Bakugo was not a fan of waking up with a child in his bed.
The first sound he made that day was "Ooomph!" when kid Uraraka directly stepped on his stomach to try and climb out of the bed right before 6am. It wasn't unusual for him to get up that early, but he definitely never experienced a kick to the gut first thing in the morning.
She gasped and laid on his chest to check his face for pain. "Oopsie! Sorry, Bakugo!" She half whispered, half yelled.
He opened his eyes to see Uraraka propped up on her elbows, holding his face in her tiny hands. They were strangely sticky, and the second sound that came out of his mouth was "Bleechhhh!" when he realized they were slick with her drool.
"Fucking disgusting." He sat up and wiped the slobber from his face, making Uraraka roll off of him and land flat on her back on the mattress. Completely unaffected by his irritation, she chimed out a sweet "Good morning!"
He glared at the little embodiment of sunshine giggling at the foot of his bed, wondering if he really could last another 24 hours with the toddler.
Well, he was Katsuki Bakugo! Of course he could do it.
"Listen up, kid."
"Ochako!"
"We still on this?" He groaned, exasperated.
"O. Cha. Ko."
"... Ochako." She beamed with satisfaction as he pointed at her. "We need to go over some rules here if we're gonna be stuck together all day."
"We can play the whole day together?" Her eyes practically doubled in size as they sparkled with excitement.
"No!"
"Awwww." Her whole body deflated with disappointment.
"I'm gonna be doing important work stuff. Hero stuff! So you can't be bothering me when I'm busy!"
"So what do I do?"
"I don't know! Color or some shit?" Why did he have to be responsible for her own entertainment?
"I can play with your toy?" She suggested.
"What? I don't have toys."
"Yes, you do! Right there!" She said resolutely and pointed to the figurine on his shelf across the room. It was a limited edition All-Might figurine, still in the box in pristine condition with the former #1's autograph on the front. He was prepared to stay up and purchase it online when it launched, but All-Might himself gifted it to him the day before.
"No way! You can't play with that!" Bakugo exclaimed, utterly flabbergasted.
"Why not?"
"It's a priceless collectible! An exact likeness of the best hero of all time! You don't play with it!"
"Oh... Where's yours?"
"Huh?"
"You're a hero. Where's your toy?"
Bakugo sat there, slack jawed. This little girl took him at his word and believed with all her heart that he was the hero he claimed to be. And not just any hero, but one good enough that she thought he'd have his own figurine, one that could stand tall next to All-Might.
She may have not known the weight of her words, but Bakugo couldn't help but feel an inkling of gratitude towards her.
"I, uh," He swallowed. "I don't have one yet."
"When you get one, can I play with it? It's no fun to have a toy you can't play with." She crossed her arms, already annoyed at the thought of a forbidden toy.
Pushing down the strange fondness rearranging his insides to make room, he conceded. "Yeah, yeah. You can play with it. But for today, you'll just have to draw or something."
"Ok! Can you help me make a butterfly? I like it when the wings have red and orange and a little bit of white on the outside. Did you ever see one like that before, Bakugo? One time, I saw a blue one when I was…"
He let her trail on as he walked over to the dorm bathroom to brush his teeth. He dug around for an extra toothbrush in one of the drawers and stuck it in her mouth to make her finally stop talking about unicorns, or whatever she was on.
"You hafta sing the brushing song!" She insisted, squeezing on a much too large blob of toothpaste on the bristles.
"The what?"
Ochako started a tune that sounded like the row your boat song, something he hadn't heard since pre-school when the teachers tried to get him to participate in the class recital. His mom still had the video of him standing on stage with the other kids, glaring out at the audience with a bowtie on.
"Brush brush brush your teeth, brush the germs away~ in a circle all around to help stop tooth decay!" He stared at her blankly, wondering how his life had come to this. "You gotta sing it three times!" She held up three fingers, as if the clarification would help the idea settle in his brain.
"I'm not doing that shit."
"But I don't want the sugar bugs to eat my teeth!" Her face warped with genuine concern.
With a groan, he spit out the foamy cleaning agent and plunked his toothbrush back in its holder. "I'll brush your teeth. Open up." Bakugo crouched in front of her and held her head with one hand to keep her steady. After scrubbing every one of her tiny baby teeth, making her head jostle with every movement, he begrudgingly lifted her up to the sink to rinse her mouth.
He immediately regretted it when she started to splash her face in a shoddy attempt at washing her face, sputtering and flinging water everywhere.
"Damn, cheeks! Don't waterboard yourself!"
"Towel! Towel!" She yelled and flailed around with her eyes squeezed shut, almost smacking him in the face.
Kirishima swooped in with a laugh, patting the toddler's face with a towel before Bakugo resorted to something ridiculous like shaking the toddler dry.
"Lovely mornin', you two!"
"Piss off!"
The red-haired man, who had yet to spike his hair for the day, brushed off his friend and finished drying Uraraka's hands.
"Thank you." Ochako said quietly as she shrank in the presence of the kind stranger and held tight to Bakugo's neck.
"No problem, mini Uraraka! What're you up to today?"
"Bakugo's gonna help me draw butterflies." She perked up a bit at the prospect.
"Like hell I am!"
"You promised!"
"I did no such thing!"
"You said I could draw!"
"And when in that conversation did I ever say I would help you?"
Kirishima crossed his arms and watched on with amusement as the pair walked out of the bathroom. He wondered if Bakugo even realized that he didn't need to be carrying the little girl anymore. The 3 year old was chilling on his hip like it was right where she belonged.
And maybe it was. She followed him around like a little duck all day, holding onto the back of his shirt to trail behind him between classes and asking to sit on his lap during lessons. They resorted to moving Jirou to Uraraka's normal seat for the day and letting the toddler sit next to the explosive hero who just about died from embarrassment on the spot.
He finally got a free hour to himself when she went down for her nap, but she came back clingier than ever afterwards. She even cried when they told her she wasn't allowed in the training area.
"It's too dangerous for you, Uraraka-shojo."
"I promise I'll be careful!" Her little sobs kept most of her classmates from carrying on with their planned exercises. They couldn't help but want to take away all of her pain. Bakugo seemed a little less resistant to leaving her behind, even though it was his leg she was holding onto.
"Do not worry! I will take care of you!" All-Might puffed up his chest and gave her a killer smile, but it did nothing to stop her tears. In fact, she wailed louder when he started to cough up blood at the overexertion.
"Ochako." Bakugo said sternly, a warning. "You gotta stop crying now."
"But I wanna go with yooooouuuuuuu." She held up her arms, a clear sign she wanted to be held, but he didn't give in.
"I told you this morning that I would need to do important hero stuff and you can't bother me during it."
"Kacchan, don't be so harsh on her."
"No! She's not dumb or fragile. She needs to understand." Bakugo knelt down so they were eye to eye. "You can't go in there with me. Not yet. Not until you get stronger and faster so you can protect yourself."
"I am strong! And fast! Really!"
"Not as much as me." Bakugo grinned, giddy at the thought of making her tiny head explode at the demonstration of his awesome quirk. "So you're gonna wait outside and watch me through the window. Got it?"
"Hmphhh." She let out a little whine like air escaping a balloon. It wasn't quite the acknowledgement he was going for, but he'd take it. He patted her head and carefully shook free of her grasp, making sure not to accidentally kick her in the process. Glaring at the stupid extras standing around with their mouths open like empty-headed idiots, he entered the training zone.
"Did he just call her Ochako?"
"And she listened to him?"
"Who would've thought he'd be so good with kids?"
Ignoring all of them, Bakugo got started on his latest simulation. It was a cityscape, one of his supposed weak spots. He had a tendency of inflicting more damage than the teachers deemed necessary, which kept him from moving on to the next platform.
He consistently had the best time out of the entire school in completing missions and he had one of the highest rates of rendering the pseudo-villains incapacitated. And it wasn't like he neglected the civilians either, they were also accounted for in the rubble. So what if he wasn't subtle about his strength? Wasn't it a good thing to send out the message that he shouldn't be someone to be messed with?
Bakugo swallowed down the urge to charge in head-first and stuck to the shadows between buildings to approach the target. He intentionally set off small pops of nitroglycerin filled grenades in open areas to distract them and launch a surprise attack.
He led the fight into an open area so he wouldn't have to keep pulling his punches. But he got too excited in the end and knocked the pretend-villain off of his feet along with a couple of buildings.
Buildings he knew were empty because he already scanned the floors, but it didn't matter. Bakugo got into a shouting match over his subpar grade, one of the few he'd ever gotten, and yanked his gauntlets off before marching out of the training arena.
On his way out, he looked up to see Ochako's face pushed up against the glass from the observation deck above. It was her first time witnessing his quirk, much less the destruction it could inflict. Even from that far away, he could see her trembling.
Shit. He probably scared her.
Something akin to disappointment lodged itself uncomfortably in his chest. Kid Uraraka was one of the first people to ever admire him not for his quirk or strength, but for perceived goodness. It was refreshing, not having to prove himself for once. But now, he probably scarred her for life.
Whatever. It wasn't like it was gonna last. She was gonna return to her annoyingly chipper self in a couple of weeks anyway.
He could hear the patter of her feet coming down the stairs to meet him. When she saw him, she completely stopped in her tracks, frozen with her mouth open.
Bakugo sighed. "If you don't wanna be around me anymore-"
"That was amazing!"
What?
"Bakugo, you're so cool!" The toddler launched herself at him, almost making him stumble back and fall from the surprise. Digesting what she had just said, he recomposed himself quickly.
"Of course I am!"
"You can explode away the meanies!"
"That's what I've been saying!"
"It was like BOOM!" She imitated the explosion with her hands. And even though she got spit everywhere, Bakugo didn't care. He lifted her from the floor and let her chatter on about how incredible it was to watch him take down those buildings.
And though the teachers were glad to not have to deal with another yelling bout from Bakugo about how he deserved a perfect mark for his work, his classmates were more than done with hearing about how great Bakugo was.
"Ya hear that, you extras? I'm the best!" Bakugo held up the toddler like a mouthpiece of truth over the living room, where most of Class A were trying to enjoy their dinner.
"Yeah, yeah. We all heard you. Now quit it and eat your food." Kirishima said boredly while poking Bakugo with his fork. Luckily, he hardened his face before Bakugo could jab one straight into his skull.
"You're all just jealous!" Bakugo cut up the food on the 3-year old's plate. He learned his lesson that morning when she almost puked on him trying to cough up a whole grape.
"Why do you like Bakugo so much, honey?" Mina asked curiously.
Most everyone paused mid-bite and leaned in for the answer. The little girl wasn't phased by the attention, she was too engrossed in her rolled omelet. Before stuffing her face with one, she said matter-of-factly, "He looks like daddy!"
That wasn't the answer they were all expecting.
"Uhhh. How?" Kaminari asked, confused.
"They both have yellow hair and big arms!" She giggled out. "But Bakugo makes more funny faces. Like this!" Uraraka distorted her face into a scarily accurate scowl. Her little tufts of eyebrows knitted together and her lips twisted to the side in an exaggerated frown.
Bakugo was hit with a startling realization that if he and Uraraka were to have a kid, they might look like that.
Luckily, he didn't have to dwell on that nauseating thought for long because she reverted back to her toothy smile and happily returned to her rice bowl. "Mmmm. Yummy!" She expressed her delight with her whole body, squirming in her seat.
"Good with kids, cooks well, and cleans obsessively. You sure we can't call you Mama Bakugo?" Kirishima quipped before expertly deflecting another deadly fork attack.
"Kids always liked Kacchan and he's good at pretty much everything. None of that is new." Deku added, drawing a smiley face on Uraraka's hamburger patty with ketchup.
Pretty much everything Deku said rubbed Bakugo the wrong way, but watching him be the reason why Uraraka smiled made the anger flare up more than usual. "I don't need you to defend me, fucking nerd!"
"Ah! Sorry, Kacchan!" He accidentally squirted a big blob of the red sauce over Ochako's food. He quickly scooped up the excess with a spoon, but Bakugo couldn't help but growl as Ochako's lips turned into a genuine frown.
He wasn't sure if he was more mad at himself or Deku at that point, which made him more frustrated. And it didn't go away for the rest of the night.
"Ochako. What're you still frowning for?" He grunted at the sulking kid at his side as they neared the bathroom to get ready for bed.
"Why can't I call you Kacchan?" She asked with a small voice.
"What're you talking about?"
"Everybody calls you Bakugo except for the green-haired man. Why can't I call you by a special name?"
"That's what you've been pouting about all night?" Her lip jutted out even more at that comment, nodding slightly. "What a ridiculous reason to be upset." He muttered.
"It's not fair!"
"It's not like I like the twerp! There's nothing special about it!"
"I wanna call you Kacchan too!"
"Urggghh... Fine! You can call me Katsuki."
It wasn't like she'd get the chance to use it all that much. She was going home with her parents the next day.
"Yay!" Bakugo almost got whiplash from how quickly she cheered up. The toddler finally uncrossed her arms and took the toothbrush from his outreached hand. "Can you sing the-"
"I'm not singing the brushing song."
"Aww."
Much to Bakugo's relief, she didn't press the issue further and brushed one her own. He still had to do a final sweepover, he wasn't gonna trust her to actually clean her teeth properly, but at least he didn't have to sing the blasted song.
"Time to floss." He tapped her chin to make her open her mouth.
"Floss, floss, floss your teeth, floss them everyda-"
"Would you cut it out?"
"I'm teaching you the song!"
"That doesn't make any sense! How am I supposed to floss your teeth if you keep biting me?"
They finally settled on recording both songs on his phone so they could play it. He originally planned on only doing the flossing one, there were only so many times he could hear the same fucking melody over and over again, but she wouldn't stop going on about how he would need them both for the next morning.
He couldn't really argue against that. He would need it then.
And then never again.
It was weird. They practically spent the whole day together and soon she'd be gone. Her parents were scheduled to arrive right before noon and then he wouldn't see her until she came back un-babified.
"Can you get tape and put my drawings up over there? And then I can make another one tomorrow to put-"
"Sleep." Bakugo laid down next to the little girl and covered her face with his hand, effectively shutting her up.
"Ok." Her muffled voice tickled his palm. Once he removed it, she waited for him to settle under the blanket so she could curl into his side once more, like she had been sleeping that way all her life.
"Good night, Katsuki."
"Night."
"You're supposed to say good night!"
"Ochako. Please. Go to sleep."
"Ok… Good night."
He sighed.
"Good night, Ochako."