Notes: This is some fluffy ass shit right here. I can also attest to the fact that dyeing your hair is so much easier with someone to help you.
It turned out that there were a lot of things that Bakugou hadn't anticipated when it came to making his last bet, like just how cramped the bathrooms were and how awkward helping Uraraka dye her hair would be. He should have thought it out, but in his overeagerness to tease her, he hadn't considered what it might look like. It wasn't like they could just walk into the bathroom together, so they had to figure something else out. Sneaking into her dorm to watch a chick flick in the middle of the night was one thing, but that was definitely more than he could handle without his brain exploding.
The night before their team fights, Uraraka found him in the kitchen and waved a small box in his face. "I picked out a color."
Bakugou plucked it from her fingers and raised his eyebrows. Interesting choice. She was going much bolder than he'd expected, but then he caught the determined look in her eyes and a grin slid onto his face. He should have known that she would beat his expectations. As much as she hadn't liked the idea of dying her hair blue at the time, she was refusing to back down now. She had to let Bakugou know that she wasn't afraid of anything. He also hadn't said that she had to dye her hair before their the match-ups, but she'd decided to do that as well.
"You sure about this one?" Bakugou taunted, wagging the box in front of her.
Uraraka snatched it out of his grip with surprising speed. She'd gotten a lot faster over the years. If she'd had this sort of speed during their fight at their first Sports Festival, he would've been really screwed. "I'm positive." She poked him in his chest. "Now are you gonna help me or not?"
"Oh yeah," Bakugou said, "I can't wait to see you freak out."
Rolling her eyes at him, Uraraka moved around him so that she could grab a water out of the fridge. "So where are we gonna do this? I, um, don't think it's a good idea to do it in the bathrooms." Her already pink cheeks somehow turned an even darker shade of pink. "I-I mean, there isn't a lot of room! And, well, the doors don't lock and…" She had definitely buried herself in a hole that he wasn't eager to help her out of immediately, but then she looked to be at a loss for words.
"We can dye your hair in my dorm," Bakugou said, shrugging his shoulders.
"Your dorm?" Uraraka shifted anxiously on her feet. "Wouldn't it make more sense to use mine?"
"Maybe, but it takes time for the dye to set in and your taste in music is probably as shit as your taste in movies," Bakugou pointed out. Uraraka gave him a half-hearted glare, but she didn't deny it either. He would've bet his entire bank account that she listened to whatever pop music was on the radio and he was not about to do that while they waited for her to wash the excess dye out. "Just meet me after you're done with Icy Hot."
The smile on Uraraka's face wasn't nearly as innocent as she made it out to be. "Nervous about tomorrow?"
"You fucking wish," Bakugou retorted. "You just worry about tonight."
Uraraka practically giggled as she flounced away, which irritated the hell out of Bakugou, but he couldn't be bothered to do anything about it.
He finished making himself something to eat for dinner, shoving any thoughts of her out of his mind so that he could focus on tomorrow. He and Sero had gone through so many things in a matter of a week and, while he was confident, he still would've prefered more time to work on them. Aizawa didn't appear to be in a kind mood this week though.
It made him wonder about the other teams: how they had managed their time to train together, come up with quirk combination tactics, and ideas on how to beat other teams too. After all, you couldn't just think about your own team. Bakugou had to consider how other quirk combinations would work so that he could figure out their weaknesses and how to use his and Sero's quirks to use those weaknesses to their advantage.
Normally, Bakugou was in the common area when Uraraka came back from her training with Todoroki, but he had gone to his dorm earlier than usual. Sero had been taken aback, but hadn't complained, saying that he needed to get extra rest since Bakugou was going to run him ragged tomorrow. He was flipping through a few roughly sketched out ideas in his notebook and listening to music when there was a hesitant knock on his door.
When he got up and opened the door, Uraraka was standing there, completely red-faced, her hair already a mess, like she'd rushed straight here. She dove inside like someone might see her and question what she was doing, but there was no one in the hallway. He could instantly tell that she was having doubts about this, although he wasn't sure if it was the dying her hair part or being in his dorm, but either way, she was here and determined to go through with the bet.
"So I bought everything the lady at the shop said I'd need," Uraraka rushed to say as she unpacked everything from the bag she'd brought with her. The hair dye, latex gloves, developer, a squeeze bottle, and a clip to hold up her hair.
There was one thing she'd forgotten and Bakugou huffed as he pulled out one of his many towels. He had a lot to deal with the excess sweat his quirk produced when he wasn't using it. She gave him a questioning look. "I'm not having you get all that shit on my stuff. It's hell to clean out."
The look didn't leave her face at all. "How do you know that?" She stepped forward to peer at him far too closely and reached out like she might pick at his hair, but he leaned away from her and then she straightened up. "Do you dye your hair?"
"No!" Bakugou folded his arms across his chest. "Kirishima does." Oh, wait, he wasn't supposed to say that. Not that it was a big deal or anything. Kirishima sometimes got a little uppity about people knowing that red hair wasn't his natural color. Well, Uraraka wouldn't say anything. "I've seen him dye his hair a few times."
"Aw, that's really sweet," Uraraka giggled.
Bakugou scoffed. "Whatever." It was not sweet. He pulled out a pair of gloves, noting that she'd opted to get a size more inclined to fit him, and tossed them at her, giving her a smirk. "You ready for this?"
Uraraka took a deep breath and nodded her head. "For the record though, I hate this already."
Another thing that Bakugou had not anticipated was just how...intimate this whole thing was. When he had come up with the bet and even threw out the offer to help her, he hadn't considered how close he would have to get to her if he actually helped her. For now, he hung back and let her try it on her own, which proved somewhat disastrous. She mixed up the dye while he changed the music into something less for studying and more heart thumping, if only because it was more distracting.
Holding the bottle up, Uraraka asked, "Now what?"
"You just put it on your hair," Bakugou told her. She held the bottle over her head, sighed, and then squeezed a handful of the dye onto her hair, cringing as she did so. The look on her face was so dumb that he couldn't help but laugh. Luckily, the music was loud enough to drown it out so no one would hear him laughing in his dorm and question what he was doing. She hesitantly rubbed the dye on her hair, but she was confused. "You're doing it all wrong. You've gotta rub it in your hair, like conditioner."
Shaking his head, Bakugou pulled out another pair of latex gloves from the box and pulled them on with the precision of a surgeon. It was a weird feeling, the gloves making his hands sweatier than normal, so he moved quickly. Ignoring her indignant protests, Bakugou took the bottle of mixed hair dye from her, squeezed some on her head, and began to rub it in properly so that the dye coated her hair and there weren't any missing spots. He did it all without thinking. A few seconds later, it more or less hit him that he was standing inches away from Uraraka and playing with her hair.
Bakugou cleared his throat. "Turn around."
Uraraka seemed almost grateful to do so, her face beet red, turning around so that her back was to him. It was much easier to work this way. He'd at least get this part taken care of and she could do the rest. Kirishima always had trouble getting the back of his head and would get into some weird positions to cover it all. It was just quicker this way. Luckily she wasn't tender-headed, seeing as how he tugged on her hair every now and then when running his fingers through it.
"This is gonna look great," Bakugou informed her in his smuggest tone. His insides felt twisted, like she'd used her quirk on him and flipped him upside down. If he acted like nothing was weird, then she'd get the hint. He was not going to think about this any deeper. He was helping her dye her hair to embarrass her. It was going to be one big joke. There was definitely no other reason.
"Ass," Uraraka shot back at him, but then she actually shivered as he finished coating the back of her hair. She coughed. "Sorry, cold chill."
"There." Bakugou pulled his hands out and stepped away from her, jerking the gloves off. "You can do the rest."
Using the small mirror that he owned, Uraraka finished dying the rest of her hair and then used the clip to hold it up. After carefully peeling off the blue stained gloves, she tossed them away and put the towel over her shoulders to keep it from touching her skin or clothes. It didn't really matter since she already had a few spots of dye on her skin, including one on her cheek, but it would wash off. Bakugou had learned the hard way that hair dye didn't come out of clothes for anything in the world.
"Now we wait," Uraraka said, "according to the instructions."
Oh, yeah, they were waiting in his room. There was no gaming system for them to play, seeing as how Bakugou had left his at his parents' house. He had a television and a computer, but that was about it as far as entertainment went. It suddenly occurred to him that he was playing host to Uraraka. How irritating. Before he could even think of saying anything though, Uraraka wandered over towards his laptop where his music app was open. Despite it clearly not being her taste in music, she didn't seem to mind the song playing.
"Wow, you've got a lot of bands on here that I've never heard of," Uraraka said as she sat down to scroll through it.
"Told you I'm not into that pop shit." He was half in mind to snap at her for touching his stuff without asking, but then he did pride himself on his good taste in music. Ever since he'd learned to play the drums when he was younger, he'd really gotten into bands with good drummers and he loved music that was loud and heartstopping, something that matched his quirk and attitude.
"Oh, that's the band whose t-shirt I wore." She clicked on one of their songs, something that started out kind of quiet. Bakugou grinned to himself. He knew this song. It was one of his favorites. "This isn't so-" She was abruptly cut off by the downright explosive chorus, making her jump in the chair in surprise, and he barked out laughter again. Eyes wide, she rubbed her ears. "This is definitely you."
Bakugou came up behind her and pushed her hand to the side so that he could pick another song. "Hey, this is great workout music. It really gets you pumped up and ready to kick ass."
"I can tell," Uraraka replied with a snort. "No wonder you're so awake by the time class starts."
"You need good training music," Bakugou insisted. The song he'd picked wasn't as hardcore as the last one, but it was his favorite running song. "Next time we play Mario Kart, bring your music player. I'll put some good ass music on there. I bet your workouts will be so much better than when you listen to some cheesy boy band."
Uraraka harrumphed. "How do you know that's what I listen to?" She folded her arms across her chest, though it was impossible for her to look threatening with her hair in a blue goop pile on top of her head. "I could listen to hardcore rap or classical music."
"Well, do you?" Bakugou questioned.
There was a beat of silence where Uraraka was staring back at him, but then she dropped her shoulders and looked away. "No."
"Uh huh, that's what I thought." Bakugou snatched his laptop off his desk, unplugging it, and walked over to sit on the edge of his bed. Sighing to herself, Uraraka stood up and followed, sitting down next to him. "I'll introduce you to some good music. You can ask Jirou too if you can't handle my stuff. She's more into music than I am."
Tilting her head, Uraraka gave him a curious look, but she didn't say anything. He wasn't quite sure what that look meant, but since she said nothing, neither did he. Okay, so he wasn't known for being incredibly social and he tended to stick to his core group of friends, but he'd gotten a lot better since his first year when he hadn't even known his classmates' names or quirks.
"Good ass music, huh?" Uraraka prompted.
Bakugou sat up a straighter, excitement bubbling inside of his chest. "Yeah, sit back and prepare to get your socks knocked off."
A smile appeared on Uraraka's face. She pulled her legs up so she could sit cross-legged on the bed and face him while he scrolled through his music to find his favorite stuff. The only other people that actually liked what he listened to were Jirou, Kirishima, and sometimes Tokoyami. This definitely wouldn't be Uraraka's jam, but maybe, just maybe, he'd get to like one or two good bands. Plus, they had the coolest clothing merchandise.
After around thirty minutes of listening to different music and listening to Bakugou rant about bands, Uraraka slipped out so she could wash her hair. It had been a good distraction for both of them. She had asked questions, but mainly paid attention. He'd even found some songs that she really liked, which pleased him. Hell yeah he had good taste in music.
Once she was out of his dorm though, Bakugou felt the absence of her presence, which was weird when she'd never been in here before tonight. It was kind of like when she'd bowed out of playing Mario Kart last Monday in order to work with Todoroki. He fiddled around his room, but found it difficult to concentrate on anything, which was irritating. The match ups were tomorrow and he needed to get his head in the game.
Maybe she had decided to do it tonight in an attempt to throw him off. Would Uraraka be that devious? She was ruthless when it came to their bets. No, he didn't think she'd go that far, not when it came to school. When playing the video game, sure, but she wouldn't go out of her way to sabotage him in their hero work.
The sound of his door opening again caught him off guard and Bakugou turned around with his fists clenched and mouth open to yell at Kirishima-
And then he saw Uraraka and her hair.
"Holy shit," was the first words to slip out of his mouth.
Uraraka's cheeks turned bright pink and she hid her face in her hands. "Is it bad? Oh my god, I bet it's awful. I look so stupid!" She pulled her hands away and took two steps towards him, shoving him in the chest with one hand. He was so taken aback that he stumbled backwards and didn't even complain about her pushing him. "Oh, I hate you for this!" She shook her head. "No, no, I don't. I'm sorry. You made the bet fair and square and you even helped me. I'm just…"
Honestly, Bakugou didn't know what to say. A part of him wanted to laugh because it was fucking hysterical. This was incredible on every level. He had expected her to pick out a dark blue that she could almost hide as black in certain lights, but no, that wasn't Uraraka. This girl went above and beyond. She'd picked a bright teal color that reminded him of the ocean. He was so used to her brown hair that it took him a minute to realize that it was her hair and not a wig. If she hadn't just been in this room, he wouldn't have recognized her at first.
It did look really funny.
And it also looked strangely...cool.
"Have you not seen it?" Bakugou asked.
Uraraka shook her head. "I was too nervous, so I turned my back to the mirror…"
"Tch, I didn't know you were scared of such little things," Bakugou said as he walked behind her and pushed her towards the mirror in his room. For a second, Uraraka dug her heels in the ground to stop him, but then she closed her eyes and let him push her. "Now look."
She opened her eyes. Dead silence afterwards followed for a solid minute.
"Everyone is going to think I've lost my mind," Uraraka declared, gawking at her reflection. "I look so weird."
Bakugou smirked. "You're already weird, Round Face."
Instead of turning around, Uraraka glared at his reflection in the mirror since he was standing behind her. All Bakugou did was snort and step back as she finally moved to face him. Gods, he couldn't even describe what she looked like right now. Weird, yeah, if only because he'd never seen her with any other hair color than her natural brown and this was such a drastic change. It blew his mind a little. Her hair was teal. Somehow, the color made those little pink circles on her cheeks stand out even more and the brown of her eyes darker.
"You look like some party girl or something," Bakugou finally decided.
Uraraka threw her hands up and made a very loud frustrated noise. "Everyone is gonna laugh at me!"
"To be fair, the worst offender of that would be me," Bakugou pointed out. She made a sound like she agreed with him there. "Deku and Iida will be too nice to say anything negative. Ashido will probably like it. Honestly, I'm not sure if Todoroki will even notice."
"None of this is making me feel any better," Uraraka told him. Then she put her hands on her hips and put the most determined expression on her face. The teal hair totally lessened the impact of it though and he had to bite his bottom lip to keep from smirking again. "This is just fuel to the fire, Bakugou. You and Sero better watch out tomorrow because we're coming for you."
"Oh yeah?" Bakugou stepped closer to her so that he was in her space, nearly touching chests with her, and stared her down hard. "You think you got what it takes?"
She didn't so much as blink. "I know I've got it. You're going down."
"You wanna bet on that?"
This time, when Uraraka grinned, it was most definitely devious. "I can do that."
"Okay." Bakugou folded his arms across his chest. "So what's it gonna be?"
Uraraka tapped her chin thoughtfully and then poked him in the chest. "If I win, you've gotta buy me dinner. And I'm not talking fast food either. I want a real meal. I'll be hungry after kicking your ass."
Gods, she was acting downright cocky, like he normally would. This was more competitive than when they were playing Mario Kart. It was like when she'd taken his shirt off and thrown it at him in the laundry room. Just sheer determination and the will to beat him at his own game. Maybe that teal hair had gone to her head.
"You really think you and Todoroki are hot shit, huh?" Bakugou sneered, but his blood was singing. He felt electric, like he was ready to do this match up fight right now, buzzing with energy and excitement. "Let's see. If I win…" He thought about what he could bet. What did he want her to do? A terrible idea popped into his head. He must have made a face because Uraraka narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously. "You've gotta wear that U.A. cheerleading costume on Saturday."
Uraraka's jaw dropped. "Bakugou!" She pursed her lips together and tilted her head up in a superior manner. "You pervert."
"I am not!" Bakugou exclaimed, his face getting warm. She laughed. Damn her. She'd wanted to get a reaction out of him. "It'll be embarrassing and you know it!" The last time he'd made a bet about her clothes, she had somehow managed to turn it around on him. He could still easily picture what she looked like wearing his shirt. (He could also picture her in that cheerleading outfit.) "You can't make a fashion statement out of that, plus your hair."
"Oh, I won't have to," Uraraka countered, "because I'm going to win." She gathered her things and slid her bag over her shoulder. "I'll see you tomorrow, Bakugou. Prepare to eat my dust."
If she thought that she was even going to come close, Uraraka had another thing coming. However, instead of feeling angry over her being so confident that she would win tomorrow's team fight, Bakugou was elated. Sure, he'd been pumped up before and had been ready to kick ass, but now he was seriously gunning for it. Uraraka had lit a fire under him, but that was more fuel for him. She better watch herself because he was ready.