"What the hell..." Bakugo must have asked himself for the hundredth time that day. Sure, he had accepted the terms. And sure, he had received his new trash bin. However, he was a little less than prepared for the consequences.
For the past couple of days, Uraraka had taken too quick a liking to him. Anywhere they would coincidentally meet, she'd wave and smile while shouting "Hi, Bakugo!" In turn, he'd respond with a grunt, scowl, and annoyed "Tch" before dragging his feet the other direction.
"Bakugo!" She would pop up at his table in Lunch Rush and seat herself across from him. "Let's have lunch together today!" Before he could fully protest, Midoriya and Iida shortly came after, also seating themselves in a row opposite to him. Like a domino effect, they'd catch the attention of Kaminari and Jiro, then Mina and Asui, Sero, Ojiro, and Shoji, and so on. The next thing he knew, he was part of a rowdy table and he could no longer eat his lunch in peace.
"Get out, you damn bastards! I'll kill you!" He'd clamor and fuss as loudly as he could, but they just carried on with their conversations in spite of his flaring nostrils.
Furthermore, his and Uraraka's daily hour-long meetings would take casual tones, much to his exasperation. While he would ask about the pros and cons about her Zero Gravity and further inquire about her limits and natural strengths, she'd only ask two questions about his quirk before venturing to more personal questions like how spicy he liked his food, what his home life was like, why he had such a short temper, etc. "I told you to lay off about my personal life, didn't I?" he'd practically bark at her, "Ask more practical questions!"
"Sorry, sorry!" Uraraka would bow profusely, "I'm just curious is all..."
It was like a running gag between them.
When they met during late hours at the common room to do the project and no one else was around, he'd often prepare a snack for himself to relieve the headache from his growing restlessness. These snacks, to Uraraka's surprise, were intricate and fresh. She had witnessed him put together a mountain-sized banana split, concoct homemade rice crackers, cook tempura vegetables, and even bake pizza rolls. She refrained from exclaiming her fascination in his skills for fear he'd become passive aggressive and not cook or bake altogether, but her constant staring and slight drooling betrayed her. During these times, Bakugo made no offers to share but as the days went, he noticed her attention would waver from their discussions and instead land on the snacks he prepared.
Today, he made mochi ice cream. He could feel Uraraka's expectant eyes on him as he pulled the dessert from the freezer. It was one plate of three vanilla mochi just enough for him. Uraraka could not hide the disappointment in her sigh as mochi was her favorite. She also could not hide the astonished look on her face when he laid another plate down in front of her with three strawberry mochi ice cream. "What's this?" she asked in awe.
"I'm sick of your nasty drooling so just eat the damn thing," Bakugo said as he sat in the high stool across from her and popped a mochi into his mouth.
Uraraka could not believe it; The Bakugo Katsuki made her a personal portion of mochi ice cream out of his own will. Her stomach fluttered in both apprehension and appreciation at the gesture, despite his all too crass reason for it. "Oh, um, th-thank you," she stuttered, fighting back a blush. Once the treat touched her tongue, she emitted an inward squeal. It felt as though she was running through a field of strawberries and picking one after the other without a care in the world.
"The hell's wrong with you?"
"It's so...yummy! I haven't had mochi this good in a long time. You're amazing at so many things, Bakugo!"
Bakugo slowly blinked in silence at the compliment. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but decided against it. Scowling deeper, he just put on his reading glasses and opened his notebook.
"You see, I don't really have any luxury to eat snacks like this," Uraraka went on, "Money is tight for me and my parents. That's why, once I become a pro, all of that is going to change." She shoved another mochi into her mouth. "I'm going to make lots of money and my parents can finally take it easy. I'll be dependable and strong!"
"That's your reason for wanting to become a pro hero?"
"Is there something wrong with that?"
It was easy to pick up on the provoked tone in the brunette's voice and Bakugo could not help but briefly smirk at her sudden change in mood. "I never said there was," he said bluntly, "Your reasons are your own. Anyone who says otherwise can go to hell." He picked up his pencil and began to write.
Uraraka's expression softened as she eased back onto the stool. Was that supposed to be his weird way of encouraging her?
Her gawking bored into his skin like a bad itch so Bakugo could not help but throw a quick glare at the brunette. "What the hell are you staring at me for? Sit your ass down and work. We're on a time limit here, remember?" He chewed the second mochi ice cream loudly, his hand still gliding across the notebook in rapid strokes.
She wasn't sure what took over her next, but she then heard herself say, "You know, if you didn't have such a short temper, you'd be a pretty cool guy to hang with."
Bakugo's eyes widened a tad, finally lifting to meet the girl's gaze. After studying the seriousness of her face, his lips contorted to a sarcastic sneer. "Oh?" he hummed, "So just because I say it how it is, I'm not a 'cool guy'? You've got shitty standards."
"I'm just saying you're a little rough around the edges," Uraraka laughed nervously, fidgeting with the longer front strands of her hair. "A bit of socializing wouldn't hurt you."
"You're talking too much now."
Uraraka took that as a strong hint to stop her prodding and quickly got to work on her own journal. 'Bakugo is an angry person, but that's not all he is,' she wrote with a fond smile playing at her lips. 'He's surprisingly good at cooking and has his own way of looking out for others. If he really tries, he might one day be a good leader.' How did he become so good at cooking? Could he make American and Italian dishes just as well? Did his mom teach him? What kind of woman is she? Uraraka wanted so much to ask all these, but knew she'd literally have to pay an arm and a leg to get her answers.
"Oy, you didn't write anything down about my cooking, did you?" Bakugo asked angrily.
Uraraka's hand froze. "Um..."
Bakugo slammed his hands on the counter, making the girl flinch. "I'm gonna kill you, round-face!" he shouted with bared teeth, "Take that shit off right now or I'll burn your fuckin' book! Take it off!"
"S-so-s-sorry!" Uraraka yelped. Rather than frightened or angry, she was amazed that it now took all of her will power not to laugh at the boy's overly dramatic reaction to her journal input.
.
.
.
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"What's the point of pairing up with a girl if you can't even see her assets?!" Mineta sobbed from the back of the classroom.
The floating uniform next to the him waved its sleeves. "That's not what this assignment is for, Mineta!" Toru chastised, "Besides, I'm still a pure maiden!"
"You really shouldn't make such shameless declarations..." Ojiro muttered.
Bakugo impatiently tapped his fingers on the desk, counting down to the advent of his bubbly antagonizer. He even made sure to arrive at school earlier than her to secure his moment of peace, which wasn't hard to do. But it was almost 8:00 A.M. and the classroom now bellowed with his classmates' chattering. Hovering by his desk, Kirishima was spouting some nonsense about relating a banana peel to a titanium plate but he learned to drown that out. 7:56 now and still no annoyingly energetic girl to be seen.
As if on cue, the door slid open with a beaming Uraraka and Midoriya making their entrance. Bakugo's eyes darted their way by reflex, but he just as quickly looked away. She had that stupid look on her face again.
"That's so awesome, Deku!" Uraraka gasped, jumping closer to the already flustered teen. "I never knew you could see a banana peel that way!"
"Right?" Midoriya covered his reddening face. "Kirishima thought of it a couple nights ago and the idea really amazed me. I mean, it makes sense. The banana peel is technically the fruit's armor to protect its soft body inside. So if you can somehow harness that method, apply a strong material like titanium, it might just be the greatest defensive weapon. But then, you have to consider how the banana bruises since that wouldn't be good for the user and obtaining titanium really isn't an easy task, not to mention expensive..."
And just like that, Midoriya entered his mutter zone. Uraraka tried to catch his attention, uncertainly tapping him on the shoulder. "Um, Deku?"
Amidst his thoughts, Midoriya and Kirishima made eye contact and grinned at each other. "You're on to something, Kirishima!" he cheered with a thumbs up.
"Ha!" Kirishima gloated, poking Bakugo on the forehead. "I told you so!"
"I'll kill you," Bakugo growled back without even looking up from the empty desk he was glaring at. The morning bell finally rang and the students automatically dispersed to their assigned seats.
"Talk to you later, Uraraka," Midoriya smiled sheepishly. Once Uraraka turned away from him, he took a brief moment to steal a glance at Bakugo who still sat staring at his desk. Occasionally, he had seen the gravity manipulator and explosion quirk user during their meetings in the common room. Out of habit from frequent intimidation, he hid himself each time and, as much as he wanted to slap himself for it, would inadvertently overhear their discussions.
On their last meeting, Bakugo had offered Uraraka some words of reassurance, something Midoriya found quite odd. No matter how good a friend someone was to him, he had never seen or heard Bakugo take it upon himself to compliment or hearten them. True, the way it was worded was boorish to say the least, but the context was still there. Maybe the guy was just in a good mood that night? After pondering about it a little while longer, Midoriya finally yielded with a shrug and walked over to where Todoroki was at.
Like clockwork, Bakugo felt the vibrations of fleeting footsteps making their way to the desk next to him. 'Great...'
"Good morning, Bakugo!" Uraraka chirped as she sat down, "Let's work hard today!"
The headache was back. Bakugo shot her the coldest look he could muster, effectively freezing the gravity manipulator in her place. "I'm deducting one minute for every word you speak to me in here," he assured her with a low and foreboding voice, "You're at 53 minutes now so go ahead. Keep talking."
Uraraka clamped her mouth shut and turned to the front as a groggy Aizawa crawled in, still enveloped in his yellow sleeping bag.
"It's morning," he groaned, half muffled by his scarf.
"Good morning, Mr. Aizawa!" Class 1-A exclaimed to save their teacher's pitiful greeting.
Aizawa unzipped his sleeping bag and twisted himself out with a small yawn. "There's been a slight change in today's curriculum. Class will be held outside following All Might's ridiculous 'Hero Analysis and Application' project."
Memories of All Might's incessant nagging, pleading, and flattering to follow his lesson over to other classes irritated the quirk eraser. In the end, the only way to quiet the former Symbol of Peace was for the rest of the teachers to agree in incorporating some aspects of his lesson into their curriculum.
Thus, Class 1-A later found themselves back on the P.E. grounds wholly clad in their track suits. "What do you suppose we'll be doing today?" Yaoyorozu asked the nearest person to her, who just so happened to be Todoroki.
"Who knows?" he shrugged, "The element of surprise comes with the hero profession, I guess."
"It must be something super cool and fun!" Mina jumped up eagerly. "Hopefully we'll be able to use our quirks this time."
Aizawa walked up to the class holding ten thin, red scarves in both hands. "Three-legged race," he announced in a bored manner.
"Say what?!"