"You can watch me make it exactly the same as usual, so don't go and complain about it being off."

Uraraka had gotten distracted a few days ago, trying to run through mathematical formulas that were sure to be on her final exam today, and accidentally put in a couple extra shakes of cayenne in his coffee. Bakugo didn't want to admit it, but that first gulp felt like it was eating away a hole in his stomach lining.

It didn't matter, she could tell right away what was wrong. Through his coughing, she was trying to catch her own breath amidst laughter at his bright red face. After a quick apology, she remade the drink, which he refused to let her spice. She had gotten it right ever since, but now he always sniffed it before taking a sip.

Uraraka looked around and saw that Tsuyu had hurriedly run off to the bathroom, which left her to start the coffee from scratch herself, rather than just take over the last part.

"Go wait over there and don't you dare comment on how you think I'm messing up your order. I already know you're gonna argue with me, drink it, like it, and then leave. So let's just skip over the whole me assuring you part."

"Damn. Mondays really aren't your days, huh?" He made no motion to move away from the counter, instead leaning on it with his elbows. Thankfully, there weren't other customers waiting.

"Hmm?" She didn't bother looking up at him from the drip coffee, left hand on her waist like she was staring down something bugging her.

"This is the third Monday in a row that you've snapped at me."

"Oh." She supposed she was being snappy. And she couldn't really think of a reason why. Though he had bothered her plenty of times before, he was technically blameless this time. As much as it hurt her to say it, she knew it was the right thing to do. "Sorry."

"Fuck that. It's hilarious, coming from a little thing like you."

Ah. Now she had a reason to glare at him. She wasn't that small. She cleared 5 feet!

"Well, Mondays suck." She admitted a glimpse into her reason for being a little more irritable than usual.

"They suck for everyone. What's your excuse?"

"Honestly, it's probably because I have my final in a couple of hours and I'm not feeling very prepared." She stayed up late again, this time to try and ingrain assets and liabilities and profit margins into her brain.

"You in school?" Even Bakugo seemed surprised by his interest, coughing into his hand to cover up the fact that he asked a question about her.

"Umm, yeah. At the university down the street. I'm finally getting my Bachelor's in construction management. I had to take a few gap years to save up money first." She explained sheepishly. On a surface level, she knew there was no shame in admitting she was going to school a little later than her peers, but she often found herself explaining why to others. "My dad has a construction company so I'm trying to take over some of the administrative duties for him when he retires."

But he didn't seem to care about the discrepancy in her education and age. "You don't seem the type to go into admin. You're so absent-minded all the time."

Another glare.

"I do just fine in my classes, thank you." She punctuated the words with a particularly violent shake of cinnamon.

"Seeing as you aren't bragging, it must mean you aren't as good as you say." Damn. Why did he have to be so perceptive? And why couldn't she just lie?

"I hate accounting. Math is hard." She reluctantly confessed with a pout, swirling the cup exactly as she'd seen him do.

He shrugged with infuriating ease. The kind that made her want to strangle him for being so uncaring. "Math is easy."

"Oh, yeah? What do you do?"

"Investigate fires and explosions. Interned as a firefighter up North up until last month." That explained why he suddenly started showing up a few weeks ago. "I majored in mechanical engineering, so, you know, aced all my math courses."

"Well, good for you. We can't all do what we love. I always thought I'd go into something space related, I love stars. But I love my parents too."

Ignoring his jab at her mental acuity, his occupation seemed to explain a lot about him. Like the inconsistent timing of his visits throughout the week and how his hands were rough and scarred. Not that she was staring at his hands. Or any other part of him.

Damn. He had a banging body and the brains too.

"What's got your panties in a twist? You look constipated as hell." His face held a mixture of concern and disgust, an odd combination.

"Shut up! Take your coffee and get out of here." Thankfully, Iida had learned that this was normal, comfortable banter between the two of them and had eased up on the scolding. In fact, he tended to stay in the back when it came to Bakugo, worried that he might blow his top one day.

He took a cautionary sip and reluctantly nodded in approval.

"See? I told you it'd be fine."

"Doesn't mean you'll get it right tomorrow." He quipped with another sip.

"Of course it does!" She could swear he put a new wrinkle in her forehead every day.

He left without a goodbye, pretty customary at this point. Just holding up a hand in a quick wave with his back turned.

Aside from his mannerisms, like how most of his vocabulary consisted of swear words and how his jaw would tense and lock right before a string of them, Uraraka had slowly been learning more things about him almost every day. He gave up the fact that he worked with firefighters pretty easily. He let slip the other day that he was an only child, like her, and seemed annoyed that she managed to weasel that out of him.

It took forever to get him to sign up for a cafe membership card. It wasn't that he didn't want to save the money, a cup a day was starting to add up, he just didn't want to share his birthday. After almost a week of pestering, he finally gave in and shared that it was April 20. He pretty much regretted it the moment she said she couldn't imagine him as a spring baby. Or as a baby in general.

While she was reveling in her small success, Tsuyu returned from the bathroom.

"How was it?" She returned to the barista station and started refilling caramel squeeze bottles and whipped cream canisters, careful not to crowd the brunette with curiosity and pressure her.

"Huh? How was what?" With all the customers happily drinking and chatting away on the couches and tables, Uraraka took Tsuyu's side and helped her with the tasks.

"Talking with Bakugo."

"Did you leave me alone with him on purpose?" She yelped as some caramel dribbled onto her hand, having squirted out when she squeezed the bag in surprise.

"I'm your friend. Of course I did." Tsuyu calmly handed her a wet rag to clear off the counter. What did she mean by 'of course'?

"I never took you for a schemer."

"Just want you to be honest with yourself, Ochako."

"Honest about what?" Seriously, what was she trying to get at?

"You're different with him. Doesn't it make you wonder why?"

"I'm not different. I'm friendly with everyone."

"Ochako, I'm your best friend. I'm telling you, you're different." Tsuyu paused in her preparation to look Uraraka straight in the eye and make sure she was taking her word seriously.

"... Different how?"

"Just… livelier. And genuine."

"Are you saying I act fake?" Tsuyu was the kind of friend who wouldn't spare the truth just because she liked you. She was incredibly observant and honest, things that Uraraka appreciated in a best friend. Which is why it hurt to think she might have been coming across as inauthentic.

"More like you put other people's happiness before yours a lot of the time. And with Bakugo, you're more carefree. You say and do things that you want to do. Atleast, that's what it looks like to me."

She supposed she did have a tendency of taking care of others' needs before her own. But what was so bad about that? Being a giver was a big part of her identity. She had a small group of friends and was close with her parents, it was important that they feel loved and cared for.

It was why she was going through these torturous classes with insane working hours, to be able to provide for her folks and give them a little break. With winter break starting in a few days, she was prepared to work overtime at the cafe, even on Christmas Day and her birthday. Her mom's health situation was precarious and her dad wouldn't be able to support her on his own. They had already done so much for her, she couldn't just sit by and do nothing in return.

But seriously, that final exam really sucked. It was 2 hours of anxious reading and re-reading of questions, straining to remember the correct formulas and how to apply them, and frantically trying to check her answers as time ran out. How was she supposed to step in for her dad and manage a whole company of people if she couldn't even pass a simple test?

In the haze of jumbled thoughts between the awful exam and what Tsuyu said about Bakugo, she hadn't even realized she had arrived home late into the evening until she was wiping her shoes on the welcome mat outside the door.

Taking a moment to collect herself so that her parents wouldn't see the exhaustion and distress on her face, she took in a deep inhale of the piercing, cold air, stinging her lungs, before inserting the key in the door with her numb fingers.

After a warm shower and quick hug goodnight for her parents, she went into bed with a slightly smaller weight of worry on her chest about school. She would just have to think of Spring quarter as another chance to turn things around.

But none of that resolved her other troubling thought.

Did she like Bakugo?


It was a couple of days after Christmas when he rushed in. He didn't come in the last few days and she assumed he was with his own family out of town. She was secretly relieved he didn't show. It saved her the extra agony over whether to give him something special for the holidays, which she eventually decided to forego. They had only known each other a few weeks, who was to say they were anything other than a tiny step above strangers?

"I'm in a hurry toda- What the hell is that?" She was in the middle of sticking his order label onto a large cup with the pepper drawn on when his strangled voice caught her attention. His whole body was tense like it was ready to attack.

Uraraka followed his pointing finger down to the colorful dancing cupcake pinned on the left strap of her apron. It had a smiling face and a single candle sticking out of the top with balloons and confetti surrounding it.

"Oh. It's my birthday!" She placed the cup on the counter for Tsuyu to start the order and pressed the button on the nose of the cupcake pin.

Bakugo's eyes widened in shock as it began to sing happy birthday and wiggle side to side. For the whole 15 seconds, his body refused to relax from its defensive position. Uraraka didn't know whether to laugh at his discomfort or shrink in embarrassment from her own.

"It's silly, I know, but Tsuyu convinced Iida to let me wear it every year."

Tsuyu herself had a bunch of frog pins on her apron. It technically wasn't in code with the cafe's dress attire of black pants, neutral toned blouses, and no flashy accessories, but anyone would be hard pressed to say no to Tsuyu and her frogs.

"It's your birthday?" He croaked out.

"Yup! I'm 24 now!"

She thought Bakugo would for sure tease her about finally catching up to him in age, but he seemed to go completely mute instead. His mouth dropped open and closed a couple of times with no sound coming out. When he finally snapped out of it, he started rummaging around the displays to the side of the register counter.

"Uhhh. What are you doing?" She called out, leaning forward to try and figure out what he was looking for so frantically. Without answering, he rushed back over with a coffee mug with a wavy orange and pink design.

"I'm buying this."

"Ok?" She grabbed it from him and scanned the bottom, still completely perplexed by his actions. "The mug and your dark roast is 14.90."

He fumbled for his wallet, needing to use a card for the unexpected higher price. After wrapping the mug in tissue paper and placing it in a paper bag, Uraraka dropped the receipt in with it and grabbed the bag by the handles to hand it over to him. "Here you go."

"You keep it." He said with a gruff voice, not quite meeting her eyes.

"What?"

"Present. For your birthday."

"Oh." A rush of warmth ran through her body, sending a tingling feeling into her limbs and making her almost drop the unexpected gift. "Thank you."

He gave a stiff nod and rushed to the door to leave.

"Wait!" She hurriedly added the spices to his cup and held it out. "Your coffee!"

When he turned around to take the drink from her, his whole face was a distinct reddish-pink. Uraraka noticed right away that Bakugo was handsome, there was no doubt about that. But in this moment, he looked… adorable. He grabbed the cup and left without taking a sip or saying goodbye.

If she weren't in a public space, and at work no less, she would've jumped up and down squealing with happiness. She had to settle on 3 quick seconds of bouncing on the balls of her feet while making eye contact with a smiling Tsuyu, who had overheard the entire interaction.

Ok, so maybe it wasn't completely out of left field that she might have feelings for him.

But she didn't have time to entertain that thought. The cafe was filled with a constant stream of college aged kids enjoying their winter break. Uraraka would've extended her shift through the midday time-frame, but Iida kicked her out at 3, saying 9 hours of work was plenty and that it was imperative that she have a healthy work-life balance.

"Are you sure, Iida? I don't mind staying, you know." She rarely got to work with anyone other than the opening crew, Iida and Tsuyu, who left a couple of hours ago. It was nice seeing some other faces for a change.

"Yes, yes. Everyone knows that. Now go enjoy your birthday, Uraraka."

"But I was supposed to cover for Kendo."

"Don't worry. I'll step in for the remaining couple of hours until Shinso comes in for closing."

He practically pushed her into the back room to hang up her apron and grab her things from the small, designated locker. She equipped herself with a scarf, wrapped around twice for ultimate warmth, and matching hat. They were white with large, fuzzy pom poms hanging at the ends. Unlike Bakugo, she needed the extra layers.

After slinging her crossbody purse over her puffy silver jacket and making sure to grab the paper bag with her mug, she waved to her coworkers and started her walk, crunching on the frost covered grass across the parking lot to her car. She was almost there when she heard someone running up behind her. Clutching her keys between her fingers, she whirled around and was met with a panting Bakugo.

"Bakugo! What are you doing here?"

"You trying to scratch at my eyes with that thing?" He nodded at her fist, still hunched over, trying to catch his breath.

"It's the best defense a girl has." She lowered her makeshift weapon, still confused. "Are you oka-"

"That cup was a crappy gift. Here." He held out another bag, this one was plastic with a logo of the local bookstore.

"I like the cup just fine." She held it to her chest protectively. "And you didn't have to get me anything. You didn't even know it was my birthday until this morning."

"You gonna take it or what?" He shook the bag at her.

Curiosity getting the best of her, she accepted the bag and pulled out a book with a stunning illustration dotted with constellations. Tracing her fingers along the surface, she could feel each indent and knot that carefully crafted the blue and magenta cover. Every page was edged with gold, making its enticing contents physically shine before it had an opportunity to unravel.

"You said you liked stars."

Oh.

"Did you come back just to give me this?" Was she breathless because of the beauty of the book or because she was touched by his gesture? The overwhelming heat in her chest seemed to indicate it was a mixture of both.

"Just showing you I'm not cheap. Don't read into it!"

"Ok, I won't." She giggled and wrapped her arms around his torso, getting a good squeeze in before letting go. If she hadn't caught him off guard, she would bet he never would have let anyone touch him like that. "Thank you."

"Whatever." He managed to bark out and shuffled back to his car to peel out of the lot without so much as another look towards her.

And judging by her racing heartbeat and strangely warm insides… Yep.

She definitely liked him.