After weeks of tough training to get better at fighting without quirks, it's finally time to start adding their abilities to their regimen. Unfortunately for these heroes in the making, superpowered quirks aren't the only quirks these teens need to learn about each other.
Bakugou and Ochako had been training together for three weeks now. She was pleased to say that both she and Bakugou had improved. Ochako's reflexes were almost on par with his and they were now sparring for real with the main goal to block or dodge all of Bakugou's moves. He wasn't holding back anymore, sometimes even getting frustrated when he couldn't hit Ochako. Bakugou also had the beginnings of being a good teammate. They had started training with Kirishima and Ashido a couple times a week after class to work on their combo attacks, still not using quirks during any of their training. Bakugou was having trouble adjusting his fighting style to incorporate Ochako but they were still managing to pull off some great moves.
One morning, Ochako was surprised to find Bakugou waiting for her outside her dorm room with a protein bar and a premade smoothie.
"What's the occasion?" Ochako asked him, taking the food gratefully.
"We're not going to the dojo today and I don't want to wait any longer for you to get breakfast. Don't get used to it." Bakugou pushed off the wall he was leaning on and headed toward the elevator.
Ochako followed as she opened up her protein bar.
"Where are we going?" Ochako asked after a quick bite.
"You sure ask a lot of questions," Bakugou muttered, rubbing his eyes. It was a little before 5:00am and both of them were tired. They'd started training even earlier than they had originally (6:00am) because Bakugou was worried they wouldn't get where he felt they should be by mid-July at the rate they were going.
"I mean, do you like being dragged places with no knowledge of where you're going?" Ochako asked, stifling a yawn.
Bakugou didn't answer. Instead, he got off the elevator and marched straight toward his mystery destination.
Ochako lost her battle with her yawn and followed him, eventually seeing the outline of Ground Beta in the direction they were walking.
"You got permission to train here?" Ochako asked when they arrived.
Bakugou nodded and he put his gear down out of the way.
"Have you been practicing that partial weightlessness trick?" Bakugou asked as he began stretching. Ochako copied him.
"Not since we started training."
Bakugou sighed in annoyance.
"It's too slow to apply. You should be working on making it instantaneous like your normal zero gravity."
"Okay," Ochako breathed as she leaned over and stretched her lower back.
"That's your homework. Mine is figuring out how the trajectory differs with the different types of weightlessness when your quirk is applied to me and how the intensity of my explosions will affect that"
"So, rocket science in a sense," Ochako simplified. She closed her eyes while she stretched out her calves as if that would make up for the sleep. Bakugou chuckled.
"Yeah and I'm the rocket."
They finished their stretches and did some burpees to get their blood flowing.
"Alright, I have a question then," Ochako said as she finished her rep. Bakugou had already finished and was currently jumping up and down readying himself for training.
"Of course you do," Bakugou muttered, tilting his head side to side to stretch it out.
"What am I supposed to do when you're flying around?"
"You're sure as fuck not going to ride on my back again," Bakugou snapped, coming to a sudden halt. "That was a one time thing for a quick game. It won't work for a real fight."
"I know! The problem still stands. I can't change my trajectory when I use my quirk on myself unless I have something to push off of. I can't use you as a pushing off point either since it would send you in the opposite direction. We might be able to turn that into a move with practice but it's not practical to rely on for general movement."
Bakugou thought about what she said for a second.
"Get support to make you some rocket boots or something. We'll talk about it later. We're wasting time."
Ochako nodded. She had been considering asking for something like that from support anyway but didn't know if it would fit with her hero image. Ochako touched her pads to Bakugou and he lifted up off the ground.
"Work on your partial zero gravity. When I need to get down, I'll shout for you."
Ochako waved him off as he blasted into the sky. She didn't pay him much attention for the rest of the morning. In order to speed up her partial zero gravity application, she had to concentrate but it wasn't going well.
"Ergh!" Ochako kicked a rock and it flew into the sky. She'd forgotten she applied her quirk to that one. She couldn't release any of her applications yet or Bakugou would fall.
Ochako took a mental break, checking her phone as she sipped on her water. It was almost time for class.
"Bakugou, we've got to go!" Ochako shouted at him as he rocketed through the air at breakneck speeds. They still had to change for class and make it across campus.
"Hold on!" Bakugou shouted back.
Ochako huffed at his stubbornness and decided to change right there to save time. Midway through buttoning her shirt, she heard Bakugou yell her name.
"Uraraka!"
Ochako put her hands together as fast as she could.
"Release!"
Bakugou dropped down with a small explosion several feet away from her.
"That was wild," Bakugou said with a crazy grin.
"Glad you had fun but we're going to be late to class," Ochako said, slightly frantic as she finished buttoning up her shirt. Once she was done, Ochako noticed that Bakugou hadn't moved and his eyes were fixed on her.
"What? Is my skirt on backwards?" Ochako asked and checked her outfit. She only had her jacket left to put on but everything else looked fine.
"No," Bakugou grunted as he ran over to change into his uniform. Ochako turned around to give him privacy. "You don't have to wait for me. Get to class."
"It's okay, we'll run together." Ochako gave him a thumbs up, still not looking at him.
"Whatever," Bakugou said quietly. After a couple seconds, he gave the okay for her to turn around. "Now, let's move."
They ran all the way to class and barely made it on time. Iida stood up from his desk as they entered. They were the last ones in class.
"Cutting it close today! It's extremely disrespectful to be late to class!" Iida scolded.
"Shut up, we weren't late!" Bakugou yelled at him
"Yeah, we're here on time and ready to learn," Ochako added, smiling wide at Iida.
Iida exhaled sharply and sat back down.
"Change of class schedule today," Mr. Iida announced as he walked into the room. "We're heading to Ground Omega this morning, so get into your training clothes."
"But I just changed," Ochako groaned to herself.
The class changed into their gym clothes then headed toward Ground Omega, the forest training area.
"The goal of today's exercise is to evaluate your stealth skills," Mr. Iida explained to the class.
Hagakure jumped in excitement.
"Hold on, Hagakure. Specifically for you, you need to keep your clothes on." Mr. Iida shook his head, hating having to say that. "While your quirk is tailored toward stealth work, you rely too much on your opponents not being able to see you. Your sound and scent are still trackable and, frankly, you're not as careful as you should be even when you're completely invisible."
Hagakure shrunk into herself as the criticism hit her.
"You'll be entering the field every 2 minutes," Mr. Iida continued. "The goal is to get across the training area as fast as possible without getting detected. If you run into another classmate, both you and the other classmate will receive a deduction from your overall time. Hound Dog is also hunting and tracking inside Ground Omega. If he catches you, it's an automatic fail."
The class tensed up.
"Hound Dog finds everyone!" Mineta complained.
Mr. Iida looked at him with a smile.
"You're not everyone. You're supposed to be the next generation of heroes. Have confidence in your abilities and work hard! We're going in alphabetical order, so Aoyama you're up first."
Aoyama jumped in excitement and went through the entrance.
It wasn't even a full minute until Aoyama was being dragged back through the entrance by Hound Dog.
"This one walked out right in front of me! Not even a challenge!" Hound Dog dropped Aoyama and then ran back into the training area, howling.
"Sorry, Aoyama, that's an automatic fail. Make use of your extra time and get stronger," Mr. Iida said with disappointment.
"Oui, sir!" Aoyama immediately started doing sit ups.
"Ashido, you're next," Mr. Iida said. Ashido went into the training area hesitantly.
The class took Aoyama's quick loss seriously. Ochako stood next to Bakugou who bristled in frustration watching their classmates warily enter the training area. He thought stealth was stupid in general but now he couldn't use his quirk in this exercise or risk getting an auto-fail.
"Fuck this exercise," Bakugou grumbled.
"Psh, you're going to be in the top ten even without your quirk," Ochako told him, watching the screen watching Tsu swing from treetop to treetop. She'd had a close call in being caught but her camouflage had saved her.
Bakugou's name was called and he cracked his knuckles.
"I'll be number one," Bakugou assured her, his tone coated in malice.
As soon as Bakugou entered the field, he hid behind a bush and covered himself in dirt. He moved from bush to bush, using trees when he could for cover.
After a bit, it was finally Ochako's turn.
She entered the arena, looking left and right before copying Bakugou's strategy. She covered herself in dirt then used her quirk on herself to move silently through the trees. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Todoroki perched on a branch. His body looked tense and his eyes were locked on something to the left.
Ochako followed his eye line and saw Hound Dog sniffing the area out. Todoroki had also covered himself in dirt which seemed to be the popular strategy for the exercise. She was sure Bakugou would be angry about that since he'd been the first one to do it.
"There you are!" Hound Dog pulled a hunched over Satou from a bush and dragged him back to the entrance.
"Dammit!" Satou yelled.
"Language!" Hound Dog yelled back. Todoroki took advantage of Hound Dog's departure. He dropped to the ground and run as fast as he could to the exit. Ochako followed suit but stuck to the trees using the branches to propel herself forward faster and faster with each push.
"Release!" Ochako said as she dropped outside the exit. The majority of her classmates had already completed the training. Some were chatting while others, like Deku and Bakugou, used the time to get stronger.
Todoroki, who ended up finishing a couple seconds behind her, looked her up and down with muted surprise.
"I guess I need to get faster," he noted.
Ochako smiled at him.
"You did good out there," Ochako said as they walked toward Iida and Deku who were stretching as a duo.
"You saw me?" Todoroki asked, slightly disappointed.
"Yeah, sorry. Hopefully since we didn't run into each other they won't count it as a deduction."
Todoroki didn't seem hopeful.
After the last classmate, Yaomomo, finished the exercise, Mr. Iida and Hound Dog gathered the students up and announced the results.
Ochako grinned with pride at seeing her name in the sixth place slot.
Even with her limitations, Hagakure had come in first, then it was Midoriya, Iida, Tsu, Tokoyami. Bakugou had placed seventh.
"Hound Dog and I will talk to each student individually to discuss where we believe they can improve," Mr. Iida said. "Most of you did great today! For those that failed this training, I want an essay detailing professional stealth mechanics and their practical implementation in at least three different environments on my desk by next Wednesday to make up for it. I also expect you to train to get better after our conversation."
The people that failed, Aoyama, Satou, and Kaminari, all groaned.
Kaminari felt cheated. Sero had accidentally swung into him while he was perched in a tree, causing him to fall. Hound Dog had heard the crash and Sero had been quicker at getting away.
"Sorry, dude," Sero apologized. He patted Kaminari's shoulder in support.
"It's whatever, man," Kaminari sighed.
The teachers called Aoyama for his private discussion. Ochako waited for her turn duo stretching with Tsu.
"How's training with Bakugou going?" Tsu asked. When Ochako had told Tsu a couple weeks ago why Bakugou had sent the photo to Deku, she'd responded in a way that Ochako hadn't expected. Tsu had come to the conclusion that Bakugou truly respected Ochako and was now more on board with them being a team. She knew Tsu had been hesitant for Ochako's sake. Everyone seemed to see Bakugou a little differently than Ochako did. Sure, he had trouble with his temper and was very intense about everything all the time. Ochako also knew that he was giving everything he had to be the best hero. Most of his angry outbursts were directly correlated with that or his almost crippling ego and pride.
"Deku!" Bakugou screamed, heading straight for him after the teachers had left to talk to Aoyama.
Ochako added Deku to the list of causes for his outbursts.
"It's going fine," Ochako answered. "I feel like we're running out of time, though. We haven't even started using our quirks together as a team. It's only been combat training and individual quirk training."
Tsu sighed.
"Aoyama is tougher to deal with than I thought he would be too," Tsu vented. "I feel like I'm carrying the weight of the team." Tsu stuck out her tongue with a small smile. "Literally."
Ochako laughed.
"Aoyama will be a good distraction though! You'll be able to move in for the attack easily," Ochako thought aloud. Tsu nodded.
"That's the plan."
When Tsu was called, Ochako worked on her partial zero gravity.
Before Bakugou could get too worked up about something Deku had done or said, his name was called for individual evaluation. Ochako watched him grumble to himself about something then head over to the teachers. He caught her gaze for a second but Ochako looked away, focusing on her quirk application.
Since Ochako was toward the end of the alphabet, she had a decent practice session. She'd successfully applied partial zero gravity in eight seconds.
"Uraraka," Mr. Iida called.
Ochako hurried over to him for her evaluation.
"It was clever to use the dirt to cover your scent since you were using air travel. In fact, it was a good tactic to stay to the canopy. My note would be to make less noise and movement in general. When you pushed off the branches, they would shake. If there had been more villains patrolling, it's possible you would've gotten caught."
"Yes sir," Ochako bowed.
"Dismissed!" Hound Dog shouted.
Ochako bowed at him as well then ran back to school to change back into her uniform.
The rest of the day was rather boring until Bakugou and Ochako trained in the sparring dojo.
Bakugou fought more aggressively than normal which Ochako assumed was directly correlated with placing seventh. Ochako had trouble keeping up with him and decided to try to throw him off with an attack.
For the first time ever, it landed.
Ochako punched him in the side and the force of it was enough make him lose his balance. She took the opening and kicked his legs out from underneath him. He fell on his back and Ochako quickly climbed on top aiming her fist at his face.
"Got you," Ochako breathed out. Her heart raced as she pinned him underneath her. She had finally beat Bakugou.
Bakugou was stunned. He was stared at Ochako like he couldn't believe what was happening.
Eventually, Bakugou came back to reality and an angry snarl erupted from him.
"Get off me," Bakugou growled, pushing Ochako. Before he could throw her off him, Ochako used her quirk and pinned him down more securely. For someone that wanted Ochako off of him, he wasn't trying that hard.
"Let me savor this for a second longer," Ochako pleaded.
"One," Bakugou said with a scowl. Ochako laughed and released him. Bakugou stood up and brushed himself off. He went to get a drink of water then got back in his fighting stance.
"Bet you can't do it again," he goaded with a wicked smirk.
Ochako mimicked his expression and charged him.
They fought hard for their remaining time block. Ochako didn't manage to get him down again but she landed a couple more hits. It was a definitive win in her book.
Bakugou and Ochako were still breathing heavily from their intense sparring match as they walked to get dinner together. They'd started doing this the past week to talk about what they needed to work on without their classmates overhearing. They both hated the attention they got when they would sit together in the dorm common area.
"No wonder you like fighting so much," Ochako said as she sat down with her yakisoba. "Such an adrenaline rush."
"Only if it's a good fight," Bakugou amended her statement before taking a bite of some spicy ramen.
"Oh, so I'm good at fighting now? You admit it?" Ochako teased.
Bakugou raised his eyebrows at her.
"You've always been good. You needed to get better."
Ochako was surprised at the compliment until she thought about it for a second. Kirishima had implied that Bakugou had been impressed with her in the first Sports Festival. Ochako only barely lost the rematch this year. He was right. She'd been good but good isn't good enough when you're trying to be the best.
"So, recap," Ochako said, which was becoming their signature conversation starter to their post training dinners.
"Obviously, you're getting stronger and faster," Bakugou assessed. "We need to focus on getting your partial zero gravity as instantaneous as possible by the test."
Ochako nodded.
"We still need a way to fight together with our quirks," she added. "We're alright without quirks. That still needs work but we need to start developing our combined fighting style with quirks."
Bakugou nodded. They both ate a couple bites, thinking of solutions. Ochako went first.
"Next step: I need to talk to support. I like your idea of rocket boots but I think if I used air blasts instead it would be easier for me to control my movement without the potential of injuring myself. Plus, I don't think you want me to have my own explosions. That's kind of your territory."
Bakugou couldn't help but grin. She knew him better than he thought.
"You're right. The only explosions should be coming from me." Bakugou took another bite then realized he had another step for them. "Next step: We need to get you used to my explosions so you can avoid or utilize them in a fight."
Ochako perked up.
"Really?"
"Tch, don't get too excited. I can't be hindered by you in a fight and you can't get injured by them either," Bakugou said, imploring her to take this as seriously as he was, "-which will happen if you don't know how they work."
"Okay, sounds good."
In the coming days, Ochako talked to support and they decided that the best course of action would be to add small air cannons in her wrist cuffs and the bottom of her boots. The changes would be ready in a couple weeks, which would leave only about a week to practice with them before the test. On top of everything else, Ochako worked on her partial gravity. She was struggling to get it down to a more manageable time. By the end of the week, she had successfully applied it in six seconds but it wasn't consistent.
Bakugou took a couple training sessions to show her how his explosions moved through the air, how wind and temperature affected them, and what different intensities looked like. He also taught her how he used each kind in a fight so she could watch out for them.
"You might be able to use the heat of them to move around or you could use them as a distraction to escape or attack," Bakugou said as they discussed his quirk in more detail on the way to class one morning. They were practically inseparable now. There was a lot to cover and training sessions were to valuable to spent it talking.
Unfortunately, Bakugou was still having a hard time changing up his fighting style to include Ochako. He was getting better at his individual fighting style and his aerial skills while under Ochako's quirk but when the two came together it was like all communication went out the window.
- [ ] Ochako wasn't used to him blasting everywhere even if she understood the explosions better. They were constantly bumping into each other causing them to stray off course. Not to mention that Ochako was having trouble keeping her the contents of her stomach down with all the extended periods of weightlessness. This isn't working!" Bakugou lost it at their last training session before their day off. They were in Ground Beta again, trying to learn how to fight in the air together. Ochako released them and Bakugou started angrily pacing around.
"It's only been a few days. We just need practice," Ochako said with labored breaths. She'd already thrown up once today and was worried it was going to happen again.
"I thought you were getting that under control." Bakugou motioned to her, referring to the nausea.
"This is under control," Ochako said as she leaned over, putting her head below her heart. She pushed on the pressure point on her wrist that helped her with nausea. Her cuffs usually helped with this but she wasn't wearing her hero suit while training. "I don't know how you haven't thrown up once under my quirk."
Bakugou shrugged and leaned on the wall next to her, thinking hard on a solution to their predicament. He looked down at her and scoffed.
"Here," Bakugou sighed, holding his hands out to her. Ochako looked at him with confusion. "Give me your wrists."
Ochako obliged. A wave of nausea ran through her as she straightened out.
Bakugou pressed on both her wrists in the spots she was pushing earlier. Ochako leaned her back against the wall, closing her eyes to focus on her breathing. Pressing on both wrists was helping much faster than just the one.
"Thank you," Ochako breathed out.
"Whatever gets you back on your feet faster. We don't have time to waste. You good?" Bakugou asked.
Ochako opened her eyes and nodded slowly.
"Yeah, I think so."
"Let's get back to work then." Bakugou dropped her wrists and Ochako activated her quirk on the both of them so they could continue with the session.
"Alright," Ochako said as she hovered next to Bakugou. "Let's try that throw again."
Bakugou held his hand out and she took it.
"This time, let me get past you. I'll make sure you stay on course," Bakugou said firmly.
"I'll believe it when I see it," Ochako chuckled.
"Have a little faith," Bakugou grumbled then threw Ochako in the air. The momentum of his throw turned him upside down. He let off an explosion that sent him flying feet first in the air. Ochako soared higher and higher into the sky. She could hear Bakugou letting off explosions to straighten himself out to catch up with her. Ochako looked down and saw Bakugou shoot past her. The hot air below her warmed her body but he'd increased the distance from her this time so as to not blow her away. Bakugou caught her hand then threw her parallel to the ground, straight toward a building.
The momentum sent him the opposite direction but he quickly caught up with her and they touched the building at roughly the same time.
"New move idea. I'm going to blast down. Don't release your quirk until I'm there. Then release to freefall until you get close enough for me to catch you. Use your quirk and I'll throw you closer to the ground. Like a human bullet during battle," Bakugou said as soon as they touched the building.
Ochako gulped. He'd moved on pretty fast from staying on course to a special move.
"Alright," Ochako agreed hesitantly.
Bakugou moved away from her a bit before blasting to the ground. Ochako watched him carefully and released her quirk at the right time.
"You better catch me, Bakugou," Ochako said to herself as gravity returned to her body.
The wind rushed through her hair and whistled in her ears as she fell closer and closer to the ground. When she saw Bakugou, he was practicing some fighting sets.
"Bakugou!" Ochako yelled in a panic and used her quirk about 10 feet above the ground.
He looked up at her in frustration.
"What!? I was going to catch you. You have to be closer."
"You weren't even paying attention!"
"Of course I was! I won't be able to stare at you as you fall if we're in a real fight."
"We're training. Please stare at me so that I feel comfortable until we get it down. I feel like I shouldn't even have to ask that!"
"Are you kidding me? Why practice something that isn't realistic?" Bakugou started to raise his voice. "Even if I didn't catch you, you wouldn't get hurt! You can just use your quirk!"
"So you weren't going to catch me?!" Ochako yelled back, still hovering in the air.
"That's not what I fucking said. I can't believe you still don't trust me! Just fucking drop already!" He screamed at her, holding out his arms.
Ochako huffed angrily and released her quirk.
Bakugou caught her with ease then set her down on her feet roughly.
"We're done for today," Ochako said with a furiously calm air about her. She walked away from him and started gathering her stuff.
"What!? We've got 20 minutes left!" Bakugou ran over to her, his demeanor only slightly changing to more of a confused anger.
"I'm angry, you're angry, we're not going to get much else done tonight. See you Monday. I need a break."
"Fine! I don't need you!" Bakugou yelled as Ochako walked back to the dorms alone. Ochako heard loud explosions coming from Ground Beta for the entirety of her walk.
Sometimes she wondered if Bakugou was the right choice for this team up.
An Unexpected Apology
Chapter Summary
Late night talks are important to building interpersonal bonds.
After her argument with Bakugou, Ochako had immediately gone to her room. She didn't want to talk to anyone. There was something that Bakugou had said that was currently eating away at her.
I can't believe you still don't trust me!
He wasn't wrong but Ochako didn't know why she didn't trust him and she couldn't stop thinking about it. Was it actually her that was causing the problems in their teamwork and she'd just been projecting it on to him?
Ochako rubbed her eyes, looked at the clock, and sighed. It read 11:37pm. She didn't usually like to stay up this late but Ochako couldn't sleep. Working on homework was helping her take her mind off things at least.
She was working through an English assignment when she heard a sharp rap on the door. Confused, she got up and opened her door a crack. To her great surprise, it was Bakugou. She'd never seen him awake this late.
"We're not training tomorrow, Bakugou. I told you. I need a break." Ochako almost shut the door in his face but stopped at the words that came out of his mouth.
"Wait! I'm sorry!" Bakugou rushed before the door could close. Ochako slowly opened the door with absolute shock etched on her face.
"What?" Ochako asked. She hadn't heard right. Bakugou gritted his teeth and said it again.
"I'm sorry. I acted like shit and you didn't deserve that."
Ochako still didn't believe it. He even sounded genuine. She went to grab a sweatshirt from her bed, then went out in the hallway to talk to Bakugou. He wasn't allowed in her room since it was past curfew.
"I'm sorry too," Ochako said quietly. Bakugou must not have been expecting that as his eyebrows raised in response. "I shouldn't have snapped and I should have trusted you. You've done nothing to prove otherwise. You're volatile and stubborn but not untrustworthy."
Bakugou stood there and looked down at her.
"We're supposed to be a team," he muttered in exasperation. Bakugou pinched the bridge of his nose, angry at himself. "I don't understand why we can't figure this out. We're fine in the dojo but as soon as we're using our quirks together..."
"It's like we're back to square one," Ochako finished. Ochako tilted her head toward the wall and walked over to lean against it. Bakugou followed. They sat together in silence for a few seconds.
"You must hate training with me," Bakugou finally said. Ochako shook her head.
"I don't hate it. Most of the time I like it. But I think I'm causing us to have problems."
"What? How the hell did you come to that conclusion?!" Bakugou said rather loudly. Ochako shushed him.
"I'm not like you. I can't just visualize a move and then achieve it in one go. It takes time for me. Time we don't have. You'd be ready for the test right now if you didn't have to cover what I lack." Ochako sunk to the ground and put her head on her knees. She hated to admit it to herself but it felt good to finally say it. Bakugou sat down next to her.
"You don't lack anything. You're just working on getting better at everything you have," Bakugou said carefully. "It would be nice if you'd start to trust me." Bakugou gave her a sideways grin. It had the opposite effect of what he'd intended as Ochako hid her face in her legs.
"Why are you being so nice to me?" Ochako mumbled into her clothes. Bakugou's face fell.
"I'm not. I'm only saying the truth." Bakugou leaned his head back against the wall. "I'm not good at this."
Ochako lifted her head and grinned at him.
"Katsuki Bakugou admits he's not good at something? I never thought I'd live to see the day."
Bakugou frowned.
"Don't get used to it," he growled and Ochako giggled. Bakugou clenched his jaw at her reaction. "Why do you keep laughing at me?"
"Uh-you're funny?" Ochako laughed. "I've always thought you were funny. Sometimes your outbursts make me laugh."
"I'm not trying to be funny," Bakugou said, his frown deepening. Ochako giggled again.
"You don't scare me. I've fought you twice now and I'm still alive." Ochako smiled widely at him. She sighed to herself. "Ugh, imagine if we'd never faced each other."
"I guess you'd be scared of me," Bakugou muttered. Ochako laughed again.
"Maybe." Ochako rocked side to side to nudge him. Bakugou tensed up. "Sorry I forget you don't like that kind of touching. It's fighting or nothing."
"Stop knowing things about me," he mumbled roughly and scooted away from her.
"Sorry," Ochako said with a small laugh. "I'll try to be more mindful of that. Let me reset my brain." Ochako's brain stopped as she came to a weird realization. "Wait, how can you be friends with Kirishima and Ashido then? They're like the most touchy-feely people I know."
"It's difficult," Bakugou admitted. "Kirishima's easier since I trust him."
"Oh, so you don't trust me either?" Ochako asked. Her eyes got wide when Bakugou opened his mouth to argue but eventually closed it. "Guess we got to work on that together." Ochako got up from the floor and held out a hand to help Bakugou up. He stared at it for a second before taking it reluctantly.
"No more leaving training early. I don't care if we've got to talk it out like this again. We can't waste time," Bakugou scolded.
"Got it. Just make sure you catch me if I'm falling."
Bakugou put his hand over his heart and raised his other hand as if making an oath.
"I swear to it," Bakugou said very seriously.
Ochako burst out laughing.
"I was actually trying to be funny that time," Bakugou said, giving her a cheeky grin. "But don't go around telling people I have a sense of humor. I have a reputation to uphold."
Ochako mimicked Bakugou's performance, putting her hand over her heart and raised her hand.
"I swear to it," Ochako said in a mock serious voice. She couldn't keep a straight face.
"Get some sleep," Bakugou said with a laugh. "Ashido and Kirishima want to train tomorrow if you're up for it."
Ochako hesitated.
"It's not going to be an all day thing," Bakugou assured.
"Alright," Ochako sighed. "You think one of these days I'll actually get a day off?"
"After the test," Bakugou said as he walked back to his dorm room. Before he shut the door all the way, Ochako caught his attention.
"Good night! Thank you for talking with me. I might be able to sleep now," Ochako whispered loudly.
Bakugou nodded and gave a little wave with his fingers as his version of saying goodnight.
Ochako went back to her room, turned off the lamp on her desk, climbed into bed, and fell asleep immediately. Her brain had finally found some peace.