Ch. 8

"Oh man you're so lucky."

Katsuki groans and grinds the heels off his palms into his eyelids. He didn't see it as lucky. It was fucking embarrassing.

"Were they soft?" Mineta asks, pushing Kaminari out of the way to add to the blond's earlier comment.

"I didn't- WHY DO YOU CARE?"

"You shouldn't speak so disrespectfully about one of our fellow classmates," Iida scolds. "Have some respect, Mineta."

"Respect isn't his strong suit." Sero laughs.

Katsuki grits his teeth before speaking. "That's not even the fucking point here!" He'd been telling Kirishima about the awkward run in with Ami and of fucking course the others had questions to ask even though he wasn't even talking to them.

"Sounds like she's not mad at you anymore, at least." Kirishima offers. "Problem solved."

Ever since he'd walked into the class and seen her in her hero costume, he'd had a harder time than usual getting her out of his head.

He'd never been so fucking angry.

To try and balance out the chaos in his head, he ignored her fully at school. He didn't even so much as dare to look at her, on the off chance he met her eyes. That was one of the last things he needed. He saw enough of her face as it was, whenever his mind started to wander that is.

The damn dreams of her didn't happen every night, but they happened more often than he'd like. Which would be not at fucking all. He woke up sweating, hard and sick and tired of all the time she was taking up despite not even being a part of his life anymore. The quality of the dreams only got worse as time went on, eventually reaching the point where he finally had given in and gotten himself off after waking up from one. He'd come to the conclusion that how he'd spoken to her that day was weighing on his conscious after that. Maybe he felt guilty somewhere for hurting her feelings? Then once he really sat and thought about it, he realized he did regret being so harsh.

After all, she had only been worried about him. It wasn't her fault that his brain had chucked itself into the damn gutter the night prior.

Unfortunately, all that run-in had done was give the wet dreams more fuel. He had the sight of her round breasts and pert nipples, pebbled from being exposed to the cold air, burned permanently into his memory.

And his brain couldn't not use that against him.

"I fucking guess," Katsuki mutters, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms. "She said that she hoped we could work on actually being friends or some shit, too."

"Hey! That's good!" Izuku chimes in. "Ami's actually really nice."

He shrugs, looking away. While his best friends were enthusiastic, Katsuki himself was... apprehensive. He wasn't good at the whole friend thing, even now. Admittedly, Izuku and Sato were closer to Ami than he was now, with her helping Sato with baking recipes and Izuku partnering up with her from time to time during projects. But the main thing making it difficult were the dreams that were plaguing him. They made it hard to talk to her, let alone look at her.

A chime from Katsuki's phone makes him look down, picking it up from his lap to unlock it.

*New Friend Request: Ami Fujiwara*

His eyebrows practically hit his hairline. Looks like she really had accepted his apology. He hits "Confirm".

"That's a good sign." Kirishima says from beside him. "So, what are you going to do now?"

He shrugs, "Dunno. Give her time to adjust, I fucking guess." Truthfully, he felt worse now that they'd made amends. Even though over a month had passed, she'd still been nice enough not to tell him to "fuck off" immediately when he'd apologized. It made him feel like shit. She hadn't even been angry. Her being mad would've make him feel less bad, but instead she'd smiled at him all hesitantly and asked if they could possibly work on being friends.

The worst part about it was that deep down he hadn't actually meant those words he'd spit at her that day. Even if she pissed him off every single time he saw her, he did enjoy being around her. Ami's smart mouthed comments and slick remarks had been on the same level as his, and even though she annoyed him with it sometimes it was kinda funny. No one else had ever matched him quip for quip before.

"Well, looks like you've got it handled then?"

Katsuki looks up at Kirishima and shrugs, "Not much to handle now, but yeah."

"So, you guys ready for our in-city training?" Sero asks from the floor.

Their class would be taking to the city and helping different agencies' heroes with patrolling the streets. It reminded Katsuki a lot of how he, Izuku, and Todoroki had shadowed Endeavor for their last work study with the challenge of beating him to the site of an emergency. They'd once again be in the city answering calls for help, but this time they had a lot more experience than they'd had back then. It would be a breeze in comparison to the hell they'd been put through once society had fallen in on itself almost immediately following that.

Katsuki looks over at Izuku, eyes landing on the scars that marred his arms. That time had been the especially hard on him. "It's gonna be lame as hell," he grunts after a moment, looking now at Sero. "We've been through harder shit."

"But that doesn't mean we shouldn't take our assignments seriously!" Iida tells him, disappointment heavy in his tone. "We have to work even harder to keep civilians feeling safe now. They put their trust in us and we have to make sure that it's never lost again."

Izuku nods solemnly, staring down at his hands. He'd been more reserved as of late, trading in a significant portion of his usually bubbly, rambling personality for one that was more serious. He more than metaphorically had the world on his shoulders now, too many things had happened leading up until now for him not to.

"I never said we shouldn't." Katsuki scoffs softly. "All I said was that it was going to be easy, damn it."

The boys quickly dissolve into smaller groups of conversation, wondering what groups they'll be split up into and which agencies they'll be patrolling with. Even though the crime rate was significantly lower now that AFO and his allies were out of the picture, it didn't mean that there weren't others following in his footsteps even still, all attempting to replace him. It was almost like starting over fresh, and nowadays heroes had to stay on top of it to make sure that they significantly outnumbered the villains. Which, so far, had been going well.

Katsuki looks back down at his phone and sighs quietly. The last thing he needed right now was to be focused on anything except for this upcoming assignment, but he couldn't really ignore the small part of him that was hoping for he and Ami be on the same team. Maybe working together again was what they needed to try and rekindle the connection they'd developed before. He didn't want to come across like it was that important to him though.

Because it wasn't.

It was definitely at the bottom of his list of priorities.

So not important at all.

"Hey guys! Good luck on your assignments!"

Katsuki turns to see Uraraka coming through the door with Ami and Hagakure at her sides, the former with a wide smile on her round face.

"You too!" Izuku calls back.

Ami's eyes meet Katsuki's and she gives him a shy smile, raising her hand slightly in a greeting.

He gives her a brief smile and nods in acknowledgement. Even though the actions aren't much, they're enough to make the shy smile turn into a much more open one.

She tucks one of her braids behind her ear, eyes sparkling with the accomplishment.

Katsuki feels his heart stutter in response.

Fuck. She was so hopeful.

He didn't get why she wanted to be friends with him so much. Even though, his classmates hadn't given up on him even when he was much more blunt and abrasive either. Maybe she saw what they did.

Whatever that was.

"You ever done anything like this, Shortstack?"

Heads turn to look at Ami as she's addressed. The class was still adjusting to the two being back on talking terms again and their actions unfortunately showed it.

Katsuki really wished they wouldn't act like it was such a big fucking deal.

Ami nods, also seemingly surprised at him speaking to her. "Yeah, once." She says after a moment. "We visited agencies and were paired with whichever hero wanted us."

"Who did you work with?" Mina asks.

Ami smiles one of her genuine smiles, "Mirko actually, she was a lot of fun to be around. She and I ended up pretty close. I got to visit her in the hospital after that massive fight with the P.L.F. too."

Mirko, the current #4 hero, had been one of the biggest factors in their first win against the villains. She'd sustained massive injuries and lost an arm in the fight, but she'd managed to hold off multiple high end Nomu at once. If it wasn't for her, who knows who else they would've lost in the battle.

As the group begins to talk about what they expect from their upcoming assignment, Katsuki takes the time to really look at Ami. He watches her go from shy to animated, laughing along with and talking back and forth with their classmates. Whenever she gets excited about something, he notices her eyes start to sparkle and she leans forward in anticipation for what comes next or her own input.

She was... something. A kind of something that made his chest feel funny.

Ami looks over then and meets his eyes, giving him a grin when she sees he's watching her. Being caught staring, Katsuki looks away, resting his elbow on the arm of the couch so he can prop his chin up in his hand. When he looks back over after a minute, he watches the corner of her mouth twitch upward in a knowing smile.

Yeah, she's something alright.

A blip! from his phone later that night pulls Katsuki from his book.

He glances over at his nightstand, eyebrows furrowing at the unfamiliar sound. "The fuck was that?" He mumbles, reaching over to grab the device and unlock it.

The notification bar at the top of the screen when swiped down reveals a message that had come through his social media page's message app. Usually he never got alerted when he received messages, as he'd muted practically every one from their class the second he'd made the account and his inbox had been slammed with memes and stupid shit from the guys.

"You still up?" It was a message from Ami.

Katsuki's fingers move towards the notification but then hesitate. For a moment, he sits there reading and re-reading the words over again. It was almost 8:30 and he was winding down for bed, but the fact that she messaged him had fully woken him up. He hadn't expected her to be the one to reach out first, but he would admit that it gave him one less thing to think about.

"Yeah, I'm up." He replies, taking a breath as little dots appear in the new chat almost immediately, showing that she's typing.

"Busy?"

Katsuki looks at the book he'd set aside in favor of his phone before replying. "Hardly."

"On a scale of 1-10, how much trouble would I get into if I came up to talk to you?"

His eyes quickly dart around his room, checking to make sure it's not a mess before he looks back down at the screen and once again re-reads the message. Why would she want to come visit him? He'd never had a girl in his room before, and he wasn't actually sure what would happen if she was caught coming up to his room at night. Or if she was caught in it. There weren't any cameras in the dorms, but their teachers did occasionally stop by from time to time.

Katsuki taps the text box and carefully types out a reply."Not sure. But it better be important if you're going to come up here and risk it. Make it fast, I'm going to bed soon."

The message is read and before 5 minutes even pass by there's a tentative knock at his door.

He jumps up, reaching over to his desk to pull on a t-shirt, then crosses the room to open the door.

"I was kinda surprised you didn't tell me not to come up." Ami says softly, looking up and down the hall cautiously. She's in what looks like pajamas, a short nightie, robe, and slippers. "Can I come in or do you want me to just stand out here the whole time?"

Katsuki grunts and steps aside to let her walk past him before shutting the door. He turns to watch her as she walks across the room and stands at it's center, shifting back and forth from foot to foot with uncertainty. "Sit down," He says after a moment, annoyance lacing his tone. "You're making me anxious with all that standing."

Ami plops down on his bed at his words, being careful not to sit on his book. "...So." She begins. "I was thinking."

"Yeah?"

She plays with her fingers while she talks, black glossy nails clacking softly against each other. "Do you maybe want to team up for our assignment?" She asks.

Katsuki can't help it. He snorts a laugh. "You asked to come up here just so you could ask if we could do the assignment together?"

Ami looks up at him and her eyes harden slightly, the tips of her ears flushing subtly, "Don't-"

"I'm not making fun of you." He interjects. "I just didn't think you'd come up here to ask that."

She blows out a breath and looks down at her feet, her frown relaxing off of her face. "Is that a yes?" Ami asks after a moment.

He had already hoped that they could team up, so saying "yes" was easy. "Yeah, sure."

It looks like a weight drops off Ami's shoulders when she sighs in relief. "Ok good."

Katsuki gives her a lightly amused smile, "Were you worried I was going to say no?"

"I mean, yeah. Kind of." She shrugs and her fingers still. "I know you said we could work on being friends but that doesn't mean that you'd want to work with me. I figured you'd want to work with Kiri or Midoriya."

His eyebrows lift slightly, "Kirishima is teaming up with me. But we're going to be in groups of 4 for the most part, so I'm guessing Ashido and you are a package deal?"

Ami laughs and nods, looking up at him. "Yeah basically, but we just needed our other two and I figured I'd ask you."

They're both silent for a moment. It was... nerve wracking, now being alone together after the incident at the hot springs the day prior. Katsuki scratches the back of his neck and looks over at the wall, feeling a light burn in his cheeks at the memory

"We're... really OK, right?"

His eyes snap to her face again, "We are. Sorry if I was..." He grimaces slightly. "Weird yesterday."

Ami looks at her feet quickly, long curls falling forward to hide her face. "And I'm sorry for being so clumsy." She mumbles. She looks so tiny sitting on his bed, and in noticing that, it calls up some of his... more venturous stray thoughts.

Imagine if you asked her to stay and she did.

Remember how soft her skin was under your hands?

What would happen if you got closer?

Katsuki hesitates for a second before closing the distance between them, stopping when he's less than a foot in front of her.

Ami's breath catches when he stops and she looks up at him, eyes slightly widened in surprise.

"So... Shortstack," He averts his eyes and pushes the thoughts away. "I don't want you to get in any trouble sneaking out any later so you should probably get back to your dorm." He offers a hand.

She takes it, sending little tingles down his spine at the gentle touch, and he pulls her up.

"Any later"? "Probably"? Ask her to stay.

"Yeah you're right, so I'll get going." She gently withdraws her hand after a second before heading to the door. She pauses and looks back, hand on the doorknob. "And... thank you, for letting me come visit."

Katsuki nods, watching her as she opens the door and steps out, shutting the door behind her softly.

Coward.

He grimaces and goes to lock the door before returning to his bed. His intrusive thoughts were urging actions now, and he didn't need to act on them even if the impulse was strong. Ami was a friend. They had just started back talking to each other. The last thing he needed to do was confuse her and start being impulsive.

He was already confused enough himself.