Disclaimer: I do not own My Hero Academia or any other copy-righted material.
Caged
Chapter 7: You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
From the time she woke up, to the time she sat down for breakfast in the common room of the U.A. dorms, Ochako Uraraka's morning had gone relatively smooth.
She had her provisional hero license, and her internship all planned for the ensuing year in high school, things in her heart seemed to have settled down as well.
But things took a turn when she overheard a conversation between Mei, Mina, and Yaoyoruzo.
"Oh my god! Congratulations on scoring the class hotty Yaomomo! How'd you manage to pull that off?" Uraraka heard Mina bellow from the couches near the dining area.
She laid her spoon filled with milk and cheerio's down, listening intently, confused on what was happening.
"Well T-Todoroki-kun was very forward about wanting to date me, and I was really surprise-"
"Tell us the good stuff already!" Mina interrupted excitedly.
So Yaoyoruzo and Todoroki-kun were in a relationship now? Uraraka thought. She pictured the two together, and felt that they were a good pair. Both were level-headed, attractive, powerful, the list could go on and on.
"U-Um, well we haven't really done anything yet, since it's all so new right now…" Yaoyoruzo murmured quietly.
"You're blushing Yaomomo!" Uraraka tensed upon hearing Mei enter the scene. She felt a little guilty for holding such an ill image of the girl in her mind, but nevertheless she managed to ruffle her feathers more than any other classmate she had at U.A.
"This is all so embarrassing to discuss!" Yaoyoruzo exclaimed, she could tell from the girl's tone that she was a little flustered by the prying of the other two. Uraraka held sympathy for her, knowing what it felt like to be in her position. She often recently, had found she was in the hot seat for the scuttlebutt on boys.
"Well well, let's not pry too much Mina-chan." Mei concluded. Uraraka could hear the woman saunter over and take a seat beside one of the two girls. She frowned while continuing to eat in silence.
"What other guys are available now that Todo-kun is off the market?" Mina wondered bluntly. She pictured the pink girl looking towards the ceiling and putting a hand under her chin in deep thought.
She resumed eating as she thought about what kind of couple Yaoyoruzo and Todoroki would be. If they would be open or very private, but knowing the both of them she went with private. Todoroki didn't really strike her as the kind of person to tell other guys things that happened in his personal life. Yaoyoruzo might be a little more open, but she also intimidated most of the girls to the point that they wouldn't ask out of fear.
"Oh what about Bakugou-kun?!"
Uraraka chocked on the bite of her breakfast she'd just swallowed.
For some reason the image his bare abdomen came to mind. The toned skin of his muscles rippled with lines of proof from years of hardcore training. She envisioned the slightly flushed look on his relaxed features when she'd taken care of him, and the disheveled state of his blonde tresses sticky with sweat.
Her face heated as she gained control of her airway again, utterly confused with her own brain for dredging up a memory like that for no apparent reason. She tried to focus on the wheat-like taste of her cheerios.
"Yeahhhh, but isn't he a bit…" she heard Mina trail off as she shook off the bizarre occurence.
"Insane?" Mei offered casually.
"I was going to say temperamental but that works too!" Uraraka's lip tugged downwards once again.
She didn't like where this conversation was headed. Bakugou had more to him than his temper, they were the 'insane' ones for being blind to it. He had problems just like the rest of them, though she would admit it was difficult to be easy-going with him.
"You know Mina-chan, sometimes the most incredible people, are the ones who are the least behaved." Yaomomo included, easing Uraraka's tension slightly. Katsuki was kind of hard to define by any singular term or category. He was just a wild card, something that couldn't be caged, at least, not by someone ordinary like she was.
"You say that like you have some experience with the bad boys!" Mina retorted in a sarcastic tone.
"N-No! It's not like that!" Yaoyoruzo claimed defensively. She wondered if Yaoyoruzo did have some experience in that area, she seemed to be the type that had a few skeletons in the closet.
A small side of Uraraka wanted to see what kind of excitement bad boys could provoke in her, maybe they could match the crazy that seemed to have been stirred inside her. Or maybe they were even more erratic. Someone like that might just make her feel as if the incessant monologue droning on inside her head was a sane thing.
"geez…" Uraraka muttered, shaking her head and focusing back on the conversation beside her. She needed to stop being so introspective, or she'd end up muttering nonsenses just like Midoriya-kun.
"You know…" Uraraka narrowed her eyes, picking up a new voice in the mix.
"…rumor is Bakugou-chan has a soft spot for somebody-ribbit-." Uraraka made it out to be Tsuyu by the signature animalistic noise she made at the end of her sentence.
"Really Asu- I mean Tsu-chan, how did you hear this?" Yaoyoruzo inquired. Uraraka could see a sliver of Asui's face as she looked on, intrigued by the new topic.
She wondered if Bakugou would tell her about this new girl, after all, they were sorta friends weren't they? I mean they sparred and stuff, but he was kind of less insufferable than he was when they'd first met. Maybe she could help him with the ladies, her first bit of advice would be not to bark at them whenever they did something that displeased him.
He was pretty good looking though, when he wasn't trying to terrorize you.
"Just-ribbit-from one of the guys." She said, her cute face turning pink, from what? Embarrassment? Tsuyu didn't usually get worked up easily. Uraraka wondered what was going on with her froggy friend.
"Speaking of the guys…" Mina interrupted, steering the conversation back to available boyfriends, as usual.
"What about Midoriya-kun?" This time, Ochako nearly fainted from the spit-take she performed upon hearing Mina's inquiry. Why did she have to suffer through this gossip?
"Well, this is quite devilish of me but I think Midoriya-chan may have some feelings for me." Mei said proudly, the air of arrogance clear in her tone. Uraraka clenched her fists tightly, wanting to go all 'Bakugou-esque' and yell out how annoyed she was by all four of them.
"But, I think I'll just use him to show off my babies to the world, you can't go wrong with a guy that adorable." She continued, further causing Uraraka to lose focus of the breakfast that was starting to swirl around her in a cloud of zero gravity.
"Maybe I'll even get a ring out of it if he falls hard enough." Uraraka realized the various nutrients floating above her and with her focus on her anger being broken for a slight second it all came falling down on top of her. The milk seeping through her clothes, cheerios stuck to strands of her hair, and the cereal bowl rattling on the floor, leaving the four girls on the other side of the wall to turn and stare at her humiliating state.
"Damn it all…"
Katsuki Bakugou was not a very sentimental guy. He didn't pick up on a whole lot, and when he did pick up on something like a friend in distress, or some chick crying in the open, he usually ignored it.
But when it came to Ochako, he found himself oddly curious. Her antics, entertained his attention most of the time without her knowledge, and her expressions captivated his steeled gaze, he didn't know when it started happening but it had snuck up on him like a surprise attack.
He didn't like to admit that he was interested in someone else's life other than his own. It was too fucking tedious.
But no matter how much he fought it, she had a wide range of capabilities all pinned up in her tiny body and it interested him to watch her tear through everything she did with brute-like strength disguised in a pretty face.
Usually, like her name suggested, she was carefree, at least on the surface. But the times when he really attuned his small capability of empathy was in times like this, when her features were contorted into an abnormal state, when the mask of innocence was discarded. Her thick brows were knitted into a scowl that rivaled his own, her lips were pressed tightly and her hair was a ragged mess. He followed her glare towards the chick with googles at the front of the classroom. He didn't know this bitches name, but he wondered what she'd possibly done to land outside Uraraka's good graces. The gravity wielding student was basically a pot of nauseating friendship to any and every one who asked, so what was so unforgivable that had warranted Uraraka's pleasant mood to turn sour?
When lunchtime came, Uraraka's behavior had not changed. Bakugou trailed the woman eager to see her throw a punch or yell at goggles girl, the fact that he was rooting for it made him want to vomit but he justified it by thinking of it like a fight. Fights were something he never missed out on.
But instead of seeing Uraraka do something rash like he would have if someone pissed him off, he found himself feeling like he'd been sucker punched in the stomach.
Her irritated expression morphed into one of sadness. The mirth that was typically overflowing in her bright chocolate-colored eyes was replaced by something that stirred a strange sympathetic twinge inside of Katsuki. Her determined stance crumpled, and he looked ahead of her to see the cause.
Goggles girl was bent over that damn nerd, shamelessly flaunting her inventions to him in a kind of way that seemed flirty. She definitely had it bad for Deku for reasons that escaped him. The way she was cooing every word into that fuck-ups ears made him look away in disinterest.
He didn't give a shit if the Quirkless idiot stuck it to some random slut, what he did care about, begrudgingly so, was the pain he could see in the girl watching from the background unknown to the two a few feet ahead of her.
He recalled the toothy smile she wore whenever Deku was around her, the trill of her laugh rang through his ears as if it was happening right next to him.
He turned away, his own mood ruined by the scene.
For a damn nerd, Deku really seemed to be acting like an idiot.
Uraraka sighed as she traipsed through the familiar path towards the clearing her and Katsuki sparred at together.
She pulled one arm over the other stretching out her tense shoulders as she prepared for another round of getting her ass handed to her. Bakugou was the perfect partner but he wasn't someone who would just be her punching bag if she needed to let off some steam.
What was the point in the first place if she knew Bakugou would win? She wondered if Mei had a 'baby' that could defend against explosions, maybe then she'd be able to do something without difficulty.
She shook her head, her emotions were getting the best of her, and even though she knew it, she couldn't control the foul air that settled over her.
She stepped into the arena like setting and cleared her throat so he would be aware if her presence. He glanced in her direction, taking a momentary pause from his string of nitro-glycerin infused blasts.
"Listen up roundface cause I'm only gonna say it once," she frowned, not in the mood for any of his condescending comments.
"whatever shit you're dealing with use it." She looked at him in surprise, expecting him to say something much more deterring than that.
"You won't even be able to land a punch if you can't use your little girly problems to your advantage." And there was the part she had originally anticipated.
She readied herself for his onslaught of blows and tried to psych herself up to defend her honor, but she couldn't shake off the feeling of just wanting to give up.
His first swing, landed the hardest, followed by a series of smaller attacks leaving her out of breath. She used half the effort she normally did to try and get him from behind with a rock she'd touched but he anticipated it and dodged, leaving the rock flying towards her.
She moved out of the way only to be catapulted forwards by another explosion.
"What the fuck is your deal Uraraka?!" Katsuki yelled at her, the furious slight clear in his crimson orbs.
"You're too sappy to even fight me huh?!" he screamed, when she refused to answer, or even get up from the position she'd landed in. She wondered if Mei had a machine that could make her feel like she wasn't drowning in her own weakness.
"Shut up…" she said weakly pushing herself up from the dirt, feeling the substance dig deeply into her palms.
"If you want me to shut up the make me damnit! Quit sitting there like a fucking wounded animal!" he retorted angrily, his fists searing from the frustration he was experiencing with her attitude.
"Maybe I'm just not in the mood, did you consider that?" she responded angrily to the scowling hothead in front of her, so close to her face that she could practically feel the anger rolling off of him. Why was she feeling afraid?
She scrambled around as he threw another explosion towards her, only making her feel more defeated.
Uraraka looked up apathetically from the smoke to see Katsuki towering above her.
"You asked me to fucking train you, and you give me this shit?! I don't care if you feel like it or not, heroes always win, that's why you have to fucking try." He spat at her, and she just continued to look up at him.
What was the point in trying if you'd already lost?
Nothing resembling fighting spirit exuded from her lifeless form. That same damn look of pain still stabbed at Katsuki like a thorn in the side.
"What happened to the warrior I fought at the sports festival huh? You're just gonna take me like a fucking twig?!" he continued to berate her with tactless questions until she responded quietly.
"That was different…"
"Oh yeah? How huh?" he demanded, the vein in his forehead protruding. He was angry with her, she didn't know why. She couldn't put in enough thought to analyze it either.
"It just was!" she yelled back, feeling overwhelmingly defenseless to Bakugou's cutting words. He was stronger than she was…yet…they both felt vulnerable when it came to the same person.
Izuku.
"Why? Because back then some whore wasn't trying to jump Deku right?" The image of Uraraka and that nerd plagued Katsuki's mind, shifting his shitty attempts to coax her out of jealousy and into confidence, to outright blows to her self-esteem.
"Back off Katsuki…" She begged. He was tearing her down and he knew it, but he wanted her to know how shitty it was to watch her act like this over…over some damn moron who didn't know what he had waiting for him. This was all too much fucking drama.
"Are you an idiot? Do you know any hero out there who gives up in a battle because a villain tried to take something from them and they didn't like it? Huh? What kind of hero would give a rat's ass about that?! If you have a problem with it, fight for it your goddamn self!" He didn't want to stop berating her. He wanted her to know…all of the things she was doing to him.
The way it made him feel to see her hair fall in front of her face like that, the way her lashes fluttered whenever he looked into them, and how it made him wanna smile.
The way that every time her skin brushed his, be it in a battle or just by accident, it electrified his very skin.
He wanted her to see what a piece of crap she was for making him feel all those sappy things.
"Katsuki…please…stop it…" Her pleas were blocked out by his rage with his own weakness to her. Why couldn't she see it? Was she as oblivious as Deku?
"Maybe you should just sit there like a pathetic waste of space and be jealous of that chick with the goggles, at least she fucking goes after what she wants."
Katsuki finally was silenced when he felt the sharp sting of Uraraka's hand against his cheek. The skin burned slightly from the hit. He kept his mouth shut and turned his gaze back to her slowly. What was he doing?
He could see the glistening pile of tears refusing to budge from the corners of her fierce, hurt eyes. Her hand was raised and she was breathing in and out roughly, as if the slap had taken all of her strength.
His words were born from his own green-eyed monster, and he couldn't take back the damage it might have done to her.
But…
Weaklings were easy targets, for someone who felt weak like him sometimes.
Ochako Uraraka was no fragile being, but the girl before him, was somebody he didn't recognize, somebody who hadn't earned his respect.
The determination he craved from Uraraka was nowhere to be seen in the stranger in front of him, and it made him sick to his stomach to look at.
Bakugou silently rose to his feet, and stomped towards the exit of the clearing, pausing before setting down the trail and turning back to the vulnerable person sitting in a heap behind him.
"Don't you fucking dare come back here, until you can handle an actual challenge." He turned away from the ghost of the girl he'd come to acknowledge as his equal and felt like an absolute jerk. He was just a piece of shit that was trying to help her in the only way he knew how, selfishly.
But the fact that he was attempting to do a good deed didn't make him not a piece of shit.
Ochako and Bakugou did not meet again to train in the clearing the entire week following their dispute. Both were wrestling with their own thoughts and feelings about each other and Izuku Midoriya's hold over them.
Each time Bakugou caught sight of Uraraka he would turn away more irritated than before she'd come into sight. Her big brown doe eyes were shielded from his gaze and he didn't want to see the same expression he'd last viewed. A face that held nothing but weakness and was easily hurt by something like his petty words.
When Uraraka passed Bakugou, all she could think of was the truth behind his painful words and how little of her he must have thought. How weak she must appear to someone as brilliant as he was. And somewhat of how angry she was with him for the way in which he'd shown her how pathetic she was being.
Neither one was willing to break the uneasy silence between them.
So, the task was left in the hands of Eijirou Kirishima.
Kirishima had taken notice of the increase in BRE's or, Bakugou Related Explosions, over the past few days and decided to take the matter to the person which he believed to be the cause of them, not just for the sake of his friend, but also for the sake of the scorch-marked boy's dormitory.
The suspect in question was currently dazing in and out of reality as she stared across the vast expanse of U.A.'s campus.
"Hey Uraraka! What's goin' on?" he asked cheerfully taking a seat beside the zero-gravity girl. For someone who could make things float she definitely looked like she was carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders.
"O-Oh Kirishima-kun, not much, how are you?" he took note of the deeply troubled look in her eyes and looked out at the scenery trying to find a way to approach what he'd come to investigate properly.
"Things have been just as crazy as they usually are around here." He said laughing softly as he studied his classmate. Bakugou surely had said something that had hurt her feelings, because he couldn't imagine Uraraka having done something that would make him angry enough to just avoid her.
"Yeah…things are always moving forward." She said as if she was attacking herself by saying so.
"Uraraka, do you mind if I ask you a question about Bakugou?" he said, hoping he didn't sound too eager.
"Oh…sure." She said returning his glance.
"Is everything okay between you two? I hope that doesn't sound too forward, but it seems like you guys have some weird thing going on." Uraraka looked at him seriously, as if she wanted him to know what she was feeling just by looking into her eyes, but he wasn't very good at reading minds.
"Can I ask you something actually Kirishima-kun?" Kirishima was a bit surprised by the turn of the conversation but obliged her request nonetheless, curious to hear what she wanted to know.
"How are you such good friends with Bakugou when he's so mean to you all the time?" Kirishima tried to take her question seriously but ended up chuckling through his fingers anyway. He didn't know why it was so humorous a question, but all he could do was picture Bakugou's scowl and his own unrelenting forced friendship over the explosive student.
"What's so funny?" she asked, perturbed by his odd actions.
Kirishima felt his stomach settle with the laughs that roared throughout him and wiped his eyes breathing in deeply to steady himself.
"I'm sorry Uraraka haha, it's just I wasn't expecting such a blunt question." He confessed to which the girl blushed in embarrassment and looked away quickly, the somberness in her eyes starting to dissipate.
"I-I'm sorry I didn't mean to pry-!"
"Aw don't worry about it! I wouldn't be a man if I couldn't answer something so honestly asked!" he said patting her on the back with more force than was necessary.
"Bakugou is kind of harsh, and he's got a big mouth, and he's got some pretty bad manners but, it would be a lot worse if Bakugou just ignored me." Uraraka listened intently, hoping Kirishima would elaborate on what he meant by that statement.
"You see, Bakugou doesn't really meddle with anybody, it's only with people he's come to respect…" Kirishima turned his eyes to her, and in that moment the brutish, red-haired classmate seemed really wise to her.
"I can't say I really know what's happening between you guys, or what you're dealing with, but I do know that Bakugou wouldn't have done whatever he did, or picked up on the things you're struggling with if he didn't respect you. And even though he's got a really funny way of showing it, he does care at least a little bit for those he respects." Uraraka mulled Kirishima's words over carefully. Thinking back to the exact words Bakugou used. If she thought about what he was getting at instead of viewing it as a personal attack, she could see where Kirishima had a point.
"If Bakugou respects me, then why wouldn't he just try to help me like a normal friend?" Kirishima laughed aloud at her question once again.
"You know for someone who seems to understand Bakugou better than most, you're pretty blind to his feelings! Bakugou's way of 'helping' if you can call it that is by pushing you over the edge until you can find a way to break through the wall you're up against yourself. Sure, he can be a total ass, but deep down he's a good guy." Uraraka felt a chill run down her spine as Kirishima's words clicked in her mind. She flattened a palm against her face.
Bakugou wasn't some sadistic bastard who was trying to beat her when she was down. He was just to frustrated with her for not being able to overcome it herself.
"Sorry Kirishima-kun, I've been so self-absorbed that I just feel a little dumb now that you've said that." She said, offering a small smile as she felt her chest swell with an emotion other than angst.
"It's okay Uraraka! I feel pretty dumb most of the time, especially with all the extra remedial classes I have to take." Uraraka laughed at the spiky-haired student and they continued to make small talk until Uraraka managed to glance at her phone for the time.
She stood quickly offered a quick apology to Kirishima and excused herself. She rushed towards U.A.'s forest grounds hoping she would make it in time. She promised Kirishima that things would be fine and thanked him for his concern and advice.
She felt adrenaline surging through her as she rushed to make it to the clearing before Bakugou left. She hadn't felt like this in a while, like herself again. Her legs were pumping as fast as she could manage.
She wasn't sure why the knowledge that Bakugou's method of helping was actually to 'hurt' you was so comforting, but it was. She wanted things to be righted between them too, she knew it would be okay. He was just trying to bring her out of her own little funk.
As she came nearer she heard the familiar sound of explosions taking off, and smelled the scent of burned wood, she felt her heart race.
Panting as she entered the area, she couldn't keep the big, dumb smile from stretching over her face as she come closer to the blonde, sweat-drenched hot-head in front of her.
She reached out a hand to try and tap him on the shoulder but blinked in surprise when she found herself staring up at the sky. The tops of the tree's were staring down at her along with a certain classmate hovering above her with red-hot eyes and a easily triggered temper. His weight was pinning her against the dirt floor of the woods.
"What the hell are you doing here?" he growled at her as she simply blinked again and then smiled at how angry he acted. Under all that 'toughness' was a big softie just like Tsuyu had hinted at that morning a week ago. He wasn't so scary, and she was an idiot for forgetting that. He had a split-personality.
Bakugou, the raging, selfish hot-head 'king of explodo-kills'; and Katsuki, the thoughtful, somewhat helpless in the ways of friendship teenage boy, who was her friend.
"Um…thankyou?" Uraraka didn't mean for her words to come out like a question, but it just happened. She was grateful for so many things the first being the way he never took things easy on her. She needed him to smack her sideways it seemed.
And as important of friends as Iida-kun and Deku-kun were to her, they weren't Katsuki.
He never gave up, and she wouldn't either, not if he kept pushing her forward.
She paid close attention to his amber orbs as they mollified into a softer expression.
"What the hell for?" he grumbled, his sweaty palms still pinning her to ground beneath him. Ochako smiled sweetly as a breeze rippled through the area, as if it was trying to help clear the air of miscommunication between her and Katsuki.
"Katsuki…" she said softly, having the sudden urge to wrap her arms around his neck and pull him to her.
"…thank you for trying to help me see that I was being an idiot, even if it was kind of harsh." She stifled a giggle as his severe features took a shocked twist. A ripple of pink spread throughout Katsuki's cheeks as he continued to stare at her like she was a puzzle he couldn't quite piece together. He released her from his grasp and sat up, crossing his arms and turning away from her, like a five-year old, as she let her giggles loose, his impressive scowl only deepening.
"Quit saying so much girly shit." He pouted, and Uraraka placed her hand to her chest. She felt it racing beneath her fingers as she remembered Kirishima's words.
Katsuki wasn't someone who would sugarcoat things, he didn't pick you up if you fell down, and he wasn't a person who would try and talk to you about your feelings. But he was someone who cared enough to force you to face your inner demons yourself, and he didn't do it for just anybody.
In his own way Bakugou was looking out for her. That simple understanding made her feel like even if she messed up again, or acted jealous, or sad, or angry, that she was invincible, because someone like him was right there behind her propelling her ahead, even if he had to do it with the heel of his foot.
Katsuki stood and looked back at her scratching the back of his head with his flushed features still turned away from her.
"Let's go." He said in a low voice.
As his muscular back faced her she couldn't stop the urge that spilled out of her lips.
"You're really different from what I first thought!" she blurted out loudly, shutting her eyes in embarrassment.
"What the hell do you mean by that?" he said incredulously, swiveling to glare at her.
"Um…I thought you were kind of cruel and not very nice, especially because of Deku-kun. But, I know that you're not just a jerk anymore…" She felt like she was giving him a love confession, with the amount of embarrassment she was feeling behind every word she spoke.
"Who says I'm not fucking nice?!" Katsuki bellowed, which only made Ochako start to laugh as he fumed over that particular comment, wondering if everything Katsuki said was just an attempt to keep people from seeing the soft side of him.
Maybe it was a mechanism to see who would actually try to get to that part of him, to see who would dare to break down that wall.
"Thank you…Katsuki…" Uraraka said quietly, feeling triumphant in her new discovery about the so called 'heartless hot-head' of class 1A.
"Tch." Bakugou spat and turned to leave, but he couldn't stop the smirk from tugging at his lips and the gallop his heart seemed to be racing to. That girl following behind him had that same look in her eyes that kept him inexplicably intrigued. Uraraka's all-over-the-place personality never disappointed him.
"Are you coming or not?" He could hear that same trill of laughter she had when she was with Deku, from behind and it only made the smile growing on his defiant lips harder to conceal.
Uraraka fumbled to stand and felt her eyes brim as she watched Katsuki's lithe form retreat towards the tree line, because he was finally looking at her again like she was a force to be reckoned with.
"I'm coming!"
A/N: Wow, that chapter was a doozy. Welcome to the end of Caged's longest chapter to date! I sincerely hope you enjoyed it as much as I loved writing it. I wanted to also give a brief thankyou to all of you that have reviewed this story or favorited/followed it! It means so much more to me than I could ever express in words. So thank you! Please continue to tell me all your feelings and thoughts below! Until next week!