Ch. 5

He's being so fucking weird.

Ami watches Katsuki pick up his bag from the floor and pull out a water bottle to drink from. Something was up and she knew it, she just couldn't figure out what it was.

Bakugo had been avoiding eye contact for the last two hours. No matter what was done or said he still managed to keep it to a minimum, and honestly it made her feel... off. Normally he didn't avoid shit, he was straightforward and blunt. This... wasn't that.

"You did good today." She tells him, crossing the room to grab her bag. "Didn't take you as long to figure it out this time."

Bakugo nods, adjusting the bag strap on his shoulder. "Told you. Now next time we can go to level 4, right?"

Ami shrugs, "We can if you tell me what's going on with you."

He frowns, suddenly annoyed. "You can't leave shit alone, can you?" Scowling, he makes it obvious that he really doesn't want to talk about it.

"I can, but you're being weird."

"And?" He turns to walk out of the door, a scowl on his face.

She jogs up to catch him and grabs the back of his tank top, "Bakugo, wait."

He stills before turning to look at her. "What?"

"I'd like to think we're friends by this point," She says. "So if I upset you or something, just... let me know?"

Bakugo scoffs softly and pulls out of her grasp, "Just because we train together doesn't mean anything. You didn't do shit to upset me, I'd have to care for that to happen."

Oh.

Ami laughs humorlessly, feeling embarrassement blot out her concern. I guess he's right, we don't hang out outside of training together. "Well sorry, I'll leave you alone then." She tugs her strap up on her shoulder and brushes roughly past him, walking quickly ahead.

He's still a dick. Guess he had me fooled.

She reaches the dorms well before he does, walking straight past the other students to get to the showers. The burning in her nose and the pricking behind her eyes were threatening tears, but she'd be damned if anyone told Bakugo that they saw her crying after one of their training sessions. At this point it was common knowledge that they trained every weekend and every other day during the week now. She didn't want anyone to see that he managed to affect her the way he had. Especially over something so trivial. They technically weren't friends.

So why did him making that clear hurt so much?

The hot shower water against her skin takes a bit of the frustration away, but as she takes her hair down out of its ponytail she starts to think back on his actions while she detangles the thick curls with her fingers.

He'd avoided eye contact like he couldn't stand to look at her. He was pretty abrasive as it was, but this was something else. Maybe she'd crossed a line appearing at his room the night prior and bitching at him over his complaining. She'd only been in his room before one, briefly, when she'd met up with him once to walk together to training. He'd let her in long enough for him to get his bag packed, but that time he'd told her it was ok for her to show up. This time she'd shown up unannounced, uninvited, and obviously unwelcomed.

Ami sighs and sniffles as the tears she'd been fighting leak out and drip down her cheeks. "Stupid fucking asshole." She mutters. "That's the last time I let myself look dumb for caring." Training is strictly business from now on.

When she finishes her shower she heads out to the common room, going to sit down on the couch next to Mina. She was feeling low in spirits and the pink girl was always one to bring them back up. They'd grown very close over the last two months and at the point Ami thought of her as a really good friend, if not a best friend.

"Oh no, I know that look." Mina closes her magazine and turns to the side to wrap her arm around Ami's shoulder. "What did he do this time?"

"He's just a dick." Ami throws her hands up, frustrated. "He was acting weird as hell all day and when I asked him about it he got all standoffish and started acting like an asshole. He told me that us training together didn't mean anything when I told him I figured we were friends by this point and that he could talk to me."

Mina hums in disapproval and shakes her head, "I'm sure he didn't mean that. Bakugo's probably just in one of his moods."

"He gets like that sometimes, trust me." Kaminari chimes in from the other couch, mouth stuffed with chips. "He told me we weren't friends for a long time even though we hung out all the time. Did the same to Todoroki." The blond snorts a laugh. "You should've seen the interview."

Shoto, who sits on the couch next to him, shakes his head. "When the interviewer asked if we were friends, he got mad when I responded with a 'yes' and corrected me."

"They cut Bakugo entirely out of the interview." Sero laughs, a big grin on his face. "He was so mad."

Ami sighs and sits up a little, "I don't know why it bothers me so much. I guess I just figured that since we spent so much time around each other that he would've at least seen me kind of as a friend." She shrugs, "It's not important though. I have enough friends anyway."

Kirishima catches Ami's eye and gives her a small, supportive smile. "Mina's right, he's just in one of his moods. He'll probably do his own version of apologizing tomorrow and it'll be-," He makes a small dip movement with his hand. "-water under the bridge."

Nah, fuck that. "I'm not going to training tomorrow. Or at all until he apologizes." She responds. "He can't talk to people any kind of way and then continue to use them, so he damn sure won't do it to me."

Sero shrugs, a "fair enough" look on his face. "He's always been like that. He's calmed down a ton since we all first met but I guess you do have a point."

"Getting more time to myself sounds like a good idea anyway," Ami continues, sitting up straighter. "I've been neglecting a couple things as of late because I haven't had any me time."

Mina bounces next to her excitedly. "That also means you can come to a sleepover!" She squeals, shaking Ami with her.

"You're having a sleepover?"

"Well I am now," She laughs, standing up and pulling Ami with her. "Come on, let's go get the girls."

"I really don't want to talk about Bakugo tonight." Ami sighs, looking down at her phone in her hands. She'd done enough of both talking and thinking about him. Honestly it was just bumming her out at this point. She shouldn't want to be friends with someone who treats her the way he does, doesn't matter how much time they spend together.

The girls had gotten together in Mina's dormroom for the sleepover and they'd been there for about two hours already. Mostly they'd spent the night snacking and watching a movie, but now that the movie was over the girls were curious as to why Ami seemed so uncharacteristically sad.

"It's just that normally you're pretty upbeat," Toru says, hugging a pillow to the front of her pink pajamas. "And usually you're already in bed sleeping by now since you get up and go straight to meet him."

Ami snorts softly, fidgeting with a stray curl. She didn't like that he'd bothered her so much that it was evident just from looking at her too long. She'd been trying to appear like she was fine, but she'd admit that her poker face sometimes wasn't as good as the thought it was. "I'm not going to meet him to train tomorrow."

"Was he being a jerk to you again?" Tsu asks, tilting her head to the side a bit. "He's a lot better to people than he was but he still has a habit of being mean."

I guess we are talking about him tonight then. Ami had never really been in a position like this before, in more ways than one. Not only was she dealing with "boy problems" for the first time, but she was at a sleepover talking about them. She'd actually never been invited to one before, so she could only assume gossiping was normal at one.

"Bakugo's always being a jerk." Jiro rolls her eyes and reclines back against the side of Mina's bed. "It's his whole M.O."

"Well, he's not a jerk all the time." Ami says quietly. "Sometimes he's fun to be around."

Jiro scoffs, "Bakugo? Fun to be around?"

"Well not fun," Ami quickly backtracks. "He's tolerable." Which was more accurate, seeing as how the closest she'd ever gotten to having fun with him was at the fair when they were playing games against each other. "He's not always awful, but when he is..."

"He makes you upset like this?"

Ami shakes her head and gives Momo a half-hearted smile. "No, today he was just particularly rude to me when I was trying to be nice."

"Yeah," Mina says, her face twisting into a look of disdain. "She was checking on him because he was acting off the whole time they were training, and he told her they weren't friends so she doesn't need to ask."

"She's paraphrasing." Ami interjects. "I told him that I'd like to believe we were friends by this point and that if I'd upset him that he could tell me, and he basically told me not to assume things just because we train together. Said that I didn't do shit to upset him because he'd have to care first for me to be able to."

"What?" Toru gasps. "That's still super mean!"

Ami shrugs, "I mean, he wasn't wrong. We technically aren't friends. We've never hung out aside from training and while we do sit next to each other in class, we never really talk." She hadn't really seen an interest in it, especially recently since Bakugo rushed off so much after they finished up like he had somewhere important to be.

"Still," Ochako says, placing a gentle hand on Ami's shoulder. "I know that had to have hurt your feelings."

It did. A surprisingly big amount.

"It's fine. I'm hanging out with you girls now and I'm feeling much better. Thank you." She gives them a soft smile. "I didn't have a lot of friends at Seiai so I never really got invited to anything before."

Mina pulls her in and hugs her tightly, "Well you have us now. So let's eat snacks until we get sick and pass out."

Ami laughs and returns the hug, watching the girls around her laugh and nod in agreement. As much as the events of earlier had hurt, the pain was a small ache now that she was in such a friendly space. The girls were a lot nicer than the ones she was used to, and it was an extremely welcome change.

Over the next couple of hours the girls fill Ami in on what their previous years at UA had been like, play games together on Mina's TV, and laugh together until Ami's cheeks hurt. They answer all her questions about the things they've gone through and even jump back into the territory of talking about boys.

"Ochako here's had a crush on Midoriya for forever." Mina teases, grinning when the brunette's cheeks turn bright red.

Ochako looks down and fidgets with the hem of her pajama top, a small smile on her face. "I just really admire him is all. He's done so much for both the city and for all of us despite all the things he's had thrown at him." She explains. "All Might chose him for a reason and it shows."

"I can't imagine what it was like finding out All Might was your teacher." Ami shakes her head with a grin. "I would've flipped out."

"Midoriya did constantly," Momo laughs. "It was almost like we didn't see him everyday."

"I don't blame him honestly. Having the #1 hero as a teacher is something I would've never been able to get used to."

"We really never did either," Tsu ribbits. "He was amazing."

"Speaking of amazing," Ami nudges Mina with her elbow. "Is there anyone in our class that you 'admire'?"

Mina snorts and rolls her eyes playfully. "As much as I love our boys, no. They're more like annoying brothers to me." She lightly elbows Ami's arm. "What about you? You've been here for almost three months so there has to be someone whose caught your attention."

Ami purses her lips, "The guys are all sweet- Well, except for Mineta." She scrunches up her face, making the girls laugh. "But aside from him, despite being nice, I haven't really gotten to know any of them enough to really know."

But Bakugo sure caught your attention.

Ami pushes away the intrusive thought and scratches the back of her head sheepishly. "Who knows though, maybe that could change."

As the conversation carries on, time ticks by quickly. By the time it hits 2 am most of the girls are asleep, rolled up in their blankets oblivious to the world. Ami, however, is still awake, on the verge of unconsciousness.

"Hey, Mina?"

Mina rubs her eyes and rolls over on her side to look at Ami where she lays beside her on her bed, "Mhm?"

"Do you think he hates me?"

Mina sighs and shakes her head a little. "I don't see how he could," she replies sleepily. "You're great. So don't worry about what he thinks."

Ami nods and shuts her eyes, sighing softly. "You're right, I shouldn't worry about him."

Nodding her head before giving in to sleep, Mina lightly touches Ami on her shoulder. "Exactly, so give him a taste of his own medicine and see how he likes it."

A taste of his own medicine, huh? Sounds like a plan.

Ami startles awake the next morning when a hand shakes her shoulder. Shooting up in bed, she blinks a couple times before the fog in her eyes clears and she sees Mina in front of her holding her phone out. "What's going on?" She asks, taking it from the girl's hand.

"Your phone's been buzzing for the last couple of minutes apparently." Mina explains, motioning over to the spot on the floor where Tsu sits.

"It started ringing too." Tsu ribbits.

Ami frowns as she looks at the time and sees it's 11:30. She unlocks her screen and is immediately bombarded by text notifications as well as missed calls, then, her eyes widen when she opens the notifications bar and sees who they're from.

They were all from Bakugo.

20 minutes ago: "Where the fuck are you?"

15 minutes ago: "Don't tell me you overslept."

Missed call from Bakugo*

11 minutes ago: "Are you seriously just not going to show up?"

9 minutes ago: If you were going to cancel you could've at least fucking told me so I didn't come out here and waste 30 minutes of my time waiting."

3 minutes ago: "Fine. I'm going back to my room."

Missed call from Bakugo*

"Oooh," Mina tsks over Ami's shoulder as she reads the texts. "Looks like someone's upset."

"Bakugo?" Ochako asks.

Ami pinches the bridge of her nose and closes her eyes. "Yup." And he's pissed. He never called her, and it was rare that he even texted.

"Well, you did say you weren't gonna show up today." Jiro says, walking over to sit on the edge of the bed by Ami's hip. She gently takes the phone from her hand and scrolls through the texts when Ami doesn't protest. "He'll be fine. Should've been nicer to you."

She's right. He should've. But that didn't do anything to dissolve her unease. While it did feel good to sleep in for once, she really didn't feel like dealing with his shit if he decided to confront her. But then again, why should I care?

"Let's make today a girl's day then," Momo proposes, stretching from her spot on the floor. "What do you girls want to do?"

"Order pizza!" Mina throws her hands in the air. "Binge watch movies!" Then she hesitates for a second. "Well, we'd have to let Mr. Aizawa know we're ordering it... so maybe we could talk to Sato and ask for some ingredients to make a pizza?"

"That sounds good." Jiro hands Ami her phone back and gives her a small smile, "Let's take your mind off of it."

Mina shoots off a quick text to Sato and once he agrees to help, the girls head over to his dorm.

"He's got an oven and everything in his room." Mina explains on their way up to the 5th floor. "He's, like, an expert baker because of his quirk."

"Have any of you ever made a pizza before?" Jiro asks, looking over. "You had the idea to make one but it's not that simple."

Mina scratches the back of her head and gives her a sheepish smile. "Well... no, but Sato does!"

And she's right. Sato walks them through the motions and after about 30 minutes, they have two pizzas ready to go.

"If you girls need anything else just let me know, it was cool having people to cook with." Sato fist-bumps Jiro and Mina as they walk by.

"We should hang out next weekend and have a cooking party or something!" Toru chirps happily.

Once they're back in Mina's room, the girls pick a movie franchise to watch and dive in. Ami relaxes into the pillows and allows herself to get absorbed into something that's finally painless.

For the first time in long a while, she stops caring about Bakugo.