, where the water had not affected the stone and the sun had thoroughly warmed it even if now it no longer shined on this side of the wall. His skin burned on contact and he felt the moisture from the river drying and replacing itself with his explosive sweat.

'Better than nothing,' he thought with a grunt, putting his arm out to the side at an angle to at least get him far enough from the water's surface. Once his explosions had lifted him high enough then he placed his hand directly adjacent with the rippling surface, gritted his teeth, and let the air fill with the scent of smoke and fire as he let off the biggest spark he could muster. They shot through the air, barely managing to flip over the edge of the wall, before tumbling to the ground and rolling like clothes in the spin cycle.

The moment he came to a halt his mind hit a blank spot― nothing of the past few minutes could be processed in this moment. His breaths came raggedly and the only thing that remained even remotely focused in his line of sight was the blacktop of the road he lay on. It was warm and yet utterly cold, with half of him damp and exposed to the consistently cooling air.

It wasn't until the feeling of wet fur tickled his chin that he snapped out it. Tiny claws dug into his skin and a little body squirmed its way over his shoulder with many high pitched cries. The kitten escaped its entrapment between Bakugo and the kid's body and leapt onto the pavement with shaky legs. Looking over his shoulder, Katsuki watched as the kitten scrambled away, only turning back once to meow loudly at him.

'Am I supposed to consider that a thank you?' he wondered groggily, watching until the kitten disappeared from sight. He turned away and looked down at the crown of the child still in his arms and not breathing.

Bakugo jolted upright, lowering the child to the ground and checked their vitals― the one thing he did know how to do. There was a pulse, though hard to find, and if he strained his eyes to look beyond the soggy mess that was the yellow hoodie then he could faintly catch the rise and fall of the kid's chest. His eyes flickered over Sunny's face, frowning at the tinges of blue that were creeping into the pale features. Since it was still early spring then that water wasn't very warm, and the smaller the body the easier it froze. And with the sun going down it was only going to get colder.

Picking the child up again, Bakugo staggered over to his abandoned coat, glad that he had taken that part of his uniform off before jumping into the river to perform his rescue. He draped it over the kid as best as he could before retrieving his backpack, slinging it over his shoulder. Between the dry warmth of the jacket and his own natural body heat Bakugo was confident the kid wouldn't freeze too much, but now he needed to hurry. He had once seen in the news about someone drowning to death after enduring a near-drowning experience. The reporter had said the cause had been a thing called dry-drowning, a case in which fluids still remained in the lungs and caused a person to be unable to breathe. Bakugo wasn't going to risk anything.

Before he began to head off in the direction he had come from― for that was the only way he knew he'd get anywhere to find a hospital ―he spotted a smaller red bag sitting in the spot that all three kids had been in when they were attempting their rescue of the kitten.

Since the kid was definitely a grade schooler then Bakugo could safely assume that that bag would have Sunny's personal information in it― all grade schoolers had a card with their names, addresses, and phone numbers to show to an adult or someone with authority if they were lost or hurt or even both. With that card he could at least have someone phone this dumb kid's parents and let them know that they weren't dead or kidnapped.

Trudging over to it, the blonde stooped and snatched the backpack off the ground, simultaneously flipping the flap of the bag over. Sure enough there was the info card neatly tucked into a see through pocket. Crimson eyes glided over words and numbers, his only interest as of this moment was in finding out Sunny's real name in the events that he could properly chew this kid out once they woke up again.

Katsuki's gaze flickered over the kid again and he scoffed, exhaustion washing over and through him ten times over. It was a feeling that differed from all the other thrilling events he had ever endured. Normally his stamina would last a lot longer than this… Perhaps saving someone actually took a different kind of energy compared to fighting a horde of villains― or in his case, classmates ―and it took more of it too.

Shaking his head, Bakugo slung the other bag over his shoulder as well and began to jog as fast as he could towards the city, muttering one thing to the passed out child.

"Yoshida Seiko, you sure are one dumb fucking lucky kid."