A/N: I'm sorry this chapter took so long to post. I anguished over the pacing because I wanted it to be right.

I clearly denote any alternate sequence in this chapter because I want it to be clear what's what. Personally, I feel kind of cheap for doing so, but yeah.

You Make Me Sick

I want to love you wildly. I don't want words, but inarticulate cries, meaningless, from the bottom of my most primitive being, that flow from my belly like honey. A piercing joy, that leaves me empty, conquered, silenced.

— Anaïs Nin

Vigor and vitality lit the flames in Bakugou's eyes. The same ember scorched his red face. The blinding fluorescent lights of the room dimmed and darkened as his classmates huddled around him as he lied flat on the floor. Even if they said something, their words did not matter to him. He had kissed Uraraka. Fate signaled itself and guided him back to her. Therefore, they were meant for each other.

Again, he rejoiced. Deku would never have the guts to do something like that, and he would never in a million years be able to take her first kiss because she only got one of those.

That was her first kiss, right?

Bakugou cursed himself for doubting her innocence. Of course, it was.

Although his nerves had settled into an elated and elevated sense of glee, his heart still pounded against his chest. A stirring in his gut erupted before he jumped into a sitting position and bent over - tossing his lunch in the process. Right, that was one of the adverse reactions of floating in zero-gravity with Uraraka. Nausea had not settled as louder commotion stirred in his stomach. Such a sensation resembled the daunting premonition of his instinct. Danger still lurked in the area.

Bakugou lurched up and straight past Kirishima and Sero. Wait, did they witness the kiss? He wasn't ready for that, for the combative hero had yet to assess his sentiment on the situation. He twisted his torso back towards their speechless, dropping faces. "Who put a stick up your asses?" he asked with his tight grimace. Stomping up towards them, he pointed at the space where he had laid. "You fuckers didn't see anything, did you?"

Such an incriminating line passed his tongue, but his internal hubris brimmed too brightly for any bit of critical analysis.

Ashido ran up to the scene of the crime as chipper as ever after a quick trip to the restroom. A disappointed frown dragged the corners of her mouth as she furrowed her eyebrows. "Did something happen?" she asked to Kirishima who she thought would spill the beans immediately. "Did Ochako beat him?"

Already, Kirishima developed a deep sense of regret for allowing the situation to escalate. Scratching the back of his head, he wondered where his mind had been to allow an innocent girl like Uraraka get caught up with Bakugou's selfish desires. His mouth hung in an open frown as he stared blankly at an empty space between his friends. If Bakugou showed shame, then Kirishima may have seen him as innocent. Instead, he glanced at the ferocious smirk plastered on his maniacal facade like a predator that had just captured a satisfying kill.

And, that's exactly how Bakugou felt - satisfied, but he did not calculate such a feat. The lack of premeditation failed to deaden his ego. He puffed his chest out like a cock and continued to stomp away.

Times such as those, Sero wanted to aggressively confront Bakugou, but he assumed that if he somehow became hostile, the tape hero would be in over his head. Turning to Kirishima, he knew they were both at or near the same level. In a way, the kiss was his fault. Sero's signature grin had turned into a grimace. "Dude," he lightly scorned. What had been done could not be undone.

"Tell me!" Ashido begged as she clasped her hands together. Surely, her good buddy, Kirishima would tell her. Light entered her dark eyes as she peered up at him.

Weakened, Kirishima took in a breath and opened his mouth.

Sero quickly taped it shut. "Nothing happened," he muttered through tightened teeth.

As Bakugou abandoned his friends, dreams of the future entered his mind. For the entire time that he had Uraraka in his plans, he had never envisioned their future together. Aside from the occasional wet dream or daydream, he kept his emotional attachment to her out of his fantasies. Yet now that fate had decreed for their betrothal, he allowed his desires to sprout into a lovely vision of Uraraka as his wife.

Would her pink cheeks redden when she tasted the glorious feast he prepared for her? Would her eyes sparkle when he proposed? How high would she climb in the rankings of heroes? In the features of their child, how much of her beauty would they inherit? Sunlight filled the darkest corners of his mind as thoughts of her drew weightless breath from his mouth. He covered his face and snickered again. How wide would her smile be when she realized that she had whisked the great and immovable Bakugou Katsuki into a whimsical, earth-shattering romance?

Bakugou would allow her to gloat but only for a few moments before he dipped and subdued her into a sequel to their passionate, cosmic kiss.

A flawless woman for his transcendental romance. Yes, even Bakugou could mold his pride to allow for such a detour especially if it catalyzed the sparking fervor that crackled through his body as he left to the locker room.

Could they skip to the future?

That night, he dreamt of her.

Bakugou's Dream

"Kacchan, wake up," whined Uraraka as she put pressure on Bakugou's shoulder atop a fresh, clean bed. She wrapped the white sheets around her head as she smiled up at him. "Guess what?" Donning a lacy, black pajama gown, she kneeled on the edge of the mattress as her wide eyes eagerly awaited for him to acknowledge her.

Instead lieu of words, he pressed his thumb upon her right, red cheek and pulled. The spots on her face were made for him after all - soft and molding to the slight force he applied much like the conforming mattress that they laid on. She smiled, for her confidence most likely led her to believe that he would never hurt her in such a setting. Only during sparring when she demanded that he not hold back would he ever lie a combative hand on her.

"Kacchan! It's serious," she pleaded.

Bakugou sat up and scanned her features for anguish. Any slight frown would send him into a defensive frenzy, for she surely knew by then that he would kill for her. That sly girl smirked in her own, innocent style with her eyebrows knitting to display her amusement. "What?" he answered after a sigh. He dragged his free hand down his face as he stared at her through the spaces of his fingers.

She looked like a bride with the cotton, white towel that she wrapped around her shimmering, wet hair like a veil. Her hair had grown past her shoulders. Time had passed since high school.

Boldly, she placed her tender, small hand on his chest and leaned forward with centimeters between their faces. After a pause, she whispered into his ear, "I'm a rankin' hero now."

"About fucking time," Bakugou grinned before he hesitantly gripped the sides of her waist and pulled her closer. "You shoulda placed after that Ice House incident, but they sure do take their sweet time." What was he saying? He had not made such memories yet.

But, the sentiment of pride in another - in Uraraka resonated with him. The agency she displayed as a hero, as a woman, as a fellow human had always been a quality he respected in her. While he may have revered senior heroes like All Might and respected fellow hero trainees like Kirishima and maybe Midoriya, he had pride in Uraraka. He valued her success almost as much as he did his own, so the grin that popped onto his face proved impossible to drop.

Uraraka blushed at the contact. She gazed down at him as braced herself over him before tenderly stroking the side of his face. "I'm just happy I got up there," she giggled before biting her bottom lip. "I was thinkin' now that I'm getting to be a more popular hero and I'm making more money and stuff - maybe we could finally get married."

Heat flooded his face and the rest of his body. "Eh? Hah?!" Gripping the air, he grunted, "Shut up. Don't be an idiot." He jumped up to sit on the edge of the bed and wiped the cold sweat from his brow and through his muted blond hair. Suddenly, he froze, for he finally realized the inappropriate taste of acridity in his mouth. Hesitant, Bakugou needed to assure that he did not annihilate the person he cared for the most, for if he inflicted the slightest tinge of pain on her, his heart would shatter. His brow furrowed before he peeked over his should at her pensive smile.

His brow furrowed before he peeked over his shoulder at her pensive smile. Fortunately, her brown eyes lacked the glimmer of tears. Even in his dreams, he could not identify sadness in her features. And that panicked him more than anything. He did not know whether to comfort her or correct himself or run away. He had never cared to that capacity for another person's feelings. His chest tightened before he tightened his hand around her forearm and pulled her closer to get a better look. Bakugou had never studied someone's face with the intention of sympathizing.

Even at that proximity, he could not read sadness or understanding on the surface of her reddened cheeks or the dark pupils of her round eyes. But, from that distance, his instinct drove him to act by carefully caressing up her arm to her shoulder where he boldly placed a kiss. Glancing up at her, he saw light re-enter, so he kissed her again but this time on the lobe of her ear.

"Ka," she moaned or maybe she said, "Ga."

Either way, he took that as a sign to continue. Their eyes met. A small, lively smile grew on her lips curious and pleased as ever. Bakugou gritted his teeth as he tilted his head against his shoulder and leaned in leaving less than an inch between their mouths. "Don't get things twisted, Ochako," he demanded, and there were more words on the tip of his tongue and the pit of his gut, but by each passing moment she drew air from his chest and left him breathless.

"Katsuki," she said in her sweet, soft voice, "I'll always understand you because I know your heart. Don't worry about me, I'm not going anywhere, 'kay?"

Did she know that that pitch and note and tone could instantly melt the core of heart to nothing? All he knew was that he needed to kiss her, so he did. He kissed her neck and cheeks until he found his way to her supple lips but before they could finally kiss, the world around him faded to darkness. Before he could scream into the void, the suffocating atmosphere silenced him.

owari

Bakugou woke up in a pool of his wretched sweat. He gasped for air as he sat up in his dimly lit dorm room. That was not the wet dream he typically experienced regarding Uraraka. Touching his face, his hands twitched as he identified the collection of hot water beneath his eyes. When he shut them, residual tears fell to his bed. "Fuck," he cursed. His chest still hurt as his heart still raced. He felt pain despite escaping the nightmare of losing her.

Right, her.

He panted and collected his thoughts. In waking life, he still had Uraraka at the center of his bright horizon. Within hours, he would see her once more and continue where they had left off the day before. He would leave earlier than usual that moment and truncate every activity in his routine just to see Uraraka a little sooner that morning so that he could alleviate his ache.

That loss haunted him in the still of that quiet dawn. Is this terror what love meant?

Uraraka felt like a coward that morning. She fled from Midoriya and Iida and Tsu the day before. She hid in her room the morning before class. While she could have left late enough to reach her desk seconds before the bell, surely her friends would come searching for her.

She did not want to deal with anything or anyone that day. The scene of Bakugou falling through the air and deliberately peering across at her had stayed in her mind and followed her into her dreams. While she may not have spotted any definitive trace of malicious intent in his demonic red eyes, she knew by the smirk on his lips that he obtained satisfaction from one of the most heart-wrenching tragedies of her young life.

Through the blustery, early autumnal atmosphere of the path to school, she walked alone and allowed her her thoughts to carry blur her surroundings. His tepid taste had lingered much like the dazzling sensation of his hands on her back and head. Surely, classmates, teachers, strangers would recognize his signature on her - especially her dear friend, Midoriya. Tears bubbled in the corners of her eyes once more as she gulped down a hard lump in her throat.

She slapped her cheeks a few times before wiping her eyes clean of any distress. Bright-eyed and joyful! That's the persona she had to plaster so that the world would never know. Even deeper than her intentions to hide the lurid activity, she wanted to bury and mask and burn any parcel of pleasure she derived from the event. In fact, any time the notion of past pleasure bobbed to the surface of her mind, she temporarily blacked-out.

Suppression! Every good hero needed a trait like that in order to be alert and dextrous at all times.

Tracing the cracks of the tiled hallways with her sturdy stare, she took a few deep breaths before sliding the door open. The room should have been empty at that time. A few meters down the quiet hall, Uraraka heard a few students. Without looking back, she dashed inside. If Midoriya happened to be in that group, she would die! There was no way she was ready to face him yet.

Once she shut the door, her cold, sweaty forehead dove forward to escape but instead collided with a warm, firm back. Firm yet giving like her pillow. Heated like comforting blankets had been that morning. Her knees trembled like her breathy, quiet apology. "Sorry," she said. She pulled back her disheveled hair to look up through her bangs to identify her unintentional victim.

Before she caught sight of the person, her heart twisted and turned and nauseated her before dipping towards her wringing gut. Her head shot up to peer up at the burst of muted, blonde hair. Bakugou of all people. She wanted to cry or puke or both. Why him?

"Oi! Who the fuck pushed me?" he burst as he turned around. Though he had such a volatile outburst, fear had shot up his back like a startled cat and stayed with him as he recognized the girl behind him. In the last of his breath, he could only say one thing. "Oh."

Somehow, Uraraka needed to keep walking, but she couldn't. Fight or flight needed to save her but she could only freeze in place. Furrowing her eyebrows, she thought, "No calling me Ochako? How nice of you, Bakugou." Sarcastically, of course. His possible, secret heart of gold was the last thing on her mind.

The background noise and people and images of the classroom had whited out from their perspective. They only saw and knew each other and what had happened between them.

However, fellow classmates clashed into the thick tension of the scene. Few words had been spoken in the moments that they entered one by one. The dense silence of the room made the single sounds of Uraraka and Bakugou's encounter loud and clear.

Bakugou's face dropped once he realized that Uraraka would not acknowledge him. Did that mean she would still be difficult? Did he have to try? He had no idea where to start to keep her near him or get her to admit that he had won her and had sealed the occasion with a kiss. They were basically officially betrothed to each other - promised by fate to marry and possibly even love.

Audible blood rushed to their reddening faces. Everyone could hear and certainly see it.

When Uraraka realized she couldn't move, a bolt of divine energy awakened her that morning. "Maybe you shouldn't stand in the doorway, Bakugou!" she retorted. A burst of audacity boomed from her small frame. "You think about other people for a change. Just leave me alone."

Fully turning around to face her, Bakugou smirked and nearly grinned at that plucky behavior. He witnessed just how his charcoal attitude scratched her innocent demeanor. If she wanted to play a game of wits, then he would oblige. He could talk to her easier that way anyway, and heaven knew just how much he wanted to see her that morning. "Little round face's got a chip on her shoulder this morning," he said as he turned his nose up. "Don't think we're equals."

By the seconds of silence, his knees began to rattle slightly.

She hoped he never mention the kiss, but she could see it replay in his eyes. Uraraka quickly sighed out her shortened breath. Eyeing the perimeter of the room, she woefully noted their audience including none other than Midoriya who held a protective hand to block his peripheral vision from watching her. Uraraka willed her legs to walk past Bakugou.

Nausea tainted his gut when he caught sight of Deku's dark green hair. He had feared that Uraraka would flee to him, but why? Things were supposed to be different that morning, yet at that point, she failed to even look at Bakugou. His fears bore fruit, and with that fear, he grabbed her shoulder as if to beg or plea, "Look at me."

Uraraka used her padless palm to shove him back into a desk. She did not give him the satisfaction of glance when he fell back on his ass. The chorus of laughter from the class neither pleased her nor mortified her. As if she never touched Bakugou, she pranced over to Midoriya's desk. "Deku, can I talk to you after school?" she asked with a trembling tension in her brow.

Too shaken to stand, Bakugou watched Uraraka's back with fresh, hot tears in his eyes. A fissure ripped through the meridium of his chest as he witnessed Uraraka's unwavering indifference. He never felt such weakness accompanied by such pain. The tears did not escape his eyes when he grunted, "Ochako!" He paused to clear his throat. "Did you forget?" he asked in a low, dry tone.

Everyone and everything froze. Not that they mattered. Uraraka cringed and shut her eyes to brace for his public revelation. Above all, she could hear the raw traces of pain in his shaking voice, and she put his pride or fragility or whatever it was above her own. Why was this so difficult for her? What had changed? She suddenly felt sympathy rather than fear that he would reveal their accidental kiss.

"We have plans."

A/N: Hopefully, Uraraka wasn't too unsympathetic. Hopefully, Bakugou wasn't too weak. Hopefully, they can work things out.

I promise the next chapter will be longer. More Uraraka centric so that y'all do hate me for portraying her like this.

I'm also glad people really liked the last chapter it was important.