Ch. 6
She's really fucking ignoring me.
Katsuki sits in the cafeteria next to Kirishima, watching Ami eat over at the next table with the other girls. It had been two days since she'd missed their training session and she hadn't answered any of his texts or returned any of his calls since.
She wouldn't even look at him.
Every attempt to get near her had resulted in one of the girls whisking her away or warning her so that she was gone by the time he got there. Since they weren't in the classroom this week he didn't even have the chance to talk to her in class, seats away from the ones making things the hardest. So he'd given up. It was fucking pointless anyway, it wasn't like he needed her or anything.
He didn't get what she was so upset about in the first place. She didn't get a free pass to get into his head just because they trained together on the regular. That was a special kind of annoying privilege that very few people had, and even then he still barely allowed it. He turned her down flat and she'd bumped into him all aggressively and stormed off.
It wasn't like he was going to tell her straight to her face that he dreamt about fucking her.
Yeah, because that would go over so well.
"You good, Kacchan?" Kaminari asks from his left, leaning around to follow his line of sight. "Oh, Fujiwara still not talking to you?"
Katsuki scowls and looks down at his food, "Don't fucking worry about it." Class 3-A had taken all of a fucking day to find out that they weren't on speaking terms. No doubt a result of the girls running their mouths.
But again, it wasn't like he needed her anyway.
"You went and blew it Bakugo!" Mineta whispers angrily from the other end of the table. "We were all rooting for you and you blew it!'
Katsuki whips around and levels him with a death glare, "FUCK OFF!"
"Bakugo, language." Mr. Aizawa's tone carries enough of a warning to render him mostly silent. It didn't stop the anger though.
"Rooting for me"? Bullshit. Rooting for him for what? He didn't want to have any part of any of their stupid ass expectations. They could all fuck off.
"What did you do?" Koda asks softly from two seats over. "I don't really care too much for prying but... she seems pretty upset with you."
"He told her they weren't friends when she tried to check on him." Todoroki's the one to answer. "Which is unsurprising."
Katsuki stands up to go throw his trash away, having had enough. So what if he had told her not to assume shit from them training together? It wasn't like she ever expressed any real interest in being friends with him. Only thing she'd really done in that area was be at the birthday party their classmates had thrown for him a little over a week after she'd enrolled, but they really didn't talk at that much either.
She was friends with Ashido and Uraraka, though, explaining why they were the main two guarding her.
As he's walking back he looks over at the girls' table one last time, and to his surprise he meets Ami's eyes. He stops walking for a beat, expecting to see something like remorse or even any apology in them. Instead, she breaks the contact after a moment, giving him nothing before looking down at her food again.
When he sits back down the table is thankfully quiet. He really didn't want to catch shit from anyone else and at this point he wasn't even in the mood to yell at them for it. As the day goes on this doesn't change, and Katsuki eventually gives up on waiting for Ami to come around.
I mean, she will come around eventually... She can't stay mad forever.
"You know, maybe you should apologize."
Katsuki whips around and looks at Kirishima, incredulous. "Me?" he scoffs. "FUCK no."
Kirishima sighs and crosses his arms behind his head as they walk. "Come on man, what you said wasn't manly at all. You shouldn't talk to girls like that."
"All I fucking said was that she shouldn't assume shit."
"You're paraphrasing. It was worse than that."
Katsuki feels his eye twitch. What the fuck was with everyone getting on him about this shit? They were acting like he'd never said worse. This was his norm and now suddenly he was getting scolded for it?
"She's not used to your attitude." Kirishima continues. "Maybe you should tell her you're sorry then try to be her friend? You kinda did force her to train you, after all."
"I didn't force her to do shit. I asked."
Kirishima doesn't respond, and when Katsuki looks over he sees that he looks doubtful.
"What?"
"You... kinda did, though."
"Whatever. She went along with it."
Eijiro grabs Katsuki's arm and drags him toward the classroom with a sigh. "Alright, that's it. I'm taking you to apologize.'
"I SAID NO!" Why did he have to apolgize? All he did was be honest, it wasn't his fault that she was so damn sensitive. When they get to the door Katsuki pulls back, stopping them. "This is stupid."
"Then go in there and get it over with."
He snatches his arm from Kirishima's grasp, annoyed. "Fine." If it'll get him off my back.
"Thank you."
Katsuki opens the door and instantly frowns when he sees Mina, Ochako, and Jiro standing in the classroom in front of Ami. He already didn't want to apologize, but now he had to do that infront of people too?
Oh fucking great.
The girls are crowded around her to the point where he can hardly see Ami except for the top of her ponytail with a bright purple bow tied around it.
"IT LOOKS SO GOOD!" Mina squeals.
Katsuki leans to the side, looking between the girls so he can see what she's talking about.
Ami stands by her desk, grinning widely. Instead of the uniform that she'd been wearing the last time he saw her, she was in a black mesh halter dress. The fabric making up her sleeves was see-through until it came to the center of her body, where it was replaced with a darker fabric that took the shape of a bodysuit. A long skirt with sides that split up to her hips covers part of her legs, which are wrapped with an iridescent purple lacing, is made from the same mesh fabric as her sleeves. When she does a little turn, Katsuki can see that the dress is completely backless, with the same iridescent purple fabric that wraps up her legs creating a swirling pattern that stands out on the bodice of the hero costume, matching almost exactly with the violet of her eyes.
The same eyes that look up to meet his as soon as she notices the door is open.
Katsuki chokes, taking a step back, and immediately closes the door. He can hear his heartbeat pounding in his ears as he leans back against the wall in the hallway.
"Why'd you shut the door?" Kirishima asks, a frown on his face. "She's in there, isn't she?"
"I'm leaving." Katsuki mutters, avoiding the question, then straightens up and walks away without another word.
It was really like life was trying it's best to piss him off too.
"Was that Bakugo?"
Ami frowns and nods, "...Yeah. It was, but he left."
He'd opened the door, taken one look at her, then left. Unlike all the other times today he hadn't tried to talk to her, which was probably for the best. The girls weren't letting him near her anyway, afraid she'd let him boss her back into training with him without any kind of apology. They'd taken her weird response to seeing him this morning as her being afraid he'd say something to her.
Ami had done her best not to think about him all day. She tried to even keep from looking at him, but of course she'd failed several times. Her gaze would drift to him if she wasn't actively focusing on trying not to let it. Her eyes would settle on his face and stay there. Never for long though, because every single time that she'd look at his face he was always looking right back.
The intensity in his eyes never failed to twist nervous knots in her stomach. The look was anger. It was confusion. The urgency in his red eyes was what did it for her, though. He wanted to talk to her, but if it didn't start with an "I'm sorry" then she didn't want to hear it. She didn't have the energy or the want to deal with his attitude otherwise.
"Well... good." Mina scrunches her nose. "It's been exhausting trying to keep him away all day, so I hope he finally got a clue."
They hadn't spoken since Friday when he'd practically bitten her head off for trying to check on him. His texts from Saturday were still unanswered in her inbox, too. This was the longest in almost 3 months that they'd gone without speaking, but what he'd said was out of line and if he wanted her help again he'd have to apologize first.
Ami fiddles with the mesh fabric of her skirt, wondering what he'd come to the classroom for in the first place. Surely it wasn't an apology, not after all the girls had been telling her about his tendency to not see when he was wrong. "Yeah..."
It shouldn't have bothered her that they weren't on talking terms, she had been the one who made that decision after all.
As the days slowly pass by the decision only begins to feels more permanent. When it finally hits a full week of no contact it had already been decided in her mind that their shared silence had gone on too long to go back on. So, also slowly, but surely, the silence became their new normal. Ami would spend time with the girls while Bakugo took up training with Kirishima and Midoriya on the weekends. They didn't speak to each other in class either, despite sitting next to each other every day. Even the random looks had stopped, with Bakugo seemingly going back to the way he'd always been before she'd arrived: Paying no attention to those he didn't acknowledge as one of his "friends".
By the time it hits a solid 3 months he still hasn't apologized and Ami had given up on the idea of it.
"You still look like it bothers you though," Toru sighs. "It's been forever."
Ami shrugs and hands the invisible girl a bottle of soda, "I know. I just don't... like being on bad terms with people." She explains, taking a sip of her own drink. "But this is his issue to fix."
Toru makes a discontented sound and twists the top off of her soda. "When it comes to Bakugo there's nothing to do but be on bad terms sometimes. You should've seen how he treated Izuku."
Ami had heard about the childhood friends' one-sided feud. Learning about that had shown her that he was no stranger to holding onto anger for long periods of time. That discovery in itself had played a big part in making her give up on the apology she felt she was deserved.
"Don't worry about it," Jiro sighs, the sound more annoyed than tolerant. "If he doesn't ever come around then that's not your problem. You've got better things to focus on, he's not worth a thought."
The decision for them not to talk was a good idea, but Ami had slowly come to realize that she kind of missed the angry blond's company. Training had made her more productive and given her an outlet for her frustrations when she needed it. Bakugo's mentality of it being fine to outright fight her had not only made her respect him a bit more at the time, but it had also helped her to channel all the leftover stress from her move into something productive. Yoga only did so much, unfortunately. She did also hang out with Kirishima too but that was different.
"Aside from all the... unpleasantness," Momo interjects, laying down a pamphlet down on the table between the four of them. "Maybe a trip to my family's hot springs might help you relax?"
"Did someone say hot springs?" Kaminari asks, leaning over the back of the couch where Momo and Ami sit. "I'm in!"
Yaoyorozu sighs and gives Ami an apologetic smile. "Would it be too much to make it a class trip?"
Ami shrugs, looking at the pamphlet. "Looks like it won't matter, since the springs are divided anyway." She says, pointing to what looks like a rock divider between the two biggest pools at the springs. "Right?"
Momo nods, folding up the pamphlet, before tucking it back in her bag. "It'll be empty save for the staff, so we can go Friday afternoon and have the place to ourselves."
Ami runs the idea by Mina when she sees her later that afternoon. "It sounds like fun, and a way to unwind."
Mina looks up from her notebook and nods, "I absolutely agree. It's about time took another trip, we haven't done anything together since the fair."
"True," Ami sits on the edge of Mina's bed and looks down at her hands. "Kaminari overheard so the guys are going too, though."
"All of them?"
"Maybe, why?"
The pink girl shrugs and waves her hand dismissively. "Oh nevermind, it'll be fine." She says, shutting her notebook. "Let's get to studying for our test Monday."
But even while deep in her textbook, Ami can't help but to keep thinking about the upcoming trip and hoping that she can actually relax for once without a problem.
She had been restless for the last month but hadn't been able to relax either. Eventually she had taken up training on her own as a way to keep her from being idle too long. Her quirk's mental aspect needed a willing participant to practice, but she could work on the physical alone. She had listened to a story about a training camp the class had gone to a few years prior while talking to Sato over baking a cake for Midoriya's surprise birthday party. He had explained that the purpose had been to improve the output of their quirks and master control, so she'd decided to do the same to a higher degree than usual.
The smoke that Ami produced via her quirk was emitted from her pores, and while it was relatively powerful, she couldn't produce it for too long at high amounts. It had always been easier and still effective to produce it from one part of her body -which was usually her palms- and work from there. If she used her quirk for too long her skin would start to prickle uncomfortably, and if she pushed further it would cause a sharp and painful pins-and-needles sensation. Any further would send white hot pain coursing through whatever part of her body she was pushing the smoke out from. Usually she wouldn't need to use her quirk to that point, so she admittedly wasn't as used to it as she could be. So as a way to train herself, she pushed it.
Ami had filled the training gym with smoke by pushing it from every inch of her skin along her arms, back, hands, and chest. After about 10 minutes the prickling began, which almost like breaking out into a sweat. Then the pain set in after another 10 minutes, the painful sharp sensation spreading up her back to her scalp before traveling across the rest of her body from the waist up. She pushed through until she hit her limit, finally collapsing on her hands and knees after 30 minutes when the sharp pricking morphed into a blindingly hot pain across her skin. She pulled the smoke back in, breathing hard on the ground as she steadied herself.
That was the day she went to add the finishing modifications to her hero costume. Training her output had been what she needed to finally have it finished after 3 months, and she couldn't have been happier with the design. The breathable mesh allowed the smoke to flow easily, the black fabric making her invisible when she produced high amounts of it. She wanted to make sure she could move easily in it, which made her exchange full-leg coverage for none at all, save for a sheer, black skirt attached to her bodysuit at the hips that made it look more like a dress. She had drawn out her shoes, making purple-blue shifting iridescent flats that she could lace up to her thighs and tie in the back. When she finally received her costume, matching iridescent swirls had been added to the bodice to match, as well as a bow tossed in for her hair.
She'd instantly loved it and tried it on while surrounded by her friends in their classroom.
And then Bakugo had walked in, taken one look at her, then walked out without a word. That had honestly bothered her, solely for the fact that she wasn't sure why he'd left. Intent had been clear on his face when he'd come in, but that had quickly morphed into surprise, then a lack of expression altogether. Now, he hadn't so much as looked at her in the month since then.
It was weird.
"Ami, you're frowning. What's up?"
Ami's head snaps up and she meets Mina's concerned eyes. "Oh." She hadn't realized she was frowning. "Just... stuck."
Mina purses her lips, "I'll say. You've been on the same page for ten minutes. That's not why you're frowning though."
With a sigh, Ami leans back against the side of the bed. "I just-..." She closes her book and lays it in her lap. "The way Bakugo walked in looked like he had something to say, but then he just... left."
Mina groans softly and sits up with a little grunt. "Forget Bakugo! If he had been coming to finally apologize to you then he wouldn't have left after seeing you. I doubt it was anything important. He probably didn't even know we were in there."
Ami shrugs, "Maybe. Sorry I keep bringing him up."
Mina's look turns sympathetic and she lightly bumps Ami's shoulder with her own. "I get it. He hurt your feelings, and on top of that doesn't seem remorseful at all. If someone I had seen as a friend had said to me what he said to you, I'd probably be just as upset if not more." She says. "It's been a month though, so he's had time to think on it. He's gone longer without apologizing to someone who deserved it, so who knows? Maybe he'll come around."
"You guys stopped him from actually coming around though."
"Because he looked all angry," Mina pouts. "In our defense it didn't look like he was coming to apologize all those times."
Fair enough. "You have a point."
Mina wraps her arm around Ami's shoulder and gives her a grin. "If he does, though, I'll still be surprised."
Ami laughs a little and opens her book back up, "Ok, enough boy talk. Back to studying."