Chapter 9: Truth or Dare
Uraraka knew Mina long enough to know the alien girl was very playful to say the least. She knew there was never any malice behind her actions, and she knew that anything Mina dished out, she could handle. But there were times Uraraka had to wonder what the hell was going on in that girl's head.
Truth or Dare. It was relatively simple and an all-time classic amongst bored teenagers internationally. There was nothing better than sitting in a hot circle of anxiety, hormones, and bad jokes for 30 minutes to an hour. Uraraka was happy this was happening, she wondered what sort of cliche, over-the-top, insane dare was going to happen. Who was going to have to streak in front of the dorms? Who was going to admit their secret crush? And the truths, she could not wait to be exposed. Was it true these two have been secretly dating, was it also true you said that behind her back? No one was safe, not in a class as close as 3A.
And that was the one problem with truth or dare. Sometimes, people are close, but they're not close. Something slips, and two people, or more, are forced to confront the boundaries their relationship lies on. Normally it's resolved, or it drives people apart, but Uraraka had never experienced the true sensation known as awkward until tonight.
So there she was, in a circle with the people who knew her most personally through the fundamental years of her adolescent life. The people who had seen her ups and downs, her happy days, her sad days. People who had a general sense of her insecurities and fears, and the people who knew her likes and dislikes. Narrowing it down, Uraraka sat in a circle of people she had been going to high school with. About three of said people knew what made her tick, what grossed her out, and what the little itty bitty parts of herself looked like for what they were.
So the fact that roughly no one had experienced Ochako Uraraka in a state of flight or fight not triggered by a life-threatening situation did not make this predicament any better.
"Kiss him," Mina stated once again. "Or you strip."
This girl is cutthroat, Uraraka thought to herself. She looked from Mina to Bakugo, then back to Mina, and then somehow Deku? She wasn't sure about that last one. She smiled nervously, hoping to erase some of the tension floating in the air. It thickened.
The dare itself was relatively simple, it actually wasn't bad.
"I dare you, Ochako, to kiss Bakugo for ten seconds. If you decline, your alternative dare is to strip one piece of clothing." Mina stated, the simple terms and conditions very understandable, and very do-able.
Uraraka herself had no issue with the dare, she was actually fine with either option. Anything goes, was her mindset for the night, and she set out to do that. It was the receiving party, as well as additional third parties that made this harder than it needed to be.
Bakugo had already said no once. For what reason, Uraraka could not figure out. It was literally all they had done today, what bad was one more kiss going to do. She looked at him, and considered asking why, but stopped. If his answer was unfavorable, no one could save her from that embarrassment. So Mina asked instead.
"Why? The dare wasn't for you." Mina crossed her arms in annoyance.
"I'm receiving it aren't I? So it is my dare." Bakugo glared back at her. Uraraka renewed her opt to butt out.
"Okay, whatever. Why won't you take it?" Mina asked once more. Bakugo shrugged in response.
"Don't wanna, is there a fuckin' issue with that?" He said.
"Yes." Uraraka and Mina said at the same time, the brunette clamping a hand over her mouth. She had not planned on answering out loud, and now the class was looking at her with such an anxiety-inducing gaze she thought she might melt. Bakugo looked at her as well, one eyebrow raised. He sat up from his relaxed position beside her, and turned his body to face her.
"I mean, what's the problem with kissing Uraraka?" Kirishima blurted out. 3A's eyes were on him now, an especially intense gaze from Bakugo that screamed, Shut the fuck up. So Kirishima shut the fuck up, and sat back.
"Well, okay, Kiri's got a point." Hagakure spoke up, the white thigh-high socks that identified her kicking in excitement.
"Which is what, exactly?" Todoroki chimed in calmly. He wasn't reading the room as well as Uraraka prayed he would.
"There's no real reason Bakugo has to object kissing Uraraka. Unless..." Mina trailed off.
"Unless...?" 3A responded.
Great, Uraraka sighed. Now her entire class was weighing the pros and cons of kissing her. She was weighing the pros and cons of kissing herself now. Bakugo really didn't have any reason to object.
"He's got a girlfriend?" Denki posed. Bakugo shook his head.
"He's got a boyfriend?" Sero chuckled, dodging the subsequent pillow being launched at his head.
"Enough." Bakugo growled.
"Seriously, why won't you kiss her. Uraraka's hot as hell and I for one-" Mineta was then ejected from the game, and forcibly locked in the bathroom.
Uraraka, now definitely embarrassed, spoke up. "Guys, if he doesn't want to, he doesn't have to," She said, a hint of sadness in her voice. "I still have an alternative dare."
"Right guys, if Kacchan objects, just let him be." Deku's voice caught everyone off guard, Bakugo choking on the juice he was just angrily chugging. Mina smiled.
This is where things would get interesting.
"Why the hell would you care, Deku?" The nickname oozed out of Bakugo's mouth.
"I-i don't! It's just-"
"Just what?"
"N-nothing!"
"Sure as hell didn't seem like it." Bakugo had now caught Deku in a moment of shock. The green-haired teen sputtered for a second.
"Y-you're the one who doesn't wanna kiss her, so don't do it." Deku muttered, looking down at his lap.
"It sounds like you do." Bakugo said lowly. Uraraka was now fully embarrassed, she wanted to shrink and crawl away. This had been such a bad idea.
"N-no!" Deku waved his hands around frantically, his face slowly turning the same shade of red as Uraraka's.
"Do you wanna kiss her Deku? You wanna kiss Uraraka?" Bakugo antagonized his friend/rival. All the rest of the class and Uraraka could do was watch, no one dared to interrupt a Baku-Deku spill.
"No, Kacchan-"
"Don't Kacchan me, shitface. You wanna kiss Uraraka so bad. I could see it all night. You almost creamed your fucking pants when she walked in." The blonde stared at the boy in front of him, his aura causing Deku to glower in fear. "In fact, that was your shitty plan for this stupid night, wasn't it? You break up with your shitty girlfriend, walk in this fucking dorm, and pray to God you get a chance with her." Bakugo was now in Deku's face, the latter leaning back, sweating intensely.
"If anyone deserves to kiss her, it's me." Deku said courageously.
Uraraka gasped. Mina, for once in her life, was speechless. Kirishima was dumbstruck, and Bakugo was pissed. Smoke rose from the floor underneath his hands, and his face twitched violently centimeters away from Deku's. Uraraka heard the small pops of Bakugo's quirk, and she saw the terror on Deku's face as he braced himself for an attack.
Before an attack could come however, Bakugo felt himself being snatched back by the arm with an insane amount of force. Before he could counter, his body turned to his left, and he felt two soft hands grab his face, and an even softer pair of lips touch his. For ten long seconds, Uraraka kissed Bakugo, his body relaxing second by second. She sighed internally, knowing from this point forward, dealing with Bakugo was going to be a lot of work. It was going to require patience, and she was going to have to learn a type of person she had never dealt with romantically. But as she kissed him, she felt the same feeling she did during their first kiss, that this was right, and that this is what she wanted. It felt so natural to her, and to him as well as he grabbed her waist, deepening the kiss. Uraraka knew in that moment, that she had no more doubts about her feelings for Bakugo.
"Alright! Ten seconds is up!" Mina pulled Uraraka away from Bakugo, earning a quick glare from him. "That was fun!" She giggled. Uraraka looked at her friend, noting this was one of those moments she question what the hell kind of person Mina was, and then she turned her eye to Deku. He looked back at her with no expression., his green eyes dull. She looked away when she heard Mina's voice pipe up again.
"Huh?" She questioned. She couldn't get Deku's face out of her mind.
"I saaaaaid Chaks, it's your turn to pick someone!" Mina sang beside her. Uraraka shook her head a little, returning her focus to the game at hand. She could see her classmates still looked a bit confused and concerned, so she did what she did best.
Bakugo hated this side of Uraraka. He watched her eyes shift to Deku, then back to Pinky, and then briefly, the ground, before she looked at the rest of their class. He heard a small sigh beside him, and then watched her smile bright and clap her hands like a child. She giggled, the bright sound like small little bells, and he watched the rest of their class lighten up. She was chirping about something meaningless, getting the girls to laugh and joke with her, then saying something the boys found amusing.
He hated it.
He hated watching her push her emotions away for the sake of everyone else. He didn't like she took it upon herself the revive the vibe everytime something happened, and he certainly didn't appreciate the way everyone relied on her for relief. It wasn't her job to ease the tension, and he never wanted to see that from her again. The way she could just switch herself on and off scared him a bit, and made him wonder if she would ever do that to him.
He did blame himself for making her activate her default personality, he could have just accepted her dare and moved on. But he didn't want to kiss her then, it wasn't like anything was wrong with her, he just preferred when their intimacy was kept to themselves. He didn't want to be subjected to some childish game for the viewing pleasure of those creeps. Which is why he didn't give an actual reason for declining in the first place. Bakugo was worried that if anyone besides Kirishima was let in on what he had with Uraraka, they would taint it with their intrusions and unwarranted opinions and curiosity. Part of him disliked himself for caring about such a trivial issue, because he knew Uraraka had a way of making a little world of their own when they were together, but he knew himself, and he knew he liked his privacy. He figured he would have to make some sort of compromise however, because he did acknowledge the difference between a relationship being a secret, and it being private. The last thing he wanted to do was make Uraraka feel like she was being hidden when he wanted the entire world to see her for what she truly was.
He looked at her continuing the game, watched her bounce around and laugh, participating in silly dares and lying her way through petty truths. The class was having fun, all at her influence, and while he hated the way she pretended to be happy-go-lucky in the public eye, he could not deny her positive energy was contagious. He found himself joining in on the games, running around a make-shift relay race, humming through songs in karaoke, and stuffing his face with snacks Uraraka shoved at him. She dragged him in pictures and videos taken on everyone's phones, and the entire night, he looked at her with the softest smile anyone had ever seen on him.
The night drew to a close around 4 am, and as class 3A laid around half-awake in the common area, tangled and snuggled and cuddled up with each other, Uraraka snatched Bakugo up beside her, pulling out her phone and snapping a quick picture of them together. Her smile, bright and goofy, was plastered next to his, small and warm. They settled into the rest of the slumber nest, sharing a blanket, when he turned to look at her smiled once again.
"Hey, Cheeks?" He whispered, sleep starting to take over his mind.
"Yeah?" She answered sleepily.
"Send me that picture, will ya?" He asked, snuggling up beside her. She hummed in response, leaning into him and closing her eyes.
Midoriya watched them cuddle from across the room, a sinking feeling growing in his chest.