Dream On, Roundface
Katsuki had hoped that Ground Gamma becoming available outside of class hours would be the perfect chance to get some solo training done, but to his utter disappointment, everyone else turns out to have the same idea.
On the first Saturday afternoon of the term, he gets around fifteen minutes of solitude before half of Class 2-A pour into the room and start doing their own routines.
His teeth clench tightly, but he grudgingly accepts the intrusion. Not that he has a choice, anyway. Still, it isn't as much training together as it is simply being in the same space at the same time. Annoying, yes, but not completely intolerable.
That is, until Ashido opens her damn mouth and interrupts the relative peace to announce her shitty idea.
"Hey, hey, you guys, how about we each pick a partner to have a match with?" she enthusiastically suggests. "It'd be a good way to end this training session!"
Katsuki begs to differ. It sounds like a huge pain in the ass. He opens his mouth to tell Ashido to count him out, but someone else beats him to speaking first.
"I pick Bakugo-kun," comes a light but resolute voice from across the room.
Everyone looks in that direction, including Katsuki, who's rather taken aback that someone would pick him, and their eyes find Uraraka Ochaco releasing her Quirk to set herself down on the floor. The stopwatch around her neck beeps to announce the seven-minute mark.
A few paces behind her, frozen halfway through a lunge, fucking Deku frets.
"U-u-uraraka-san," he stammers out. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"
Uraraka laughs awkwardly, rubbing the back of her head as she turns to look at dipshit Deku.
"I'm not sure," she admits, sounding sheepish. "But I haven't been up against Bakugo-kun since last year's Sports Festival. I wanna go again to see how much I've improved."
Kirishima whistles and leans an elbow on Katsuki's shoulder. In a low voice intended for only Katsuki to hear, he comments, "Badass, isn't she? I'm floored!"
Katsuki ignores the comment and shrugs Kirishima's elbow off roughly, leaving the other boy to teeter as he suddenly loses support.
"Allll right, that's one pair!" Ashido announces brightly, and everyone else takes it as their cue to pair up and disperse.
Katsuki soon finds himself looking down his nose at Uraraka who has approached him. She's fucking tiny. But there's a dangerous glint in her eye that he finds almost exciting, so he bites back the rejection at the tip of his tongue and smirks at her instead.
"Fine, I accept," he says haughtily. "Hope you're ready for pain."
"I'm always ready," she replies. Her small brows are drawn together; her mouth is a grim slash on her round face.
Katsuki finds her seriousness to his utter satisfaction and holds nothing back when he attacks.
The spar ends with Uraraka on the ground, flat on her back, Katsuki standing above her with a palm aimed down at her face. It's checkmate, they both know, so Katsuki withdraws then with a simple declaration of victory.
"I win," he says, his face blank. She was no match against him, but she fought well, and he doesn't feel the need to gloat.
Uraraka doesn't respond, and she doesn't move to stand up. She's not happy with the result, that much is clear from her expression.
Katsuki situates himself some distance away as he begins a set of cool down exercises. He watches Uraraka from the corner of his eye and frowns when she remains on her back on the floor for an unreasonably long time.
She's not seriously hurt. By using Zero Gravity on herself strategically, she had been able to avoid or at least minimize damage from most of the blows that he had dealt.
Still, she doesn't move from the floor until fucking Deku finally approaches her to ask worriedly if she needs to be brought to Recovery Girl.
She sits up then and waves her hands around. "No, no, I'm okay, honest!" Katsuki hears her insist. "I was just deep in thought, that's all." Then she laughs, and it's the fakest shit he's ever heard from anyone. Katsuki scoffs over at his corner.
Uraraka emerges from the girls' locker room just as Katsuki himself exits from the adjacent boys'. Her hair is still wet from her shower, a damp towel is draped around her neck, and a sad expression is painted on her face.
The sight of it annoys Katsuki, and the scowl that almost never leaves his features deepens. "What the fuck is your problem?" He brashly accosts.
"Huh?" She looks up at him, startled.
"You challenged me to a fight and now you're moping because you lost?" He shoves his fists into his pockets to prevent explosions from going off. "What the fuck is your problem?"
Katsuki is bristling. He still remembers the insults he had been dealt at last year's Sports Festival for having shown Uraraka no mercy during their battle. Everyone had called him a villain. Heck, even real villains had started thinking he was one of them because of how he had behaved then.
And yet, despite the bad experience, he had still decided to afford Uraraka the same respect today when she challenged him to a fight.
He had deigned to treat her like a worthy opponent, even though the match hadn't even been his idea in the first place, and this is how she repays him? By walking around with that mopey face and reinforcing the idea that she's a victim?
He glowers. "Next time, if you can't handle losing, pick someone else to have a match with," he snaps at her irately. He stomps away before she can respond.
Katsuki is almost halfway back to Heights Alliance when Uraraka catches up to him. "Hey," she calls out, trying to catch his attention, but he ignores her and walks faster. She takes bigger steps to keep pace with him. "Hey, listen!" she repeats.
Annoyed, Katsuki speeds up into a jog, but Uraraka is determined not to fall behind and follows suit. Soon, both of them are sprinting across the school grounds trying to outrun each other to the dormitories.
Just as the buildings loom close, Uraraka fucking cheats and uses Zero Gravity on herself while running. The momentum launches her body forward like a bullet, and she reaches their goal just ahead of Katsuki. She plants herself in front of the building entrance with her arms outstretched on either side of herself, barring the way.
"Do you always have to be a fucking pain?" Katsuki snarls. He tries to shove past her, but she resists with her full weight and refuses to budge from her spot.
"I just have something to say," she declares stubbornly.
"I'm not interested," he snaps. "Move out of the way or I'll blast you."
It's an empty threat, both of them know. He wouldn't risk getting his ass suspended again for getting into a fight outside of training.
"Just listen first, all right?" Uraraka insists. "I just want to tell you that you're wrong to think that I'm a sore loser."
Katsuki snorts derisively. "You think I'm stupid? Staying down like that after I beat your ass? You weren't even that hurt! You were just feeling sorry for yourself, admit it!" He points a finger at her accusingly.
"Yeah, I was!" She all but shouts back at him, and Katsuki is appalled at the nerve of this girl to be mad. But then suddenly she deflates. Her face crumples, her arms fall weakly to her sides, and all trace of her anger is gone.
"Yes, I was feeling sorry for myself," she admits, in a low, sad voice this time. "But it's got nothing to do with you. It's all me. I'm upset because I haven't improved at all. Even after all my training… how come I couldn't even land a single blow on you?"
Uraraka looks almost close to tears, and Katsuki frowns. What the hell? He runs a hand roughly through his hair as he assesses her.
Is this girl for fucking real? Is she an idiot?
"Are you an idiot?" He repeats out loud, exasperation clear in his voice. The pink in Uraraka's cheeks deepens in indignation, but he plows through before she has a chance to butt in.
"I'm not the same person you fought with last year, so your assessment is invalid," Katsuki remarks blandly. "Did you think I was just sitting around all this time waiting for you losers to catch up to me?"
Uraraka's anger fizzles out at his words. She looks stunned as she finally seems to realize the error in her thinking, and he scoffs.
"Dream on, roundface. You've improved a lot, I'll give you that, but so have I. You're not the only one here working your ass off to get stronger."
Uraraka opens her mouth, but no words come out. Katsuki takes that to mean that the conversation has finally ended, and shoves past her to enter the dormitories. It takes him by surprise when she dares to grab his arm to stop him.
"What the f—?
"Thank you!" Uraraka talks over him, her eyes round with sincerity. "You're right. I was being stupid. Thank you for calling me out on it."
"Yeah, you're a fucking moron," Katsuki confirms impatiently. "Now can I go?"
He tries to tug his arm free but she tightens her grip. Instead of answering his question, she asks him one of her own.
"Will you have a match with me again next time?"
Her expression has turned grimly resolute, and something about the intensity of it makes Katsuki's face heat up a little. He pulls his arm free from her hands with more force than intended.
"Who knows?" he responds noncommittally, but the frown that settles on her features sways his decision, so he adds, "If you can give me a good fight, then I guess I'll go for it."
Katsuki may have enjoyed her frown, but the smug look that takes over Uraraka's face also proves to be a sight he can get used to.
"I'll kick your ass next time," she promises with a grin, and try as he might to beat down the feeling, Katsuki finds himself looking forward to it.
A/N:
This was supposed to be part of a multi-chap story, but I decided that it works just as well as a stand-alone piece.
I'm still trying to write that multi-chap story, but to be honest, it's still a bit hard for me to get my headspace out of The Hard Road. I spent so much time and energy on that headcanon that it's kind of stuck in my head and it's difficult to imagine scenarios that exist outside of that timeline.
I'm trying to shake myself out of it though, which is why I've gone ahead and posted this already. Hope you enjoyed this short one-shot! A review would be appreciated :)