"Uraraka, are you okay?"

She opened her eyes to see Deku's face inches away from her own and shrieked. He yelped and jumped back.

"Ah! I'm sorry for scaring you!" he held his hands up nervously. "You just fell asleep on the couch, and I was worried!"

She blinked and sat up. It was so early in the morning. She yawned.

No one else was in the room except her and Deku, but there was a blanket over her.

"It's okay Deku," she smiled at him as best she could. "I must've fallen asleep while you for the blanket."

He shook his head. "It wasn't me."

She frowned. "Oh. Okay. Well, I'd better get ready for today." She smiled brightly at him, which just made him look more worried. She sighed.

"I'm here, if you ever want to talk," Deku said quietly, looking at her intensely.

She smiled again and this time it was a real one, though small. "Thank you Deku."

When she got back to her room, she folded up the blanket carefully. She still needed to figure out who it belonged to and return it, but she'd wash it first.

Ochaco looked in the mirror. The black bags under her eyes were a little smaller.

Quit pretending to be strong when you already are. It's dumb.

She put her box of makeup away, unopened.

She sat with Bakugo at breakfast again, with more math homework. He'd mostly made fun of her needing extra study time, but once or twice helped her when she got really stuck on a problem.

"Say, Bakugo," she grinned at him after one of the times he'd helped her. "You really are a nice person, aren't you."

He glowered. "Shut up, round-face." He flicked his spoon at her, which she caught and floated in between them. He grabbed it and spun it in his fingers with a sour expression.

"Make me float," he demanded suddenly.

She looked up in surprise. "What, now?"

"Tch, no. Later. After classes today."

She stared at him for a second. "Then you have to teach me how to fight better in close combat. I'm not giving you better chances to beat me in a fight if you don't do the same."

He scowled. "Fine."

Bakugo slowly floated downwards, and his face heated up as he heard Uraraka giggle.

"OI!" he shouted. "They'll see me." She just giggled again, as he floated closer and closer to the common area windows.

He growled, and blasted two tiny explosions from his hands toward the ground. They shot him upwards into the sky, spinning head over heels.

A few small explosions later, he was more or less stable in the air, but looked distinctly green. He slowly propelled himself down to the rooftop, where she was working through drills he'd taught her.

His hands were smoking and he glared at her. "Down," he said. She grinned and touched her fingers together, and he fell to the roof where they were training. He sat down hard and took a drink of water unsteadily.

When the damned nausea had disappeared, he stood up and faced her. "Ready to get beat again?"

Uraraka settled into a fighting stance. "Are you?"

They'd learned that if she made herself weightless right at the moment someone hit her, she'd go flying backward taking almost no damage. She could bounce off of something and propel herself forwards incredibly fast, and if she attacked at the same moment as cancelling her quirk it made her exponentially stronger and faster. She wasn't perfect at it, but getting better.

She still had more bruises at the end of the night than he did, but his nose was bleeding and he was favoring his left knee from a particularly powerful kick she'd managed with her quirk, and his jaw hurt.

He knew the bat-shit-insane smirk was on his face and for the whole night they trained and fought, she wore the same one, even after every single hit he gave. Sometimes she even laughed. It was fucking incredible. No one else in class liked fighting as much as him. Deku and Kirishima and the shadow bird thing came close, but they never just fought to fight. She did.

Fucking idiots who thought she was weak were fucking blind as shit.

Eventually, the sun set completely and the stars were all out. Uraraka sat down to take a drink of water and eat another of his energy bars (he really needed to get more of those) and laid back to look up at the stars. She started floating, too.

"Thank you, Bakugo," she whispered.

"For what, pink-cheeks?" he scoffed. She smiled at him gently. His face heated up.

"Everything."

Well he had no fucking reply to that, so he just stood there, feeling like an idiot.

"I want food, I'm going back."

"Okay, I'll follow you in a bit." Uraraka didn't look at him as he walked away and it was probably for the best. He still felt like an idiot the whole way back to the common area.

"Kaachan, wait." Damn. It was Deku, and everyone else in their class was staring at them.

"What do you want."

"Do you know where Uraraka is?"

"I'm not her keeper, and neither are you. She can take care of herself, Deku." He shoved past him.

"That was your blanket, wasn't it?"

Bakugo stopped, and glared at him. "It's none of your buisness," he snarled. "If she wants to talk to you, that's her own business, not mine."

He made a simple meal, enough for Uraraka too if she wanted it when she came back. Not that he cared, but if she was going to keep up with him, she needed to eat more than energy bars for dinner.

Kirishima wandered over as he was finishing up the food. "What's up with you and Uraraka?" Bakugo scowled at him.

"She's strong." He rubbed his jaw, then remembered there was probably still blood on his face and wet a paper towel to clean it off. "And you all treat her like she's about to break in half. It's stupid."

And that was that.

It was almost an hour before Ochaco came into the common area. Most everyone else had gone to bed except for Bakugo, who was sitting on a couch watching a movie, and Tsu, who was reading a book.

"Hey guys," Ochaco smiled.

"There's food on the table. Eat it or you're going to pass out tomorrow," Bakugo growled, not moving from the couch.

Ochaco sat down in front of it. "Thank you," she smiled brightly at him.

"Just eat it, pink cheeks."

Tsu closed her book and hopped onto the table to sit beside Ochaco's dinner.

"Everyone's worried about you," she said. Ochaco sighed, and shoveled a giant bite of food into her mouth, then blinked. It tasted amazing.

"I know," she said when she'd swallowed. "But," she sighed again, then looked at her friend. "I'll be fine in a few days. It's okay, I promise."

"Can I help?" Tsu asked, putting a finger to her mouth and tilting her head. "Or do you want to be left alone?"

Ochaco thought about it for a minute. "I don't think you could make Deku stop worrying, so I don't know. Otherwise, just, try and treat me like normal? Even if I don't seem normal, I don't like being alone. It's just better than people tiptoeing around me."

Tsu looked at Bakugo, who had shifted so that he was looking at Ochaco intently.

She nodded to herself. "We're having a sleepover until you're better. I saw you sleeping on the couch this morning, so we'll just sleep here until you want to go back to your room."

Ochaco's eyes widened. "Oh, were you the one who left a blanket on me? I wanted to thank whoever it was, it's in my room right now."

Tsu shook her head and pointed at Bakugo, who turned red and quickly looked away. Ochaco stared at him.

"Just give it back next week," he muttered. Ochaco felt her face heat up too.

"O-okay. Thank you Bakugo."

"Are you going to get worse before you get better?" Tsu asked Ochaco, who shifted uncomfortably. Tsu was always direct.

"Probably," Ochaco admitted finally. "Tomorrow is going to be... hard."

"You should take tomorrow off," Tsu said.

Ochaco shook her head. "I need to get better at this. I'll be alright."

Tsu watched her for a moment. "Okay."

Ochaco sighed again. She cleaned up the empty plate and went to her room to get ready for bed. Tsu followed her like a shadow, and she was grateful.

Ochaco grabbed Bakugo's blanket and blushed. It did still smell nice, like him. A little like smoke and pine needles.

She went back to the common area, where Bakugo was still watching the movie. She sat on the couch by him, and Tsu was on the other side of her. Ochaco curled up in the soft blanket and watched the movie until she fell asleep.

Bakugo was getting more and more tense as the credits rolled. Uraraka was snoring on his shoulder, and he didn't know what to do. Her fruity shampoo was all he could smell. Tsu looked like she was trying to hide laughter, which only pissed him off more.

"Tell anyone and I'll murder you," he whispered fiercely.

"It's okay Bakugo," Tsu giggled back, just as quietly. "I won't tell anyone you have a heart."

He tried to think up a way to move Ochaco so that he could lay her down on the sofa and go to bed without waking her up, but if he was being honest with himself, he didn't want to. His knee had finally stopped throbbing and getting up would only make it worse.

Bakugo forced himself to relax and close his eyes as he turned off the tv. He heard Tsu curl up in the chair with another blanket nearby. Most of the common area lights were off, but the kitchen ones were still on, so it was dark enough he could sleep.

For once, he didn't dream about the League of Villains.

Ochaco woke up once, when Bakugo had shifted to stretch out his legs over the couch. She'd done her best to pretend she was asleep, but when she caught a glimpse of the clock, she couldn't hold the tears back.

It was today already.

Bakugo's strong arms wrapped around her tightly, which only made her cry harder. She felt a little bad she was getting his shirt all wet, but he didn't even seem to notice. His hand moved up to hold her head and his fingers ran through her hair soothingly, over and over again as she sobbed.

Finally, Ochaco fell back asleep.

Kirishima was not prepared for what he saw in the common area the next morning. Deku looked less surprised, but still troubled.

Kirishima, however, had never been more thankful that he carried his cellphone everywhere, and immediately snapped at least five photos of what had to be the most adorable thing he'd ever seen in his entire life.

Bakugo lounged across the couch, sleeping with the most peaceful expression Kirishima had ever seen on his face. Uraraka was curled up on his lap, her head laying on his chest. His arms were wrapped protectively around her and Kirishima immediately recognized the blanket covering her as Bakugo's favorite. So that was what Deku was talking about yesterday.

Tsu was curled up in a chair near them, also sleeping and looking cute. Kirishima made sure she was in a few of the photos.

"Why do you look worried?" Kirishima whispered.

Deku shrugged helplessly. Kirishima looked at him thoughtfully. Everyone in the class had thought that Uraraka would've ended up with Deku.

"Kacchan can be so… mean. I don't want her to get hurt."

She's strong. And you all treat her like she's about to break in half. It's fucking stupid.

"She can take care of herself."

"I know that, but still," Deku bit his lip. "I can't help worrying.

Kirishima thought that was the reason it was Bakugo holding her, instead of Deku.

Bakugo woke up slowly, with a warm weight pressed against his chest. He looked down and inhaled to smell Ochaco's shampoo scent again. His face heated up until it felt like it was burning, but he refused to move.

It was today, but she was going to push through it. His arms tightened around her. He couldn't bring himself to wake her up to face the day, after how much she'd cried last night. She'd have to wake up on her own, even if that meant the rest of the class saw them. They could all just fuck off anyway.

Bakugo closed his eyes again and leaned back.

Ochaco didn't want to get up and leave the safety of Bakugo's arms. She buried her face deeper into his chest and felt his sharp intake of breath. He didn't move though, so maybe she'd imagined it?

Slowly, she sat up.

Bakugo's red eyes were open, watching her. For once there was no anger or defiance in them. They were peaceful. His face was a little pink, but she knew hers was too.

"Thank you," she said quietly. Bakugo flicked her gently in the forehead and smiled.

She pulled herself off his lap reluctantly and headed to her room to get ready.

Ochaco felt empty all day.

Grandpa was still gone, the same as yesterday, but this was the third year. She scrubbed her eyes and tried to focus on the book in front of her, but it swam in her vision.

Grandpa's smile.

Bakugo's smile.

She laid her head down on her desk and tried to force the tears back.

She steadfastly avoided Deku all day. Every time she saw his face her stomach dropped. Tsu was by her though, after every class, and sometimes she caught Bakugo's eye. He never looked worried, just patient, and waiting. It got her through most of the day.

She'd have to do something to make it up to him.

Breakfast and lunch were silent and she barely ate, but he didn't mention it. He shoved her another of his energy bars (that actually did taste really good) and ate her food instead. It made her feel better, that she wasn't wasting food.

All Might assigned them partners at the end of his class for the next round of PE classes, and to her surprise she was paired with Bakugo. He looked inordinately pleased with himself and smirked at her. She managed an unsteady smile back, and when his grew even bigger, she felt a tiny bit of happiness.

His smile that morning had been really… perfect.

Later, they'd both ended up on the roof again.

"Make me float again," he'd demanded. Ochaco complied, and made herself float too. She could use endurance practice.

She watched him try to control his position with little explosions for a while, but the tears came again. She couldn't stop them this time, and everything she'd held back all day seemed to flood out.

"Ochaco."

She stopped short and stared, hiccupping. Bakugo (could she call him Katsuki now?) had propelled himself to float in front of her, holding his arms out. She grabbed him tightly and cried once more into his chest as he held her.

They and Tsu slept in the common area again. Ochaco was too tired to do anything but curl up on Katsukis's chest and fall asleep. This time, everyone had seen them. She was sure he'd glared daggers at them but he wasn't yelling or pushing her off, so she closed her eyes and went to sleep.