"Uraraka just calm down ok!" Wincing as she gave another loud scream, Bakugo saw as her eyes darted every which way to find a place to run to, eventually settling to running back to her room and locking the door behind herself. "Well, that didn't go quite as planned…." He grumbled, sitting himself down outside her bedroom door with a heavy tired sigh. "Look I know you can't hear anything I'm saying right now, and I know you're probably hiding under you covers as I'm speaking. But it's me alright…I'm not…I'm not here to scare you."
She had no idea how long she'd been in her room with the bed covers over her head. Not that she was scared or anything of course, she's just seen way too many unexplained stories on tv to not jump to that conclusion that if it wasn't a villain who would have tried to kill her right now then what else could it be other than a…. "Nope no, I am not saying it." She stubbornly shook her head.
The minute she heard her stomach growl she frowned and gave a frustrated groan. 'That's right I haven't eaten yet. But do I really wanna go out there right now?' she thought to herself. But what choice did she have it was either stay in here and starve to death or get herself together, she was a hero after all so this should be nothing right?
"Right." Swiftly getting out of bed with a determined expression, she slowly and carefully opened her door and peeked out. She was too aware of the fact that she began shaking when she saw the lights off, having forgotten to turn them on since she was hiding out and it was already dark out. "Good going Ochaco…" she muttered cautiously reaching her hand against the nearby wall to find the dang light switch which seemed to be a hard task all on its own. 'Why did they have to put it so far away?!' She inwardly panicked while quietly listening for any nearby movements or disembodied footsteps, basically anything creepy. "Why the heck do I suddenly feel like I'm in one of those ghost tv shows?"
"The fuck is she doing?" He tried to hide his amusement when he continued to see her basically hugging the damn wall in search of the light switch no doubt.
Finally finding it she quickly turns it on before running over to the kitchen and doing the same there. "H-hello? Anybody here?" After looking through every room possible and satisfied with finding nothing out of the ordinary she turned her gaze to the already cold and soggy bowl still sitting on the coffee table and began pouting. "Just great."
"ARGH!" When the sound of a car horn outside rang through the apartment she almost jumped out of her skin.
You would think that now that she's older and an adult, things like this wouldn't still scare you or freak you out anymore the way they did when you were a child, but oh boy was she wrong!
On her way to making another bowl for dinner she made sure to clutch her phone to her chest and after a few jumps here and there from any noises she thought she heard, made the mature decision to turn the tv on to have some background noise to help calm her already frantic nerves.
Would she be able to get a good night's sleep tonight? Probably not but she was determined to have a satisfied full belly. After placing her food down on the coffee table, she began shoveling food into her mouth -although burning herself a few times in the process- while watching paranormal tv shows to take mental notes on how to deal with her weird situation if she wasn't imagining things.
Now satisfied and full she lowered the volume on her tv before walking over to the kitchen to place her bowl in the sink and leaning back on the counter. "Alright ghosty, let's hear it. Are you still here?"
When she didn't get an answer, she smiled to herself thinking how dumb she must look. Thinking she must've really been exhausted to make things up like this.
Bakugo was silently watching her as she moved to lean on the back of the couch. He wanted to wait until she had at least eaten since he knew he had ruined her cheap unhealthy excuse of a dinner earlier before trying to attempt to talk to her again, but now he wasn't so sure.
The last thing he wanted was a repeat of what happened earlier and yeah sure he could go to Kirishima or anyone else for help but something inside him just wanted to get through to her first.
Shaking her head, she muttered something under her breath he couldn't quite make out until she started moving to the bathroom to get started on her night routine.
Glancing down at the keyboard he slowly began pressing down on the keys one by one until he caught her questioningly walking closer. He just hoped it wasn't as draining as before.
"Hi." She read out loud repeatedly parting her mouth and looked around in alarm. "No way. W-why are you here? What do you want?"
Smirking, he couldn't stop himself from typing. "You."
"EEK!" Turning a frightening shade of blue, she took a few steps back.
"Shit! I'm kidding round-face. Kidding!" He laughed out before typing once more.
"Kidding." She read puffing out her cheeks in annoyance now. "Not funny whoever you are! But I think it's time for you to leave! Follow the road or light or whatever it is you have to do." she waved her hands.
"The fuck?" Chuckling, he bit down on his lip as he leaned over to type again. "No light here round face."
"Round….?" knitting her brows together she felt her heart skip a beat remembering that only one person used to call her little nicknames like that, but she still refused to believe it. After all, anyone who paid attention could find that out.
But regardless in order to find out exactly what was going on she'd try and play along at least for now. "Alright, well if you are who you say you are…then tell me something only he'd know."
"You would go there huh…" he sharply inhaled between his teeth running a nervous hand though his hair and trying to rake his brain for anything of use or at least anything he was willing to say.
"I'm waiting."
"Don't fuckin rush me!" He squinted his eyes in irritation, already feeling the effects of typing before he thought of something and began typing again, pushing through the exhaustion.
"First wash your damn bowl you slop!"
Gasping, she turned her gaze from the keyboard then back to the kitchen in embarrassment. "Fine I'll be back but just because I was going to anyways."
"Sure you were." He saw her lift her chin before marching over to the sink which just made him grin. When he made sure that she was busy he took a deep breath before typing once more.
"Sports festival?" she frowned when she came back from placing the bowl in the drying rack, surprised to see something on her screen before scoffing. "Nice try but the whole country saw them all."
"No." shaking his head he continued typing on the keyboard while talking out loud. "You remember first year waking up… and your burned gym jacket that you had left in the arena was magically lying next to you?"
Averting her eyes, she felt her cheeks suddenly warm remembering that day like it was just yesterday, but it couldn't have been, could it? She had always figured one of her friends had brought it to her when they came to see her after her match with Bakugo.
"That was me." He said out loud not feeling the need to type the obvious. He remembered that after she was hauled off to the infirmary after their fight that he saw it just laying there in front of him on the ground and thought about just giving it to one of her friends. But as much as he hated to admit it at the time or to anyone else, he ended up finding himself in the infirmary with her jacket neatly folded in his hands before he placed it on the nearby table next to the bed.
He remembered wanting to check up on her and standing next to her sleeping form with all the cuts and bruises that reminded him of their fight.
'Frail' they had all said. To take it easy on her they had said. Didn't they know that that 'frail' girl almost kicked his ass out there. That he was so damn close to losing his first match because of her.
He remembered staring down at her in awe thinking that 'frail' wasn't the word he would use to describe her when he looked at her. Strong, determined, smart and beautiful only kept repeating in his head over and over again. That was until one of her friends had walked in to check on her and he spun the hell out of there.
After that he waited until he made sure everyone was sitting back in their seats outside before deciding to talk to her about the match but immediately changed his mind when he saw Deku walking in that same direction which only clarified two things. One which was that it was her decision to almost drop the whole damn stadium on top of him and two…that she already had someone coming to see her. So, with that in mind he spun around and walked back down the stairs thinking it wouldn't make a difference if she saw him, not when she had someone like Deku.
Snapping his attention back to her now nervously fidgeting with her hands he saw the doubt in her brown eyes, that when looking down looked so sad and almost disappointed.
Her face was so close to his by now, barely an inch apart. His eyes felt so dazed as they flickered down to her lips then back up. He knew he must've been blushing like hell by the sudden flutter in his chest especially after another memory crossed his mind that he promised himself he'd never ever admit to in a million years, not even after Deku had caught him the night before.
"Chocolates?" She read when she saw him type again.
Nodding he slowly started typing again but made sure to shorten it since he was becoming more and more exhausted by now. "White's day. You were one of the first in class to arrive that day because you had to talk to Mr. Aizawa about an assignment. You found a box of handmade chocolates on your desk with no name of who they came from."
Now leaning away from the keyboard, he nervously swallowed the lump in his throat, carefully watching her reaction as she read the screen.
Clenching and unclenching his fists he didn't know how she would react to his admission. He had never intended to tell anyone let alone make them in the first place but when he found himself in the kitchen one night carefully mixing the ingredients, making sure everyone was too busy to be in the kitchen this late at night except for Deku of all people who apparently needed a glass of damn water and caught him red handed.
He remembered basically shoving the green haired boy out of the kitchen making up some lame excuse he didn't even remember right now since he knew it was a horrible lie that Deku would never believe. But he was just so flustered and thought that she might like those sweet cavity causing treats but worried she'd find it weird that she'd received something like that out of the blue from him, so he thought it would be best to leave it at that.
That didn't make him feel any better when the next day Deku saw Uraraka happily munching on the chocolates he had made while Deku curiously kept staring in his direction.
"Damn Deku." He muttered before he heard her quiet chuckle.
Pressing her lips together to avoid the sob from wanting to escape and forcing the growing tears away, she vigorously shook her head. "Nice try ghosty, but Bakugo would never do something like that." she firmly said clutching the phone to her chest. 'At least not for someone like me.' She thought to herself.
This felt like a complete slap in the face as she walked by and he slowly lowered his head, only to hear her close her bedroom door. But what else did he expect? It's not like he ever let her know how he felt and everyday it kept looking more and more like this shit kept coming to bite him in the ass.
It's already been a couple of days since that night and even though Bakugo still continued to feel the aftereffects of what she had said, he knew he couldn't fault her in believing that it was actually him here with her. In her mind she probably had a hard time understanding why he would be here in the first place when he never could muster up the courage to be this close to her when he was physically around. She probably didn't even want him around back then so why would anything change now?
He knew the reasons why he stayed with her and one of them being that she seemed to be the only one to hear him that day at his gravesite. Another important one was that he didn't know whether that thing was going to come back for her. The other reason he rather not put too much thought into right now, especially given the way she apparently felt about him.
What he didn't know was why the hell he was currently sitting across the table facing Deku at the moment. "Oh what the hell are we doing here?"
Impatiently drumming his finger against the table wearing his usual scowl, he watched as Deku curiously looked around the little coffee shop waiting for Uraraka to finish ordering hers while standing in line. They were both currently wearing their hero suits so every so often a random fan would come up and ask to take pictures with the Deku which only made Bakugo roll his eyes in annoyance.
"Stupid brats."
He wouldn't lie and say that that subject still didn't hit a sore spot for him since it really did. But it's not like he had a choice in the matter anymore, so he knew that taking it out on Deku or anyone else was just petty of him. At least they were doing something with their lives and making a difference when all he could do right now was continuously scare and piss off the girl he harbors feelings for who on top of that apparently hated his guts. Oh, how he has fallen.
As she approached the booth Bakugo quickly got to his feet allowing her to sit down before joining her but making sure not to crowd her.
"Thanks for meeting me for lunch Deku." She smiled, placing her coffee down.
"That's no problem, I'm glad you called. I've actually been meaning to call you, but things have been rather busy." He gave her an apologetic smile.
"That's ok, it seems that works never done." She giggled knowing exactly what he meant and absently staring down at her cup as she stirred it. "So how-"
"Uraraka…is everything alright?" Deku curiously tilted his head knowing her for such a long time he could tell something was off. "You seem elsewhere."
Snapping her eyes up to meet his worried green ones she had almost forgotten how observant he could be. One of the many reasons she had admired him. When she felt him reach his hand over and placed it reassuringly on top of hers, she couldn't help but feel herself blush at the nice gesture.
Yeah, it's been years since she had any romantic feelings towards him and it had actually stopped during their first year of UA when she realized Deku was too involved in becoming the best hero out there and she knew that the only feeling he had towards her at the time were that of a best friend, so she eventually let those feelings go.
Not to mention she also had feeling for his childhood friend as well which made her feel even worse because unlike with Deku, her feeling towards Bakugo were harder to try and ignore, not entirely sure whether she wanted to in the first place or not.
But when she realized that Deku only saw her as a friend that made another thing clear, that Bakugo would probably see her for even less than that since he was a very picky person of whom he would even let hang around him. So, there would be no chance he would even remotely feel the same way.
So, in the end the best thing for her was to concentrate on herself and career. That was until the real war began and then everything changed. The memory of watching Bakugo slowly dying was too much to handle…even now just thinking about it continued to expand the whole in her heart that up to this day had yet to heal.
"Uraraka?"
"Hmm?" snapping out of her head she saw Deku still waiting for her as he squeezed her hand.
"You know I'm always there for you if you need it."
"Oh…" Feeling her cheeks warm she timidly nodded. "Thanks Deku, that means a lot to me."
"Give me a break…." Rolling his eyes Bakugo felt himself overcome by the sudden need to smack Dekus' hand away from hers and he would have done just that if he could but instead, he just placed his chin in his palm and turned away mumbling to himself.
When he saw her visibly relax, he took a careful sip of his coffee. "So, what is it?"
"A ghost." She casually said and couldn't help but laugh as Deku spat his drink out.
"S-sorry?" he coughed frantically cleaning the mess he had made and trying to ignore the stinking in his nose.
"Maybe I should start again…." She sheepishly smiled rubbing the back of her neck.
"Please do." he rasped, taking another careful sip to help clear his throat.
"I'm not exactly quite sure how to put this…" chewing on her bottom lip she thought carefully for a minute before continuing. "I've had this weird feeling for a while…especially lately. Like I'm being watched you know?"
"Way to make me sound like damn grape face, Round-face!" He squinted his eyes in offense. "What the hell?!"
"Watched?" Deku cautiously repeated.
"Yeah." She saw Deku frowning and as if sensing his worry increase ten folds, she was quick to explain. "I know this will sound kind of crazy…but the other day when I came home, someone was there and then froppy junior started floating-"
"Woah what?" He feverishly waved his hands.
Snapping her mouth shut she wasn't entirely sure if Deku was now staring at her with wide eyes because of what she just said or because he was already going through all the possibilities of what it could be. "Deku? You still with me?"
"Y-yeah yeah!" he blinked profusely leaning forward. "M-maybe it was just Hagakure."
"That's what I though too." She admitted taking a sip of her drink before continuing. "There's something else…"
"What?"
"Ghosty didn't seem like he was in my apartment to harm me as so much as talk to me."
"Ghosty?" Deku couldn't hide the amused grin on his face as his lips twitched.
"For fucks sake Uraraka stop calling me that!" Bakugo groaned. "That shit's embarrassing."
"Mhm." She nodded and absentmindedly shot her hand out to grab her phone from moving again. "Don't think he likes that name too much." She gave a little evil grin thinking that the more this person, whoever it was kept doing it that, the more she would use it.
Deku, having witnessed it too quickly saw the annoyed look on her face and slowly leaned back in his seat. "So, this ghosty…is here right now?"
"Damn it Deku!"
"Unfortunately…" she frustratingly exhaled, crossing her arms on the table.
"Thanks cheeks." Bakugo sarcastically said feeling his confidence take another hit.
"H-have you tried talking to it?" Deku nervously asked, letting his now frightened eyes look next to her.
"Don't worry Deku I'm still a little shaken up by this too, and yeah I have." She let out a deep sigh.
"Right before running off…TWICE." Bakugo grumbled lifting two fingers.
"Well, what did ghosty say?"
Slamming himself face first on the table Bakugo started glaring at the reflection in the window which just consisted of Uraraka and Deku.
"Not much really. Just that…"
"What?" Deku was not entirely sure whether this was real or not. And who knew, maybe he didn't actually see what he thinks he saw.
Leaning forward so as to not be overheard Uraraka dropped her gaze to the table before answering. "Ghosty said…it was Bakugo."
"Wait-what?" Nervously shifting in his seat Deku leaned forward too. "Uraraka..."
"I know." She huffed looking out the window. "I don't believe it either, maybe it's just someone messing with me."
"Maybe…" Deku said eyeing her hand once again having to reach for her phone again from moving. "Or maybe not."
"Huh?"
"Well, think about it. We live in a world full of people with different quirks right? So, what's to say that the afterlife doesn't exist either or maybe it could be the work of someone's quirk. There could be many possibilities Uraraka. If we really thing about it-"
"Not this shit again…" Bakugo mumbled as he dragged his hands over his face. "You'd think you'd grow out of it Izuku."
"Deku you're rambling again." Uraraka grinned fondly. "Maybe you're right or maybe this is all in my head-" Looking down she saw an opened message on her phone before letting out a frustrating growl and handed it to Deku.
'Idiots'
"Well gotta admit it does sound a lot like Kacchan." Deku chuckled shrugging his shoulders. "Have you thought about asking it anything to prove that ghosty says who he says he is?"
"Yeah…"
When Deku saw her avert her gaze, he knew that this was still a sensitive topic for her just as it was for him.
"He…he told me stuff. Things that I didn't even know or even believe to be honest." She gave a weak smile trying to keep her voice from wavering, unaware of the blond quickly looking away and fidgeting in his seat. She knew that Dekus' silence meant that he was patiently waiting for when she was ready. Faintly shaking her head to try and get rid of the tense atmosphere she felt, along with the sudden ache in her chest she gave a dismissive wave. "It's nothing big just…ghosty said something about the Sport Festival and then mentioned some chocolates I found on my desk first year on whites' day that's all."
"Oh that's right, I remember something like that." Lifting a finger to his chin she could tell he was deep in thought until his eyes lit up and suddenly his lips turned into a knowing smile. "So, he mentioned that huh…"
"So what?!" Jumping from his seat Bakugo tried to repeatedly lunge at a grinning Deku to no avail and very much aware of the heat rushing to his face.
"Yeah, but that doesn't tell me anything. Anyone could've said they did it." She shrugged her shoulders looking back out the window at all the passerby's.
"Who?!" Whirling his head around to glare at her, he hoped that wasn't the damn case, and if there were others that did then he needed damn names. And he needed them now.
"Maybe…" Deku hummed before looking back at her phone. "Did they say what they wanted or why they were here?"
"Not really." She thought about it for a few seconds remembering how she's barely given ghosty any chance to say much after freaking out everytime. That's when she noticed the phone move again and a new message pop up. "Danger…"
"What?" Deku asked.
Glancing back up it took her a while before processing what she'd just read and repeating the word again. "I-it said 'danger'."
"Let me see." Deku leaned forward now in alarm. "This can't be right…"
She began to feel the sudden need to get some fresh air as panic began to rise in her chest.
"Uraraka?"
"Y-you know what my lunch breaks almost up, so I better be going." She smiled getting out of her seat. "Thanks again for talking with me Deku."
"Hey wait, we should really take a look at this later ok." His serious tone suddenly made her stop her movements.
"Ok." she gave a tight-lipped smile knowing he meant well before she hugged him.
Huggin her back he saw the forced smile she gave hidden by a mixture of sadness and fear. "We should get together again soon maybe then we'll be able to figure out what's going on in the event it isn't Kacchan as well as what's with that strange message."
"You think it is?" she furrowed her brows surprised to hear him say that.
"As much as I'd want to believe it's true, I can't really be sure. But something tells me that we should keep an open mind ok and be careful until we figure this out?" When he saw her simply nod before heading out, he sat himself back down. He silently sat for another few seconds before he quietly spoke again. "Kacchan, if this is you…try not to be too hard on her. She's been through a lot. We all have, including you. But I know if this is you…" he tried to keep his voice from trembling. "Then I know you'll watch over her until we can figure this out."
Staring over his shoulder at Deku, Bakugo dragged his eyes back to the door she had just disappeared through before also making his way out too.
The rest of her workday went pretty much the same as any other day except for the fact she knew something was there whether good or bad she didn't know yet, nor did she want to find out. How was she supposed to react when someone or something writes a cryptic message like that?!
So, after her patrol and barely succeeding in capturing a low-level villain which shouldn't have taken more than five minutes tops, she frustratingly threw her helmet down on her desk, wincing at the cuts and scrapes on her arm.
"Rough one babe?" Mina turned a worried gaze to her from the papers she was currently working on.
"You could say that." She rubbed the bridge of her nose and quickly headed for the bathrooms, hoping that whoever this was had at least the decency to give her some privacy. Shutting the door behind herself, she made sure no other heroes were there before she locked herself in a stall and tried to control the tears that started streaming down her face, covering her mouth to quiet the sobs that wouldn't stop coming.
Bakugo had walked back to the apartment after witnessing Urarakas almost blotched patrol that day thinking that this was probably his doing and that she needed some space. What was he thinking of just unloading that on her? Any person in their right mind would freak out if someone told them they were in danger.
But she needed to know. There was no way around it and no way to lessen the severity of the situation and he'd be damned if that thing laid so much as a finger on her.
So, by the time she finally made it home he silently kept his gaze down sitting on the couch as she went about her business deciding it be best to stay quiet until she felt well enough to try and communicate with him again. If she even wanted to talk to him again.
He kept his red eyes fixated on his hands as she silently sat herself down after a shower and she absently started scrolling though the tv.
Taking a deep shaky breath, she pulled out her phone contemplating her next move but, in the end, decided she needed to know more and placed the device between them. "Ghosty…are you here?"
Bitterly chuckling he thought about telling her to fuck off with that damn name but decided to ease up for now. After all it was better than not being able to talk to her at all. "Yeah."
"Ok." Nodding her head in determination she thought about her next question. "Before…you said 'danger' was that meant that I'm in danger?"
"Yes."
"From whom? you?"
"No. Something else." He cringed knowing that wasn't much to go off but knew he didn't have a whole lot of answers himself or resources to find out at the moment.
"Oh…" biting her trembling lip she stopped flicking through the movies settling on a cheesy romance movie she didn't really care much for watching.
"That's why I'm here." He typed hoping to somewhat ease her mind that she wasn't alone in this.
"I don't even know who you are." She whispered barely audible for him to hear, but he did hear which just made this whole thing even more frustrating for him. "You say your him, but you just can't be."
Clenching his jaw, he crossed his arms over his chest wondering why the hell it was so hard for her to believe him. But with the bigger picture of her safety at stake that didn't really matter. All that matters is that he was here, and he wanted to help in any way he can.
Pressing his lips together he leaned his head back trying to think what he should do next and drown out the dumb movie they were watching until it became too much for him and he couldn't take it anymore. "Why the hell are we even watching this?"
Jolting her head up when she saw the movie being changed, she gaped at the remote hovering next to her until he stopped at an action movie.
"D-did you just change my movie?" she blinked in surprise.
"Yeah, so what?" he scoffed, eyes widening when she snatched it back flicking back to the previous movie she didn't like. "OI! You don't even like this shit!"
Grabbing the remote back he managed to change it right back for a few seconds before she snatched it from his grasp, settling for a comedy instead and without thinking stuffed the remote inside her bra with a confident smile. After all it was her tv, so they'd watch what she wanted.
"Nicely played Round face." He said out loud, narrowing his eyes at her, knowing he wouldn't dare go in there.
"You know for someone who's not Bakugo, you sure are just as irritating." She puffed out her cheeks.
"Likewise." He typed back making her roll her eyes as he scowled and crossed his arms again. "Because you're always such a ray of sunshine huh pink cheeks." he said to himself, watching her from the corner of his eyes as she tried making herself more comfortable.
Leaning her head against the couch cushion she watched on quietly until she felt the first tear fall. Stubbornly she wiped it away as if it was never there to begin with and hoped ghosty didn't see. But all her attempts started to crumple as a few more tears threatened to spill out one by one. 'This is so stupid….' She thought to herself wiping her cheek again.
As she opened her eyes to try and concentrate on the movie once more, she saw the box of tissues she kept by the coffee table float its way closer to her until she carefully grabbed a couple of them giving a weak smile in return. "Thanks, ghosty."