Chapter Text
His throat was so dry and he couldn’t breathe through his nose no matter how much he tried. His stomach hurt a bit too, but it was barely noticeable compared to his other symptoms. Kirishima was sick.
Kirishima only saw being sick as an inconvenience. He never took care of himself to the extent that he should when he felt poorly. It would usually result in the illness that could last for only a few days, dragging out for weeks. He never wanted to rest, too scared to fall behind, so pushing through it was his only mindset. Well, that, and fighting off the imminent little space that came with the sick feeling. This was the first time he had gotten sick since his classification, not counting the time he had gotten food poisoning. Either way he looked at it, it was an inconvenience.
It was Monday. He still had to get through a whole week of classes. He sighed and slid out of his bed, his sock clad feet softly hitting the floor. Getting up made everything feel so much worse. His vision blurred momentarily and he could feel the mucus going down his throat.
He shuddered. “Gross,” he croaked out, his voice extra raspy. He rubbed his eye with his palm and walked over to his closet to get dressed for the day. Hopefully it wouldn’t be anything too strenuous.
He decided skipping breakfast was his best option due to his slightly upset stomach. He sat back down on his bed after he got dressed and picked up his phone for the first time all morning.
His screen lit up with a bunch of texts from Tamaki and Mirio in their shared group chat. Kirishima began catching up on reading them until he realized just how badly he wanted his caregivers there to take care of everything for him. The messages were only talking about the third years' homework assignments from the weekend, something the two caregivers did often just to let their baby feel included even if he had no idea what they were talking about, but just seeing messages from them while he felt this terrible, made the boy’s head fuzzy fast.
He quickly swiped off the messaging app as he felt tears begin to well up in his eyes. Shaking his head, he stood up and grabbed his bag. He made his way down the stairs and out of the front door of the dorms. Most of his other classmates had already left to make their way over to the main building as classes were starting soon, but a few still occupied the common room.
Kirishima was almost to the entryway.
“Baby shark!”
He flinched. It was already hard enough to hold back his little space right now so anything that would’ve barely affected him normally, was ten times worse in this state.
“How’s my baby boy this morning?” Mirio asked, wrapping an arm around the younger.
Kirishima sniffled and went to clear his throat to answer his caregiver, but broke out into a fit of coughs instead. He turned away from the older boy and covered his mouth with his bicep.
Mirio’s eyes widened as the little helplessly coughed into his sleeve. “Baby, are you-”
“I’m fine!” the redhead choked out in between coughs. “Stop,” another cough, “calling me baby.” Kirishima said reluctantly. He knew that wasn’t what he really was trying to tell Mirio but words were too hard and his head hurt too much and he couldn’t even breathe through his nose. It wasn’t fair.
Mirio’s eyebrows furrowed as he stared at the boy coughing in front of him. Kirishima was his baby. The small request upset Mirio more than he’d like to admit. He hiked his bag up and cleared his throat. “Well,” he hesitated, “whenever you wanna talk, just text the group chat I guess. Have a good day in class, Kirishima.” and with that, the blond disappeared into the school building.
Kirishima pulled a cough drop out of his pocket and popped it in his mouth. There were tears in his eyes from not only how hard his coughs were, but also because he knew he just upset one of the people that really cares about him.
He wiped his tears away with the back of his hand and walked through the front doors, sucking on the cough drop. It was the best he could do for a soother right now.
Upon entering the classroom, Aizawa followed right behind him.
“All right. Everyone in their seats! You all have an important lesson today on the history behind the history of heroic presence.”
Kirishima couldn’t even focus on what his teacher had just said. His head was starting to hurt from how congested he was. Pressure headaches always hurt the worst for him.
He tried so hard to pay attention to the lesson but he couldn’t stop thinking about Mirio and how he’d probably tell Tamaki what he said and then he’d get in trouble and his head was pounding and his stomach still hurt a little and he just felt terrible.
“Kirishima.”
He snapped out of his little trance and looked in the direction the voice was coming from.
“You okay, dude? You look kinda like shit.” Sero said, face laced with concern.
Kirishima only whined and put his head down in response. Sero frowned.
“If you’re not feeling well, you should’ve stayed in the dorms.” Sero stated, bluntly.
“I’m fine.” Kirishima mumbled.
“Caregivers are allowed out of class when their littles are sick, too.” Tsu chimed in from the opposite side.
Eijirou shot up in a panic. “Don’t call Mirio or Tamaki. I’m not sick.” which was quickly proven to be false when the boy grabbed onto his head and groaned in pain.
“Kirishima, if you are not feeling well, I would advise you to go back to your dorm. I can give you my notes from class today to catch up.” this time coming from Iida behind him.
“Yeah. Let me text Nejire to tell Mirio and Tamaki to come get him.”
“No!” the redhead screamed, finally letting his tears fall. Everyone in the class turned to stare at him. Even Aizawa stopped his lesson.
“Kirishima, is there a problem?” Aizawa questioned, raising an eyebrow.
The poor sick boy just slammed his head back down onto the desk and sobbed. It was so hard to even cry because of how stuffed his nose was and how bad his head hurt. He was also still fighting his little space but the crying was proof that he was going to lose that battle soon. This was so embarrassing to him.
“Is he little right now?”
“Can someone call Mirio or Tamaki?”
“I think he’s really sick. Poor baby.”
Everything was so overwhelming. He didn’t know what else to do other than cry. All of his classmates were trying to come up with solutions while Aizawa just pinched the bridge of his nose. He knew how hard it was to calm down sick littles without their caregivers present, and the simple answer was you can’t.
Luckily, Tsuyu had texted Nejire when she said she was going to and not only Mirio, but also Tamaki soon appeared in the doorway of class 1-a. Tamaki’s expression conveying concern while Mirio’s looked more like a mix of hurt and disappointment.
“Kirishima?”
Kirishima looked up, his face covered in tears and drool and snot. Upon seeing his caregivers’ faces, he broke and slipped into little space in an instant.
“Daddy!” the little desperately cried out before harshly coughing and reaching out towards the younger of the two.
Both of the caregivers’ eyes widened and they rushed over to their baby. Mirio lifted him with absolutely zero effort, not caring about the wet patch he had noticed on Kirishima’s pants before doing so.
“Uh, sensei. Is it okay if we-”
“Go take care of your baby.” Aizawa cut him off, already knowing what the question was. “He shouldn’t have even been in class today. You need to keep a closer eye on him.”
“Yes.” Mirio agreed, bouncing the sobbing and coughing little. “I should’ve known there was something wrong this morning.”
Tamaki pulled a pacifier out of his own book bag and popped it in Kirishima’s mouth. The little sucked on it a few times, wanting the comfort his pacifier usually brings him, but promptly spit it out. He quickly came to the realization that with his nose as stuffed as it was, he couldn’t breathe with his paci in his mouth, which only made the poor baby even more upset.
Mirio sighed and continued to bounce him. “Looks like this is gonna be a lot worse than we thought.” he stated before turning around and leaving the classroom.
Kirishima’s classmates all yelled at him to feel better soon and that he was so brave as he was carried through the doorway of his classroom. All the poor boy could do was cry. Even the finger Tamaki offered to him to hold onto wasn’t doing anything.
“Kirishima, I know you don’t feel good, but you have to calm down or you’ll feel even worse.” Tamaki said solemnly.
Kirishima didn’t understand. His head hurt too much to try and comprehend anything and his headspace was slowly dropping in age with every bounce from Mirio. All he knew was that crying was what he felt like doing so he was going to keep crying even though it was hard.
“Kiri,” Mirio hesitated, “Daddy needs his big boy to stop crying or he’s gonna feel even more icky, ‘kay?”
Kirishima’s cries quieted a bit but they were still very prominent in the mostly empty school hallways. The little hiccuped before mumbling something incoherent.
“What was that, Kiri?” Tamaki questioned.
Kirishima choked on a cough before weakly reopening his eyes. “Kiri…” another cough, “baby.”
Mirio looked down at the sick little boy he was bouncing in his arms. “Kiri, do you want me to call you baby?”
Kirishima nodded and buried his head in his caregiver’s chest, fisting the older boy’s shirt before breaking out into another fit of harsh sobs.
Mirio and Tamaki shared a sympathetic look with each other before Tamaki pushed the front doors of the school open to walk back to the third years’ dorms.
“We love you, baby.”