**I do not own these characters or the world, that belongs to our lovely author of MHA, Kohei Horikoshi. Also, cover art was a commission by me from the artist Krumbs. Follow them on if you'd like! They are extremely talented!

A/N: I watched Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day and holy hell was that sad but sad in a beautiful way. Like I feel like everybody who has experienced the loss of someone and failed to obtain closure should watch it. It is like a really good example of dysfunctional grieving, but dysfunctional grieving that resolves. I ugly cried during that but I don't regret that crying. I totally recommend giving it a watch. English dub was great. Anyway, here's the latest chapter, do enjoy. Thanks for any comments/follow/favorites. They are much appreciated. Have a great day!

Thirty-one
Bakugo Ignores Text Messages

Izuku sat at the dinner table with Todoroki and Bakugo, the latter of the two grumbling quietly to himself like an angry Pomeranian. He was in an especially cranky mood considering Shoto had managed to catch up to and surpass Endeavor for a split-second during today's work study training. Of course, Endeavor had easily overtaken his son and had left all three boys gasping in his wake. They'd all come leaps and bounds from where they'd started, but aside from the one incident when the bizarre villain had attacked Natsuo in an effort to get Endeavor to kill him, none of the boys had overtaken their preceptor. This continued to be a point of contention for Bakugo and while it was an annoyance for Shoto and Izuku, they were much more content to continue to learn and improve. Although with Todoroki, there was always contention that existed between he and Endeavor, though that was for entirely different reasons.

While Deku wasn't displeased with his progress within his work study, at the present moment, he was feeling quite pressured. His group project with Mineta was going very poorly.

On Friday when they'd been allowed time to work together, he'd managed to get Mineta to at least contribute to their essay—enough that Deku could probably scrape together a decent paper—but he remained adamant about his refusal to participate in almost any part of their project. It was extremely irritating to him since he found the ureters and the bladder to be very useful in what they did. Sure, they didn't have much importance in terms of reproductive organs, but they were still a very essential part of human anatomy.

It was now Saturday evening and Deku was dreading the next few hours that he'd have to spend putting together their project, alone. Despite his growing frustration with his partner though, he was really looking forward to getting back to class on Monday so that he could see Uraraka. They'd not really been able to spend much time together since that Valentines day. He had walked back to the dorms with her on Thursday after the little incident with Kacchan, but aside from that, there had been very little time to physically interact. Of course, they'd been texting with each other but that was almost always friendly. He wasn't really sure what he could say via text that wouldn't come off wrong or weird or worst of all, pervy. So much subtlety was lost in the world of texting that could only really be properly expressed by being in person. Because of that fear, he'd always remained his normal friendly self and mostly plutonic whenever they texted. Uraraka's responses and unprompted texts also seemed safe and plutonic. He suspected an undertone to some of the messages he'd received but he couldn't be sure since any subtlety was lost in the world of digital messaging.

As a result of this, he felt increasingly tense since he wanted to talk about more serious things with her and he wanted to do more things like hand holding or going on real dates. Plus, there was always more kissing and stuff beyond kissing that couples did…

That thought sent a blush across his cheeks and an unwanted stab of desire in his loins. Of course that just made his blush deepen.

"Is something the matter, Midoriya? You are blushing. Did you burn your mouth on the rice? My soba was quite hot," Shoto asked from beside him. Deku shot an embarrassed look at his friend and felt his hot blush grow hotter at the sincerity and concern in Todoroki's face.

"Uh, oh, no, no, it's not that, it's just, uh, well, I was, er, I was think, thinking about how much work I have to do on my project!" He stuttered out in a high-pitched voice.

"Oh? Is it difficult working with Mineta? I don't know much about your progress but from what I have seen and heard, he seems like he might be making it more difficult than it needs to be," Todoroki mused as he quietly slurped up his favorite soba noodles.

"Uh yeah, he's not very, uh, well—"

"Small fry is just pissed because he was paired with you and he didn't get some pervy parts to do his project on," Bakugo interrupted without looking at either Todoroki or Midoriya.

"I think being paired with Midoriya would be an excellent pairing. He is a top—"

Bakugo snorted. "Please. Deku's academics ain't got nothing to do with it. Little lecher wanted to be paired with someone he could perv on."

Shoto put his soba down and looked quizzically at Bakugo. "I don't know Bakugo. That might be a little presumptuous."

"Uh, I think, at least part of what Kacchan is saying isn't far off," Deku agreed with another blush in his cheeks. The tightening of his pants had at least stopped altogether and he was relaxed in that sense, though his cheeks still burned red now for different reasons. He was pretty sure that Kacchan was correct in his assessment of Mineta, though he was willing to give his pint-sized classmate the benefit of the doubt…even if there was an abundance of evidence to the contrary.

"Really? I suppose Mineta does seem to have a preoccupation with the opposite sex but that can be explained by adolescence." Shoto's hand was cupping his chin and his head tilted to the side, as if he were deep in thought or pondering the validity of Bakugo's argument.

"Haha. Right. I don't think his preoccupation can be explained away with horny teenagers, icy hot. Small fry has a horndog streak that is far from normal," Bakugo laughed and looked at Todoroki with a wicked smirk.

"Midoriya do you really think that Mineta is purposefully avoiding working with you because you aren't his desired partner and the particular anatomy you were assigned is less desirable to him?" Shoto asked, his eyes wide and inquisitive.

The blush covering Deku's cheeks deepened. "Um…I don't know?" It was more of a squeak than actual words.

"Speaking of partners, you sure lucked out with ponytail girl. Bet you utilized that quirk of hers," Bakugo mused, a slight frown pulling at the corner of his mouth. "I would've loved to use that for this dumbass project, but no! My idiot partner insisted we make clay models."

"Clay models sound like a really good idea—" Deku began only to have Bakugo cluck his tongue at him and shoot daggers in his direction.

"No one's talking to you, nerd. Spill icy hot. Did you use her creation quirk?" Bakugo snapped irritably.

Shoto had picked up his bowl of soba and started eating again. After swallowing a mouthful of noodles he said, "We did make use of her quirk for the models we created. She did an excellent job in their creation. They are well detailed and accurate." Deku noted a hint of admiration in his voice. He looked at his friend carefully and quietly marveled at the emotion—albeit small—in his voice. For Todoroki to speak with any emotion was impressive.

"That's great Todoroki! I bet that it was neat to see what she'd created—"

"Can it. Did she even ask for your opinion or guidance? Bet she took it all on herself," Bakugo interrupted.

"She did not, though we reviewed them together. Why? What are you getting at?" Todoroki asked curiously, his eyes ever so slightly narrowed.

Bakugo snorted again and leaned back in his chair. "What I'm getting at is that it is so annoying being round cheeks' partner! She's texted me ten times already today demanding that I review the stupid parts of our paper that she wrote. We covered that shit Friday! Don't see why I gotta review it again. She's so damn annoying! How do you even tolerate her Deku?"

Izuku had managed to get his blush under control once they'd started talking about Yaoyorozu's creation quirk. However, now a brighter and somehow more impressive blush colored his cheeks.

"What!? Me?! Why do you ask?" He asked in a voice that was far too high for a simple question.

Bakugo snorted in disgust and rolled his eyes. "Oh come on, you're her friend idiot, just like your friends with four eyes. When school first started you three were all chummy with each other. How do you stand her?"

"Oh, right," Deku breathed a sigh of relief. He'd been terrified for a moment that Kacchan somehow knew about what was going on and was going to out him…but would it be such a bad thing if he was outted? Yes? No? He didn't know. "Well I don't think she's annoying at all. Uraraka is nice to talk to, super helpful—she's always helping me out—has great hair, a pretty cool quirk, and actually Kacchan, I don't see why you're so irritated with her being your partner. I think using clay for sculpting the models is a great idea! I wish my partner was as good as I know Uraraka would be."

"Sheesh. Forget I asked," Bakugo said with an eye roll.

"I agree with Midoriya. I think having Uraraka as a partner wouldn't be a bad thing. Any of the model assignments are going to be difficult so her coming up with using clay is a great idea. Especially if you were unwilling to suggest any ideas yourself." Todoroki had been relatively neutral in his agreement with Deku until the last sentence where Deku felt like he clearly was throwing in some judgement.

"I don't do arts and crafts shit. I told her when we were first paired up that I'd write the essay and do the majority of the leg work but she could do the arts and crafts part," countered Bakugo petulantly.

"That's not good teamwork Kacchan—"

"Shuddup!"

"I don't think that is how a group project works, Bakugo."

"Nobody asked you!"

"Actually, you did."

"Shut the fu—" Bakugo stopped abruptly as the buzzing of a cellphone interrupted him. He rocked forward in his chair and began feeling around his pants and pockets until he at last pulled out his phone. Todoroki and Midoriya watched him curiously as he took a glance at the phone screen, identified who was calling him, and then dramatically rolled his eyes. He turned the phone around so that they could both see who was calling. "See what I mean? I don't answer a few texts and cheeks' is calling me."

"You said she texted you ten times and you answered none of them?" Todoroki asked with just a hint of condescension in his voice.

"If you left her hanging after ten messages and she had questions, well—"

"Was anyone talking to you? No! And to answer your question icy hot, yeah, give or take it was maybe ten. But so what, not like we're some stupid couple, I can ignore her all I want. We're just stupid partners in some dumb assignment. I shouldn't have to hold her hand every time she makes some small edit to the crap essay we're writing," huffed Bakugo.

"I think you should answer her call. She clearly has some questions that she wants answered. It'd be the respectable thing to do," Shoto suggested, a strong hint of judgement now emanating from him.

"Pfft," sighed the blonde petulantly.

"Todoroki is right, Kacchan. You need to talk to her," Deku agreed. He felt great concern for Uraraka. She wouldn't try to intentionally irritate him. She simply wanted to work together.

"Ugh, fine! Fuckin' idiots," Bakugo snapped, angrily pushed his chair back and stood up to walk away, phone in hand. Todoroki and Midoriya watched him as he stood several feet away from them and held his phone up to his ear, a pinched and irritated expression plastered over his face.

"Was he like this when you were children, as well?" He asked, looking over to Deku.

"Kacchan has always been stubborn. It's just how he is," Deku replied and smiled softly, fondly remembering their childhood.

Bakugo had been cruel to him after he'd failed to develop a quirk, but it didn't change the fact that he still had great admiration and respect and fondness for the volatile boy. He might be stubborn and hard headed, but it was just part of his unwavering strength and belief system. Kacchan never lied and once he believed in something, an ideal, concept, or person, it was with full dedication of his entire being. He approached almost all things with a level of intensity and ferocity that Deku marveled at. It wasn't how he would've approached or done things but that didn't make what Bakugo did any less impressive. Deku would never stop doubting the goodness and the potential for greatness in his childhood friend. He knew that one day he'd make a superb hero. He just hoped that they could be pro heroes together and have some sort of normal not bullying relationship. If it was what it was now, he'd happily accept that too. He and Bakugo could almost talk sort of normally sometimes now!

From across the room, Bakugo was frowning while quietly listening to the person on the line. He'd occasionally toss one arm up in the air as if he were unable to comprehend what was being said to him. Without even realizing it, he'd begun to pace back and forth, an angry frown etched into his brows.

"How has it been working with Yaoyorozu?" Deku asked innocently.

"I have enjoyed working with her. She's very thorough. The models she created were extremely well done. Very life like," Shoto explained, a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"You two seem to get along pretty well. I am glad! I know she's seemed somewhat insecure from time to time since the sports festival, though she's been more confident since you guys were paired up during the exam before the camp," Izuku said with a smile.

"I think the sports festival shook her confidence and I didn't help by insisting on taking the lead. We would've failed if it hadn't been for her fast thinking. She's very good at coming up with well thought out plans." Again, Deku thought he noticed just the hint of a blush on Todoroki's normally pale cheeks.

"What do you mean you don't agree with the edits I made yesterday? Why didn't you tell me—you texted me yesterday about that? Bullshit! Well maybe if you hadn't texted me ten fucking times today I would've seen whatever crap you sent yesterday!" The angry voice of Bakugo drifted to the two friends sitting across the room.

"Doesn't sound like their conversation is going so well," Todoroki observed quietly.

"No," agreed Deku though he found himself smiling a little when he realized that while Bakugo was most definitely verbally tongue lashing her, she seemed to be holding her ground against him. "Sounds like she's not backing down."

"Like the sports festival. I think she's tougher than anyone gives her credit for," Todoroki said softly.

"I think so too," Deku agreed unable to help himself from smiling at the memory of Uraraka's round smiling face. She was a small and sometimes frail looking little thing but she was stronger than anyone knew. Just like Kacchan, she was going to make an excellent hero someday. Maybe we can be heroes together, he thought to himself hopefully.

"What!? You baked it and it cracked?! Well sculpt another one—it was the one I sculpted? Fucks sakes round face! Make another one but make it stronger so it doesn't crack this time! No. It is not my responsibility. You're there, I'm here, you sculpt it," a pause, "you told me about this this yesterday night? Well again, if you hadn't texted me TEN FUCKING TIMES today maybe I would've seen that message!"

"Maybe being paired with Mineta isn't so bad," Deku mused as he watched Bakugo's face grow more and more angry.

"There might be less arguing but there would still be the issue of not getting any work done," Todoroki pointed out.

Izuku looked down at his mostly finished dinner and glanced at his own phone to see that it had grown quite late. If he wanted to put forth a genuine effort in his own project, he'd have to head up to his room soon.

"I think I'm going to head up to my room to start working on my project," Deku announced and rose from the table.

"I'll head up as well. I think it's probably best if we left Bakugo to his call anyway," Shoto agreed.

The green haired boy and the two toned boy bussed their own trays and left the cafeteria. Meanwhile, Bakugo continued to pace and yell into the phone.

"Fine. Just copy what I did and bake that carefully. Don't activate your stupid quirk too and send them floating away—wear gloves or something. Don't you already have gloves? That's none of my business, well in this case it is! What do you mean mind my manners?! I'm not out of line! Maybe if YOU hadn't cracked the damn model we wouldn't be having this conversation! Fine, fine. Yeah. Good night to you too and fucking goodbye." Bakugo finished on the phone and looked back toward the table that he'd been seated at to see that Todoroki and Deku had apparently left.

He let out an annoyed sigh and shot a venomous glance at anyone else who remained in the cafeteria. Anyone that had been looking, immediately began looking elsewhere lest they further enrage the erupting volcano across the room.

"Fucking round face. Texts me ten fucking times. Breaks the goddmann model I made. Of course. 'That's none of your business Bakugo', pfft," he muttered to himself as he picked up his own tray to dispose of. "If I come to class on Monday and she's made some blob abomination I'm gonna murder everyone within a ten-mile radius."

With that said, the spikey haired and exceptionally foul tempered blonde retreated to his own room to look over whatever edits Uraraka wanted him to see.