Notes: Okay, I lied. There are TWO more chapters after this, but the last one is going to be more like an epilogue. Also, I neither planned on this getting so long or for...anything in the second half to happen. But I'd like to title this chapter as: Bakguou Comes to Some Startling Revelations. I had a LOT of fun with this chapter.

In theory, the plan had seemed simple enough. Meet up for dinner, eat some delicious food, tease Uraraka about how much she struggled to handle the heat, swing by his parents' house to pick up video games, and then head back to the U.A. dorms. Once he'd figured out what to wear, nothing had stood out as problematic in his head except for getting out of the dorms without anyone becoming suspicious.

Going back to U.A. was a bridge that they'd cross when they got there, but he hadn't been about to force her to walk back on her own with it getting dark. She had her provisional hero license and could obviously kick ass, but he wasn't a completely inconsiderate jerk. Besides, it would only take a few minutes to swipe a few games from his room and then they could leave, excuses in hand.

Of course, needing proof of his excursion to his parents' place felt kind of moot now considering that fucking Kaminari and Jirou had seen them at the restaurant.

Why the fuck had they been there anyways? The moment Uraraka had spotted them, Bakugou had saw red and then felt torn between exploding and storming out the back door. The latter had startled him into freezing. It sounded suspiciously like he'd thought about running away, which he never fucking did. In the end, he'd done neither, finding himself trailing behind Uraraka as she made her way over to them, even though he'd had no intentions of talking to them.

Had Kaminari and Jirou been spying on them? Jirou was wearing the most ridiculous bright and flower print dress, which had caused him to look over her. It was the perfect disguise if she was trying to blend in. Granted, he'd been distracted with Uraraka, but that shouldn't have made him less observant. He knew that Jirou was moderately intelligent, but Kaminari was a freaking idiot. Out of anyone in the class to find out about Bakugou and Uraraka hanging out, he was the last one Bakugou would've picked. It pissed him off.

But then Kaminari had hit them with the fact that they were on a date and, despite Bakugou not readily believing that Buzz Brain could score an actual date with Jirou, a few things made sense. One, that dress was decent enough though not her style, but it did keep both Bakugou and Uraraka from noticing them for almost the entire dinner. Also, maybe Jirou didn't want people to know that she was going on a date with Kaminari. She hadn't seem too pleased with him trying to be all cutesy and shit with her in front of them. Had the fact that they'd chosen the same restaurant as Bakugou been coincidence? They couldn't have known where Bakugou was planning on taking Uraraka since not even she had known.

They could have followed either one of them there too.

All of it was highly suspicious and kept Bakugou preoccupied from realizing something important. His thoughts kept drifting back to what Kaminari and Jirou had been doing at that restaurant and their behavior while talking with Uraraka about what Aizawa might have planned for them next since the match ups were done. He had told her before their food had arrived that he needed to stop by his parents' to snag some video games. She'd been a little caught off guard, but hadn't said no, so he'd brushed it off.

And then they were on his doorstep and it suddenly hit him: his parents' house. Uraraka. His fucking mom.

The only people in their class to have stepped foot in his childhood home had been Kirishima and, admittedly, Deku a long time ago. His demon woman of a mother had been ecstatic when he had brought Kirishima over. He just knew she would be a holy terror if she were to see Uraraka. Who knew what that woman would think? Who knew what she would say? What she would do?

He clearly wasn't doing a good job at hiding his thoughts since Uraraka gave him a curious look as he glared up at the glowing windows. "Is everything okay?" she asked.

"Yeah," Bakugou ground out. "I was just hoping they weren't fucking home."

"You had to have half-expected them to be here," Uraraka pointed out. "It is their home."

"But they liked to go out on Saturday nights…"

Go figure they would have a night in on this particular Saturday. It wasn't that he didn't want Uraraka to come inside his house. He didn't even care if she saw his bedroom. It was that he didn't want his mom in the same room as her. It would be unbearable. Having her meet Aizawa and All Might to talk about the U.A. dorms had been awkward enough. She'd embarrassed the hell out of him. She liked doing that. He had been told that a lot of parents embarrassed their kids, but he couldn't shake the idea that she did it on purpose, like it might put him in his place. As if she hadn't been one of the people to help build his ego up as a kid.

His dad said they were just alike and that was why they butted heads so much. What a stupid idea. The woman was just demented.

(But damnit if anyone else but him said that about her. That was his mom.)

"I can stay outside if you like?" Uraraka suggested, pinks tinged her cheeks even more so than normal. "I don't want to make you uncomfortable or anything."

"Fuck that," Bakugou huffed. If his mom found out that he'd just had Uraraka wait on the doorstep like a dog, he would never hear the end of it. He was likely not to hear the end of this if she saw him bringing another friend home, much less because it was a girl, but she wouldn't be pissy with him at least. "It's whatever. My mom is a bitch."

Uraraka gasped. "Don't say that about your mom!"

"Well, she is!" Bakugou insisted, turning his head away from Uraraka's glare. "Just hope you don't find out for yourself."

He looked around the side of the house. His bedroom was on the second floor, but that wouldn't be a problem with Uraraka's quirk. Maybe he could go in by himself, unlock his window, and have her float herself up. That way he could avoid his mom or his dad seeing her. He didn't mind it if his dad saw Uraraka, but the man would tell his mom at some point. He told her everything, it seemed, unless Bakugou was really insistent or he thought it might upset him. This wouldn't be something like that though.

Sighing to herself, Uraraka held her arms with her hands. "Seriously, if that's big of a deal, I don't mind staying outside. You probably could've gone in and come back out by now."

"No, just…" Bakugou grabbed her by the wrist and started pulling her towards the front door. Fuck it. Who cared what his mom said or did? Uraraka might tease him a little, but it wasn't like she was going to tell anyone. She wouldn't, not if this night was to stay between them, which was a given after all the loops they'd jumped through to keep it a secret. "Just come on."

"And here you were teasing me about telling my mom that we were hanging out," Uraraka said with far too much glee. He shot a glare at her over his shoulder, but she only grinned back at him. It was maddening. He let go of her before he unlocked the door and stepped inside without announcing his arrival. She followed behind him quietly. He could feel the sudden shift in her mood. She was nervous. As she should be if his mom saw them.

As Bakugou hurried for the stairs, Uraraka quick on his heels in an attempt to not get left behind and at the mercy of his parents, he heard his mother shout from the living room, "Don't you dare show up and leave thinking you can get away without saying hello, Katsuki! This isn't a fucking hotel!"

"I fucking know!" Bakugou yelled back. If it was a hotel, he wouldn't have to deal with this bullshit.

They ducked into his bedroom. Unlike the way she had hesitated coming into his dorm room at U.A., Uraraka rushed inside after him and he slammed the door shut the second she was away from the door. Her eyes were wide and her mouth was open slightly in shock, but she didn't say anything. Judging from what he'd overheard of her phone conversation, she probably had some warm and fuzzy relationship with her mom. How peachy. It only grated his nerves a little. He didn't want that with his mom. She could be nice, he guessed, but…

He could now admit that he wouldn't have learned to push himself so hard to be the best if not for her.

Uraraka glanced back at the door and then him as he flipped on the lightswitch. "Are you two…?"

"Are we what?" Bakugou demanded, rounding on her.

She held her hands up in a sign of surrender. "Forget I said anything." He harrumphed and then turned his back on her so that he could root through his video games, which were organized on a shelf on his tv stand, which was now empty since he'd taken it with him to his dorm. As he did that though, he was almost positive that he heard her mumble, "Now I know where he gets it," but when he glanced back at her, she was innocently looking around his bedroom.

It put him more on edge than he liked to admit. Not that his bedroom was embarrassing or anything. He had a few old hero and band posters that he'd left behind, trophies and medals from sports and other competitions in his youth, old sports equipment and a worn down skateboard, books that he'd read a dozen times and didn't need to bring with him. All in all, it was a normal, fairly boring bedroom, like hers at the dorms, except he didn't have any pictures hanging up. There hadn't been a point. His mom took enough photos to make anyone sick.

Muffled laughter turning into snorts distracted Bakugou and he looked back at her. "What are you laughing at?"

Uraraka pointed at one of the medals. "The debate team? Really?"

"Ugh, I only did it for one year, okay? My mom made me." Bakugou had not enjoyed that at all - it had been him and a bunch of damn nerds, including Deku - but he'd be damned if he didn't win. It had been one of the first times after their quirks came about that he and Deku had been forced to work together on a team. Luckily it hadn't been just them or likely it would've ended much worse.

"How did you end your debates? With explosions, threats, and a lot of yelling?" Uraraka teased.

"No." At least not in the end when they'd managed to win. "With intelligent arguments that appealed to both logical and emotional aspects."

That only made Uraraka snort again. "Okay." She sounded like she was mocking him in disbelief and he narrowed his eyes, but she held up her hands once more and wiped her face mostly clean. She had to bit her lip to keep from smiling. Gods, she drove him crazy sometimes. How would she like it if he went through her childhood bedroom and questioned her on all the stupid shit her parents made her do? She'd probably been their perfect, little angel.

Well, she'd certainly grown devilish over the years.

"Right, I'm done." Bakugou zipped up his backpack and slung it over his shoulders as he stood up. "Let's get out of here before that damn woman gets nosy."

However, when Bakugou opened the door, everything came crashing down and he found himself wishing that Uraraka would tag him and float him to space with her quirk. Behind his door, standing in the hallway with her hands confidently on her hips, a victorious smirk stretched across her face, and red eyes flashing, was his mother, Mitsuki. "I thought I heard another voice," she greeted far too smugly. "Oh, Katsuki, you didn't say anything about bringing over company."

"She's not company because we're not staying," Bakugou growled as he brushed past her. "We've gotta get back to the dorms. C'mon, Uraraka."

But a smooth escape was not in their future. Uraraka couldn't just slip past his mom without coming off as rude and he knew that she wouldn't do that. She was too fucking nice and, he knew, she wouldn't want to leave a bad impression on his parents. What did it matter to her? Gods, was he going to have to be doubly cross and short to make up for her natural warmth?

"Uraraka…" His mom's eyes brightened. "You're the girl that almost dropped a meteor shower on Katsuki in the first Sports Festival. I didn't recognize you with that teal hair." She clapped her hands together. "I thought you were going to crush that little shit for a second there back then."

She almost had earlier this week, but with a hailstorm this time. Bakugou was not about to tell his mom that. She'd be far too delighted.

Laughing nervously, Uraraka rubbed the back of her neck. "Better luck next time, right?"

"You two want to stay for dinner?" his mom asked, although she was zeroed in on Uraraka. She had been the same way the first time with Kirishima, who had handled her about as well as Uraraka now.

"Already ate," Bakugou replied gruffly, his grip tightening on his backpack strap.

Uraraka pointed in the vague direction of the restaurant and added, "At the ramen place down the street."

"Is that so?" his mom quierried in an innocent tone that Bakugou knew not to trust. Her eyes flickered to his, far too knowing, and he scowled back at her. "It's his favorite place. He would've gone there twice a week growing up if we'd let him." She fixed a hard look on Bakugou. "You paid for it, didn't you? I won't have you being rude to a bright and cute girl like this!"

Bakugou opened his mouth to snarl something back at her, but then Uraraka surprisingly cut in, "Actually I paid for the meal! It was a...thank you of sorts." His mom whipped her head back to stare at Uraraka, who didn't back down. Even Kirishima had the first time his mom had intensely focused on him to ensure that he wasn't lying about something Bakugou had done. All Bakugou could do was try not to gawk. "Bakugou has really been helping me with school lately. It's thanks to him that I did so well in the team battles in our hero course this week! I wanted to repay him for taking the time to help me improve and believing in me."

If Bakugou felt like all the words had been robbed of him, his mother looked like it. Her mouth was open and she blinked a few times, like she wasn't sure if Uraraka was real or not. Finally, she closed her mouth and her shoulders relaxed. She looked...at ease. Bakugou didn't trust it. He didn't see his mom look like this often, maybe only around his dad. No one else had that calming effect on her, as far as he could remember.

"Well, I'm…" A smile came on her face. It was different than normal. In a way, it made him think of his childhood. It was softer. "I'm glad to hear it." She swelled up again, regaining her strength, and wagged a playful yet forceful finger at Uraraka. "But you let that boy pay for you next time. He should treat you to a nice place."

"You bet!" Uraraka replied with another laugh.

His mom folded her arms across her chest. "Alright, go on, you two. Enjoy the rest of your night."

"Thank you," Uraraka said, giving a slight bow, and then she started towards him. She touched his shoulder briefly, forcing his eyes to snap to hers, and then started down the stairs. He didn't know what that look or touch meant, but it made his stomach clench.

He heard the front door open and shut, telling him that she was outside, and then looked back up at his mother, who was watching him very carefully. "What?" It wasn't nearly as harsh as he'd planned on it being. He came off sounding more petulant than anything, which irritated him.

"How the hell did you win her over, Katsuki?" his mom asked him.

Bakugou snorted. "I didn't win her over. I kicked her ass."

And then she kicked mine.

"Alright, keep lying to me, you little shit," his mom said, "but don't go scaring her off. I like her. She's clearly capable of putting up with your ego."

"She's not that easily scared," Bakugou replied without thinking. His mom's smile widened and he narrowed his eyes. She thought she was so clever.

Without saying goodbye, he turned on his heels and stomped down the stairs. After ripping the door open and stepping outside, he slammed it shut hard enough to rattle the frame. Uraraka was standing on the sidewalk, a beacon of light under a streetlamp as she stared up at the dark sky. She turned to smile at him as he walked up to her, but then her smile faltered when he kept walking without acknowledging her. Instead of questioning though, she stayed as silent as him and hurried to keep at his side instead of walking behind him.

All he could think about was what she had told his mom. True, it had quickly gotten them out of an uncomfortable situation. If he'd admitted to paying for her meal, his mom would've made all sorts of assumptions and began to ask questions that he didn't feel were warranted. (They were questions, truth be told, that he didn't want to admit were there to begin with.) He hadn't known what to say, but then Uraraka had stepped in with that lie that still managed to feel true somehow.

It made him angry. Even worse, it made him feel...ashamed. It was a feeling that he wasn't typically acquainted with, so he didn't know how to handle it without exploding. He hadn't done those things for her. The lie had been nice and it had made him look good, but he wasn't like that. That was the kind of thing that someone said about Deku, not him, and it frustrated him to no end. Why did she have to say them?

Halfway back to the dorms, Uraraka finally piped up, unable to take the silence any longer. "Bakugou, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," Bakugou replied flatly. He could be calm. He didn't have to explode all the time, no matter how much he felt like doing it on the inside.

"Seriously, what's-?"

Bakugou turned on her so fast that she almost slammed right into his chest and snapped, "I said fucking nothing, okay, so drop it!"

She took a step back, eyes wide at his sudden change in mood, but then her eyes hardened and her whole body tensed as she stood up straight, like a statue. "There's no need to get shitty with me. I offered to stay outside. It was just your mom. Tell her whatever you want about me. I don't care."

"It's not-" Bakugou clenched his fists at his side and breathed out through his nose like some sort of dragon. He had to calm the fuck down. "What you said to my mom - you didn't have to say them."

She furrowed her brow in confusion as she stared up at him. It made her look… Fuck, it made her look cute. "I could tell that you were uncomfortable, so I figured I'd take the fall." When he didn't seem to get it, she rolled her eyes. "Look, I get it, okay? If the situations had been switched and it had been my mom, she would've totally embarrassed the hell out of me, giggling and making insinuations and asking all sorts of nosy questions. I know you don't like that though. You're a private person."

The fact that she understood his need for privacy and didn't question it was somewhat astounding. Kirishima was pretty good about it most of the time, really respectable and easy to open up to, but even he got nosy and liked to pry and didn't always realize when he wanted things to stay between them. Kaminari and Ashido were awful about it. They didn't seem to understand what the word "private" meant, although they could keep secrets within their group. Sero might have been the best out of all of them, if only because he wasn't the prying type and was more amiable. Now that he thought about it, he should work with Sero more often.

With Uraraka though, he didn't have to ask her to keep things between them for her to do it. Here they were, months into their own little world with one another, and no one had a clue. They'd been playing Mario Kart together without anyone knowing, making bets that changed their lives, sometimes for the better and sometimes in really annoying ways.

He was still disgruntled over having to buy Todoroki's lunch and watching that dumb chick flick, but then he thought of Uraraka's triumphant grin during the match up, helping her dye her hair, the dumb little dances she did whenever she won a race, the way she floated him and made him feel so far removed from all his fears and insecurities for the first time in years…

And it was theirs and only theirs. Hell, even if Kaminari and Jirou had been spying on them tonight, there was no way that they knew the true story. No way they knew the whole thing or could understand. Bakugou was a part of it and didn't even know if he did.

Instead of saying any of that, Bakugou went on a completely different track, the kind that he knew would throw her off and he did it on purpose. "I don't know how you got her to fall for that. You must be a better liar than I knew, Round Face."

A look of utter disbelief crossed her face. "I wasn't lying." He raised an eyebrow. "Well, I mean, I lied about the who paid part, but that was it. I meant what I said."

Bakugou scoffed. "I don't need your flattery-"

"It was the truth!"

"-or you saying shit like that makes me sound like Deku-"

"Oh, please, would you stop it?" Uraraka demanded. And he did. He snapped his mouth shut so quick that his teeth clinked together. "I meant it. Every word. You've done...you've done a lot for me recently. I don't know if I would have - if I could have - pushed myself as hard as I did in the team match-ups if it wasn't for you."

Bakugou shook his head. "Sure you would have."

"I would've worked my ass off, but not to the level I did," Uraraka told him, "not the Plus Ultra way." It sounded so cheesy, but he didn't interrupt her or tell her off. "And it's not just that either. Playing Mario Kart might've just been a dumb way to blow off steam for you, but you forcing me to deal with my motion sickness while playing it has actually helped me strengthen my nausea control with my quirk. I can hold more and hold myself for longer."

"You would've gotten there eventually," Bakugou pointed out.

"Yeah, but I got there with you," Uraraka said. She took a deep breath. "But you know what's even better? I've had fun. I've a had a lot of fun. Not just playing video games, although that's kind of my favorite sometimes. The bets have been fun too." She smiled. "Even when you make me do dumb stuff like dye my hair and wear your clothes and eat food that makes me feel like my tongue is melting."

There was a voice shouting at him in the back of his head that was telling him there was something he was should do right now, but he didn't know what that could be. Not when all he could manage to do right now was stare back at her intensely, which she matched in return. It wasn't the kind of challenging look that he got from Deku or sometimes Todoroki or Iida. It was something else, but it felt just as important.

"The main thing is… I could've done all the things that I did, sure, but it's better with you." Uraraka shrugged her shoulders, not in a careless or helpless manner, but accepting. "You're always striving to be the best and you never hold back. You never back down. You push and push and then push some more. And you made me realize that I could do that too. The fact that you were willing to sit down and repeatedly play Mario Kart while I puked my guts out - that you not only wanted to beat me at that team match up but went out of your way to take me down - means a lot to me. Because you only do things like with people that you consider to be worthy of your time and the only people worthy are people you consider strong. I don't get viewed like that often and it felt great."

Bakugou stared at her, every word snatched from his mind and mouth. This hadn't been in his plans for the night at all. He'd figured that they'd be back at the dorms by now, gone on their separate ways. She'd be with Deku, Iida, Tsuyu, laughing it up and pretending as if they'd never gone to dinner together. He'd be with Kirishima, Sero, and Mina and doing their own thing like he hadn't bought her dinner. They would return to their separate lives that wasn't entangled with each other, except at some point, it had happened. Maybe it had started with the bets, but now that they were here, he realized that they hadn't been separate for a long time.

It was kind of freaking him out.

Which is probably why all he said was, "You're fucking weird."

Luckily, Uraraka laughed, even if she was blushing. "Don't I know it. I can't believe I just word-vomited all over you. Bet you think I'm crazy now." Hm, yeah, that wasn't the word he was thinking of right now.

When she started walking again and took a right turn instead of going straight though, Bakugou had to stop and question if she'd lost her mind. "Uh, the school is that way."

"Yeah, but you've got your excuse," Uraraka said. She pointed to his backpack and then pointed out the small convenience store, which glowed white. "I need mine. Gotta buy some tampons."

Bakugou groaned. "For fuck's sake, Uraraka."

She smiled at him. "You can stand outside if you're too embarrassed."

"You met my mom tonight," Bakugou said as he walked with her into the store. "Nothing beats that."

Except, you know, the crushing realization that the floor had been pulled out from underneath him and he hadn't even realized it. No, no, no, this was just supposed to be a fun game. They were supposed to just play Mario Kart and make bets that humiliated each other and that was that. Where had he gone off course? It was like he was on the last level, on the Rainbow fucking Road, and Uraraka had hit him with a blue shell and he was spiraling on a banana peel. There was no recovering from without falling off the track.