A/N: GUYS. There's art for this fic now! le-hibou-noir and liliium (both on tumblr) have drawn art inspired by this fic! You can find it on my tumblr (tharroswrites) or find me on AO3 (also Tharros) for links because this site is ASS for links.
Chapter Fourteen: I Bet My Life (On You)
(Uraraka)
Uraraka was dreadfully uncomfortable.
The thin spandex of her uniform did little to block the chill of the mountain cave and her hair, still wet from the rain, dripped down her back like icy fingers trying to get her attention.
The thin crevice she and Bakugo squeezed themselves through was cast in almost total darkness. Over her shoulder, down the long tunnel, she could see a tiny pinprick of grey light that indicated the makeshift cave entrance Bakugo had blown out in the act of great stupidity that brought them to this moment—chasing the sound of crackling static deep into the heart of the mountain. Moving further from that singular light source was like trying to defy gravity without using her Quirk, but Bakugo pulled her forward, his hand tightening around hers and his thumb pressing into her palm in their pre-discussed signal to keep going.
A single squeeze meant stop, two meant turn and run, and letting go entirely meant get ready for a fight. Bakugo hadn't been pleased when Uraraka suggested they have a signal to run, and the two had stopped to argue in a brief series of hissed whispers until a break in the static ahead shut them up like a lid snapping closed. A hard look that Uraraka wasn't even sure he could see won her the argument, and the two continued along with Bakugo's free hand feeling out the wall in front of them as they slowly made their way together.
Uraraka's free hand throbbed, though not as badly as she might've thought considering the sheer number of stitches Bakugo had laced through her palm. She chalked it up to adrenaline and was glad for it, but kept her hand cradled at her stomach so it wouldn't accidentally brush the rough wall.
Bakugo's bulk took up the whole space ahead of her, blocking any light that might be coming from deeper within the cave, but the static was growing louder. Uraraka couldn't be sure, but she thought she might hear words amid the cracking.
They came to a bend in the tunnel, and a single squeeze from Bakugo's hand stopped her where she was. He listened around the corner, and as he leaned toward the sound, a brief, flickering light splashed against the wall. It danced, ephemeral and bright, through the spiky strands of Bakugo's hair, making them glow with a sort of inexplicable softness that was all at once perfect and utterly wrong—like a demon trying on a halo and finding that it fit him nicely.
"Crime rates continue to rise since All Might's retirement. Coming up, we'll speak to analyst Minami Isoruko about why this trend isn't slowing down…"
Uraraka swallowed. The voice, drenched in static and clearly coming through over some kind of radio, shattered the strange, limbo-like atmosphere she and Bakugo had been moving through. Before, there was only the linear option of moving forward. Now that something was definitely there, they were faced with the choice of turning around or checking it out.
She knew what Bakugo's choice would be, so she squeezed his hand and pressed her thumb into his palm. Keep going.
They'd come this far. No point in turning back.
(Bakugo)
The majority of his focus was dedicated strictly to getting them through the tunnel as quietly as possible and listening for any potential danger ahead.
But a small piece of his mind was in a constant state of shit shit shit shit.
Because he was stupid and infatuated and a total idiot and he was holding hands with Uraraka. And it was so lame but his heart was beating a little too fast and it all felt kind of electric and it was a conscious effort not to sweat all over her.
And gods he might've felt pathetic if it were someone other than her.
As it stood, Uraraka had stopped a landslide and hardly flinched as he stitched her up and still she wanted to push forward even though she had to be exhausted and in pain and probably still pretty pissed at him for causing all this in the first place.
He cut the thoughts short as a voice over a radio echoed down the passage again. Why was there a radio down here? And who—or what—was listening to it?
He inched around the corner, Uraraka right behind him, and they came to the end of the tunnel.
There was a large formation of stalagmites rising up from the floor at the exit, blocking their view but also keeping them hidden from whatever was within. They crept toward the jagged rocks, clearing the tunnel and suddenly finding themselves in a high-ceilinged cavern, static bouncing off the walls and making everything sound a bit hollow. Uraraka shivered in the stale, open air and Bakugo hoped he warmed up fast if a fight broke out with whatever was waiting for them on the other side of the stalagmites.
Then, voices that were definitely not coming from the radio.
"You think Tomura is right? Risking us for this guy?"
Bakugo's eyes widened. There was a flickering light source—some kind of fire probably—spilling over the tops of the stalagmites, though he'd have to climb one of them to actually see into the room.
But he knew that voice.
Uraraka tensed beside him, and he glanced at her to see her mouth pressed into a hard line. Cold challenge glinted in her eyes and Bakugo knew she recognized the voice too.
Toga, she mouthed, and Bakugo nodded once.
"Suppose it depends on whether or not he can control this...thing."
And Dabi.
The League of Villains was in the mountains.
(Toga)
She sat on the floor of the large cave, the only source of light the small blue flame burning erratically in Dabi's hand, casting reaper-like shadows on the walls in all directions.
Gigantomakia slept on the ground in front of her, curled up like a child around a practice dummy he'd procured from somewhere before she and Dabi had shown up to check on him.
After Kurogiri had been captured and possibly revealed Gigantomakia's location to Gran Torino and some of the other heroes, they'd moved him here, and his unpredictable nature had led to Tomura sedating him for long stretches of time.
Pulling her knees up to her chest, she studied the rugged figure, wondering, briefly, if she could use her Quirk to become someone so much larger than her.
Bzzt. Bzzt.
"Tomura!" She grinned as she answered the video call, her boss hidden as usual behind a disembodied hand. "Giganto here's fine. Can we come home now?"
"No. There's been a development." The signal wasn't great inside the cave, and some of his words came out robotic and shaky, but Toga understood anyway.
"What development?" Dabi asked, coming to stand behind her seated form.
"Our source says Eraserhead and a group of U.A. students—including Bakugo Katsuki—left the grounds early this morning on a bus headed northward. Wasn't sure where they were heading, but Twice thinks he spotted the bus taking an exit that would lead close to the mountain. I'll ping the location to you. Check it out."
"Are you sending back-up?" Toga asked. She and Dabi couldn't take on Eraserhead and an unknown number of students alone.
"I said check it out, not fight."
"No promises," Dabi said, already heading toward the fake boulder that rolled out of the way to create an opening large enough to let them out.
Toga hopped to her feet, winking at Tomura before hanging up and stuffing her phone into her pocket, scrambling after Dabi and into the cold, hazy mountain air.
(Uraraka)
At the mention of his name, Bakugo ripped his hand out of hers—get ready to fight—but she grabbed it again before he could get an explosion off and squeezed hard, just once. Stop.
He did stop, the lines on his face deepening in frustration.
Toga and Dabi left the cave, and the light source went with them, but the radio still played and Uraraka was torn between checking it out and returning to the bus to warn Aizawa about the League as fast as possible.
"'Giganto,'" Uraraka breathed. "What does that mean?"
"Hell if I know," Bakugo whispered back, his breath hot against her face. "Send me up and I'll check it out."
"Quietly, please," she said as she pressed the pads of her fingers into his palm.
He gave her a look that said something along the lines of "fuck off" before rising slowly, using a stalagmite as an anchor and peering over the top of it. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and turned on the flashlight and Uraraka's breath caught in her throat as she watched his face.
Whatever was listening to the radio grunted at the light and Bakugo turned it off and eased himself back to the ground.
"We need to get out of here," he said as Uraraka released her Quirk on him. She opened her mouth to ask what he'd seen, but he cut her off, pushing her back toward the tunnel. "Later."
They hurried back the way they'd come, and it was easier with that pinprick of light to follow. As soon as they cleared the cave, Bakugo grabbed her hand in a silent command that didn't require any pre-planning, and she activated her Quirk on both of them as ran straight off the edge of the cliff.
Bakugo was faster, and he slung her onto his back and blasted them toward the bus. Present Mic must've seen them coming from inside, and he ran out to meet them, dragging Aizawa by the sleeping bag behind him. The rain, at least, had let up.
Uraraka released her Quirk as they landed, unhooking her legs and arms from around Bakugo and doubling over, hands on her knees as she took deep breaths and tried not to be sick. She'd already pushed herself way past her limit and was facing the consequences as the adrenaline faded.
"What's wrong?" Mic and Aizawa asked in unison.
"The League of Villains is here," Bakugo said without preface. "In the mountain. Toga and Dabi at least. And some sort of giant."
The teachers exchanged a look that said a lot more than they were letting on.
A crash and an indiscernible shout echoed back the way Uraraka and Bakugo had come from, and they spun around.
A pillar of smoke rose from near the base of the mountain.
And Bakugo hissed, "Shit."
"You two stay here," Aizawa ordered as he and Present Mic started running toward the source of the smoke. When they were almost out of sight, their homeroom teacher turned, staring them down. "You have permission to fight if you're attacked. If you follow us, there will be serious consequences."
Bakugo grit his teeth but didn't argue, and Uraraka could feel the tension radiating off him. It was eerily silent for a long moment and she closed her eyes, willing away the nausea that clung to the back of her throat like an itch she couldn't scratch.
"Godsdamn it," Bakugo growled, running a hand through his hair and beginning to pace. "He expects us to just sit on our asses when those League fucks are probably after me."
She couldn't imagine what was going through his mind, not after everything that had happened the first time he'd been taken by the League, how much it had messed him up—she felt he'd barely nicked the surface of it with what he'd told her.
But that wasn't even the worst thing, this time.
"Maybe we should focus on the part where Shigaraki talked about a 'source' that knew we were leaving campus," Uraraka said, her voice barely more than a whisper because she didn't want to think about what the could mean. Bakugo stopped his pacing and turned to her, a hard look in his eyes that said he didn't quite believe it, either. Even though he only ever showed annoyance for most of the class, he didn't want to think the worst of any one of them, no more than she did.
"I thought I smelled someone like me in that cave."
Uraraka and Bakugo whirled around, her eyes going wide because Toga was sauntering up to them from the woods.
"Hiya, Ochako, hun," she grinned, a knife flashing in her hand.
Uraraka wouldn't the same mistake as last time, when she'd been slow to act and Tsuyu had gotten hurt protecting her. So she pivoted slightly, putting herself just a fraction in front of Bakugo. He'd hate her for it, but she couldn't not.
And just in time too, because Toga started running at them like she didn't have a fear in the world.
Uraraka was ready, and she ducked under the brandished knife and slammed her elbow into Toga's armpit, causing her arm to flail and release her grip on the weapon. Toga staggered back a step, grinning in that cracked and hungry way of hers.
"Your scent's kinda different, Ochako, hun," said Toga, manic smile giving way to a disappointed pout as she pulled another knife from her belt. "It's not as….desperate as mine anymore."
Toga licked her lips, glancing between Uraraka and Bakugo in a way that made Uraraka's stomach turn.
"Is it because of Naegi? Or is someone else—"
Before Toga could even finish the sentence, Uraraka's fist slammed into the side of her face, her other hand grabbing Toga's wrist and keeping the knife at bay. Uraraka spun, her back to Toga's chest, and flipped her over her shoulder.
Toga grunted as she slammed into the ground, and Uraraka took the moment of distraction to glance at Bakugo and she almost staggered.
He was standing on guard, watching the trees for a sign of Dabi or the League, and he had his back completely to Uraraka and Toga.
Just...trusting Uraraka to handle the situation.
It was one thing for him to talk about her being strong. This was a whole other level. Which, she supposed, was very Bakugo.
A second wind hit her like a bullet train and she jumped off Toga as the siphon needle came flying toward her thigh—she wouldn't repeat anything that had happened at camp that night. Toga twisted as she stood, arm cocking up as she prepared to throw a knife at Bakugo's exposed back.
Toga was fast, but Uraraka was faster and she lunged at Toga, grabbing the back of her facemask and yanking hard. In the same motion, she brought her other hand up and curled it around the blade of the knife, activating her Quirk on it as she ripped it from Toga's grip and threw it upward.
Blood dripped from the gashes it left in the fingers of her good hand and landed on Toga's forehead, and the villain shuddered in Uraraka's grasp, writhing against her hold on the facemask and twisting away.
"That smells like a nasty cut, Ochako, hun. Shall I kiss it and make it better?"
Uraraka cringed, both hands throbbing, and she decided not to look at the one Bakugo had stitched up, fearing she'd torn it open again trying to keep hold of Toga.
Bakugo glanced over his shoulder then, eyes going straight to her hands with an exasperated look that might've been funny under different circumstances and Uraraka gave him a sheepish smile.
She looked back to Toga, who was standing between her and Bakugo and pulling a third knife from her belt.
And then a wall of blue flame burst from the trees behind Bakugo.
With reaction time that was a testament to his insane training regimen, Bakugo dashed, snagging Uraraka around the waist and blasting them out of the fire's radius. He spun them in the air, so they crashed to the ground on their backs instead of on their faces, and then jumped to his feet in a fighting stance.
Uraraka followed suit, eyes searching the thinning smoke left in the wake of Dabi's fire.
Toga, who must've thrown herself to the ground to avoid the flames, was pushing herself to her feet with one hand, the other cradling a knife dripping with fresh blood.
"Interesting," the blonde mused, sucking the blood from the knife as Dabi appeared beside her. "Do you see the way he jumped for her? Maybe Tomura is on to something."
Uraraka glanced at Bakugo, eyes widening as she noticed the tear in his shirt, right above his hip. Blood from leaking from a jagged gash in his side, but he wasn't bothering to stanch it.
"Got me as I grabbed you," Bakugo grunted, flexing his fingers as he watched the two villains.
Uraraka grit her teeth and dropped into a defensive stance, frowning as Toga licked every last drop of Bakugo's blood from the knife.
"I have a hunch as to her Quirk," Uraraka whispered. "I think she can turn into people when she drinks their blood, but I don't know if she gets their Quirks when she does it."
"I'll take Scarface then," Bakugo said back. He rolled his neck and Uraraka could feel the fighting energy radiating off of him. "You've got more experience fighting me than I do."
And then he lowered his head and rushed at Dabi, explosions crackling in his palms.
Uraraka didn't waste any time running at Toga, and the villains jumped apart at the joint attack.
"Dabi," Toga whined, dancing around the kick Uraraka aimed at her knees. "Let's go. We've got everything we came for. I even got more of sweet Ochako."
But Dabi wasn't listening, and the grin he was giving Bakugo made it clear he planned to stay for a fight.
"Ugh," said Toga, lunging toward Uraraka. "Boys, huh?"
"What do you want with our blood?" Uraraka shot back, dodging and spinning on one heel to land a kick on Toga's hip. The blonde staggered to the side and Uraraka advanced, using her arm to deflect the knife Toga slashed toward her and landing another punch on Toga's collar bone.
"Oof," Toga grunted, bringing the hilt of the knife into Uraraka's temple in a blow that made her see stars. "Isn't it obvious, hun? I wanna smell like you."
Dabi went flying by them, then, crashing into a tree on the edge of the clearing. There was a singed hole in the front of his shirt where Bakugo must've landed an explosion point blank. He staggered to his feet and Uraraka used a sweeping kick to take Toga's legs out from under her while the other girl was distracted.
But then, in a move that Uraraka wasn't expecting, Dabi ran at Toga, grabbing the front of her shirt and bring the com on his wrist up to his mouth.
"Janus, now!" he yelled.
Uraraka lunged for them, but they disappeared before she reached them, melting into the foggy air like they'd been nothing but an illusion.
But she heard them above her, and looked up to see them materialize briefly in the air, only to vanish again and reappear higher and farther away—a teleportation Quirk that worked without touch, but only moved them short distances at a time. No match for Kurogiri, thankfully, but still utterly irritating as she watched them fade into the sky.
"Uraraka!" she turned then to see Bakugo running straight at her full-tilt. "Infinity Pitch!"
Like an instinct, she understood without thought, but as he ran at her, time seemed to slow. She'd launch him after the villains, but he couldn't fight them in the air forever, and he certainly couldn't go with them by himself. That might even be something that the League wanted. An added bonus to whatever it was they'd gained in getting Bakugo's blood.
So, she yanked the tracker off her wrist and held in her right hand, extending that arm out to Bakugo. He reached her and gripped her forearm, and she activated her Quirk on him and spun, using his momentum to make a tight circle before throwing him after Toga and Dabi with all her strength. As her bloody fingers slid over his palm, she pressed the tracker into his hand and a wicked smile lit up his face.
He flew through the air, moving faster than the villains' erratic teleporting, and collided with them in a fiery explosion that created enough smoke to block her vision of them. Uraraka ran, biting her lip and trying to catch up with them from the ground, hoping to at least be there in case Bakugo needed a crash pad.
(Bakugo)
Uraraka was a gods damned genius.
They both knew it would be idiotic for Bakugo to chase the League of Villains back to their hideout, and his original plan had been to knock them out of the air, but putting a trace on them was decidedly better.
So as he crashed into them, he set off a massive explosion in the air, smoke pouring out of his palm and shrouding them in a disorienting haze.
"Any day now, Janus!" Toga yelled, kicking at Bakugo.
She missed, and he flipped himself upside down in the air, grabbing Dabi's ankle and activating his Quirk to cause enough pain that Dabi wouldn't notice the prick of the tracker as Bakugo latched it around his leg. They teleported then, and Bakugo felt a disconcerting yank in his stomach as he was pulled through dimensions with them. The sky bent around him, wobbling like a dream, and he shook himself when they stopped farther away from the mountain that he'd been seconds before.
Something about the teleportation canceled Uraraka's Quirk, and his weight returned like someone dropped an anchor onto him.
Dabi grunted and slashed his hand through the air, sending blue flames at Bakugo's stomach, but Bakugo popped his Quirk between himself and the villains, launching himself away from them and out of the fire. They teleported again then, farther this time, and Bakugo didn't bother watching them go as he searched the ground for Uraraka. He used his Quirk to hold himself up, but his arms were starting to twinge with the effort, his Quirk close to overload.
He let his body drop a bit before catching himself again, explosions coming out a bit weaker.
But a streak of pink below caught his eye and he would've cursed the relief that shuddered through him, but he was waning.
She was way too far below him to hear if he shouted, so he waited until she saw him and stopped running.
And he dropped straight toward her.
(Uraraka)
She'd watched from the ground as Bakugo was teleported forward with Dabi and Toga, and felt her Quirk release of its own accord.
Swallowing hard, she picked up her pace, channeling her inner Iida as she raced after them. There was no way Bakugo could fall from that height without solo-Deadfall level damage to his arms. Or worse.
A flash of blue flame and a small explosion broke them apart, and then the villains were gone and Bakugo was still hanging in the air.
Uraraka released a shaky breath, glad he hadn't been dumb enough to actually try to go with them, and slid to a stop far beneath him.
And then he was diving toward her.
"Oh gods, Bakugo," she grumbled, jumping into the air and gliding up to meet him. "You just can't do anything the easy way, can you."
Well, she could play that game too.
She couldn't negate the kind of momentum he was building with her slower speed, but when they crashed together above the treeline, she activated her Quirk on him and scooped him into her arms bridal style. They fell much more slowly toward the ground, and Bakugo met her eyes with a glare for the ages.
"The. Fuck. Are. You. Doing."
Uraraka grinned at him, getting a sort of wild pleasure from the way the tips of his ears were turning red.
"If you're going to fall out the sky at me, I reserve the right to catch you however I see fit."
He pushed off of her with his palm to her face. "Fucking weirdo."
She pulled his hand away, laughing from post-fight exhilaration, and he hooked an arm around her back and popped a small explosion downward to slow their fall further, making it more of a downward float.
"Hell of a trust fall though," Bakugo said, the hint of a satisfied smirk on his lips. "Wonder what Midnight would have to say about that."
This, for some reason, caused Uraraka's face to heat up. Maybe because he'd literally fallen out of the sky and into her arms as easily as he'd tilted backward into them in Midnight's lesson.
She swallowed. "Maybe that you're out of your whole entire mind?"
He grinned outright at that, and Uraraka's breath caught in her throat. He was so high off the adrenaline that he was smiling happily. And well...it was just about the most crafted-by-the-gods thing Uraraka had ever seen.
"That's what bat-shit-fucking-crazy implies. Besides, you caught me, didn't you?"
"I can still drop you, you know." Her voice came out a little breathless.
"You won't."
"You're bleeding," she said, tearing her eyes from his smile because looking at it any longer was definitely asking for trouble. Droplets slipped from the cut in his side, hanging in the air like bubbles in their wake.
"Me?" he said, smile turning downward. "Have you looked at your fucking hands?"
Surprised, she glanced down and nausea rose in the back of her throat at the bloody ruined mess of her skin. The gauze had unraveled and the stitches Bakugo had so meticulously placed had been ripped back open, leaving dark threads sticking out around the deep, and now dirty, gash across her left palm. Her right hand was in slightly better shape, since Toga's knife had gotten the inside of her fingers instead of the meatier part of her hand. Those cuts weren't so deep, but blood still smeared all over her forearms.
"Ah shit," Bakugo said, his rough fingers hooking under her chin and tilting her face back up. "Adrenaline is probably keeping the pain at bay, so don't dwell on it too much. The League's gone so we should be getting out of here soon."
They landed and Bakugo's arm disappeared from around her back. Uraraka tried not to feel disappointed by the absence.
He pulled the roll of gauze from his utility belt and gripped her wrists, holding her hands out between them. His frown deepened.
Uraraka grit her teeth. "Do whatever you need to. I'll live."
Bakugo met her eyes, briefly, and then pulled out the bottle of disinfecting alcohol.
"Fucking morons," he muttered, some piece of a conversation taking place in his head, and Uraraka bit her lip.
"What?" she asked, closing her eyes and biting down a scream as Bakugo poured the disinfectant over the worse of the two cuts.
"Hmm?" he grunted like he wasn't half-torturing her.
"Gah—" she groaned, tears leaking from the corners of her shut eyes. He really needed to talk more, distract her. "Morons, you said...ack."
"Oh," he said. His tone was that of talking about the weather, and Uraraka made a mental note to punch him in that stupid perfect smile after she got her hands fixed. "Buzzbrain, Soy Sauce Face."
"Bakugo."
"They gave me shit after the Sports Festival. Talked about how frail and fragile you were. I was just thinking, again, that they're total idiots."
"Oh," Uraraka breathed, then gave a pained yelp that she wasn't proud of when he used the remaining disinfectant on her other hand.
Bakugo, thankfully, ignored it, and began wrapping gauze around her hands again, foregoing stitches since the mission was more than likely off. Uraraka let out a shaky breath as he finished and rocked back on her heels, plopping ungracefully to the ground as the havoc she'd wreaked on her body hit her full force.
Bakugo sat down across from her, his elbows on his knees as he massaged his forearms.
Bzzt. Bzzt. Bzzt.
Bakugo pulled his phone from his pocket with an annoyed look on his face and answered a video call, which was mostly just Mina, Kirishima, and Kaminari screaming at him. Uraraka couldn't see them, but she could imagine them fighting over the camera.
"Where are you?"
"What happened?"
"Are you okay? Where's Uraraka?"
"Your tracker was sending a distress call from the mountains, but when we got back there it was crushed in the landslide—"
"And Uraraka's isn't showing up in the forest at all—"
"Did you run into the League? Dabi was here and then—"
"He just teleported away!"
"Yeah, it's like he's got some sort of dual Quirk or—"
"WHERE. IS. URARAKA."
Bakugo turned his phone around and Uraraka waved as the three of them fought over the phone on their end.
"Thank gods! Are you okay?"
"What happened to your hands!?"
"Where are you guys? The rest of us are back by the bus."
"Aizawa's worried sick about the two of you, even though he won't admit it."
"Should we send him to come find you?"
Bakugo flipped the phone back and frowned at them, but there was something a little soft in it. "We're fine. And not far. Don't waste his time."
"Yeah," Uraraka assured them, standing shakily to her feet. "We're on our way back now. We ran into Toga and Dabi. Oh! Bakugo, did you do the thing?"
"Duh."
She snatched the phone from Bakugo's hand (she could only assume he let her take it) and said, "Guys! Tell Aizawa to look at the trackers! We got one on Dabi and Toga before they got away!"
Mina's mouth hung open a bit a Kaminari gave a low whistle.
Kirishima, though, just grinned. "You guys are so...so Plus Ultra! It's freaking awesome!"
"Thanks," Uraraka said, blushing and grinning back.
Bakugo took the phone and hung up, beginning to make his way back toward the camp.
Uraraka started after him, a bit unsteady on her feet and Bakugo slowed his pace so she could catch up. He didn't say anything, just continued to walk beside her, holding out his arm for her to lean on.
"Th-thanks," she mumbled, putting some of her weight on him as the exhaustion started sinking into her bones.
"Just don't fucking puke on me."
Uraraka chuckled weakly, too tired to be sick.
They walked a few moments in silence, the chilly fog that hung in the air in place of the rain casting the world in a dreary grey.
"Hey, Bakugo?"
He grunted in response.
"You're getting a lot better at the whole 'teamwork' thing."
He looked at her from the corner of his eye, the red and gold there bright against the stormy monochrome. "Well you're not a shitty teammate."
Uraraka laughed again, a warmth spreading from her chest. "Trust falls, compliments...why can't Midnight be here to see this? We'd never have to take another remedial lesson."
She was joking, but part of her heart stumbled at the thought of these lessons ending. At the thought of no longer being a team.
"Tch," he said, but the corner of his mouth turned upward.
They arrived back at the bus to a furious series of worried questions, but Aizawa gave them a quick once-over to determine that their injuries didn't require emergency medical care and Mic ushered everyone back onto the bus, telling them all to leave it until they got back to campus.
Mina slid into the seat next to Kirishima, so Uraraka took the one next to Bakugo, but it didn't really matter who she was sitting next to. As soon as the bus started up, she found her eyes fluttering shut, eyelids heavy. And in spite of the throbbing pain in her hands, and the twinging ache in her head, and the strange warmth she'd felt since she'd seen Bakugo smile, Uraraka rested her temple against Bakugo's shoulder and drifted off into a blessedly dreamless sleep.
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