She watched his back move forward with a hanging sense of curiosity. It was raining mildly, and the black v neck shirt he was wearing was clinging over his back comfortably, capturing the shape of his muscled body, which rather strangely, looked endearing to Uraraka's eyes.
He had a wide back. That was one thing Ochako noticed first when she had first brought her eyes up to find him once they had left the shopping district.
The second thing she had taken notice of was the way he walked. He had his sturdy, rough hands stuffed in the pockets of his baggy pants, and shuffled with a marching sense in his strides, his whole body moving systematically, as if emphasizing his well built body even more.
Yep. This was the power of UA. All the guys in the school were ripped.
The third thing she realised was that she had not lost sight of that wide back during her entire journey out of the crowd filled shopping district. She was sure that if it were someone like her, she would have quickly gotten lost once engulfed in a crowd of people. But she didn't. She never lost sight of Bakugou ahead of her.
Sure, there were times when she felt she had to pick up her pace to keep up with him, but there were other times when she could just be a few feet behind him, walking with tranquility, like she was doing now.
It had then occured to her, that it was him. Not once had he ever turned back to find Ochako, but she could sort of tell... He had slowed his own pace when he felt she couldn't find him. It was a mild deed, but the thought of Bakugou just doing something like this left a slightly sweet taste in Ochako's mouth.
And what had happened next was much more of a confirmation of Ochako's suspicions than anything else. Bakugou had stopped at the door of the UA dormitories, and had turned around to look at her, red eyes narrowed, obviously expecting her to be right behind him.
He kicked the door open with an irritable leg, and slouched into it with an audible grunt of annoyance. He stopped. And turned around.
"Oi." He snapped.
"Y-yes?"
"Get in here. It's raining."
"I-uh...know?"
"Congratulations." He moved away, clicking his tongue with visible impatience.
"Hey, you said it first, you know?" Ochako half laughed with exasperated humor. The boy scarcely looked back, let alone offered any reply. Uraraka moved in the common room with caution, eyes never leaving the boy in front of her.
Of course, her stomach had taken the best timing to voice its hunger as a loud rumble echoed across the empty room. She cringed, mentally slapping herself and her stupidity. Her face burned in embarrassment. The blonde boy chose to look back with a red eye, glaring at her without a word. He slouched out of the common room, to the direction of the kitchen. She guessed he was hungry too.
Ochako let out a held breath, and decided settle herself down on the sofa for the time being. Her hair was still wet, and she had taken the opportunity to lightly run her fingers through the messy mop in thought. She supposed she could try and cook something, once in a while. It was late, and she wasn't about to go out again in the pouring rain. She sighed, getting up and moving towards the kitchen to check what was in the refrigerator.
"Oomph!" She had bumped into someone's chest as she rubbed her forehead, looking up carefully. Bakugou. Again.
"Oh! Sorry." She muttered. Her forehead was slightly wet. Bakugou's shirt was still drenched with rain. Her eyes found a drop of water slip down one lock of hair, landing on his protruding collar bone.
"I'm cooking. Get out of here." Bakugou replied shortly, before pushing her away to a side, to lunge in for a kitchen knife from the knife stand.
"Oh! I was just thinking about cooking myself-"
"Fuck off. My kitchen."
She was about to retaliate that it wasn't his kitchen at all, but stopped herself as she watched him turn back to the table. He had begun to chop apart a carrot, the regular clop clop clop noise insanely fast. Ochako watched in awe as he rapidly whipped out other vegetables from the side, and began to chop them too. He threw in some noodles into the pot of boiling water, and began to flawlessly conjunct the ingredients into an aroma of unmistakable cuisine within a few minutes.
She only stood there, absorbing his absolutely outstanding culinary skills with shock and awe, with a touch of jealousy. Uraraka Ochako's culinary skills were laughable. A mess. She supposed it wasn't her thing. She enjoyed eating much more, after all.
"Move." She jumped, as the proximity of the smell of the ramen overwhelmed her starving stomach. She followed the boy like a mouse following a piece of cheese into the common room, where the boy stopped rather abruptly in front of the table.
He gestured with his head to the girl behind him.
'Sit.'
She sat without him saying a word.
Bakugou slammed one of the bowls on the table with force, and laid out a pair of chopsticks before her. He still held his own bowl in his hands, yet he did not move.
He stared down at her, crimson eyes piercing, expression contorted in ambiguous concentration, waiting. Waiting.
She took a deep breath. The smell was too attracting. She clapped her hands together, and picked up the chopsticks with determination.
And she took a long slurp.
She brought her eyes up to meet Bakugou's whose expression was hard to read. Her eyes were twinkling, a rosy blush having risen to her cheeks as she struggled to swallow the large mouthful properly in her choking excitement.
"So good!" She managed to cough. "It's so good! How? Wow!"
She had to admit this was probably the best bowl of ramen she had had for ages, and it was sheer mystery to remember that this was actually made by the explosive boy before her.
"Delicious." She managed to gasp after giving in to the urge of stuffing in another mouthful.
Bakugou expression changed. His eyes were crinkling, the corners of his mouth folding into a smirk. Satisfaction. Arrogant satisfaction.
He turned away to leave the room, with his steaming bowl of ramen still in his hands.
"A-aren't you eating?" Ochako called.
He half turned around.
"Why would I eat here? I'm going back to my room."
"But it's a long way away. You'll need to take the bowl back here too, after all." Uraraka tilted her head in curiosity.
"I don't want to eat with you." He replied shortly. "Your eating habits are disgusting."
"Huh?" She felt offended. But she also felt the urge to laugh. "How so?"
He scoffed.
"You sniff loudly, you spill the stuff when you eat, you splash around everywhere each time you take a mouthful, you slurp loudly, you can't seem to keep the table clean, and you can't seem to stop playing with your hair each time you lay your chopsticks down. Oh! and you talk when your mouth is full."
"No I don't." She laughed at his observations. He just ignored her, slouching back up the stairs.
"Bakugou!"
"What now?" His voice was gruff and murderous. He had directed his iconic poisonous glare towards her now.
"Thank you." Ochako stood up hastily. "Thank you so much for this. For the food, I mean. And for helping me out today. And for leading me out of that shopping district. And for waiting for me." She ended awkwardly.
The boy looked at her as if she were stupid.
"The fuck are you talking about? Help? Wait? What the fuck?" He glared at the wall beside him with frightening stiffness. "It was a fucking coincidence. Fucking stupid. Fucking bitch." He had turned round again, his face hidden by the shadow of the wall. "Don't get the wrong idea, round face."
He left the room without another word.
Ochako watched his back disappear up the stairs.
A smile had begun to paint the features of her face.
It had suddenly dawned upon her, that Bakugou Katsuki may very well be a tsundere.
Perhaps.
Definitely.
"So... It's just us today?" It was certainly queer. Kirishima had never been a person who would just miss class out of the blue. But he had not come today, and his group was quite distraught with his absence during All Might's lesson.
"Yeah..." Izuku looked at Bakugou with a questioning pair of eyes. "I think I saw him this morning, though, in the kitchen. Mina nodded earnestly.
"Do you know anything, Bakugou?" She asked casually. The boy glared at her.
"What does it matter?" He snapped. "He's sick, that's all."
"So you do know what happened." A vein popped at Bakugou's forehead as Mina looked at him expectantly.
"Yes. And?"
"We're just worried, you know?"
"Don't be. He's fine." He answered shortly, before sitting down on the floor with a knowing glare. There was a silence.
"So... What's up with Kirishima?" Mina began once more. Bakugou swore under his breath. He hated this bitch.
"I fucking said he caught a stupid fever, so he's sick! Are you fucking deaf?"
"But he was fine this morning..."
"He was fucking pushing himself again, so I sent him back to his room. Damn! Will you just focus on our fucking assignment now?"
'Aww...' Uraraka didn't really know why, but she sort of found his reaction cute. So he had a caring side, huh?
"Oi! Alien bitch. Get on with it."
Ashido refused to look at him, instead directing her speech to Midoriya behind her.
"Ok then... Since we're talking about teamwork here... Should we like, first improve our skills by taking account of what others have to advise us?"
"What?" Ochako didn't really get what she was saying.
"Like, you know... Partner up and somehow build up improvement within us by taking advice from your mate?" Ashido gestured wildly. The gears clicked in Ochako's blank mind.
"It makes sense, I guess..." It was Izuku and who had decided to speak now, his brows raised in thought. "Since Kirishima isn't here, we probably can't do much as a group without him..."
Bakugou grunted in reply.
"Right." Ochako said testily. "So..uh.."
"The groups." Bakugou spoke for her. She flinched, but was mentally relieved.
"I refuse to go with Bakugou." Ashido had uncharacteristically flipped Bakugou off lazily, and moved closer to Ochako. The boy retaliated with the bursting sound of his quirk from his palms, as Izuku gulped rather uneasily behind him.
"I refuse to go with Raccon eyes." Bakugou stated clearly. "And I refuse to go with Deku." He snapped, after a lot of thought. For a split second, his crimson eyes met Izuku's own with a begrudging admittance of understanding. "..yet." He murmured. Ashido didn't hear him, instead rolling her eyes at his comment.
"Well, I'm not going with Mr Grumpy Pants there.."
"I think you've established that already, ugly."
"Your personality is offputting."
"Your face is rotten."
"Are you stupid? Your entire being is rotten. Disgusting. King of assholes. Jerk."
It was clear to both Midoriya and Uraraka that the absence of Kirishima had greatly decreased their capabilities of communication and teamwork.
They would learn to appreciate his presence more in future.
"Uraraka!"
"Yes?" Ochako jumped a little as Mina leapt to her side, clutching her arm possessively.
"I'm partnering with you."
Uraraka could only laugh exasperatedly. Then she absorbed Deku's obvious change of expression pensively.
"Are you retarded? The whole point of this assignment is to fucking improve the teamwork! What's the point of going with someone you work well with? Fucking pointless!" Bakugou was ready to flip the table.
"I'm not gonna team up with a jerk, you know."
"Well, I'm not about to fucking team up with Deku!" he exploded. Then he stopped. He could only remember All Might's advice after their fight. "...yet."
"Then that's fucking pointless, right?" Ashido leered at him mockingly. Bakugou flipped the table over.
"Bitch you have a death wish, huh?"
Ashido refused to back down, and just laughed, albeit with a little distress.
"Well what do you want? Since the whole world and it's affairs seems to revolve around your personal problems..."
There was a pause.
"We're changing teams." He said shortly.
"We're 'changing teams'!" Ashido laughed mockingly. "Alright, Mr Jerk. Let's change teams. How about me and Midoriya, and you and Uraraka?"
Both Izuku and Ochako had frozen now, staring intently ahead. Bakugou had become stiff.
He had taken a few seconds to reply, his brow furrowed as if reconsidering his choices for a third time.
Ashido had begun to laugh again, pointing at him and mocking him rhetorically.
"Hypocrite! Jerk! Idiot! Are you an elementary school-"
"Fine."
Even Ashido had dropped her accusing finger now.
"Huh?"
Uraraka couldn't quite believe her ears.
"I said fine, raccon eyes. It suits me. At least I'm not doing useless stuff." He glared meaningfully at Ashido before continuing. "Plus it's only gonna happen till Kirishima gets back."
"..." Ashido seemed to be at a loss of words. Uraraka could only stare at Bakugou's reaction, her mouth agape.
"Round Face." She looked at Bakugou blankly. His eyes were murderous, as she stiffened instantly at the cold shiver that had run down her spine.
"We're moving."
"Sorry?"
"Get your shit together, Uraraka. We're gonna find a quieter place to do this crap."
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