Tokage: Hey bestie
Tokage: How's the date going
Shiozaki glanced over her shoulder at Bakugo as he drifted sluggishly around the small gift shop in the corner of the complex. He had asked her to wait outside earlier while they were on their way to the bowling alley, saying that his mother had been nagging at him to buy something for a distant relative - whose name he claimed to not remember in the slightest.
She looked back at her phone and typed out a reply.
You: It's alright so far, we just had lunch
Tokage: Nothing else?
You: Nope
Tokage: :(
Shiozaki rolled her eyes at her friend and the romance-tinted lens that she seemed to have permanently glued to her face.
You: Surely there are things more interesting to you than the ways in which I'm spending the day with a friend?
Tokage: No
Tokage: OK yeah
Tokage: Tetsutetsu and Awase broke a window while playing basketball in the courtyard
Tokage: Awase is trying to weld everything together before our teacher shows up
Tokage: It's a mess
Tokage: Hold on
Shiozaki's screen was swiftly flooded with images of her (mostly male) classmates scampering around the common room, their faces frozen into unflattering, half-formed expressions of panic. In one photo Awase seemed to be grabbing Monoma by his collar, begging him to copy his Quirk and help repair the dismally shaped lump of glass in the background behind him.
Shiozaki quickly clutched a hand over her mouth to stop herself from laughing. An older version of her would not have found this funny - she probably would have chided Tokage for taking photos instead of helping. But she saw this as a natural step in trying to shatter the barrier of solitude she had hid behind for so long.
These chaotic people were a part of her life now. And she a part of theirs.
She wouldn't let that slip away from her again.
She looked back at Bakugo, who was now bending over a shelf displaying several religious ornaments. He reached past a small wooden Buddha to grab a set of jade beads, then paused for a minute as he stared at something on the bottom of the shelf, his lips pressed thinly together - but then he strode over to the cashier without taking anything else.
Shiozaki typed a hasty message to Tokage ('ok got to go'), then turned to him with a smile.
"Did you find what you came for?"
"Yeah. Let's go downstairs now," he said, a light grin on his face.
"You seem excited."
"Haven't gone bowling in ages," he said, his grin splitting into a leer. "Looking forward to beating you, I guess."
Without thinking, Shiozaki rose to his provocation, leaning closer to him as the side of her mouth curled smugly. "Poor you, it's going to be so embarrassing when you don't."
God, this boy was like a drug to her.
After taking the escalator down to the first floor of the building, they turned a corner towards the entrance to the bowling alley. Behind the set of heavy glass doors, heavy pounding noises echoed like thunder towards them. Bakugo's footsteps quickened, and Shiozaki hastened to follow. He flung open the doors and the lush scent of polished wood washed over them.
Shiozaki scanned the alley briefly: Thankfully the number of people was few; there was only a father and his little son at one end, and a group of five or six high school boys at a lane near the middle. She followed Bakugo over to the space near the entrance, and handed the coupons over to the bored-looking woman behind the counter.
"How many games?" she muttered without looking up.
"Two."
"Footwear?"
Shiozaki replied, "Tw-"
"One," Bakugo cut her off, and she stared at him.
The woman struck some keys on her computer and a locker next to the counter clicked open. She yawned, "Lane 7."
Shiozaki paid the woman and went to take her rented shoes, then followed Bakugo over to their lane, which was directly next to the group of rowdy schoolboys. Shiozaki caught him frowning thinly for a moment, and she had a notion he was less than happy with their lane allocation, but chose not want to say anything that would dampen her mood. She appreciated that.
"I thought you said you didn't play often?" she said, pulling on her black-and-green shoes as she watched Bakugo toss his bag onto the bench and reach inside it. "How come you own bowling shoes?"
"I don't," he said as he whipped out the boots from his hero costume, complete with his dangerously sharp metal kneeguards.
Shiozaki stared at him in disbelief for his cheapness, and he met her gaze guiltily.
"What?" he scowled. "I'm not paying eight hundred yen for shoes that have been swimming in the amassed sweat of a dozen people for the past month."
Shiozaki wished he hadn't said that; her toes curled at the image in her head. To distract herself, she went over to the electronic board beside their lane to enter their names - only to see that Bakugo had already locked them in as:
P1: KATSUKI
P2: ABOUT TO LOSE
She extended a vine to smack him lightly. Bakugo flashed her a smug grin as he fastened the clasps on his boots, then walked over to the rack behind their lane that held the bowling balls.
He glanced down the row for about two seconds, then reached in and pulled out a green sixteen-pound ball like it was a mere volleyball. Seeing the ease with which he had picked it up, Shiozaki's perception of weight was briefly skewed; as she went to pick up an identical ball, she forgot just how heavy sixteen pounds was.
"Woah-!"
Having failed to lift the ball high enough, it struck the edge of the rack and the impact caused her hand to slip. The ball, dragging her arm along with it, hurtled towards the ground-
"Oi!"
Bakugo's hand shot out and grabbed her wrist while his other one flew downwards, touching her other hand as he caught the ball. Shiozaki looked sideways and their eyes met, his face barely an inch from hers.
Shiozaki froze at their sudden closeness, the feeling of his fingers pressed up against hers seemingly draining her of the ability to move as she felt heat rise up in her neck.
About a second later, she realised Bakugo seemed to have forgotten how to move as well.
"Um..." she prompted.
"Fuck. Uh...give me that." Bakugo didn't wait for a reply as he yanked the ball out of her hands and replaced it on the rack.
Shiozaki stared at the back of his head, absent-mindedly fingering her wrist where she could feel the mild coolness of his chemical-rich sweat evaporating. She bit the inside of her cheek. It seemed like Tokage's delusions were about to become reality very soon if she didn't snap out of this.
"Here, try this one," Bakugo said, turning back to her and holding up an orange six-pound ball.
She took the ball from him and lifted it up to gauge it.
"Yeah, um...this works. Thanks."
"Be more careful next time," Bakugo muttered. He walked back to their lane, stopping just before the white line - the steel barrier blocking off the pins had just risen out of sight.
Gazing calmly at the ten targets, he arched his right arm back with grace - then his eyes flared and a crazed grin spread across his face.
"Die!"
He flung the ball with a violent burst of speed. It slammed into the polished wood, rolling forth in a perfect line before cleanly knocking down eight pins.
"Hah!"
His ball returned, and he ended his frame with a spare. He turned to face Shiozaki with his chin haughtily upturned, taunting her with an unspoken but very clear, "Beat that."
Unfazed, Shiozaki stepped up to the lane. The machine at the end of the lane replaced the pins. Leaning forwards, she flung her ball - and scored five. Her ball returned - she scored another five.
She glanced sideways at Bakugo, whose smirk slid off his face like water.
"Ah, yes - I forgot. I've been helping Yanagi train for the past week or so. Your aim gets very good quickly when you're training with someone with a ranged Quirk."
Bakugo snorted and looked away, his teeth showing through his smirk. Shiozaki could tell he was rifling through his brain for a comeback.
"What, I'm not a good enough partner for you?" he said. "Can you beat me in a fight now, then?"
Shiozaki smiled serenely. "Jealous?"
Bakugo smirked again and stepped up to the lane. He threw his ball and knocked down six pins. When it came back, he aimed towards the corner to try and get the last four but it ended up in the gutter.
"Damn."
Shiozaki glanced at the screen; his score was twenty-two now. Her second frame started, and she went to throw her ball, scoring eight pins. When her ball returned, she just barely managed one more pin.
Twenty-seven points to her.
She heard Bakugo let out a strained groan. She looked at him smugly.
"I think you might want to change the names up there," she said, gesturing at the screen.
"When the hell did you get so cocky?" said Bakugo.
"Learned from the best." She flashed him a challenging smile.
Bakugo felt something in his chest turn. Damn it. He knew she was just acting brattish to beat him at his own game, but seeing her act so unlike her usual self made him excited - made him want to pin her to a wall and-
There was a loud bang from the next lane over. They both looked sideways. That lane's screen was swinging around dangerously, having clearly been hit by a bowling ball that was thrown in an...unconventional way. The schoolboys there were laughing and hollering as one of them rushed back from the lane to his seat.
Bakugo's lips thinned, but he once again refrained from saying anything negative. He grabbed his ball and went to play his next frame.
Shiozaki's ball slammed into the pins with a chorus of clean, echoing thuds. Seven of them fell, ending her eighth frame.
"You are too good at this," Bakugo muttered as he looked up at the screen; they were both scoring in the hundreds' range now, but Shiozaki had been consistently leading by about five points.
"If I win this game, we can do best out of three," said Shiozaki.
"Thought you only bought two games?"
Shiozaki sat down next to him to take a break. "I can buy another. I've got time."
Shiozaki fidgeted with the edges of her seat for a second, staring ahead into space.
"To be honest...I could spend the whole day with - I could spend the whole day here and not get bored."
Bakugo stared at her, sure that she had been on the verge of saying something else. Was it just a delusion...? Fucking hell, even she was out of breath and had a fine sheen of sweat coating her face and vines, she still looked radiant.
"Everything alright?" she said, staring at him.
"Huh? Yeah," Bakugo said irritably. The fucking gall of her to ask that question after phrasing a sentence like that...
Shiozaki suddenly began to cough, raising a hand to her mouth. At the same time, Bakugo smelled something rancid and nearly gagged. His glare shot towards the source of the smell - it was the neighbouring lane again. There, he saw two of the boys sitting within a thick cloud of cigarette smoke as one of their friends flung his bowling ball while performing a wild and very dangerous spin.
Bakugo finally lost his patience and rose. "That fucking does it, I'm telling the staff-"
"Oh, let them be," said Shiozaki, grabbing his arm and pulling him down. Looking anxious, she leaned in to whisper in his ear. "Technically you're breaking the rules too."
Bakugo looked down at the boots he had smuggled out of school.
"Right," he conceded. He didn't want to ruin their day - her day - because he couldn't tolerate some douchebags. "But if one of 'em flings a ball towards us I'm gonna yell."
"Fair."
They continued to play at a steady pace, with Shiozaki unsurprisingly winning their first game. But on their second round, she had already run out of steam, and was seeing a significant increase in gutter throws while Bakugo still managed to dish out full-force throws like he was pelting Kirishima back at school.
"Okay, you've left me in the dust already. No need to try so hard," she said as Bakugo scored a strike.
"Huh?" Bakugo looked up at their screen to see that he was seventeen points ahead. "Oh. I go all out on everything, I wasn't trying to-"
"I know, I was joking. A little." Shiozaki got up from her seat and grabbed her ball, fumbling slightly. She had to pick it up with both hands.
"Ughh...six pounds is the lightest, right?"
"Yeah."
Shiozaki went up to the lane with a groan, curling her sore fingers.
"Chill out. I don't really care about winning, anyway."
Shiozaki stared at him through unamused eyes, frowning like he had just told her the world's unfunniest joke.
But he meant it. He could lose this game three hundred to fifty to all he cared, it didn't matter as long as he was doing something with her. He didn't know when he had realised this - perhaps during one of their sparring sessions, when the notion that she might be about to kick his ass flitted through his mind.
Shiozaki finished her frame with a spare. The sound brought him back to earth. The air between them felt thick now that both of them had stopped talking.
"I'm gonna get a drink," he said. "Want anything?"
Shiozaki shook her head, so Bakugo promptly left.
Shiozaki went to lean back in her seat, letting the cool air rush over her face as she kicked off her rented shoes. It always felt nice to cool down when she was tired...
But her bliss was cut short when her cold, sweet air was replaced by the stench of warm smoke.
She opened her eyes irritably to see one of the smokers from the next lane standing in front of her. His messy hair was very poorly dyed blond - probably a home job - and he was wearing an open school uniform over a black top.
"May I help you?" she said as neutrally as possible, although she knew her own eyes betrayed her.
The boy didn't seem to notice that she was looking at him with disinterest. In one daring swipe, he grabbed her phone from her side and flipped it around.
"Ibara?" he read off the sticker on the back, then eyed her vines. "Heh, funny name. Talk about on the nose. Have I seen you before?"
Shiozaki didn't know if he was acting dumb or just plain stupid; her fight against Kaminari had been televised nation-wide.
The boy tossed her back her phone and sat down next to her, flinging an arm around her shoulder. Shiozaki tensed up and wrinkled her nose; he had exhaled loudly as he sat down and his breath was thick with smoke.
"High schooler?" asked the boy, looking her up and down. "What year?"
"First," Shiozaki said, pointedly looking ahead of her.
"Ooh, you're my junior. Nice. Anyway, wanna have fun with me, cutie? I can get you away from that scary-looking guy."
Shiozaki finally met his gaze, albeit merely so that she could look at him with loathing.
"A hundred of you can't compare to that boy."
"Aww, you don't mean that," the boy drawled, oozing with such confidence that one might think his Quirk was to know what all women were thinking anytime, anywhere. "Why settle for a dude as ugly as him? I promise I'll show you a good time."
As he said this, his fingers curled around her shoulder.
Finally losing her temper, Shiozaki grabbed his fingers - hard - and pried them off before shoving the boy in the chest. He nearly fell off the seat and promptly stood up.
For a moment he was still, seemingly stunned - but then, clearly interpreting her act of rejection as something vastly different, a disgusting grin crept across his face as he leaned in and seized the metal cross hanging from Shiozaki's neck.
"Why, you-!" Shiozaki yelled, more outraged at the indignity of grabbing her cross than the physical threat of the action - the guy was quite weak - but she was no less furious. She raised her vines to strike him-
But before she had even touched him, there was a dull thud, and the colour immediately drained from the boy's face. He promptly dropped to his knees, clutching his crotch and writhing.
Shiozaki stared at him for a second, then looked back up to see Bakugo standing there with his knee jutting out, his sharp kneeguard glinting in the artificial light.
"Sorry," he said, taking a sip of the iced drink he was holding. "I tripped."
The boy shot him a look that Shiozaki assumed to be loathing - it was hard to tell with all the pain laced into his expression.
There was some slow movement in the corner of Shiozaki's vision. She looked up to see the other boys getting to their feet, all of them with their eyes on her and Bakugo. One of them was grasping the sort of long and thin bag used by students in sports clubs.
"Sakuraki!" the boy on the floor wheezed.
The boy holding the bag ripped it open and extracted a weathered, heavily scarred hockey stick.
Shiozaki glanced at Bakugo and saw a mad flash in his eyes. Right as he was about to pounce at the boys, Shiozaki grabbed his wrist.
"You're not licensed yet!" she whispered harshly.
The boy named Sakuraki leapt over their lane's seats and swung his weapon at Bakugo, only for Shiozaki to swiftly wrench it from his hand with her vines and bind his wrist to the bowling ball rack.
"Need your girl to fight for you, you fuckin' loser?!" the first boy roared, now back on his feet and charging towards them.
Shiozaki gagged his mouth with vines, more to shut him up than to actually impede him, then kicked him below the knee so that he fell. The yells of the last four boys reached a deafening cacophony as they rushed forth, one of them grabbing the 8-ball from the nearby pool table and flinging it right past Bakugo's ear.
Bakugo let out a furious roar, knowing full well he couldn't fight back in public. He locked eyes with Shiozaki, and they both knew that it was time to leave.
But-
Bakugo grabbed Shiozaki's hand and pulled her away from the angry boys, sprinting for the exit with her in tow.
"Katsuki, wait!"
He wasn't listening. Even when the lady behind the counter finally looked up at the commotion and began yelling incoherently, he just flung the doors open and dragged Shiozaki out right as something smashed into the doorframe.
Bakugo continued to run, Shiozaki reluctantly following him, until they had put at least half the complex's length between them and the bowling alley. Bakugo finally slowed down when they reached the tall fountain near the entrance to the building.
"Wait...! I said wait...!"
Bakugo turned around, scowling. "What?!"
"My shoes...!"
The anger quickly vanished from Bakugo's face, replaced with the look of someone who just realised he had screwed up.
The building's floor was the chic, fancy type of uneven stone tiling, and Bakugo had just made her sprint across it with only socks on her feet.
Shiozaki threw herself carelessly onto the fountain's edge, gripping her feet and wincing.
"Shit - I..."
"Save it," said Shiozaki. "It could be worse."
But as if the universe was mocking her, her cross chose that exact moment to splinter from its thin chain, both objects falling from her neck to the dust-specked ground.
"No!" she groaned, "I've had that for years! That horrendous gangster...!"
She reached down and picked up both the cross and the chain, but even as he looked from a distance Bakugo could tell there was no fixing it; the broken links among the chain had been completely twisted apart.
"You can still thread a string through it," said Bakugo, trying to be helpful.
"No, I'll probably just keep it somewhere," Shiozaki muttered, her eyes still on the cross. "It was a gift from my mom from...back when I was recovering. I don't want it to get damaged any further."
"That important, huh?"
Shiozaki smiled weakly, turning the damaged cross over in her hand. The unblemished portion of the silvery metal glinted.
"You know, I was already brought up religious before that robbery, but I wasn't...super fervent about it. But when I was in that period of convalescence, I...well, the days ahead of me were just a blank expanse of unknown, and that scared me. So believing that there was someone out there who would stay with me and make things alright - I think I needed that. So yes. Really important."
She looked at Bakugo. He looked distracted as he stared at her, frowning thinly. Then, he turned and said, "Wait here. I'll go back and get your shoes for you."
"Alright."
Shiozaki sat at the edge of the fountain with her feet against the cold polished stone, hugging her knees to her chest. She had been waiting for several minutes now, idly watching the foamy white waters of the fountain bubble over neon lights that were slowly changing colour, before splashing down and distorting the twinkling of dozens of coins at the bottom.
She massaged her knees absent-mindedly, trying to distract herself from the icy cold that had crept into her soles. She was grateful for Bakugo's help, but she still wished he would hurry up; she was starting to feel stupid sitting there with bright blue socks and no shoes.
She continued to wait, now watching the lights in the fountain cycle from red to purple, to blue, to green, back to red...
Seriously, what was taking him so long?
Shiozaki finally caught sight of Bakugo pushing through the crowd of people towards her, his bag slung over his shoulder and two plastic bags in his other hand. She furrowed her brow; what on earth did he stop to shop for?
"Here," he said, pulling her shoes out of his bag and thrusting them towards her.
"Tha-" she started, before going pale as she looked closer at him. "-What happened to your face?!"
Bakugo raised a hand to cover a fresh bruise on his cheek. "One of those guys got me. That damn lady loves taking her own sweet time."
Shiozaki felt abashed for getting even the slightest bit frustrated. Bakugo sat down next to her, dumping his bag at his feet.
"What's that?" she asked, looking at the plastic bags in his hand.
Bakugo reached into a bag and pulled out a small package, unwrapping it. Shiozaki heard metal clacking against his nails - then her breath caught in her throat as he pulled out a gleaming cross on a black string, its golden paint shining like a hot flame under the ceiling lights.
"I...wow," she breathed, taking the necklace with both hands and running trembling fingers over its smooth surface. "It's beautiful. I can't even...th-thanks."
"Save it. Could be better," Bakugo said, cracking a smile.
Shiozaki giggled. "Where did you even-?"
And then she remembered the way he was staring at that shelf in the gift shop, looking like he was debating whether or not to buy something.
"Oh."
"I didn't plan for that," he said, reading her mind. "I just saw it while picking something out. And then I was wondering if it would be weird to get you this, so in the end I ditched the idea. But after just now...yeah."
"I love it." Shiozaki turned to gaze at Bakugo, smiling raidantly. "Thanks."
For a moment she thought he had begun to smile too, but then he cupped his hand over his mouth and coughed, squinting slightly past her head.
Lowering his hand, he said, "And, uh..."
He reached into the second bag and pulled out a small white box, about the size of his hand, with 'Iori Bakery' written in gold on its lid.
"Here's a cake for you."
Shiozaki couldn't smile anymore; she had a feeling something was amiss. "Er-"
"You can go back and eat it. I'll celebrate with you if you want, but I'd rather not. And I'm definitely not singing."
"I - um...haven't the faintest idea what-"
"Angel, don't play dumb. I know today's your birthday."
A long silence fell between them. Shiozaki averted her gaze, hands falling to her sides as she gripped the edge of the fountain, her golden cross dangling from her fingers. She really thought she had been slick, now she just felt idiotic.
"Why?" Bakugo asked.
"Huh?"
"You said you were okay with going out today. Why didn't you tell me?"
"It was the only day you were free. And...I wanted to do this for you. This whole thing was because you've been so stressed out since Kamino. I didn't want you to think you were encroaching on my plans."
"So you had plans?"
"Yes - no - well, I just wanted to spend the day with my friends."
Bakugo groaned and threw his head back, the fountain's foam producing glistening droplets on the back of his head.
"I could've found time for this. Would be hard, but I could've managed. You didn't need to...ugh. Damn you, moron."
Shiozaki's knuckles turned white from her grip on the cold stone.
"I'm sorry if you couldn't enjoy our day out today. If you were thinking about that the whole time..."
"No, I wasn't that concerned. Today was a blast. Until those bastards ruined it, but yeah. I don't regret coming out today."
Shiozaki could tell he was being honest. She felt relieved.
"Still, uh..." Bakugo huffed. "...why go so far just to do this for me?"
There it was. A golden opportunity. Shiozaki took a deep breath, feeling like a soldier on the dawn of some great confrontation. She could practically see Tokage laughing and squealing amd kicking her legs already, but she didn't care anymore.
"What if I said I liked you?"
Bakugo jerked his head forwards, a few tiny specks of water splashing towards her. Shiozaki had deliberately left the statement as a question instead of saying it outright; that was all she dared to do, and so she wanted to leave the ball in his court.
She stole a glance at him. He was staring at her, but she got the unnerving impression that he wasn't truly seeing her. His lips parted to speak - then he closed them for a second, his face hardening, before he finally said:
"I'd tell you to stop screwing around."
The ball dropped to the floor. Right through the floor, and a thousand layers of earth into the hot fires of hell.
"Yeah, that would be a pretty bad joke," she forced herself to say.
Bakugo grabbed his bag and got to his feet, his movements a little hasty.
"Wanna head back now?" he asked, his voice oddly hollow.
"Whatever - I mean, yes."
Shiozaki stood up, her body feeling heavy. Bakugo turned and began walking slowly to the exit, and she followed silently.
It was a few seconds before she remembered the golden cross hanging from her hand. She raised up the necklace to put it on...
...with a sigh, she lowered the gift and stuffed it into her pocket.
Hi, I'm alive.
Yeah, I disappeared for a pretty long time. This year was a tough one and I had to desperately get my shit together. National exams finally ended last week though, so I don't need to give a shit about anything anymore, yay! (Tears up my exam entry proof and burns it.)
Although I finally have time to write now, the time I take to produce something of similar quality as my old stuff has become much longer. Looks like I'll need some time to regain confidence and speed.
I've been re-visiting some good romance stories to get back into the flow, and whilst doing so I stumbled upon one of my forgotten favourites - 我们的少女时代 / Our Times. Can't believe I forgot this film existed, both heartwarming and hilarious. If you like a good 'I can fix him' story (who am I kidding, you're reading this fic) then you need to give it a try. The whole thing has definitely 100% not been pirated and uploaded to YouTube five years ago.
See you next time!
