"Bakugou?"

Ochako peeked her head into the door of Katsuki's room. He had given her the rare welcoming into his room. Kirishima had barely qualified for that special treatment, but Ochako was someone special. No, he was being stupid again. She was no better than anyone else in his class. Her quirk was weak, her hair was stupid, her smile irritated him and-

"Can...can you help me with my math homework?"

She asked him so nicely. Katsuki blamed his pride for the fluttering in his chest. Yeah. Pride. He hated having to stop and help others. It kept him from being the best he could, but if he didn't, then he wouldn't be able to...successfully scout out his competition. Right. Enemies closer and all that stuff. Whatever it was, Katsuki nodded silently and looked back to his own homework. This was what he got for taking a few minutes to relax. He would have his homework done by now. He was getting lazy. His mother would slap him for that.

"Oh! You're working on it too!" The cheer in her voice felt like a disease. It was contagious. "I started solving the first few but I just kept getting stuck!" She huffed out in frustration, but continued to talk. "That's been happening a lot lately. I understand how to do the problem, but I don't get the right answers, you know? I know I'm kind of rambling, but it happens so often! It's stressing me out! Aizawa-sensei won't give me extra points for doing the steps right and I can't afford failing this test!" She let out another sigh. "I guess...since you're so smart, you'd be a good person to ask for help."

Katsuki's first response was to stare at her, which he did. He looked at her round eyes, her thin eyelashes and the way her face was so red. Her comments went straight to his chest, making the fluttering worse. Then, a voice that sounded distinctly like his mother's told him to stop. She didn't mean to compliment you. You probably weren't even her first choice. She probably asked Deku and that goody-goody class president first. It made him mad, which made him want to shout, but if he did that, then he'd have to admit that he was thinking about it. He couldn't shout then.

"Look, I can't spend forever talking to you about how hard math is. Do you want my help or not?" He didn't mean to make it sound so snappy, but the uncomfortable fire wouldn't let him use any other tone.

"Oh! You're right! Sorry!" She smiled and rubbed at her neck, then did a complete 360 and started staring at her paper with the look she used in hero training. She was completely and totally dedicated to her learning, like he was. They had something in common, but that's also something they had in common with everyone else in the dorms. Nothing special at all. He wanted to scream it at the birds in his chest, but kept silent.

Ochako took a seat next to him on his bed, but keep a foot of distance between them. She pulled out the papers from her backpack and added a calculator and a pencil with it. Strangely enough, he didn't mind.

"This is how it's going to do." He gave her a hard look. "We're going to work in silence, and if you need help, tell me. I don't want to waste my time going over problems you already know how to do." With the rules laid down, Katsuki started working through the second half of problems. It didn't take long for a deep sigh to leave Ochako's mouth. Something inside him felt nervous, which made him mad.

"Baku-"

"What?!" He snapped but she didn't really seem to care. He still felt bad. "What's wrong?" He let himself calm, trying to work on ignoring the urge to yell. It was really hard.

"I keep getting all these fractions." She huffed as if he hadn't just shouted at her for doing exactly what he told her to do. Deciding to leave the outburst alone, he leaned over he shoulder and tried to find her problem. She had surprisingly messy handwriting. Weren't all girls supposed to write like princesses or whatever? That's what his dad always said. Ochako seemed to be an exception, but…something about those crooked letters made him want to smile. They were cute.

Wait! He was trying to find out how she managed to mess up one of the easiest problems on the sheet. He shook his head physically and searched through the numbers. Bingo. Really, it was a simple mistake. She forgot to add the 8 to 5. He pointed to the error and lifted his head to look at her.

Katsuki didn't expect to catch those round, simple eyes looking at him already. He also didn't expect her to continue to stare, so he stared as well. This was a good opportunity for him to analyze her face. He could see the creases in her face from this distance. The way her eyelids folded easily to show more of her eyes. The way her lips naturally perked, ready to get ki-

Both teens pulled away from each other. When had they gotten close? The bed bounced slightly at their sudden movement and a deep blush covered their faces. Katsuki pulled his knees close to hide his face but snuck a look at her. She was blushing too and her papers fully covered her face. The quick glance turned into another long stare. Her face was really round, but he didn't mind that either. He liked the way her hair swayed with her movements. Her ears poked out from the sides like they were looking at him through curtains. She had no piercings. Interesting.

"You didn't add eight right." He muttered through his knees. When she started pulling her papers away, looking at the problem at last, he noticed the way she bite her lip. It wasn't the way she bit her lip in class while writing notes, this was a nervous bite. It made his heart pound in his chest.

"Oh. You're right." She tucked one side of her hair behind her ear and began erasing. Then, she resolved the problem and seemed happy with result. That's also when Katuski noticed he hadn't moved from his earlier potion and had been watching her through the gap between his legs and arms the entire time. Slowly, he unfolded himself and began working on his own work.

His hands were getting really sweaty. They left wet marks on his pants when he wipes them off and even his pencil was a bit damp. It was gross, but he wasn't new to his own sweat. He could remember how difficult it was for him to control when his sweat exploded. He used to accidentally set off his quirk while writing or during recess. He ruined a lot of homework and toys that way.

"What about this one?" Ochako leaned close to him this time. She had done three problems while he just sat and thought. What was wrong with him? At this rate, she'd get her homework done first.

He looked through the problem, making quick calculations in his mind before he noticed something wrong. She forgot her negative sign. In all honesty, that would be really frustrating. That single negative sign ruined her entire problem, giving her an answer that didn't meet the requirements. It was kind of like time. If you mess up, your entire life could go horribly wrong. It was a lesson he had been working on lately by the request of Aizawa-sensei.

Instead of pointing the problem out and letting her fix her mistake again, he decided to take her paper from her hands and erase it himself. She gave a surprised noise but he didn't give her an explanation until he had finished. She would never learn to solve these correctly if he just pointed out the problem every time. If she had to rely on her to get the right answer, then he would have to teach her to spot her own mistakes.

Ochako's gaze switched between Katsuki and her paper after he had brought it back to her lap. He had written an entirely new problem and solved it beside her past problem and gave her an expecting gave.

"What's this all about?" She asked.

"Find my mistake." He stated simply, crossing his arms to give them somewhere to be. He felt exposed under her gaze.

It took her a few minutes to punch everything in her calculator, but when she found it, she beamed at him. "Right there! You didn't factor it right! Two and five don't add to made eight!"

That fluttering feeling intensified and Katsuki couldn't help but share her smile. It felt so strange on his face, but it made his chest feel light. He tried to hide it behind his hand but it was too late. She saw it and her blush came back, which made his come back too.

"Are...are you smiling?" her smile grew wider. "And blushing?!"

"No! You're crazy!" He shouted, but it help no real hatred. He covered his face better and she tried to pull him away from his arms. They wrestled a bit before the weight of the bed began to shift, along with their positions. Katsuki looked down to see the ground grow further away.

Ochako was blushing deeper now. "Sorry! I didn't mean to levitate us!" She was able to release them, but he caught her hands.

"It's okay." His smile faded as his attention turned from her face to her lips. He tried not to stare, he really did, but his eyes refused to leave them for more than a second. A pressure on his own lips registered too late. Was he really biting his lip?! When did he ever do that?! What was going on with him?!

They started turning sideways, but they stayed locked in each other's arms. Her lips were getting closer now. They seemed to move both too fast and too slow at the same time. He watched them for so long, he could barely recognize what they were anymore. Were those really lips and were they Ochako's? He wanted to feel them, see if they were really so soft…

"Katsuki?" Ochako whispered, her face hovering over his, blocking his ceiling light from view. Her hair fell into his face but he couldn't care less. HIs face flicked from those beautiful lips to her eyes. She looked nervous. Why would she be nervous?

"Ochako?" He answered and it came out breathy, almost desperate. He didn't really hate it, but it was still embarrassing.

When he looked again, the lips were only a few centimeters away. ten centimeters, he estimated.

Now nine.

Eight.

Seven.

The number was getting too small.

Six.

Five.

Four.

He wished they would just close around his, end his waiting.

Three.

Two.

He felt them brush against his. He sucked in a breath and prepared for impact.

One.

Zero.

Hey. They really were soft.

Author's Notes: yes, this is the first story in this collection of story requests. I enjoyed writing this for you guys and am open to other ideas.