Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia, sadly enough.
Currently: Un-betaed, so there may be a few mistakes
Better than You - Chapter 10, Extras
When it was announced that not only Bakugou but also Midoriya, had both gotten into the prestigious UA High school- there was an uproar. Their teachers had revealed their achievements with great pride, in front of not only their class but their whole graduating year- along with a few other high achievers.
Some students gaped in awe, settled for disinterest or seethed in jealousy. Bakugou soaked in every praise and jutted his chin high down the halls- the aggravation he aroused in others only serving as further motivation. He liked being able to force classmates like Sousuke Seiji, into such a green frenzy with their own resentment.
He worked hard to achieve his perfect record- not bashing someone's face in took an awful lot of restraint. Now, he was being rewarded handsomely with the right to punch someone fair and square- and slap it under the label of 'hero work.'
Don't get him wrong- he'd save people if he needed to, but Katsuki much preferred to speak with his fists. He wanted everything- he wanted the power, the glory, the money, the title.
Number 1.
The absolute best, and nothing less.
When Deku decided to be bashful about it, asking the teachers to not to announce it, tugging meekly on Bakugou's sleeve when he trod along the egos of the losers like a red carpet walkway down the halls- Katsuki lashed at him, injuries be damned.
"What do you want?!" He yelled, landing a kick on the wall next to Deku's trapped position against a brick wall.
He flinched instinctually but met his haunting red eyes confidently. "I want you to stop rubbing it everyone's faces. Stop boasting about it."
"EeehhHH?" Bakugou hunched down to his eye height, broadening his shoulders like when he used to scare Deku.
"Is this a joke to you? We fucking earned this. This is what winning tastes like Deku, and you're asking me to spit it out because of the pathetic self-esteems of losers?" His head tilted slightly as he disparagingly spoke of their classmates, sizing the smaller boy up for a whiff of hesitation.
His glare was unwavering and Izuku kept his breath shallow, back pressed against cool stone behind him. Bakugou had been balancing on a fraying tightrope since the results day, furious about not taking the top spot and busy drowning his disappointment under his ever-growing ego.
"They don't bother you, but after you rub their faces in it, they take it out on me. They spit on my shoes and steal my things, say I cheated- they wouldn't care if you stopped reminding them."
Katsuki's eye twitched in irritation. "You made it fair and square. Show them what they're messing with. Where's the shitty idiot who shoved my face into the sand, huh? They did this to themselves- they fucking chose to do shit, they chose to apply elsewhere, it shouldn't be my fucking issue if they didn't have what it takes."
Izuku paused. It was unlike Bakugou to admit his own defeat, even going as far to almost compliment him.
Was he...trying to pep talk him..?
He cleared his throat, finally breaking eye contact with the blonde.
"I can't just go around beating people up, Kacchan. I'm not you."
"Fine then. Stop whining about them spitting on you then. You can pity them, but I sure as hell won't." He ends with a downward quirk of his lips and a growl in his throat.
Izuku's head droops towards the ground with a breathful sigh. Kacchan had a point, even if he didn't like it. He didn't mean for his actions to come off as pity- but in a way, he understands he may be enabling his classmates bullying.
Oh well. He'll be at UA soon enough, he'll start changing the world from the bigger picture.
Time passed, zipped by them like a train window; Christmas passed over along with the end of their middle school days, rolling out the pathway to their high school lives.
Barely a toe in the doorway of their hero careers.
Bakugou was ready. No, seriously- he's been ready for at least an hour already. He couldn't sleep and had already gone for a run. He showered longer than usual, trying to ease the tension from his muscles with the heated water. Preened himself in front of the mirror for a good half hour- he's uniform looked good on him. Of course it did. It was made for him.
He added the last finishing touches, creating small explosions in his hands and bringing them to the edges of his hair, creating just enough heat and static that the spikes stayed. He loosened his perfectly fitted pants, moving the belt buckle two holes down from where it should sit and leaving his slacks to droop dangerously below the elastic of his underwear line.
Perfect.
What? You thought he wore his uniform like that out of laziness?
He cooked breakfast and made himself lunch, throwing the leftovers in the fridge for his parents. His bento box was a plain black and red box- only a small dent in the corner from when he had socked Deku with the lid for trying to steal his lunch one day.
His eyes flicked up to the kitchen clock- 7:10 am. if he leaves now, he reckons the doors will be open by the time he'd get there. He's tired of restlessly waiting around at home, he's going to burst with barely contained energy.
He swings his bag over his shoulder, sending a small notion of goodbye to his father, who sat in his usual spot in the living room by the front window, reading over his newspaper in his pyjamas.
"Bye son, have a great day at school. Oh, and your mother-"
He was interrupted by said person stomping down the hall, somehow managing to make the floorboards creak under her footfalls despite wearing slippers. Her bed hair is spiked wildly and untamed, clad in her baggy Pj's and fluffy yellow dressing gown flowing dramatically behind her.
"Oi brat! The fuck are you doing sneaking around this early? Get your ass back here, we got something for you." She places a hand on her hip and waits for Bakugou to drop his hand from the doorknob before she turns to fish an object from the cabinets.
He raises an eyebrow as he studies the small box, he can't tell what it is from the blank white packaging. Walking over to it, he picks it up and sends a questioning gaze his father's way- Masaru's head is still buried in his newspaper.
He barely opens it an inch before snapping the lid shut instantly- a groan accompanying his pressed sigh.
"No."
"Yes. You're going to the school you've been aiming for since you were 4. You're being an idiot Katsuki, don't throw away your hard work because you're too damn stubborn. You can't afford to put extra strain on yourself, can't afford to slip behind. You're making things unnecessarily difficult for yourself." She narrows her eyes and he hardens his glare to match hers.
She's right. She's always fucking right and he hates it.
"Fuck." He barely registers his words were aloud until she grabs his shoulders, pulling him into a stiff hug.
"We love you. You can do this."
But he doesn't fucking want to. He doesn't want to wear them.
He pulls himself from her arms and roughly shoves the box in his pocket.
"Whatever."
He tugs his bag over his shoulder, slamming the front door behind him.
Bakugou is the first to class that morning and he analyses students as they filter in, sizing them up from his seat, feet propped up on his desk. He's looking for the cactus sucking, pole humping, flying fucking thundercunt that robbed his first place from him.
The first couple looked unimpressive; some big burly dude with huge lips, a tailed boy, a small girl with dark green hair- and apparently an invisible girl- whom Bakugou had to double take as he watched an extra chair pull out and a hovering uniform take a seat.
They peered over at him and he darted his attention to the door. The message was clear: 'don't talk to me.'
He continues to watch students slowly trickle in, sometimes in small groups. They conversed with each other excitedly and Bakugou took a silent note of how lively and positive the atmosphere seemed to be- it was completely at opposites from middle school. Middle school was one big dick measuring contest. The girls would giggle and herd together, only to stab each other in the backs with poisonous darted glares. The guys would act friendly, but sized each other up at every opportunity, leered at the girls and joked of their needful wants.
"Disgusting." Bakugou once commented.
That caused quite the stir- It was a well-known fact that he had several girls confess to him, only for him to turn down every single one. Out of curiosity, he decided to leave one hanging- he simply shrugged and walked away; she took it as a win and had promptly told the whole school of their 'blooming fairytale love.'
Deku had scrunched up his face like someone was holding shit directly under his nose. "I didn't think you had time for girls Kacchan? You shouldn't play with her feelings like that."
Technically he hadn't done anything though- literally, he hadn't even talked to her. Regardless, he got sick of her latching onto his arm. After a week, when she asked him if she could come over, he turned to her and spoke loud enough for the class to hear.
"Why would we do that? It's not like we're dating or some shit." The resounding gasp was enough to blanket silence.
On the way home, Deku had given him an earful. "Kacchan that was so mean! Mimea-chan is the cutest girl in the whole school- she didn't mean any harm and you really hurt her!'"
"Well if you like her that damn much, you date her. I never signed up for jack, she assumed it."
Deku choked on his own spit and had to lean against a powerline poll as he hacked his lungs up. His face was flushed in a deep red over his cheeks and over his ears, Bakugou blames it on the coughing fit.
"She's, er...not my type..." Deku said, refusing to look in his direction. Katsuki pretends he didn't hear, he doesn't care much for Deku's love life.
He's brought back to reality when a head of purple hair appears in the door and earphone girl walks in. He's subtly glad she got into 1A- She's consistently nice despite him being an asshole to her and he almost wants a chance to redeem himself. The uniform looks good on her, but he couldn't help taking note of the worn and scruffy look of her shoes. He doesn't comment. She looks over to him by the window and bypasses the ever-growing crowd of more socials student.
"Hi there, angry. Surprised to see you here with that salty attitude of yours-" She starts.
"Bakugou." He interrupts, he doesn't actually mean to- he could barely tell what she was saying because she was moving and he couldn't see her face.
"Wha?" She peered at him.
"You want me to spell it out for you?" He says sarcastically, she rolls her eyes with a small upward turn of her lips as she takes a seat in the spot next to him.
Soon enough Deku makes it into the classroom, thankfully distracting the uptight Somei kid from trying to lecture him about having his feet on the desk. He was waving his hands around stupidly and his mouth movements were too fast for him to understand even if he was trying to listen. For the record, he wasn't.
He watched in mild amusement as Deku was complemented by the girl that had saved the dork from his own feet before the entrance exam, making him blush madly and attempt to hide his face under his hands.
Their sensei, Aizawa Shouta, then introduced himself as the students took their seats. He spoke in a drawled manor and his lips hardly moved making it difficult for Katsuki to piece together his words. He grits his teeth as he stabbed his thumbnail into the side of the small box in his pocket.
They shuffled out to the field not long later and Bakugou promptly decided to show off with a high-grade explosion right off the bat. He grinned at his score and ignored the ring of his ears afterwards- it was worth it. He couldn't afford to be any less than the best.
After the tests, they headed into their respective change rooms to switch back to their uniform for the rest of their classes. A couple of classmates complimented him on his score, in particular, a redhead- Bakugou hadn't caught his name, but that hair would be hard to forget. The other kid Katsuki recognised from the written exam, he absentmindedly wonders how someone that intellectually troubled even got in.
Taking his time, he waited until all the other students had cleared from the room until he reached into his pants pocket, yanking out the 'present' from his parents. He hesitated, jaw locked in frustration as he flipped it open and removed the hearing aids.
They were clear and small; discreet. He put them on in front of the mirror and let out a groan of disappointment. He was hoping his bangs would cover them, but the way he had styled his hair left them in plain view.
Lowering his hands into the sink, he let the cool water sweep away the show of pop rocks starting to line his palms.
He roughly pulled the devices from his ears, shoving them back in the box and pitching them into his gym bag across the room. Slumping onto one of the benches, he moved a hand up to his eyes, covering them and subtly massaging his growing headache.
"Fuck."
He stayed to himself for the rest of the morning classes, thankful that his peers seemed to pick up on his self-set isolation.
It wasn't until lunch when he was jostled from his brooding by the red-haired boy. "Hey, Bakugou! Why's the long face man, you did, like- amazingly on the tests!"
"Ueh…?" He lets out a noise of question in an annoyed tone before his eyebrows raised in surprised realisation. Shitty hair, the yellow-haired dipshit, triangle face boy and the pink mutant have casually slotted themselves onto his lunch table- sandwiching him in.
They made friendly banter that seemed too casual for new classmates and Bakugou obviously wore some resemblance to confusion on his features; since pinky perked up from her spot after glancing over at him.
"I'm Mina Aishido! Me and Kirishima went to middle school together! This is Kaminari and Sero- another two middle school graduates! Nice ta meet 'cha! She grinned from cheek to cheek after gesturing to each of the said classmates.
Bakugou wasn't sure how to reply.
But he couldn't deny the flutter and bloom of something deep in his chest. It made him feel lighter and it had been so long he almost couldn't put a finger on it.
Hope, cascaded over the smothered form of happiness.
"Yeah, back to you, extras."
First day is over explodo-boy is finally making some friends! Woo!
Hope you enjoyed the chapter, let me know what you thought and drop a review!
Next update set for: 30/03/18
Next chapter: Bakugou meets a special person and they help him with his outfit!