"Cheeks, use your quirk on this ball before I throw it," Bakugou grabbed a ball from the ground and reached it slightly closer to Uraraka.
She activated her quirk on the ball and Bakugou threw two balls quickly one after another, only one of them being affected by Uraraka's quirk, making the timing and speed of the two balls to be different.
Midoriya easily avoided the first ball and his eyes widened with surprise as he noticed the second ball and just barely avoided it. "Phew, that was close," he whispered as he looked at Bakugou and Uraraka in the other circle. "I'm glad to see you're able to work together with someone, Kacchan," he said with a smile, making the blond click with his tongue and scowl.
Midoriya picked up two balls from the ground, and showed them to Bakugou, "I plan on hitting you with one of these balls, Kacchan," there was a small smile on his lips, although his eyebrows were scrunched together as the electricity started to fly around him again while he activated his quirk in his body.
Bakugou lowered his stance and a smile played on his lips, accepting the challenge as his eyes never left Midoriya's frame. He was finally able to just focus on one opponent.
Uraraka swallowed hard as she felt like she shouldn't be here. She was the weakest link and everyone knew it. The fact that Bakugou had pointed it out was painfully obvious. If Bakugou got hit by the ball Midoriya threw, then this team would be doomed. There was no way Uraraka would be able to win against him. She could feel the cold sweat trembling down her skin, she needed to do something, but what? What could she possibly do?
When Midoriya threw the first ball, Uraraka's eyes widened by the immense speed and power the ball had. If the ball was able to crack Todoroki's ice from earlier, how would it feel to be hit by the ball directly? Uraraka watched as Bakugou avoided the first ball, but it was just barely and he fell backward as he lost his balance.
Midoriya set to throw the next ball and Uraraka moved her body before she had the time to know what was going on. Midoriya barely had the time to adjust his throw before he let go of the ball. To not only Midoriya's and Bakugou's surprise but Uaraka's as well, she had moved in front of Bakugou to shield him and the ball hit her hip with a loud smack.
Uraraka winced at the pain as she tucked up the shirt slightly to reveal an already bruising mark on the place the ball had hit her. "Ouch." It hurt with a sharp and stinging pain, but not as much as she thought it would. Midoriya must have been able to hold back at the last second.
Midoriya's eyes widened and his mouth was opened in disbelief. "I'm so sorry Uraraka," his voice almost as low as a whisper as his eyes were set on the bruise on her hip. He had thrown the damn ball way too hard because it was aimed at Bakugou.
Bakugou jumped to his feet, his hands were already crackling with his explosion, "Deku," he growled with a low voice as he watched Uraraka leave the circle from the corner of his eye before he grabbed the ball that had hit her and fell to the ground. Before Midoriya had the opportunity to pull himself together from the surprise of his last thrown ball, Bakugou blasted the ball towards Midoriya with everything he got and the ball connected with Midoriya's forehead within a split second, falling dead on the ground after.
A smile finally came across Bakugou's face as he saw the surprise on Midoriya's expression. A small mark was formed from the ball on his forehead and even though it wasn't as visible as the one on Uraraka's hip, it was still starting to form a bruise. Courtesy of one Bakugou Katsuki.
"So, it seems Bakugou's team wins," Aizawa announced as he bounced off the wall he had been leaning against the whole time. "That's it for today, class is over! Please think about what the reasons for why you lost in the first place were before next time." Aizawa lazily left the grounds.
"Uraraka, are you okay?" Tsuyu practically leaped up to her as soon as she could.
"Yeah, it sounded like it must have hurt really bad," Yaoyorozu reasoned with a worried look stilled on Uraraka as her eyebrows went up in worry.
"I'm glad it wasn't me being hit by a ball like that," Ashido followed shortly after.
"I-I'm really alright, it didn't hurt that much," she knew she wasn't good at lying, but she didn't want to tell the truth about how much it hurts. She had a feeling they would look at Midoriya in the wrong way or think that she was too weak.
"Maybe you should just go to the infirmary for safety measures?" Jiro asked as she slowly walked up to the girls that had practically surrounded Uraraka by now.
"Really, I'm fine, this is nothing," Uraraka tried to get a smile up, waving her friends off, "come on, let's get back and hit the showers," she wrapped her arm around Tsuyu and Ashido as she started to head for the female locker room. The other girls followed them shortly, not saying more about Uraraka's bruise, but went on to talk about the exercise in its whole and how they wanted to improve.
Before she got inside completely she turned around and saw Midoriya massaging his forehead while talking with Iida and Todoroki. A smile was on his lips although he just lost to Bakugou, again. Her eyes darted quickly over to the blond without realizing it and her eyes widened as their eyes locked. His red eyes were piercing intensely and it felt like he might be burning a hole in her head. It gave her a pang in the gut that she couldn't really explain or understand why.
As Uraraka was about to walk home, she winced every now and then as her clothes kept brushing slightly over the bruise. It was starting to get darker and the skin was getting painfully sensitive to the touch. She had done her best to cover it up while they took a bath in the locker room. She didn't want the other girls to notice the color of it. She knew it was stupid, they knew it would be there. Yet, it felt like others shouldn't see it, at least not the girls from the class, she didn't want to be seen as a victim. She was going to be a hero one day and she was the one who moved into the ball, to begin with. Was Bakugou angry with her for doing that? They ended up winning so she really couldn't see the need to be angry, then again, Bakugou rarely made sense when it came to the cause of his anger.
When Uraraka reached her apartment she practically jumped up the stairs, ignoring her muscles whining by the actions at each step she took. She knew that if she hurried, she would be able to give back Bakugou's hoodie without him being there. She really didn't feel like standing face to face with him today, not after everything that had happened. If she was lucky, he would use his time to get back after school, or better yet, he would go directly to the gym to train, which when she thought about it, sounded like the most possible scenario.
When she entered her own apartment she went directly into her bedroom where she knew she had left the sweetly scented hoodie, right on the back of her chair.
Uraraka gently grabbed the hoodie and before she knew what she was doing, she silently sniffed the fabric that was between her hands. The first scent that came to her notice was obviously the caramel but behind that was the smell of something burnt, most likely from using his explosion quirk. She smiled fondly to herself before she cleared her throat as a way to get back to reality and folded the hoodie neatly and put it in a paper bag she had stashed away in her kitchen.
As she hurried out the door she grabbed her own small bag and put her phone and keys in it after she locked her apartment and dashed down the stairs, holding the paper bag to her chest and sneakily took in the sweet scent as she went towards Bakugou's apartment that was across from her own.
When she reached the building she stopped, looking over the name tags, to make sure that it really was the right place. And when she saw his name on one of the white tags, her heart jumped slightly. This was real, he really lived in this apartment and as she could see from the floor and room number, he really did live right across from her own apartment. She swallowed thickly at the thought. It's not like she had expected to be wrong by now. However, watching the name before her made it all so real.
Not really wanting to take the stairs, Uraraka shakily headed to the elevators, it was the easiest choice, she thought as she waited for the elevator to come down to her floor. The building seemed to be pretty empty at this hour, which came as a surprise, usually, others would be off from work as well and heading home. She knew it wouldn't be this empty at her own building, at least not usually. However, she couldn't fight the fact that she was rather relieved to not be surrounded by a crowd by now.
As the elevator finally came down and opened its doors for Uraraka, she entered the small space and let out a sigh as she pressed the floor she was heading to.
Right before the doors closed shut, a hand parted the doors open and Uraraka was startled by the sight that was in front of her.
Bakugou entered the elevator without a second thought and as the doors closed behind him, his red eyes were already sizing Uraraka.
"And what are you doing here?" he raised an eyebrow, his eyes were on the paper bag that she was still clutching to her chest. His raspy voice almost made her flinch.
"B-Bakugou!?" Uraraka stuttered as she saw the blond enter the elevator, her face was already becoming incredibly red, she was not prepared to be faced with him so soon and especially not in the elevator.
"Oi, I'm the one who's supposed to be surprised here, Cheeks," Bakugou walked slowly closer to Uraraka but stopped after taking a few steps. He looked at the buttons of the floor panel and he smirked, "looking for me?" he raised his eyebrow.
Uraraka braced herself as she swallowed hard, "I was going to give back the hoodie you lent me yesterday," she held the paper bag with the hoodie against Bakugou's chest, avoiding his gaze.
Bakugou took the paper bag and clicked with his tongue, "don't worry about it."
Just as Uraraka looked up at him she could almost swear that she saw Bakugou blush, but that couldn't be right. Maybe it was the lightning in the elevator. That must be it, right?
The elevator became quiet and Uraraka tried to control her breathing. She had done what she came here to do, now she could get back home to her own apartment as soon as the elevator reached the floor. Only one more floor to go, Uraraka thought as her eyes were locked on the number indicating where they were.
Before Uraraka was able to let out a sigh of relief, anticipating the final floor, Bakugou hit the red emergency stop button on the wall, making the elevator stop immediately. She looked up at him in confusion.
"Tell me one thing, Cheeks," Bakugou said as he closed the distance between them and trapped her against the wall with one of his arms. "Why did you fucking do it?"
Uraraka looked at the hoodie in the paper bag now in Bakugou's hands, her cheeks flushed by the close proximity between them, and thought to herself if he knew that she had secretly been smelling his hoodie and enjoyed the sweet scent that came from it. How could he possibly have known?
Bakugou sighed heavily, "why did you cover for me when Deku threw the ball today?" his eyes were piercing and his jaw clenched and unclenched.
Uraraka could feel the intimidating gaze of his eyes and she tried to back away only to be stopped by the wall. Right, she forgot about that. "M-My body just moved on its own," she finally breathed out, just as silently as a whisper. How could she even explain what happened? She didn't even fully understand it herself.
"Hah? What kind of stupid reasoning is that?"
"It's true!" Uraraka finally looked properly into Bakugou's gaze, "I wanted to win! And I thought that, if you got eliminated, I wouldn't stand a chance against Deku," her voice started to trail off as she was sure that Bakugou's vein on his throat was about to explode from rage. However, instead, he clicked with his tongue and turned his head slightly away from her.
"I would have fucking avoided that ball as well," his voice was starting to get slightly hoarse, was he restraining himself? "And you got hurt in the fucking process," his voice was almost too low for Uraraka to hear it, but she had and didn't really understand the tone that was hiding in his voice.
"It didn't hurt!" she blurted out, almost feeling like a broken record as she tried her best to look confident in her eyes.
"Oh?" Bakugou dropped the paper bag on the floor of the elevator as he gently pulled up her shirt just enough so he could pull down her skirt by the hip, to reveal the growing bruise on her hip. "So you're saying this didn't hurt?" his hand was gently placed on her hip right next to the bruise, careful not to touch it.
Uraraka's face was starting to heat up and she didn't know what to do with her limbs. Was this really happening? She felt like her mind was starting to get foggy and her breath was becoming shallower.
"It looks worse than it feels," she tried to laugh it off, but when Bakugou's calloused hand gently ghosted over it she could feel the sensitive skin almost scream and she winced.
"Don't be stupid," Bakugou pulled away suddenly and restarted the elevator again, turning his back to her.
When the doors of the elevator opened at Bakugou's floor, he took a step and then looked back at her, as if he was waiting for her and she could hardly say anything, it still felt like he was standing so close to her and she could still feel his body heat on her skin.
"Well?" he raised an eyebrow at her and she only looked at him with puzzled eyes. He sighed heavily and grabbed her wrist as he almost pulled her out of the elevator and walked determined towards what Uraraka would only assume to be his apartment.
"Bakugou? What are you doing? I … You got your hoodie, I should get back."
Bakugou unlocked the apartment door and opened it in one swift motion with his free hand without looking at Uraraka. He practically made her sit down on the nearest chair and while she almost didn't dare to move, he darted to the freezer and took out a frozen bag of vegetables. He wrapped a cloth around it and threw it softly at her without a word.
Uraraka didn't even know what to say or do as she caught the wrapped-up vegetable bag, not really understanding what was happening right now.
"Use it on the bruise," Bakugou practically commanded as he set the paper bag with the hoodie on the table.
"Oh, thanks," she smiled until she put it on the bruise, wincing at the sharp pain. To be honest it hurt much more than she let on and she was getting pretty sure that Bakugou knew that.
"Don't fucking mention it," he breathed.
Uraraka couldn't help but smile, this was already the second time Bakugou had helped her. First, the hoodie and now this. "You're actually much kinder than you lead others to believe," she whispered to herself, she didn't dare to say it out loud. Who knew how Bakugou would react to that piece of thought.
Uraraka started to look around the apartment, it was a rare opportunity to see how Bakugou lived. Sure, she had seen some of his apartment, but that was hardly much she was able to see from her own window.
To her surprise, the apartment was surprisingly neat and clean. Her own apartment was messier than his. Nothing unusual was to be seen around the apartment. And then she saw it. The door to his bedroom was open and she could barely see the pull-up bar near his window.
Bakugou suddenly stood in her vision, his hands on his hips and his head tilted slightly to the side, a smile was silently playing on his lips. "Looking for something, Cheeks?"
Suddenly realizing where she was looking, Uraraka's face grew several shades deeper, worried that Bakugou was somehow able to read her mind. Although that would be insane. Right?
Uraraka tore her eyes away from the bar that was now hidden behind Bakugou's head and she quickly looked into his red eyes but snapped her gaze away from his shortly after, the intensity seemed to be too much for her.
"No!" She cleared her throat softly, looking down at her knees, "no, I'm not."
"You sure about that?" Bakugou took a step closer to where Uraraka was sitting without letting his eyes break away from hers.
Uraraka could feel her stomach tying a knot and her heart rate started to speed up, she had a weird feeling about where this was going. All of her being wanted to stand up and run away from his apartment.
"I'm not even sure what you're talking about?" She tried to calm herself as she clenched on the hold of the frozen bag of vegetables she was holding against her throbbing bruise.
"Are you sure?" Bakugou's eyes narrowed slightly.
Uraraka nodded softly, swallowing hard.
"So you're not looking at the pull-up bar I use every night?"
"What?" Uraraka felt like she just got gutted. He knew? If it was even possible, she felt her face grow even hotter than it already was. He was not supposed to know. This shouldn't be happening.
"I didn't notice at first," Bakugou shoved his hands into his pockets and suddenly Uraraka became very aware of the fact that he hadn't fully buttoned his white shirt. "Figures, as I usually have my back to the window," his lips were turned up slightly at the side in a smirk, "yet one night I thought it was weird that you sat at the window at that time of the night, the same with the next night and the night after that."
Uraraka could suddenly feel the blood that had been heating her cheeks earlier, flush away from her face faster than she thought possible.
"Then one night I was facing the window instead," Bakugou took the nearest chair by the table and sat down, leaning over the table ever so slightly, "And what do I know, little Cheeks here is checking me out during my exercise."
"Uhm … That is," all words had escaped Uraraka's mind. Her eyes were wide and she didn't know if she should be more embarrassed or scared. For now, she somehow settled for both.
A silence settled between them as Uraraka fought hard to try and find any words, she really had no good excuse as to why she had done what she did and Bakugou's unwavering gaze that was set on her made her more uneasy than she could imagine. She had no idea what he was thinking, his face was surprisingly enough, without any emotion. She had expected something else. More. Maybe anger, an emotion the blond would be very familiar with. Or embarrassment or just at least something.
"Hey, Bakugou!" Kirishima suddenly swings the door to Bakugou's apartment open and walks in with a huge grin on his face, first stopping when his eyes landed on Uraraka, sitting in front of Bakugou at his kitchen table. A wrapped bag of frozen vegetables held on her hip. "... And Urakaka," he added.
Bakugou's jaw clenched as his body tensed and turned around to face his friend who had just interrupted them. "What the hell are you doing here?" His voice was alarmingly calm.
"So," Kirishima said with a smug smile on his lips as his eyes went from Bakugou to Uraraka and back again, "What are you doing here, Uraraka?" Completely ignoring his blond friend.
As if Kirishima, mentioning her name, got her out of a trance, she looked up and some of the colour came back to her plump cheeks. Seeing the moment and the still open door as her opportunity to escape this situation, she almost threw the wrapped bag of frozen vegetables on the table, stood up on unsteady legs and hurried towards the door, almost crashing into Kirishima before she disappeared out of the door and down the hallway, leaving no opportunity for either Kirishima or Bakugou to stop her.
"What was that about?" Kirishima pointed at the door.
Bakugou scowled and fought the urge to explode the table to oblivion, his mother had forbidden him to ruin another piece of furniture unless he wanted to pay for it himself. "Nothing, Shitty Hair."
Kirishima's eyebrow shot up, not really believing his friend, yet he also knew that he better not push the subject any further unless he wanted to get his face exploded off. Well, for now. He might ask him again later once the blond had calmed down. Instead, he held up a bag with some vegetables and smiled a toothy grin, "So, want something to eat?"
When Uraraka got into her apartment she closed the door quickly behind her and locked it immediately, leaning against the door as she tried to ease her heartbeat, her mind was a complete mess and it felt like everything was getting all mushy. What just happened?
As she looked into her apartment she looked out of the window and saw Bakugou and Kirishima in the apartment across from hers. Thinking of today she hurried up to the window and closed the curtains.