Notes
Welcome to my first Kacchako fic! Pretend there's confetti. But more importantly, welcome to my story for Kacchako Positivity Week! There will be three chapters, for days one, three, and four. I worked really hard to get this finished on time, so I'm very proud :') There's a lot of really, really talented people in our lovely fandom, so I'm a bit intimidated, haha.
Anyways, this is the first chapter, for day one, Fragile. I can't wait to check out what everyone did for this week, I'm honestly really excited. My birthday is coming up on September third, so this is the best early present I could've asked for! One last quick note: the beginning of this fic is based off of the headcanon that Bakugou gave Ochako's burnt jacket back to her after their match. It's not a headcanon I created, I'm not sure who did - someone I was chatting with on Twitter brought it up, though, and I thought it would be fun to incorporate it into this story! Kudos to whoever figured out that it was theoretically possible, and without further ado, here's the first chapter. Enjoy!
Chapter One - Fragile
Katsuki was someone who was rarely impressed. Most people bored him - most people didn't have the drive to interest him at all. But somehow, after his match with Ochako Uraraka, he found himself impressed with her tenacity; impressed with her in general. She was not the dainty little girl everyone had her pegged for. The girl had guts, and the determination to back it up and go through with crazy plans.
At first, he had been aggravated. That was such a stupid Deku thing to do, completely go all out on a potentially wasted shot, who else but Deku could've put the idea in her head? He knew the two of them were buddy-buddy, they had even worked together during the calvary match. Katsuki was uninterested in his classmates, not dense - he was sure that Deku would've helped her. He hadn't forgotten about Deku's books; it was not unreasonable to assume he had mapped out an idea using those.
However, once he found out that it was a plan all her own, just to beat him, he was begrudgingly impressed. He doubted most of his other classmates would come at him that hard, or even be enough of an unpredictable threat to warrant him to use such a high powered explosion.
His arm still hurt.
Katsuki looked at the burnt UA jacket Midnight had handed him, stiff in his hands. He wasn't sure why she had given it to him - it wasn't his, and he didn't need any reminders of a potential loss. He already knew he'd be watching this battle back at home multiple times to see how he had missed her plan. He should probably just throw it out.
He got up, ignoring everything else and heading inside the halls of the arena, intent on finding a trash can. But the more Katsuki thought about it, the more throwing away the jacket didn't feel right.
Katsuki sighed, running a hand through his hair out of aggravation.
Uraraka had earned his respect out there, if nothing else. She had proven that she was willing to go all out against him, uncaring whether or not it was even possible to win. That was something Katsuki could appreciate in a person, no matter who they were or who they were friends with.
She deserved this jacket. For one day, he could suck it up and give it to her out of respect. No small talk, he told himself, just quick and easy. Return and leave. Then he could put this girl out of his mind and get back to focusing on the tournament.
Yeah. That, he thought he could do.
She was shaking when he walked into the room, but for once, he chose to ignore this. Uraraka had done well in their fight, he reminded himself. She had more than proved herself as someone Katsuki could respect, and he would honor that for today, at the very least. Despite these sorts of things normally bothering him, he found himself slightly understanding - it had been a hard loss. It was a loss not from lack of strategy, but from her body not being able to keep up. He understood that frustration well, and it's what was the changing point in his own training years ago.
"Yo," he said in greeting, eyes on her smaller form.
Looking up in shock, Uraraka's eyes widened when they met his. Giving herself a small shake, her shocked expression melted into a gentle smile. "Thank you for such a good fight!" She exclaimed, genuine as always. "I really learned a lot from it."
Katsuki nodded, throwing her burnt jacket at her - the purpose of his out of character visit. Uraraka looked at it in surprise, then looked at him.
"You..picked it up for me?"
Aggressively sighing, he glared at the girl in front of him. To his surprise, she didn't flinch, just held his gaze evenly. He could work with that. "Proof," was all Katsuki said before turning around. He didn't owe her an explanation - he already felt uncomfortable as it was, doing this. Even though it was his own idea.
But she deserved it, he knew. It had been a long time since someone had come at him with that much willpower and drive. Katsuki longed for someone who would put their all into fighting him, unafraid despite the reputation he had built for himself. Uraraka had delivered that. He suspected she'd deliver more if she kept working at it. A body could be pushed easily, built up quickly at a school like UA. A mind could take a long time to change. Truth be told, he didn't really expect many of his other classmates to come at him at full strength, or even want to.
Uraraka was already a step ahead of the competition, in that respect. Surprisingly, Katsuki found he wanted her to improve; if for no other reason than to give him a longer fight next time.
He ignored these thoughts in favor of deciding to focus on his next match. Katsuki was walking towards the door to get out of there and prepare when she called out to him.
"Bakugou, wait!" She stood up from her chair, the legs screeching on the floor behind her. He turned around, scowl on his face. There was only so much of this he could take, despite it being his choice to come here. He should've known she would be annoying like Deku.
"What, Uraraka? I haven't got all day." He didn't even register that despite his annoyance, he still called her by her name.
She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath, before continuing. "I hope we can fight again once I get better. I'm determined to beat you!" Uraraka told him, a glint in her eye.
He grinned wildly at her, but again, she didn't flinch. She just grinned back at him. "I'll kick your ass any day of the week," Katsuki said, sparks flying from his palms on instinct.
"I look forward to it!"
Returning to his seat, satisfied with Uraraka's continued determination, Katsuki was ready to focus on the sports festival once again. He had to plan carefully, watch everyone's style. He had made a mistake by not knowing his classmates quirks, earlier in the year, though it pained him to admit it. He had been arrogant, a surprise to absolutely nobody, but he understood his situation now. He wouldn't let himself return to the field with a disadvantage.
He knew he had gotten lucky with his first match. Uraraka's quirk had interested him from the first day, during the ball throwing test. Despite barely even thinking about it - she barely flung the ball at all - her quirk was already strong enough that she could've let the ball go into outer space without breaking a sweat. He had catalogued that, for some reason, but Katsuki was glad he had.
Heading to the stadium seats, he largely ignored his classmates congratulating him. He didn't need their praise, nor did he really care about it, especially when it was followed up by a meaningless threat of beating him next.
"But damn, man," Kaminari joked as Katsuki planted himself in an open seat, "you're able to blast a fragile little girl with such abandon! I doubt I'd be able to go through with it myself."
His eyes narrowed at the electric hero in training. His classmates didn't notice the sudden shift in his demeanor.
"Where do you see fragile?" He asked, his voice ice cold as he stared straight ahead at the stadium, awaiting the next match. The fact that, after all that, his classmates would still look down upon her pissed him off.
Most of his classmates didn't hear, too engrossed in making fun of Kaminari for losing so quickly but talking smack to Katsuki, and he sighed and let it go. It wasn't his job to defend her, as aggravated for her sake - and his own - as he was. Uraraka could do that herself, he was sure. She hadn't nearly kicked his ass for nothing.
Ochako was on a mission to prove herself.
Moving into the school dorms had been a blessing for the poor girl. No longer would she have to be stuck practicing and training in her cramped apartment, getting in the way of her tired parents. She now had all of UA to traverse and practice in after hours, with all of her classmates and other students to practice with, if she so desired.
Her internship with Gunhead had been helpful and excellent, but the recent incident with the League of Villains at the summer camp had been yet another eye opener for Ochako. She wouldn't let herself fall behind. She had done well in subduing the villain Toga, she could admit, but she had still allowed Toga to take some of her blood. Who even knew what she would do with that. The thought disgusted her and infuriated her both at the same time.
So now, two weeks into living at the dorms, Ochako had set up a new routine for herself. Every Tuesday and Thursday, she would reserve Gym Gamma for herself, and for two hours she would do nothing but train. She was determined to get stronger, to be better.
And despite not interacting with him much, she still yearned to battle Bakugou again.
He had been the only person at this school to go against her head on and to not go easy on her. She loved her friends, she did, but she couldn't count on them to take her seriously in a battle. No matter what she did, Ochako couldn't get her friends to fight her. Constantly, she would explain - how was she supposed to get better if they didn't take it seriously? Bakugou, though, would give her nothing less than his all.
So she practiced. She would become a hero - not just for her parents, but also for herself. She wanted to help people, too. And all these thoughts of Deku that would pop up every so often… She would let them go. After all, he was striving to be number one. If she didn't have time for these thoughts, Deku most certainly didn't have time for her. Ochako had accepted that, no matter how much her heart hurt over it, and she would continue to work harder on that front too.
The one thing she did not expect, when she had started both her mental and physical training regimen:
That the rest of class 1A would become curious.
Her training time was something personal to her, she was an easily embarrassed girl after all. She really didn't need - or want - her classmates watching her and, unfortunately, likely belittling her while she worked hard. Obviously none of them would mean to, Ochako trusted that they would all mean well, but they still would say things that made her grit her teeth in frustration.
That was, until Bakugou had followed Kirishima there to practice with her.
Ochako had slowly begun to figure out which of her class she could train around and have it not devolve into something less than helpful. Kirishima was by far the easiest to train with, she had decided; the red haired boy was either entirely focused on his own thing or giving her actually helpful pointers from his years of admiring pro heroes, similar to Deku in some ways. For someone who had never paid much attention to the pro hero scene as a child, Ochako found that in particular very helpful.
But that was until Bakugou had shown up.
Immediately, the explosive boy looked bored, but she didn't care. Chirping out a friendly greeting, she got to stretching with Kirishima while they chatted lightly about classes that day. Doing his best not to look too interested, Bakugou stared aimlessly around the room, barely processing their conversation.
"Maybe you should ask him to spar with you," Kirishima suggested as they got ready for their session. His smile was wide as he looked at her, eyes shining like he had stumbled upon something great.
"Do you think he'd even say yes?" Ochako put a finger up to the corner of her lips in thought, pausing her stretch to think. It wasn't like she was against the suggestion - far from it, really - but she wasn't sure how well it would go over with Bakugou.
Sure, it was true that he no longer called her by any dumb nicknames, a certain sign of respect. Why he respected her now, she wasn't too sure, but it was far from a bad thing. And Ochako definitely wasn't scared of him anymore. Fighting him had proved that she could face someone a thousand times better than she was and still manage to do something, even if that something just blew back up in her face.
Kirishima shrugged. "That guy? Turn down a fight? Not on his life," he snorted. "You'd have less luck asking him just about anything else."
Ochako laughed, not noticing how stiff Bakugou had gotten at the sound. "Well, if you think so, I think I should go for it then!"
Part of the mental training she had been doing was putting herself out there. Now that she was no longer scared of Bakugou, she found it very easy to talk to him, even if he just got angry. Truth be told, Ochako even found his reactions funny, somehow.
Taking a deep breath, Ochako turned around from her spot on the floor to ask.
Never did Ochako think that it would become such a spectacle. Honestly though, she should have known.
After the first time their spar had happened, courtesy of Kirishima, it had somehow become a weekly thing between the two of them. Every Tuesday, both Bakugou and Ochako would find themselves in Gym Gamma, ready to spar. So far, out of their three fights, Ochako had lost all three, but she didn't mind.
Ochako not minding wasn't surprising, though. What was surprising to everyone was Bakugou not minding.
Every time they would fight and she would lose, he would - angrily, with some insults thrown in, likely to save face - give her pointers and tips for next time. And every week, she would come back stronger because of it.
Unfortunately, now word had gotten out throughout the whole of class 1A about their Tuesday routine, prompting their entire class to come watch them that afternoon. Bakugou, despite not caring very much about the audience, was pissed. Having them know he was helping out anyone was one thing. Having them all show up to watch was something else entirely.
Ochako agreed, leading to their current predicament - Ochako had offered him an out.
"We can do this another day, or another time, if you'd like," she had offered kindly, seeing the frustration on his face when everyone had attempted to sneakily follow them.
Normally, she wouldn't bother when it came to Bakugou; not because she didn't care about him, but because she understood that to him, being too kind was rude. He treated it as a weakness: to give him an out was giving him an unnecessary handicap, and that was something unacceptable.
This time, though, was different. The entirety of their class had shown up, and Ochako wasn't sure how he would feel about them all watching. They had already given him enough to deal with from their sanctioned fight - Ochako distinctly remembers Kaminari coming to her later that day to apologize for Bakugou's "rude behavior" on the battlefield - and she didn't want him to feel pressured to be a certain way. When it was the two of them, or three if Kirishima was there for the day, Bakugou held nothing back and Ochako relished in the difficulty. It was exactly what she had been craving since their Sports Festival fight.
Thus, the out. She was leaving him free to walk away from this, for at least the day, and come back another time. Maybe start practicing later, or on random days in secret or something, Ochako figured. No reason to have their whole class up in arms about how he treated her.
But Bakugou scowled at her, narrowed eyes glued to her face. "Why would you even ask that? You don't want the whole class watching you get your ass kicked or something?" He asked, voice showing off his irritation.
Ochako eyed him back wearily. She should tell him the truth, that she was concerned about the way their class would treat him if he pummeled her again like last time, but she didn't think he'd take that well. Worrying, to him, was being unsure of his ability to handle himself: a grave insult. Ochako was well aware.
Sighing, she shrugged, loosening her shoulders as she did so. "Well, if you don't mind then, I'm going to stretch first before we begin!"
Bakugou jerkily nodded, before plopping himself down on the floor to do the same. "Remember what I told you," he said, much less hostile then his question before.
Making a noise of affirmation, Ochako nodded, grinning. "I won't forget. Your stretch routine has really helped. I hadn't realized stretching out my hands made such a difference!"
The very first time they had sparred together, Bakugou had yelled at her to stretch her hands, showing her a few different stretches she could do a few times a day. She had been surprised by his help, but decided to try it anyways. They both had quirks that came from their hands, he had explained to Ochako, so it was extremely important to take care of them properly.
If she were to be honest with herself, Ochako had been surprised by the amount of help Bakugou had given her so far. It wasn't that she thought he was a bad guy, or hated her or something; she had long since stopped caring about those things when it came to him, choosing to see him for who he was during their fight instead. But she certainly hadn't expected him to be so forthcoming with information. Kirishima had told her that this is what he was like once you had gained his respect, but she still found it hard to believe that she had. In her mind, Ochako was still a weak little girl, nowhere even close to even Kirishima's level.
Apparently, however, that did not stop Bakugou from helping her out in his own way, and for that she was grateful.
The spar had ended up shockingly different than the last three fights: Ochako had managed to tie. The two of them had been working on no-quirk sparring for the time being, Ochako deciding she needed to be better when it came to Gunhead's martial arts a long time ago.
The whole of Class 1A errupted from where they had all piled in to watch, shocked beyond belief.
"Good fight," Bakugou said from his place on the floor, breathing heavily. "You've been taking my advice." This was true. Ochako had done a lot of thinking and practicing with the advice he had given her. Be more flexible, use your eyes, not just your head for predictions, martial arts by themselves are great but comboing those moves are what's important… It had been almost overwhelming for the girl at first, but she had written everything down and came back to it again and again when she got stuck.
"Thank you, Bakugou!" She said, practically glowing. "You've been so helpful, it's kind of hard to believe." Snorting, Ochako listened faintly the the whispers of their class. Almost everyone was shocked at her performance, which had been expected, but also at Bakugou willingly talking to her afterwards despite his almost loss.
"What's that supposed to mean," he growled, slowly standing up. His breathing was still a bit off, and his body was exhausted, but he was much more excited than he was letting himself show. It had been a long time since he had felt properly challenged, and in a good way. It had been a very long time since his pride had let himself feel properly challenged.
"Hopefully," he mused, voice gruff, "they'll stop calling you such a pushover." It wasn't in his nature to care about these kinds of things, really, but it had bothered Bakugou since he had first heard it from Kaminari.
To him, Uraraka was anything but weak. She was stubborn, and she was willing to push herself as hard as possible to get the results she wanted. In each and every one of their spars so far, she had come at him with nothing less than her all, and every time she lost, she wouldn't get upset. She would sit there and think about ways to improve, ask him questions about why he chose to counter a certain way, or anything else she could think of. She was determined.
And hopefully, the rest of their dumbass class could see it now, too.
Notes
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. The next chapter will be posted the 22nd, for rematch! Oh, and finally, the title for this fic was taken from the song Cinderblock Garden by All Time Low. Please check it out if you haven't, it's a beautiful song.
