It was after their new Jiu Jitsu lesson that Juvi pulled a sweaty Bakugou onto the grass outside the rec center. Other students of varying ages were walking by, leaving a calming white noise of chatter for background. It was perhaps the first warm spring day and they'd be starting their third year of middle school soon.
It was to happen soon. The sludge villain incident.
Problem was, enough had changed that Juvi didn't know whether it would still happen, and since she'd killed Jubilee her dreams were nothing but sleeping on top of light-lined-black-glass skyscrapers.
"On the day we talk about which high schools we want to go to and career we want in school, I need you to up your assholery on Izuku. Throw his notebook out the window, say he can't be a hero, tell him to take a swan dive off the roof-I'll make a list."
Bakugou gaped. Hard.
After opening and closing his mouth a few times, he scowled. "I don't even know where to start with that."
"You know how my quirk works, right?"
"Makes you good at math and makes you live as some extra while you're asleep."
She rolled her eyes. "You did all that grandstanding with that?"
"Grand-I fucking helped you!"
"Yes yes, well done Slytherin well done Slytherin, however-"
"What the hell is Slytherin?"
"Not important. Point your missing is that it's how my brain processes predicting the future."
A blank stare.
"Uh huh…" Yeah, there was a 'you're crazy' tone in that.
"Oh, come on, prophetic quirks aren't that weird."
"They're hella weird, and rare as shit."
"And heavy emphasis on 'prediction' part. It doesn't include me in any of the predictions, so it's, like, basically seeing a world without me-"
"Then that ain't prediction at all. Scratch all that, just get to the point as to why you're encouraging me to hurt your precious boyfriend-"
"He's not my-"
"-when you've fought to protect him like the baby he is?"
"I was getting to that," she said irritably. "I'm trying to recreate the events of the day to get Izuku's, uh, 'fate' going."
"Point of fate is that it's fate, you don't have to do anything."
"But this is really important. Like, world saving importance."
Bakugou untwisted the lid on his water bottle, something he had on hand whether he was exercising or not, while making sure she could see all his rude thoughts on his face.
"If it's that important, why aren't you talking to him? You tell him everything after all." There was something ugly and bitter in the way he said that.
"Because I need someone who is smart and not the main character to talk about this with-"
He spewed out the gulp of water he'd been taking and started to cough.
"-and you've been practically screaming 'be friends with me'-"
"Like hell!"
"And, like I said before, I'm trying to recreate the events of a very important day and you're basically co-star in it."
"Screw that, I'm the fucking main character!"
She sighed as heavily as she could and gave him the flatest look known to man.
"This is serious, Bakugou. I need your help."
Bakugou wiped his mouth on his sleeve, then shifted uncomfortably.
When he started taking to long to think while sipping more of his water, she thought it might be a good idea to throw him a bone.
"I could tell you about your future."
"Tch, I already know my damn future." But she'd seen the flicker of his eyebrows and he was specifically not looking at her. And he hadn't spoken loudly so that was as an obviously interested Bakugou if any.
"You're amazing. I saw it." She hesitated. "But at some point you get kidnapped by villains and All Might falls while rescuing you."
His head jerked in her direction, eyes wide.
"Shut up. That's a lie."
"No, for real. But I can tell you how to avoid that if we can get things flowing along the main storyline."
"This ain't no story, peaches, there is no storyline."
"Not one I can see, since I kind of broke my quirk," she fidgeted. "But I have to do something. I mean it when I say the world's at stake. There's this villain named All for One that can steal quirks and he raises and brainwashes this kid with a decay quirk that turns a whole city-and all the people who are in it-to dust."
She didn't know if it was the look on her face or her words, but Bakugou was looking at her seriously now, mouth pressed in a thin line and gaze holding hers.
"And you and Izuku nearly die-multiple times-and permanently damaged trying to fight back against it. You lose people. People we won't have to lose if you just help me with this."
He put his water bottle down in the triangle of his folded legs. He seemed to be searching her face for something, but when he was like this he wasn't easy to read like he usually was.
"Give me some evidence."
She blinked. "Huh?"
"That it's real. Even if it will take me a bit to see it."
"Oh!" She didn't have to think long, though. It was something she frequently thought about when meeting a character of My Hero Academia . "There's going to be a boy you will meet in UA named Kirishima Eijiro. He has a hardening quirk, his hair is originally black but he dies it red to be like Red Riot, and he will insist on being your friend. He'll become your best friend, actually. In fact, I can name basically all the people that will be in your class."
"You don't think that'll change just because you exist?"
She snorted. "I'm not trying out for the hero course. And like hell I'd make it past the exam with my quirk." She paused, then smirk. "I can tell you what the practical exam is."
He scowled. "No way, I'm beating that fair and square-wait, don't you dare tell Deku."
"Tell Deku what? He's quirkless, why should you worry about what he knows?"
Bakugou's scowl intensified. "Don't patronize me, how can someone quirkless be main character? He gets a quirk, doesn't he?"
She didn't know why Bakugou's intelligence kept blindsiding her when she already knew about it, but she couldn't help but flinch.
At first, she thought he'd be upset to hear his rival-in-denial got a quirk and didn't stay in his place as a loser, but instead he flashed his toothy, wide victory smile.
Then it went away back to his usual scowl, as though it were never there.
"Not that I believe you," he said. "...But it's not like it'd hurt me none to show the useless loser his place for a day."
She groaned and leaned her hand on her forehead. "Bakugou…"
"What?"
"You're such a jackass. You know that's a big reason why the villain's kidnap you, right?"
"EH?! Like hell!"
"Yes hell. Look, the way you treat other people, your temper, and your superiority complex give you the personality of a villain. They'll see that and think 'that guy should be easy to turn villain, he obviously hates everything-'"
"I'D NEVER BE A VILLAIN!"
"Any one who actually knows you knows that, but they don't. And to most people, it won't be."
For a second, he looked actually hurt. And since Bakugou never let himself look weak, it surprised her, and for that same brief second she felt a rush of guilt and a need to comfort.
But then it was buried beneath his scowl and he was getting to his feet.
"You don't know anything about me," he growled.
"I know more than you'd like," she said.
"Shut up, you don't talk to me, you don't-you don't know me!" He started stomping off, shoulders just higher than his usual slack swagger.
She scrambled up to follow him. "It's my quirk, Bakugou, and I've only ever watched you from the outside, I'll admit that. But…" she hesitated as she caught up to him, then decided to bite the bullet and trotted up to his side and lowered her voice. "I've seen your suffering in the future. I've seen you change. You still become…a breathtaking hero. But there's no reason you can't start that change now, and it might save you a lot of suffering."
He didn't say anything, hands stuffed into his athletic pants and jaw set.
"I know you don't have any reason to believe me-" she started.
"Hell right I don't."
"But you don't have to believe me now. I just need your help for that one day, and if you feel like helping me with the rest-or even just letting me talk to you about it, that's okay too."
"Who says I even want to be around you?"
She gave him another droll look, which he only glanced at before huffing.
"Whatever. Just give me the list of what I got to do. What day is it?"
"I don't know the exact date, but I know it's when we talk about our career goals near the beginning of our last year of middle school."
"So it's happening soon?" He glanced up at some cherry blossoms they passed on the way home. Thankfully, they all lived fairly close to one another.
"Yeah."
"What's going to happen exactly to Izuku if I do this?"
She hesitated. "I can't tell you until afterwards."
"And why not?"
"Future crap, you'll get it afterwards, can you speak one sentence without making it sound like you're stabbing me?"
He smirked. "Because every part of me is deadly, peaches."
"Okay, why the peaches?"
He started. "I can call you whatever I want!"
"Most would disagree with that."
"Tch, it's the first thing that came to mind." But when he looked forward to glare at the sidewalk, she thought she could see a bit of pink edging his ears.
She smiled. Teenagers. "Well, it's not 'bitch' so I'll okay it."
Juvi offered to buy them an after workout snack, but Bakugou shut her down hard, all while slipping out his wallet to buy two chicken yakitori, one of which he handed to her. She desperately wanted to tease him, but since she actually did need his help and didn't want to deal with the explosion afterwards, she just made sure to meet his eye and smiled gratefully.
He quickly looked away, even as he stuffed his own chicken in his mouth. His ear tips had gone red again.
Maybe Izuku really did see something in Bakugou.
"You know, Izuku's never looked down on you."
"You keep saying that out of nowhere, what is wrong with you?"
"Prophetic quirk," she tapped her head. "Remember? I still don't get why you ever thought that-"
"Because I fucking don't! Like the nerd even has a box to look down at me from. I'm awesome, he ain't!"
"But you don't see that, don't you? That's just what you tell yourself."
"Fuck, can we not play therapist? I bought you chicken, use it to shut your mouth up."
"It's all 'bout avoiding the pain train," she sang before doing just that. Chicken yakitori was the best.
He walked her home without asking and waited at her apartment door for her to give him his list of what to do. She had written it the night before and included everything that she could remember of the class day, what was said, and what happened. He raised an eyebrow at the extra details, but didn't comment on it.
"Do I get anything in return for this?" he asked.
She fluttered her eyelashes at him. "Rescuing a damsel in distress?" When he scoffed, she added. "I'm pretty good at western cooking. I could make you a lunch or dessert or something, but you cook really well anyway so-"
He twitched. "I never told you that."
"My quirk, Kacchan, I said I knew you."
"Like shit, what's my favorite color?"
"If I had to guess, orange? You design your hero costume with this big orange cross on it, though it could be black, since your costume is mostly black."
He twitched again, staring, mouth dropping, just to shut it quickly with a scowl.
"Your quirk is hella creepy. Why didn't you just tell me all that to prove it?"
She cocked her head. "Huh? What does your favorite color and costume have to do with anything?"
"I haven't shown my costume designs to anyone. " He paused. "Wait, why didn't you know that?"
"Because I only WATCH you, dude, not read your thoughts, and like you said you didn't show it to anyone. I just saw you in it."
"Creepy." But he folded the list carefully and was just a little more gentle than she expected stuffing it in his pocket. "I'll take the lunch."
"Spicy?" before he could say anything further.
He scoffed. "Deku could have told you that."
"But he didn't," she chirped. "Because we don't waste our time talking about your food tastes, snowflake."
He stiffened. "SNOWFLAKE? What the hell does that mean?"
"Look up American terms for someone overly sensitive and easily offended."
"Like hell! You just admitted to insulting me!"
"Yeah, I did, now can you go away already? You're making my dad stare with how long we've been hanging in the doorway."
"It's not my fault you love talking to me," he said, with just an edge of his usual arrogance, before giving a lazy wave and swaggering off. His shoulders had finally lowered to their usual position and his hands weren't fisted in his pockets anymore.
She smiled after him, then closed the door, hoping she could get rid of her own nerves now.