Something About Us

There's something about us I want to say
'Cause there's something between us anyway.

It was a few years after graduation, and Yaoyorozu hosted yet another impressive party in her mansion. Bakugou, not one for prolonged interactions, had barely escaped from Kirishima's iron grip and had gone to the garden to take a breather. He made a point of disappearing from plain view, taking a seat near the bushes and under the moonlight. He'd enjoyed a solid fifteen minutes of alone time, sipping his beer and appreciating the cool air when a round thing bounced up to him, destroying his peace and quiet.

Everything about her was so round and pastel and soft that he wondered if she was secretly made out of a sentient mound of marshmallows from outer space. Soft, bouncy brown hair, the ends of them touching her bare shoulders. Big round eyes, followed by round pink cheeks which practically glowed in the inconsistent darkness of the evening air. A short dress, cream and pink, the bubble shape of the skirt accentuating her bottom (he spent a few good years in UA appreciating that, among other things about her). And-

A modest ring, hanging from a silver chain around her pale neck, its emerald glimmering under the fairy lights. It bounced over her chest along with the rest of her.

"Bakugou!" she called out with a wave, instantly snapping him out of a trance he didn't know he was under. "What are you doing out here? You're missing all the action!"

He grumbled in response. This, exactly, was what he was trying to avoid by going out here. He thought that Uraraka would have the decency to stay out of his way, as much as he was staying out of her way. But it looked like she had more than a few drinks before she went there. "I'm obviously avoiding interacting with the extras, Round-Face. Not that it matters now."

"Aw, you don't mean that~" she giggled. Her weird, glowing cheeks were obviously pinker than they usually were. She collapsed gracelessly on the seat next to him."You're secretly a sap who's happy to see everyone in class~ You're just being tsundere, as usual~"

He gave one of his trademark deadly looks, and as expected, her only reaction was to grin at him more deviously. Well, Uraraka was one of the few in the class who had the guts to stand up to him and his infamous fiery temperament. And they did spend a lot of time together in school, especially in the latter years, so of course she knew all the intricacies of his moods, and was one of the few who knew how to calm him down-

No, don't go there. Don't bring in that shitty ancient history. He rolled his eyes. "Who's being tsundere? You guys can have an orgy or whatever inside, and I wouldn't care."

"Sure, sure~" She put two arms over the table and rested her head on them. She angled her head to look up at him, round eyes warm and soft and a little hazy. Yeah, she's tipsy all right. "Lemme join you out here. Need a breather from all the orgy-ing."

This girl really doesn't give a fuck about anything, huh. He made another pissed-off sound. "Can't you do that somewhere else? Go bother that nerd Deku or something-"

"No." She only grinned when he started making angry, sputtering sounds at her blunt response. "Come on, Bakugou, you rarely come to our class parties, and when you do you always isolate yourself somewhere. That's no way to live!"

He scoffed. "I can live without you extras getting in the way just fine."

She hummed skeptically. "Yeah, you know you love all of us but you can't express yourself very well. I hear ya loud and clear."

"Haa?! Have your fuckin' ears malfunctioned? Did ya hear a single word I said?"

"Ya sometimes look at our class photo at night, whispering I miss you guys, I'll be number one hero soon, ya hear?"

"Who looks at the damned class photo?! I ain't a creep! And what kinda voiceover is that!"

"When I beat that nerd Deku and Icyhot, I'll admit my feelings for e-v-e-r-y-o-n-e!"

"Shut up!" he snapped. Quickly, he reached out to push both of her hamster-like cheeks together with the fingers of one hand so that her mouth won't have room to speak. It wasn't the first time she annoyed him enough for him to do this power move, and them cheeks were as insanely soft as he remembered them. It took a lot of willpower to keep himself from smooshing and smooshing them like silly putty. Despite this, Uraraka remained unfazed, softly moaning mou~~~ until he released her cheeks from the death grip.

Upon release, she rubbed the soft flesh with her palms to return the circulation to her face. They were so damn round, watching her just made him want to squish them again. "Fine, fine, Bakugou. I'll stop teasin' ya. But let me hang out with you out here, okay? I don't like seeing you isolating yourself."

"Tch. I don't need more Shitty Hairs in my life," he grumbled under his breath, taking another sip of his beer. However, he made no move of shooing her away, and instead shrugged his shoulders when she stared up at him.

"Kirishima is such a saint for putting up with you."

"Ya gotta be dead first before they make you a saint, right?"

"Geez, always goin' on and on about killing, you haven't changed a bit… Hey. Hey. Lookie." She had a mischievous look in her eyes as she said this. Out of nowhere, she put her fingers together in front of her and semi-slurred out, "Slow-release".

Bakugou looked skyward-he didn't notice that a full tray of various bottles of liquor was floating in mid-air as they were talking. That tray now gently made its way down their table, barely making a sound as Uraraka separated her fingers. She looked up at him smugly, obviously drunkenly waiting for a compliment.

"Color me impressed, sweet-cheeks. Ain't like the careless dropping that you did in high school. Couldn't have been easy controlling the amount of gravity of a bunch of breakable objects like that."

"Thank you," she replied smugly. "It took a lot of extra courses in physics and years of practice to get this right~"

"... and your drunk ass just used those extra courses to steal these drinks from the rest of the idiots inside the party, huh."

"I know, right! And I totally pulled it off without breaking anything!" Damn, this girl was pretty dense. She slapped him on the arm playfully, a bubbly laugh escaping from her mouth. "So let's not waste my efforts and let's finish all this before they find out~"

About nine or ten bottles of hard drinks including sake, vodka, tequila, gin, red and white wine were on the tray, all of them unopened. He was by no means a lightweight, but he practically felt his liver shiver in fear on looking at the bottles. There was also a bucket of ice, two glasses, a plate of lemon slices, and a salt shaker.

It was obvious then that Uraraka had planned on drinking with him from the start. Whatever drunken plan this girl was concocting, couldn't have been good.

She was already reaching out to open one of the bottles of gin. Looking at how his face contorted in doubt, she sneered at him. "Whassa matter, Explodey-face? Scared?"

"Who ya callin' Explodey-face, Round-Face?! Just 'cause you're drunk, doesn't mean you could just say shit like that to me!"

She splashed gin into the two glasses and gracelessly pushed one of these in front of him. "Come on, drink already. This here's an order from Round-Face."

Given that it was the first time the two of them got together after being legally allowed to drink, Bakugou learned a few things about Uraraka Ochako when it came to alcohol.

First was that she wasn't a lightweight at all, despite how she looks like. Her tolerance for alcohol was leaps and bounds away from her tolerance for zero gravity (although she insisted in between hiccups that this was improving).

Second was that she tended to turn pink all over, and not just her face. She was already pink to start with, but by the time they finished the bottle of gin, the skin of her neck, arms, shoulders, and chest were so flushed, her color could rival Ashido's. When Bakugou pointed this out to her, worried that all that was an allergic reaction or a prelude to her going into shock (because he sure as hell ain't ready to take responsibility for her if it comes down to that), she merely scoffed and said she was fine, this was all part of being Asian and why the hell wasn't he turning red too?

Third, she was a really fuckin' noisy drunk. As if she weren't noisy enough when she was sober. It was like she was trying to be Present Mic whenever she opened that little pink mouth of hers. It was a good thing that the party inside was getting louder and louder so nobody else could hear her causing a commotion. The deep thrum of what could only be Jirou's skillful bass playing, as well as what sounded like Kaminari droning "who likes to rock the party" off-key over and over, did well to keep anybody from hearing Uraraka's voice.

And she wasn't shy to begin with, but now she was bordering into shameless. She got more liberal with peppering cuss words in her stream of consciousness-case in point, her new ramble about her new fuckin' costume gettin' much tighter 'round her ass and the fuckin' papparazzi payin' attention to it rather than her hero work.

"I wish I could tell the media ta fuck off like ya do, Bakugou." She sighed exaggeratedly before gulping down a golden shot of tequila like it was nothing. "I mean, the reporters think you're not hot shit 'cause of how ya talk to them, but you're like the hottest shit that ever shat and you still do yer thing and help people and that's what really matters at the end of the day, right?"

He knew that this was just her inebriated self trying her hardest to pay him a compliment, so he let the unnatural amount of profanities slide. It was actually cute how she aspired to the number of curses per minute that Bakugou could achieve in a normal conversation. "So tell them to fuck off, Uraraka. I mean, yer ass is something to write home about, but fuck anyone who'd rather write about that than the impressive shit you've done," he replied before gulping down the contents of his own glass. He fought the impulse to crumple his face as his esophagus fought to keep the liquid down in turn.

"Aw! Bakugou Katsuki's makin' me blush!… but ya know I can't do that." The smile on her face won't leave. She was so pink, who knew whether she was really blushing or not. Without missing a beat, she moved to refill their glasses with vodka this time.

Fourth thing about a drunk Uraraka Ochako-she was a surprisingly fun drunk. Okay, he said it, he was finally having fun, but he didn't say it out loud just yet. He wasn't that drunk yet, but Bakugou could at least admit that he was having fun watching her make a fool of her damn self in front of him.

"You're not yet done?" he said, smirking as she swayed slightly in her seat.

"Told ya, it's our duty to finish this," she said, pushing the refilled glass towards him. They raised their glasses with a clink, and downed the next shot. "Okay… it's my turn to ask a question innit?" she slurred.

"No, you asked the last one."

"Wha-? Then why was I rambling like that?! You're trynna trick me!"

"Yeah, you asked me what my worst media encounter was, and I told ya I don't deal with the media. Then you went and ranted about them writing about your fat ass."

"Argh! I did, didn't I?" She went mou~~ again, pouting over her glass. "That's not fair, I'm playin' this game with you so I could learn more about you! You ain't saying anything juicy 'bout you."

"I've been answering your inane questions all night, woman. And askin' two questions in a row means ya gotta drink extra, right?"

"You're not being fair, mou!"

"I don't make the rules. Now be a good girl and drink."

She drained the contents of her glass, again without flinching. After a brief moment of realization, she gasped and smacked him on the arm. "Wait, we didn't have a rule like that! You tricked me!"

She hit him a little too hard, and her face looked seriously pissed off, but he didn't mind. Bakugou burst out laughing. "It's your fault you fell for it."

She gave a hearty harrumph before refilling her glass again. "What kinda gentleman tricks a girl into drinking more than he does?"

"Did ya really think you were dealing with a gentleman in the first place, sweet cheeks? And here I thought you liked me 'cos ya can't get enough of bad boys."

"I grew up a lil bit since then," she answered a little more hastily and quietly than before. Okay. Let's not go there, thought Bakugou. Both of them simultaneously shrugged before Uraraka spoke up again. "Just ask your question already, ya damned cheater."

Bakugou hummed for one long moment. That emerald ring dangling around her neck flashed ostentatiously in his line of sight, as if daring him to ask the questions lingering at the back of his mind-the uncomfortable, annoying questions that simmered there the moment he saw her on the other side of the ballroom, talking with the Frog and Glasses and that damned green-haired nerd who she had wrapped around her arm.

But did he even want to know the answers? He raised his eyes away from that stupid ugly ass ring and asked, "What other tricks have you learned with that quirk of yours?"

He didn't notice before, but Uraraka was staring up into his face intensely-might have even noticed his eyes on the gem around her neck. She took one small, contemplative breath before answering, "It's hard and I haven't figured out yet, but I really wanna manipulate gravity in reverse. Ya know… double the weight of an object instead of bringing it to zero. Need ta work hard to achieve that."

He couldn't think of a follow-up question, and Uraraka didn't seem too interested in talking about her quirk. They gulped down their next shots in silence. Bakugou poured their next shots.

"So, it's my turn, isn't it?" Uraraka smiled that bright smile again, although this time around, it seemed a little… forced.

"Fire away, Uraraka."

She took a deep breath. He was close enough to her to hear the apprehensive tremor of her soft voice that came along with it. "S-since then, Bakugou…"

The blonde suppressed a long-suffering sigh. He knew he was going to ask something related to that. All that liquid courage that she ingested for the past hour wasn't enough. She trailed off into an awkward, dark silence in the next instant, only snapping out of it when Bakugou asked gruffly, "Since when, Round Face? Spit it out."

"Since… you know." She gestured vaguely to the two of them, her face turning scarlet. "D-did you have… anyone else?"

She shut her eyes tightly and puffed her cheeks in a breath-hold, out of embarrassment or in an attempt to brace herself, he didn't know.

Bakugou finally let the sigh that was building up from within him go. They really were gonna go there, huh? Who knows what that girl would gain from a useless conversation like this. "Nope," he answered nonchalantly.

She released the air within her cheek pouches and looked at him with a shocked expression on her face. "R-really?"

It was almost insulting how shocked she looked. When he shrugged, she flailed her arms around frantically. "B-but those shows-those magazines… I mean, all those girls from your hero agency, all those rumors. None of that is real?"

"Nope." He drank another shot. This time, he couldn't stop flinching as the liquid drained in his throat and joined the mess inside his stomach.

"C-come on, you could explain yourself a little bit more…" He couldn't describe the expression on her face. If she was expecting to feel relieved or vindicated hearing his answers, it certainly didn't show on her face.

"Why should I?" He raised a skeptical eyebrow at her, making her sputter in confusion. "… Anyway, you should know why. We talked about this too many fuckin' times in the past, you know."

He meant his voice to sound harsher than the stupid, wistful tone it adapted instead. Uraraka's mouth quivered stubbornly as she stared him down. "But that's five years ago. Are you telling me that your reasons are the same up 'til now? Are you telling me that after we… we… we fell apart, you've been alone, and-"

"That's too many fucking questions, Pink Cheeks. And what the fuck does it matter to you, huh?!"

She downed another glass as if it were water and slammed it down the table, making the bottles clink noisily against the glass surface of the table. "Katsuki, just answer the question."

The way she said his given name-without all the fussy honorifics, without any hint of fear or loathing, just longing-was so damn nostalgic, something uncomfortable welled up within his chest. She looked at him as if nothing else mattered than his answer.

"Fuck…" he grumbled. All things considered, he should be the one who's pissed off, not her. She was the one who was fuckin' glowing while she was showing off that damn ring to the rest of the world, but here she was, intruding into his quiet solitary life life and making a scene. He inhaled audaciously, running a nitroglycerin-laden palm through his messy hair, trying very hard not to make things explode right there and then. "Ya heard me. I wouldn't have said that shit to you if I wasn't fuckin' serious, you fuckin' idiot."

"S-so you're still pushing people away." Fresh globules of tears started to drip from the corners of her round eyes. Again. This is the part he hated. Tears and sadness and Uraraka shouldn't mix, but they always seem to mix whenever he's involved. "There's no room for anybody else but you there…"

"What did you want to hear anyway? Did you want me to be involved with some other chick?" he snapped.

"Yes! No! I don't know!"

"Well which is it?!"

"Fuck if I know! Forget it, Katsuki!" she declared, standing up from her seat unceremoniously, toppling over the half-consumed bottle of tequila next to her elbow. She turned around, apparently fully intending to run away. In the back of his mind, he knew that it made more sense for him to let her go. She was confused, probably out of her mind, and obviously fuckin' hurt over ancient history.

But Bakugou Katsuki was an idiot. And he was probably already drunk. And, drunken idiot that he is, he didn't let her go, but instead reached out and clamped one strong hand over her arm and pulled her to face him.

Her face was still red, cheeks still damp, mouth still quivering and whimpering. Her eyes, clearer than before, alternated tumultuously between shame and hurt.

"Fuck, Ochako. What the hell do you want from me?" he heard himself ask, in a voice so surprisingly gentle that he barely recognized himself.

She inhaled deeply then, staying silent, but the sound of her breath made him remember.

Bakugou Katsuki had always been loud and strong and fearsome and brave, but he always, always had one foot in the grave. The sludge monster was the first, the League of Villains was next, and it never stopped there. It was ridiculous how many evil people wanted to corrupt his fire, even daring to destroy the things they thought he loved.

It's fuckin' stupid, because Bakugou Katsuki wasn't even sure he was capable of love. Not even then, when he felt the first twinge of want in his chest as he watched her fight. When he first let her touch him and make him feel like floating, even without using her quirk. When he lost all impulse to yell or growl or show any hint of anger when she entered his line of sight. When she said, you know there's something about us, and he agreed, and he first felt her mouth on his, and it felt perfect.

When he told her, after another attempt on his life and integrity, after she spent days in absolute hellish despair because she couldn't do anything, after she spent so long crying over his hospital bed because he wouldn't wake up, that he couldn't do this to her. He was the one who's been through hell and back, but why was it worse than hell to watch her cry over him?

No, he really couldn't do this to her, not to Uraraka Ochako. Or to anybody else, for that matter. Not anymore.

If that was really love, who the fuck needs that stupid shit? Because it fucking hurts.

"I'm… terrible… aren't I? I'm the one who couldn't make up my mind, and yet…"

Her weak voice cut through him like a knife. As she faced him, one hand went to fiddle with the ring around her neck. Soon, it was floating in front of her face as she thoughtlessly activated her quirk.

He watched her eyes move from the emerald to his own. Shades of red and green shone over her pupils.

Somehow, she let the ring and chain slowly float up and over her head and into the night air. Slowly, he watched as she leaned in closer to him, the heady smell of alcohol and peonies and starlight and her getting stronger and stronger.

You know, Katsuki, there's something about us-

Her lips gently and chastely made contact with his own, and once more he felt like flying.

He wanted to-needed to hold her closer, to feel her closer to him. He needed to affirm her existence, that she was real and he was real and that he could pretend that all the stupid shit that happened in the past didn't hurt or didn't matter anymore. Something in his chest tingled, his pulse quickened, his tongue reveled in the familiar taste of her. His mouth opened slightly, wanting to taste more, and his hands went up, wanting to touch her skin, and yet…

And yet, he didn't. Because he was still Bakugou Katsuki, and he was strong and fierce and brave and needlessly dangerous, and Uraraka Ochako deserved better.

They separated after a moment that felt both too long and too short. He breathed in and breathed out, trying to ignore the ache in his chest as he forced himself to step away.

"I… I can't fuck you over like that again, Ochako."

Even though he needed her more than anything.

"I knew you'd say that."

She smiled at him again, her face full of sorrow. She looked up-the ring was still within her line of sight, surprisingly. She put her fingers together and whispered, release.

The ring and chain fell into her open palm with a light clink. Bakugou couldn't stand to see it, even when she closed her hand over it, hiding the jewel from his line of sight.

As if on cue, a familiar, bright, grating voice called out to her from the distance. "Uraraka-san! There you are!"

Nobody but Deku could sound so bouncy and annoying as that. Bakugou had seen enough of him in the news to know that he was getting stronger and stronger, yet his green hair and green eyes were had the same innocent optimistic energy as it did years ago. He was half-jogging as he made his way to where Uraraka was, but slowed down abruptly when he saw who was with her. "Oh-Kacchan! You're here too!"

Uraraka took two more steps away from Bakugou as the green-haired hero approached them. Seeing the look on their faces, he started stammering awkwardly. "D-did I interrupt you two? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, but we were having so much fun inside and I couldn't find you guys and people were starting to strip and I didn't know what to do, and-"

"Stop yammerin', fuckin' Deku! Damn!" growled Bakugou, and as always that was all he needed for Midoriya to stop blabbering.

The tense atmosphere now fading, Uraraka managed a chuckle. "It's fine, Deku-kun, you didn't interrupt anything. More importantly, people are starting to strip, you say?"

Seeing her brighten up again, Midoriya reverted back to his cheesy grin. "W-well… when I left, yeah… I was pretty sure Kirishima, Kaminari, and Sero were getting to that point…" He tilted his head and stared at her neck. "Um… Uraraka-san, your ring…"

"What? Oh." She held out the hand that was holding her jewelry, making Midoriya sigh in relief. "Yeah… I thought I lost it. Just when I thought I couldn't find it, Bakugou-kun helped me focus and... well, here it is," she said, grinning as she let the stone glimmer in her hand.

Whether or not that damned nerd heard the same downward lilt to her voice, Bakugou didn't know, but he acted as if he didn't. "That's great… I'd feel bad if you lost it before we could resize it. So you could finally wear it."

"Yeah… that'd be great…" Her bare fingers tapped each other restlessly.

Fuck this. "Oi. Get yer damned head out of the clouds and get outta here! This fuckin' nerd's gonna get cobwebs waiting for yer ass!"

He growled and stomped and made a scene until she started squealing and comically bounced back to where the rest of the party was, Midoriya in tow. He looked at their backs, trying to convince himself that they actually looked… decent together. That maybe she could learn to be happy with him, eventually.

… even when, moments later, he caught green eyes looking back at him with doubt and unease.

Later on, as expected, Bakugou Katsuki left the rabble and went to his home, feeling more light-headed and messed up and more hollow than he expected. Trying not to wonder whether she felt as hollow, even with that mismatched ring around her finger, he stumbled into his futon and succumbed to a restless sleep.

- end -

AN: I'm not entirely happy with this to be honest but since I got into BNHA I got really obsessed with Kacchako and after listening to Daft Punk and the beautiful cover by Balance and the Traveling Sounds, I can't get the idea of writing fic inspired by the song. Comments (even harsh ones) are encouraged to help me improve. :)