Chapter 1: First Impressions

It was 10PM on a school night and Yuzu had just clocked into her shift. Working at a food delivery app called PostDash, her nights consisted of delivering late-night grub to insomniacs, nocturnal creatures, and drunk delinquents who never remembered to tip.

The PostDash app on her phone blinked bright red with the location of a nearby Thai restaurant, signaling that an order was ready for pickup. Stepping inside the food establishment, Yuzu's empty stomach immediately rumbled as the smell of coconut milk and chili peppers permeated the air. Since rent was due today, she didn't have much cash to spare for a meal of her own. Letting out a defeated sigh, she hoped to come across a freebie from one of the several restaurants she'd be making a trip to today.

"Bakugou Katsuki for PostDash?" a man behind the register asked as Yuzu desperately tried to keep her mind off food. She doubled checked her phone that the name for the order correctly matched her next destination.

"Yup. That's my customer. Thanks!"

"Oh, that Bakugou guy, do you mind giving him this Thai Iced Tea on the house? He's one of our best customers but I worry about him, I don't think ordering a Spicy Level 10 Pad Thai frequently would be that good for your stomach," the clerk added.

Staring at the liquid gold with hungry eyes, Yuzu smiled and nodded eagerly. As she swiped the drink with almost cat-like reflexes, the clerk had a feeling that Thai Iced Tea wouldn't make it to its final destination.

Once she stepped out of the Thai Restaurant and out of plain sight, she tore the straw out of its paper shell and stabbed the orange liquid, taking the longest and most satisfying gulp she could. It was hard to feel remorse when the taste of sugar and condensed milk relieved her parched tongue.

She stared at the customer profile of who could only be a pure masochist. There was no way any normal person could handle a Level 10 Spicy Pad Thai on a regular basis.

"Bakugou Katsuki…" she mumbled to herself, surprised to see a spikey-haired blonde who didn't look too far from her age. The way his eyebrows furrowed in such a casual shot didn't give Yuzu a confident feeling that he was going to be an easy customer to please. Yuzu shook her head in self-chastising chagrin, it wasn't right for her to judge someone by appearances, especially someone that she just embezzled a Thai Iced Tea from.

Taking a deep breath of cold night air, Yuzu closed her eyes and envisioned the blonde boy from the icon of her phone. When she re-opened her eyes, she was brought to the gates of a modern 3-story house with large illuminating windows. It was a nice looking house in a quiet, well-to-do neighborhood.

"Knock Knock, it's a Postdash delivery for Bakugou-san," Yuzu knocked loudly.

The door opened to an irritable-looking spiky haired blonde, not much different from his online photo. His eyes were sharp and catlike and his eyebrows were like tilted bushy shrubs.

"That was really quick," Bakugou's nose crinkled as he took the bag of food from her.

Yuzu saluted him, trying to recall the canned responses from her multiple job training sessions, "PostDash is always offering the highest quality in customer service—" but she was cut off before she could spew her full speech.

"I ain't tipping you more if that's what you're expecting."

Taken aback by such rash comments, Yuzu's tried her best to keep her cool.

"Tips are never required but highly appreciated, but I think it's best to ask your mom for permission before you siphon more of her hard earned cash," she snarled.

Keeping her cool didn't work this time. Running on less than three hours of sleep really got to a person sometimes.

"Are you fuc-," but before Bakugou could formulate his biting response he noticed a very familiar green and grey color palette. A wrinkled high school uniform peeped out of an oversized Postdash-branded hooded jacket. The delivery girl was from UA High School, his top choice for hero school that he was applying to this year.

"You go to UA? I didn't think they'd just accept anyone," changing focus abruptly, he examined her top to bottom with the most unimpressed look, "what's your quirk? Is that how you got here so fast?"

Once Bakugou realized that the delivery girl was a student of UA, his unpleasant demeanor melted away into plain curiosity. A feeling of annoyance crept over Yuzu's shoulders as she scrunched up her grey uniform skirt in her palms. She regretted not finding time to do laundry that week, hence the reason she couldn't find any fresh clothes to wear for her shift.

Being a second year at UA, Yuzu never got used to how kids and adults alike would often stop her to ask her what her quirk was. She considered it to be more of a nuisance than a humbling experience. She blamed such unwanted attention on the unnecessarily highly-publicized UA Sports Festivals that got televised every year.

What happened to getting to know a person first before asking such personal questions? He didn't even bother to ask for her name first! She hated how UA's reputation as one of the best hero schools in the nation painted her as someone that was worth gawking at.

This is what I get for not doing laundry I guess , she scolded herself.

But before she could open her mouth to respond, her pitiful stomach had gone ahead and talked for her. A loud and deep rumble escaped her tummy and a long pause of silence stilled the air around them. It was an absolutely abhorrent situation for the both of them.

"...do they not feed you at PostDash? Aren't you guys a food app…" Bakugou's judgemental tone ripped right through her.

"Look I'm just doing deliveries," Yuzu's hands flailing in the air to de-escalate the situation, "and I've got a lot more to do before the night ends so I'll be on my way." Not wanting to wallow too long in such humiliating situation, Yuzu shook her head and made a quick 180 turn to head towards her next delivery destination. There was nothing embarrassing about being broke, she had to justify to herself. After all, time was money and the more time she spent entertaining this kid the less money she was going to make that night.

"Wait," Bakugou interrupted her stride. He propped open the door wider and a beam of light blinded Yuzu's face like she's been shown the holy grail. Their dining table was crowded with glistening plates of untouched food and side dishes. At that moment it looked like a buffet meant for royalty to Yuzu's very hungry eyes.

"My parents left on vacation today and left me all this food, but I wasn't craving anything other than Thai, so you could have some cause I ain't touching it," he explained reluctantly.

"Didn't your parents ever tell you not to let strangers in your house?" Yuzu asked, biting her lip to prevent any potential giveaway of her overactive salivary glands.

"If you're a UA student then you're no stranger, we're basically classmates," Bakugo's ego shined, "I'll be taking my entrance exams there in a few months."

The right side of Yuzu's mouth bent upwards in a doubting half-grin. She didn't understand how he could b so sure he'd pass and get accepted to one of the best hero schools in the country. The more words that flew out of his mouth, the arrogant aura around him intensified. It became more apparent that accepting food from this stranger would most likely bite her back in the butt somehow later.

But at that very moment, she could not care. This offer was too good to pass up. She paused her PostDash app so she wouldn't be queued for another delivery. In desperation, Yuzu swallowed her pride and walked cautiously inside the blonde boy's large modern house. If where she went to school had somehow led to free food, then she would seize this opportunity with an iron fist.

It was impossible to ignore the clean, well-designed interior of the Bakugou household. The first thing that caught her eye was the multitude of glass display cases in the common room, showcasing more trophies and plaques than she could count. Accolades from school, talent shows, physical tests all twinkled and reflected the warm incandescent home lighting. His parents must love him a lot, Yuzu thought as she took off her clunky boots by the doorway.

Her eyes continued to scour the common area, where she saw a game counsel paused on Super Smash Bros and a picture frame boasting a family of three. At least they had being only children in common. Since his parents were out on vacation it all started to make sense why he had ordered Thai food at such a late hour. Playing games all night without parents telling you otherwise along with eating whatever the hell you wanted was truly the adolescent dream.

"So what's your quirk, show me. You must have something interesting if you got into UA," Bakugou continued to prod.

Yuzu rolled her eyes but she stopped herself mid-way. It was instinctual reaction to feel annoyance when asked. Besides, a quirk should never define someone. She persuaded herself to be a bit more grateful to the stranger that may have prevented her from a long night of starvation. She started to feel bad for downing his Thai Iced tea earlier that night.

"You don't even know my name, yet you want to see my quirk?" Yuzu lifted an eyebrow.

"Names aren't important to me," Bakugou's shit eating grin made her feel small. But names and introductions weren't always Bakugou's strong suit as he was the type of guy to go straight into the action. Besides he never needed to know anyone's name when he just made demeaning nicknames for them instead.

"Do you even have parents? You're incredibly rude kid.." Yuzu asked bluntly as she sat herself down at the dining table, staring at the six course meal that was laid out before her.

She didn't know where to start. Her eyes lit up as she locked eyes on the almost comically-sized pot of homemade Japanese beef curry. She could see just from sheer size how much a mother's love was put into it. Taking in her first bite of the shiny golden curry, she immediately started swooning pure bliss. She felt the pit of her stomach dance like there was no tomorrow.

"You barely look any older than me so don't call me a fuckin' kid" he barked loudly.

"That doesn't change the fact that I'm a second year who deserves your utmost respect," Yuzu stuck her tongue out in playful contempt as she unapologetically shoved four dinner rolls into her mouth. She felt envious of the loud obnoxious blonde for being able to enjoy such luxuries of home cooked food. A mom really had to love their kid a lot to make bread from scratch.

"If you don't show me your quirk then I will blast your ass out of my house, don't fucking test me," Bakugou threatened, sparks flying from the palms of his hands. Yuzu had already figured that she wouldn't need to ask to get a peek at his quirk.

A muffled noise came out of Yuzu's mouth as she continued to shove as much bread in her mouth as possible.

"CHEW WOMAN! Don't fucking talk with your mouth full!" Bakugou berated, trying his best not to slam his fists on the table impatiently.

"Ah, sorry," Yuzu quickly swallowed almost a fist-sized ball of carbs that it almost made her tear, "I said I can show you, but my quirk only works when you close your eyes."

Bakugou returned a look of disbelief. He's never heard of a quirk that could only be activated if not seen. But he figured there were still a lot of different quirks he didn't understand. He shrugged in compliance.

"You better not try anything weird, if you do I'll make sure you'll regret it," he folded his arms across his chest.

Unwillingly, Bakugou closed his eyes shut. Yuzu smiled at how a temperamental boy could be this trusting of a person he had only just met. Standing up, she leaned against the dining table to narrow the gap between them. She brought her face close enough that she could smell the thai chili peppers escape his pores.

"Thanks for the food Bakugou, you're my hero," she whispered.

Bakugou shot his eyes wide open once he felt her hot breath surround his left ear, only to find himself alone in the dining room. The girl had disappeared without a single sound. A dinner plate wiped clean of remnants was the only indicator that perhaps someone had been sitting across from him just moments ago.

Small sparks exploded from Bakugou's palms. He was absolutely pissed.