Notes: I need the fluff. I need it so bad. Today's episode killed my soul, so I'm actually posting this from the afterlife.
Bakugou hadn't originally planned on going to the movies with everyone when there were so many better things he could do, but Kirishima had kept pestering him and he'd caved. It would be good to get off campus anyways and sometimes mindless action and explosions soothed him. He could listen to those sounds on repeat and go to sleep. The more CGI explosions irritated him, but he could get over it. The fact that his and Uraraka's bets had managed to worm their way into the night made things both better and worse.
As expected, Bakugou was not looking forward to being dragged around by Uraraka like a balloon. She had given him the option of choosing when he wanted to follow up on the bet, as he had done her with the first one, but it hung over him like a dark cloud. He could feel it in the pit of his stomach, turning it into a knot, and he hated that feeling. What did he have to be nervous about anyways?
The only thing that kept him from falling into a foul mood was that Uraraka also had her own bet to hold up and, unlike his bet, hers would last the entire night. There would be no getting it over with. The entire night, she'd have to wear his shirt and deal with the weird looks and questions lobbed at her by their classmates.
Bakugou was sitting in the common room with Kirishima, Sero, and Kaminari, waiting on the girls, when they heard Iida exclaim, "Uraraka, you look so…!"
"Badass!" Jirou supplied.
"Hot!" Ashido added giddily.
And then there was Deku's puzzled description: "Like Kacchan?"
All the boy whipped their heads around, but the voices were coming from the hallway in the direction of the dorms, so they couldn't see anything. This was...not the response that Bakugou had been expecting when he had made the bet. This didn't sound embarrassing at all.
"Are you saying I dress like Bakugou?" Jirou demanded. "Because some of those clothes are mine and I'm really digging this look."
"N-no!" Deku exclaimed. "I'm just saying… That looks like one of Kacchan's shirts…"
The five students made their way into the room, but of course Ashido was blocking Bakugou's view of Uraraka. The pink girl was standing right in front of Uraraka, so that he could only catch glimpses of her bare arms. He moved around on the couch, trying to get a better view, which meant shoving Kaminari to the side, but then Jirou was standing next to Uraraka.
"Oh, uh, I just wanted to try a new look, you know?" Uraraka explained nervously.
Jirou nodded her head. "Yeah, she asked if she could borrow some of my stuff."
"We could all stand to try new things once in a while," Ashido said. "Maybe I should dye my hair blue!"
"Aren't you bright enough?" Kirishima asked from the couch.
His question stirred the group of people standing in the mouth of the hallway and they all scattered. Bakugou didn't notice any of them, his eyes fixed on Uraraka. His heart stammered in his chest and he felt as if someone had punched him in the gut.
She was wearing his black cut off shirt, which was indeed too big for her, but she'd tied it to the side at the bottom to shorten it so that it was more like a crop top than a blanket, showing off a bit of her stomach. It managed to still show off a hint of her curves. A blue sports bra showed on the sides, something inevitable in a cut off shirt, but she had managed to make it look casual and match the blue logo on the shirt. Her black pants were tight, but they were clearly her own as Jirou's legs were skinny for them to share pants. The black boots and black wristbands were definitely Jirou's. Her hair was tied up in the back in a small ponytail, but her signature bangs still framed her face. Her makeup might have been edgier than normal, but it was minimal and still showed off her pink cheeks.
All in all, when Bakugou had made the bet, he had not been expecting this. How had she managed to make his huge workout shirt look like it was the centerpiece of a cool outfit? What the hell? When he finally caught eyes with her, her whole face turned pink, but she gave him a little smile that just pissed him off. This hadn't worked out at all. In fact, he was starting to think that this was going to turn back to bite him in the ass instead of her.
"You know, that does look like one of Bakugou's shirts," Kirishima mused as he stood up. His eyes flickered down to Bakugou, who had managed to tear his gaze away from Uraraka to look up at him at the same time. "I'm pretty sure you wore that last week."
"Yeah, when we were playing Mario Kart!" Kaminari burst in, sounding oddly erratic. Both Bakugou and Kirishima shot him looks, a glare and a raised eyebrow respectively, but Kaminari shrugged his shoulders and then slunk off towards the girls. Well, that was strange, but then Bakugou never questioned the weird behavior of his friends. Maybe he pushed himself too hard in their hero class today and his brain was still a little fried.
Kirishima bounded towards the door with the manic excitement of a child. "You all ready for a bomb ass movie?"
Everyone going followed him out the door. Bakugou didn't bother waiting for Uraraka, who was saying goodbye to Iida and Deku, both of whom were staying behind for whatever reasons. Even better Todoroki wasn't going. The Half and Half Bastard was off with Aizawa for some project outside of class. Thank everything. It was pretty much the regular group of people that Bakugou hung out with all the time, the only additions being Uraraka, Hagukara, and Mineta. It would've been great if that little grape shit wasn't coming, especially with the way he was eyeing Uraraka right now, but Bakugou would ignore him the entire night.
Bakugou couldn't guarantee that he wouldn't lose his shit if Mineta said anything weird to Uraraka though. He was still reeling from his own stupidity. Uraraka didn't need to deal with that twice.
Somehow, it had been decided without him that they were going to stop at a fast food place to get something to eat before the movie. So far, he and Uraraka hadn't interacted much beyond a few sideways glances and grins on her face that made his stomach twist even further. He had to own up to his end of the bet at some point. Would it be better to do it before the movie so that the movie would distract them or after so that he could avoid any talking about it?
He was munching viciously on a burger at a table with Kirishima and Sero, considering his options, when Sero waved a hand in front of his face. "Earth to Bakugou?"
It jerked Bakugou out of picturing the best case scenario and he snapped to attention, his red eyes darting to the two other boys. "What?"
"We asked you about what you think Todoroki is doing with Aizawa like three times and you didn't even blink," Sero told him. Bakugou hadn't heard them at all, his mind too distracted. He was starting to squirm in his head and he didn't want it translating to his body. "It's not like you to be space-brained."
A sneaky grin wound its way onto Kirishima's face. "Oh, we're not important, not when Bakugou is having a teenage existential crisis."
"What the fuck are you going on about?" Bakugou snapped, not liking the look on Kirishima's face or the direction he was going. He didn't like whatever Kirishima was suggesting. Bakugou didn't have an teenage existential crisis. He wasn't like any of these idiots. This was just a stepping stone to his future.
"Well, first, you buy Todoroki's lunch and now Uraraka's wearing your shirt," Kirishima announced, like it made perfect sense. "I think our boy here is torn between two crushes."
Bakugou almost exploded and it took every ounce of strength in him to not jump over the table and let out an explosion right in the redhead's face. "I don't have a fucking crush on that stupid Half and Half Bastard!" He knew that he was red in the face and he hated it, but it was out of anger. The second he'd bought Todoroki's lunch, he had known that people would come up with wild conclusions. Maybe they would mistake his aggression towards Todoroki as a way to hide his embarrassment.
With one simple bet, Uraraka had ruined him in the eyes of everyone for at least a month. He didn't care what people said about him, but now they thought he was some shy guy around his crush. It was shit. He never should have made that stupid bet with Uraraka that spurred her to victory. Bakugou had never believed in karma before, obvious from the way he acted, but now it was starting to sound true.
Done with his food, Bakugou got up and stomped his way to the bathroom, tossing his trash away. He ignored the looks from everyone, including Uraraka, and stormed inside. Shit, he had to cool down. Kirishima was only teasing him and Bakugou was letting it get to him. He knew that he had a quick temper, but he could control himself a lot better these days. He shouldn't have been that easy to set off like a bomb. He didn't want to think about any of this; he didn't want to do anything.
He could just...close his eyes and float.
Outside, he could hear the signs of everyone packing up and leaving since the movie would be starting soon and Ashido had a thing about movie trailers. It was now or never. He needed to get this over with. Maybe it would at least get Kirishima to let go of the whole Todoroki thing for a while.
After taking a deep breath, Bakugou kicked the bathroom door open and unceremoniously shouted, "Uraraka, give me your fucking hand!"
Uraraka literally jumped, so startled by the shout, and began to float towards the ceiling. She wasn't the only one to react in shock either. Ashido let out a surprised squeak while Kaminari choked on his last mouthful of food and began to cough in earnest. Jirou raised both her eyebrows and Sero's mouth fell open. The worst of them was, of course, Kirishima, who began to cackle wildly.
He stomped over to her as she scrambled to get back to the ground, pushing off the ceiling and flipping around so that she was feet first again before releasing her quirk. When he thrust out of his hands to her, she looked at it like it might somehow bite her, so he shook it in insistence. It was a quick walk to the theater. She could release her quirk on him when they got there and then the movie would start so that no one could ask any questions about why he was letting Uraraka hold his hand. It made sense.
Closing his eyes and trusting her to not let him float into the stratosphere, Bakugou almost jerked when he felt Uraraka grab his hand. Her hands were soft with the exception of the pads on her fingertips. There was a calloused almost rubbery feel to them, but they were more unexpected than unpleasant. The sudden shift in his gravity took him off guard at first and he tightened his grip on her hand, but then his feet slowly lifted from the ground until he was hanging in the air like a half-deflated balloon.
When Bakugou opened his eyes, he found himself staring directly into Uraraka's. The smile on her face now was neither sneaky nor smug, which made him narrow his eyes in suspicion. She actually giggled at his begrudging attitude and practically skipped out of the restaurant, effortlessly tugging him behind her. He didn't dare look at anyone else, not when he knew full well that he looked like a total idiot, and simply turned his gaze away to glare at every car that passed them by.
"You're doing the face," Uraraka told him in a low voice only meant for him. He jerked his eyes back to her. "The scowly face - except you're blushing."
Bakugou did not fucking blush. But when she gave him one of those I win looks, he reached out with his free hand to grab at her. He missed her and she let out a laugh that was almost as light as him right now. Her quirk had to be what was causing his stomach to do flips now. He closed his eyes and breathed through his nose, willing himself to calm down, and just...focused on the sensation.
In a way, he felt free. He couldn't describe it any other way. There was nothing physically holding him down. His weight didn't matter. It made it easier to drain his mind of any thoughts and in a minute or two nothing felt like it mattered. There was simply nothing holding him back. The only thing tethering him to earth and reality was Uraraka's hand in his, smooth palms and rough pads compared to his tough and scarred ones. Even if he didn't create explosions with his palms, he was certain that he wouldn't have hands as soft as hers. He didn't have it in him to be that sort of gentle.
Being connected to her like that, her keeping him connected to earth, made it feel like she was the only thing that mattered. One push and he'd be gone. It brought a wave of discomfort over him, one that he'd never felt before. He had never let anyone have that much power over him. This was supposed to be some stupid bet to embarrass him. So why did it leave him feeling so vulnerable?
"We're here!" Uraraka announced and he opened his eyes. After he shifted around in the air so that his feet were underneath him, she released her quirk and Bakugou dropped down to his feet. She spun around and grinned up at him, all cheer and sunshine, though her cheeks seemed pinker than they'd been when he'd closed his eyes. "See, that wasn't so bad, was it?"
"Guess not," Bakugou muttered in a gruff voice, refusing to look at her after seeing how bright she was. It was like looking into the fucking sun, which was setting right now. Because he wasn't looking at her though, he caught sight of Kirishima, who was beaming proudly and giving him the thumbs up, and that just made things worse. He stomped into the movie theater, leaving Uraraka behind. He did not need this shit right now. All of this was giving Kirishima too much ammunition. He really needed to find something that would embarrass the hell out of Uraraka to get back at her.
He would've just bought his ticket and gone to find a seat, but Kirishima dragged him over to the snacks and forced him to look at them with him. "Didn't we just eat?"
Kirishima gasped. "We can't go to the movies without snacks!"
"They're overpriced," Bakugou told him flatly. He wasn't going to buy anything, but he stayed with Kirishima until he decided what to get. He took his sweet ass time so that by the time he finished it was only them two, Mineta, and Kaminari in the lobby while everyone else had gone inside. He walked in behind them, trying not to think about what it had felt like to not have to worry about anything. His eyes slowly adjusted to the dark theater, but he froze when he realized what had happened.
Uraraka was sitting in the chair at the end of the group, chatting with Ashido. She looked like she was talking too much, which usually meant she was nervous, probably because the Alien Queen was the nosiest person on the planet. Bakugou very quickly realized what was going to happen and almost cursed Kirishima out on the spot. This had been deliberate. Mineta was all too eager to sit next to Uraraka and Bakugou's mind went from I don't give a shit to I give precisely one shit in a flash.
Shoving his way forward with all the grace of a bull, Bakugou snapped, "Move it," and barrelled his way into the aisle before Mineta could. The boy looked positively heartbroken, but that didn't affect Bakugou in the slightest and it didn't stop Kirishima from following behind him and shrugging his shoulders goodnaturedly. Before they sat down, Bakugou turned sharply on Kirishima. "You did this on purpose."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Kirishima replied, the smirk on his face suggesting otherwise.
Bakugou dropped in the seat next to Uraraka, startling her into glancing back at him. Before she could say or ask him anything, he cut in with, "This is the best seat," and then folded his arms across his chest, signaling to her that he was not going to say anything else. Her expression was a little frazzled, but then she nodded her head and went back to talking with Ashido about one of the actresses in this movie. Kirishima nudged him with an elbow, but Bakugou didn't look over at him either.
He should've just let Mineta sit next to her. If he'd tried anything, Uraraka would've floated his ass to the ceiling and left him there for the rest of the movie. But once again he'd acted before he thought through it properly and he found himself in an awkward position. At least when the movie started everyone's attention switched to the large screen. Uraraka either didn't notice his discomfort or she was doing her best to ignore it, but he kept seeing her squirm in her seat out of the corner of his eyes.
Slowly, he began to relax in his seat and he could even halfway enjoy the movie, but then he caught sight of her hand resting on her leg and the urge to grab it again as he had before swept over him so furiously that he clenched his fists. It had to be because of her using her quirk on him. It had been interesting. Maybe they could apply their quirks together in class. He'd have to think it over. Yeah, it was definitely her quirk that was intriguing him.
Because why the hell would he just want to hold her hand?