A/N: This is my first Kacchako fic, and also my first fic in the BNHA universe. I had a lot of fun writing this, so I hope you guys enjoy! (Also, there is a lot of cursing. Because Bakugo.)
My eternal thanks go to TipsyRaconteur for pushing this idea into my skull and then beta'ing it as well, and to auroskhai for getting me into this ship. You're both fantastic.
Somewhere along the way, Bakugo had fucked up.
He'd been wandering the city streets on patrol, looking for some villain to show up so that he could kick their ass, when someone short had run into him from behind. He'd immediately turned to yell at the person to watch where they were going, but there was no one there.
"At least say you're fucking sorry before running away, damn it!" Bakugo yelled down the near-empty street, glaring at nothing before turning back around. He let out a stream of curse words, kicking a nearby lamp post and then continuing on his way.
As he continued his patrol through the day though, his body began to feel weird. Everything was itchy and hot, and his bones ached as if they didn't fit correctly in his body. As soon as his shift was over, he called his agency to say he was going straight home. He knew that at some point in his shift, one of the villains he'd fought had probably used some weird quirk on him and he knew that he should probably go get it checked out, but he'd be damned if he complained about what was probably just a fucking fever.
Halfway to his apartment, the pain in his body became damn near unbearable. It was worse than the aftermath of any fight he'd ever been in, and everything just felt so fucking hot. Not wanting to show anything that could be perceived as weakness-because he was fine-he ducked into an empty alleyway and ran until he found a large couch someone had thrown out to hide behind.
Bakugo crouched low to the ground, resting his weight on his heels as he squeezed his eyes shut. It felt like the bones beneath his muscles were shifting and shrinking, and the fever only seemed to get worse until finally the pain faded away.
When he finally opened his eyes again, he was fucking confused to say the least. He was closer to the ground than he remembered being, surrounded by some kind of weird fabric, and his ass was cold.
"What the fuck," he went to yell, but his blood ran cold at the sound that escaped his throat instead. As if by instinct he tried to scream again, realizing as he did it that his jaw felt wrong, and when the unmistakable sound of a dog barking escaped from him again, he lost his fucking shit.
He jumped away from the fabric that was covering him, only to realize that it was his hero costume laying on the ground of the alleyway. His eyes darted down, and instead of seeing his hands like he'd expected, there were fucking paws covered in fur, and what was worse was that they were tiny. Bakugo screamed with frustration, which came out as a high-pitched howl and only made him scream louder.
I'm gonna kill whoever did this, he thought to himself, quickly tugging his costume further into a corner and pushing his grenades with his head to keep them hidden.
As soon as that was done, he ran out of the alleyway, stumbling a few times as he figured out how to run on four legs. When he reached the end of the alley he looked around the street, straining his neck up to see where exactly he was. Everything looked fucking weird from down here, but he eventually found a street sign that told him exactly where he was.
He memorized the location and began to run down the streets, weaving in and out of various pairs of legs as he started to make his way to the police station where the villains he'd fought were being kept. One of them was responsible for this, and they were gonna pay with their blood spattered against the fucking wall.
He darted around the corner, screaming when he had to immediately stop in his tracks. The corner was crowded with people, and he couldn't find a way through all the legs.
"Fucking move!" he yelled, biting at the closest person's ankles and darting forward when they jerked their leg away from him.
He did the same thing three more times before the street finally opened up a bit more. As he was running, he noticed one pair of legs stop directly in front of him further down the street.
"Aww, are you lost?" a familiar voice called out sweetly, just before the person who'd stopped in front of him kneeled down.
Bakugo was about to run around them, but skid to a halt as he looked up and realized that the person in front of him was Uraraka. She was wearing civilian clothes, and even though it'd been years since they'd graduated, her smile was just as sweet as it had been when they were in U.A. It pissed him off.
"I'm not gonna hurt you," she said calmly, reaching out a hand to touch him. Bakugo froze for a second, but before her hand could reach him he growled threateningly.
At least that sound is familiar, he thought to himself, watching as her wide eyes narrowed in confusion. Shit, what was he doing hanging out here when he had a villain to pulverize?
"Out of my way!" he yelled, moving around her and continuing to run down the street toward the police station. As his little legs carried him down the street as fast as possible, his enhanced hearing picked up her next words, even though she spoke softly.
"Bakugo-kun?"
His paws stopped in their tracks as he turned back to snarl at her, but she'd already reached her hand out to him. Her fingertips touched him and suddenly he was floating, but she kept two fingers touching his fur-fuck, hair-to keep him from flying away.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing, round face? I'm not a fucking toy, you can't just make me fucking float like this or I'll kick your fucking ass!" he yelled, screaming with frustration when every word came out as nothing but yaps. Why couldn't he have at least turned into a dog that could actually bark?
Uraraka watched him float there for a moment before pulling him closer to her, making sure to keep him far enough away that he couldn't bite her. Her eyes narrowed as she glanced around them before whispering, "Where are your clothes?"
Bakugo's eyes widened at her question, realizing that with all this time she'd wasted, someone could have easily stolen his costume. Or worse, some reporter bastard could have found it and made up some bullshit article about how he must have been vaporized in a battle with some no-name villain. If they looked at the security footage in the alleyway and discovered that he'd somehow transformed into a dog...
As the image of someone finding out what happened passed through his mind he screamed, which came out as a pathetic excuse for a howl.
"Let me help you," Uraraka whispered. Bakugo immediately stopped howling to glare at her suspiciously, and after a moment she let go of him to press her fingertips together. He fell the short distance to the ground, landing on his feet as she said, "I promise I won't tell anyone else."
Bakugo growled quietly, not sure what to do. Yeah, this entire situation was embarrassing as fuck, but Uraraka was just about the only person he knew who wouldn't go around telling people about this. Even fucking Deku would have ended up telling people, out of concern, and he'd rather die from embarrassment than have that nerd ever find out.
After a moment of watching her sceptically, Bakugo scoffed and turned to run back the way he came. He didn't look back to see if she was following him, and when he finally reached the alleyway he ran to where he'd left his costume, sighing with relief when he saw that it was still there, grenades and all.
"I knew it was you," Uraraka said quietly. Bakugo snapped his head around, which required him to move most of his body as well, and glared at her when he saw the amusement in her eyes.
"What the fuck are you talking about? How the fuck would you know that," he barked-literally-and growled when Uraraka laughed, cupping her hand over her mouth to muffle the sound. Bakugo bit at the bottom of her jeans, tugging at the fabric with his teeth to try and get her to shut up. He didn't want to actually bite her-well, maybe a little-but how dare she fucking laugh at him?!
"Sorry, sorry," she said, chuckling softly one last time before kneeling down to look at his costume and grenades.
Bakugo let go of her jeans and watched her begin grabbing his costume, grinning with satisfaction as her cheeks reddened when she touched his underwear. At least he wasn't the only one embarrassed by this situation.
"This alleyway leads directly to my house, actually. We can go there," she said as she picked up the rest of his clothing. "No one should be in the alley at this time of day."
Bakugo opened his mouth to argue with her, because why the fuck should they go to her house, but before he had the chance she stood up. His clothes and grenades were in her arms, and she laughed quietly again before turning around and beginning to move toward what was probably her home.
"Oi, hold the fuck up, Round Face-" he yelled, cutting himself off as he realized that he couldn't exactly argue with her when all she heard were barks. He couldn't exactly leave his costume out in the open for someone else to find, either. His only option was to go with her.
Growling under his breath, he ran to catch up with her, his little legs struggling to keep up with her pace at a normal walk. Following someone else had never exactly sat well with him so he ran in front of her, pretending he knew where he was going. Occasionally he glanced back to make sure that he hadn't lost her, but for the most part she seemed unperturbed by him leading the way.
"Bakugo-kun," she hissed quietly after a few moments. He stopped walking to turn around, only to realize that she'd stopped a few houses back.
Uraraka moved into the small back yard, leaving the gate open just enough for him to slip through. He watched as she made his grenades float while she unlocked the door, only moving to follow her when she finally entered her house.
He cursed under his breath the entire way, letting out little sullen 'woofs' as he slipped into her house just in time to see her place his costume and grenades on the small table in the kitchen they'd walked into. She moved into the dining room, touching a heavy bookcase and making it float before pushing it into the kitchen and dropping it behind the door. He noticed that she left the back door open just enough that he'd be able to slip through it if need be, which meant that she'd placed the bookcase behind the door to make sure no one could just break in. He was almost grateful; he'd rather die than shit in the grass, but it'd be even worse if he had to ask first.
"Are you hungry?" Uraraka asked, glancing at him once before walking across the small kitchen to open the fridge.
Yes, he was, but he wasn't about to tell her that. Not like he could, but that was beside the point.
Uraraka placed a finger on her chin and hummed as she scanned the contents of her fridge. "I wonder if you can still eat normal things, or if you'll die if I feed you onions," she murmured out loud. Bakugo had no idea, so he just scowled from his place down on the floor.
After humming a bit longer, Uraraka seemed to have made a decision. Bakugo watched as she pulled out a few ingredients from the fridge, placing them on the counter before grabbing a cutting board and a knife that had been hanging from a magnet on her wall.
When she started cutting a few ingredients, Bakugo grew curious and slightly worried. He didn't remember her being a good cook at any point in time, and he wasn't exactly too keen on the idea of dying, especially while he was a dog.
He jumped onto the kitchen chair, then the table, and finally onto the counter where she'd finished cutting the ingredients. His eyes followed her every movement as she cooked some kind of chicken stir fry, not failing to notice that she made a small portion with no onions, dumping it onto a plate before cooking what he could only guess was her portion with onions.
After plating her portion, Uraraka grabbed both of the plates and brought them into the living room. Bakugo's stomach growled as he followed her, watching as she sat down on one end of the couch and placed his plate on the center cushion beside her. He jumped onto the other end of the couch, sniffing at the plate in front of him before moving away from it. It smelled delicious, but he would be damned if he ate directly from the plate.
Uraraka turned the TV on to some fighting show he'd seen clips of a few times, his eyes narrowing as he watched the large ring full of people battling each other with their quirks. He wondered why she watched this shit, but just as the thought entered his brain, she spoke up.
"I watch this to get ideas for how to better use my quirk against powerful villains."
Bakugo scoffed and turned away from the TV, his eyes landing on her. There was a soft smile on her face that did weird fucking things to his stomach-really, it was probably just that he was hungry-but then she turned her attention back to the TV and started eating.
He hated the idea of eating from a plate like a fucking dog, but when he realized that her eyes hadn't left the TV once yet, his stomach growled again. If she didn't see him eating from a plate, then she couldn't tell anyone about it, right? Not that she would do that, not after she'd promise to keep quiet.
Bakugo sighed and finally gave in, inching closer to the plate and biting hesitantly on a chunk of chicken. It was hard to figure out how to chew properly at first but he figured it out quickly enough. He wasn't sure if his taste buds were weird right now for obvious reasons, or if she'd actually improved at cooking since their days at U.A., but the food was somehow just as delicious as it had smelled.
After he finished eating, he sighed and moved to the far end of the couch, his eyes shifting to the TV begrudgingly. He laid down, half-assed watching the show as his eyelids slowly grew heavy.
The next time he was aware of things around him, Uraraka was standing from the couch and turning the TV off. His eyes lifted to watch her as she stretched her arms above her head before she picked up the plates and moved into the kitchen. He heard her place the plates down, probably in the sink, and perked up a bit when she moved to stand in front of where he lay on the couch.
"I'm heading to bed, but we'll figure out what happened to you in the morning, okay?" she asked. Bakugo huffed and rolled his eyes, which was surprisingly hard to do as a dog. Uraraka smiled and reached out to pet his head, which he responded to by growling and snapping his teeth. She just laughed and said, "Come on, I had to."
Bakugo watched as she turned to walk down the hallway that seemed much longer than it probably was. When she reached her door, she turned around and said, "Goodnight Bakugo-kun," before going into her room.
Once again, she didn't shut the door all the way, and he wondered why the fuck she trusted him this much. He hadn't exactly been nice to her when they were at U.A., and even though he'd treated her the same way he'd treated everyone, he was well aware of the fact that he was sometimes a complete asshole. Yeah, he hadn't given her any reason to not trust him, but he also hadn't exactly done anything to earn it. And more importantly…
How the hell did she know it was me? he wondered to himself as he yawned.
He could figure out the answer to that when he was finally back to his human form, but right now all he wanted to do was sleep. He curled into a ball, shutting his eyes and falling asleep again quickly.
When he woke up the next time, it wasn't because there was movement around him. It was because it was fucking cold.
Bakugo shivered and readjusted himself to curl into a tighter ball, trying to fight away the cold, but it didn't help at all. The wind blowing in from the slightly open back door was making the temperature in the room drop, and he didn't know if he had the strength to go and shut it.
From down the hall he heard Uraraka snore softly, and immediately perked up. He wasn't sure if it was the sleepiness or the need to get away from the cold that was altering his judgement, but he immediately jumped off of the couch and trotted down the hallway to her room. Without thinking, he jumped up into her bed and curled himself against her warm back.
His movements must have woken her up, because she rolled over and cracked her eyes open. She smiled softly and touched his hair-not fur, damnit-and lifted the covers to place them over his body.
Bakugo watched her sleepily, running his eyes along her face and taking in the subtle changes that were there from the last time he'd seen her. Her face was as round as ever, but there was something about the soft flush of her cheeks and the way she smiled at him that made him realize that over the years since they'd graduated, she'd definitely matured.
Uraraka pulled her hand out of his hair and whispered, "Goodnight," before rolling over so that her back was facing him again.
He didn't fall back to sleep right away, wondering if this was really such a good idea. For a moment he thought about going back to the living room, but the warmth of her back was too inviting to pass up, and she had pulled the covers over him. She obviously didn't mind that he was in her bed right now.
Bakugo shifted slightly closer to her under the covers, nuzzling his nose into her upper back and breathing in her scent that was so strong and yet so relaxing. He sighed, completely content for possibly the first time in his entire life, and feel back to sleep.
When Bakugo woke up the next day, everything felt... off. His bones felt like they'd grown overnight, and when he shifted slightly, he felt the bed sheet against his bare leg. There were too many birds outside of his window, and for some reason there was light creeping into the room, if the small patch of warmth on his face was anything to judge by.
Bakugo frowned as he slowly started to wake up more, wondering why the hell light was coming in through his blackout curtains, and why he wasn't wearing his normal pajama pants in bed. After another moment, he breathed in deeply, realizing by the smell that he wasn't alone.
His eyes flew open and he stared down at the woman who was sleeping with her face nestled beneath his chin. For some reason, his arm was wrapped around her waist, and her hand was resting on his chest with her thumb sticking out.
As he looked at the small pad on the thumb, the night before came back to him all at once. His heart hammered in his chest as he realized that he'd woken up with the feeling of his bones stretching because they had stretched. Last night, he'd fallen asleep against Uraraka's back as a small dog, but now he was suddenly very human, very close to her, and also very fucking naked.
As if sensing that he was awake, Uraraka moved slightly in her sleep, pressing closer to him and inhaling his scent. A soft smile pulled at her lips as she sighed, nuzzling against his chest. Then her body suddenly tensed up, and her eyes snapped open. She backed away from him, her eyes rising to his face as her already pink cheeks flushed a bright shade of red.
"Bakugo-kun… You're normal again," she murmured. Bakugo never thought that he'd ever be grateful to be called normal, but when the other option was being a small dog, normal didn't seem too bad.
"Damn right I am," he answered, grinning as he watched her eyes dart down to the sheets, as if finally remembering that he was naked. Uraraka was more nervous and flustered than he'd ever seen her, but he stayed where he was. There were more important things to focus on. "How did you know?"
Uraraka blinked, her brows knitting together with confusion as she asked, "How'd I know what?"
"That it was me!" he yelled suddenly, causing her to squeak with surprise. God it felt good to actually yell again.
"You mean… when you were…?" she trailed off, but he knew what she wanted to say.
Bakugo growled a perfectly human growl and said, "Of course! What the fuck else would I be asking about?"
Uraraka watched him for a moment before sighing, a hint of a smile on her lips. "Bakugo-kun, I spent years looking at your glare almost every day. I would recognize it anywhere." He faltered, not sure how to respond to something like that, and she laughed softly before continuing, "Besides, you responded when I said your name."
"That was because-" Bakugo started, but quickly cut himself off. He didn't want to admit that he'd been internally freaking out.
Uraraka smiled at him openly, as if she knew what he was going to say without him having to actually say it, and he felt his heart beat a little faster. Her fingers which were still on his chest twitched, but for some reason she didn't move them away.
He raised a single eyebrow at her, even though he didn't exactly mind her keeping her hands on him, grinning triumphantly when the blush across her cheeks darkened.
"You know, Bakugo-kun, it was really nice to see you again," she said quietly, mischief dancing in her eyes as she chuckled softly. "Also, you make a really cute pomeranian."
Bakugo felt his heart stop as he gaped at her, watching the expression on her face for any hint that she was lying. She was still nervous, but her eyes told him that she was telling the truth.
"A CUTE FUCKING WHAT?!"
A/N: Thank you all for reading my weird little fic! :D