Summary:
Class 3A has their first joint training match of the year with their underclassmen. Its Bakugo's birthday, what does the class have prepared for him.
The song in this is Like I Can by Sam Smith
Ochaco didn't even flinch as was tossed into the air, she just activated her quirk as she reached her peak and began to fall. As she hovered in the air she took in her surroundings. They were at the USJ, and she was in the burning urban area, and herpartnerfor this exercise had decided the best option was to throw her. They were supposed to be playing the villains against the first years, and she was pretty sure Bakugo wanted to scare them, the ass. But they were playing the villains, so maybe heneededto scare some sense into them.
She knew why he threw her, but he could have at least warned her. They couldn't locate two out of the six first years they were up against. One of the missing ones had a quirk that gave them bat wings. She knew the fires raging around them were closely monitored, but the smoke was getting a bit too thick for her liking. Maybe she could get above it? Using one of her grappling wires she latched onto a building above her and made her way above the smoke.
There they were, the missing two. The one with the bat wings was struggling to carry the other one, who was controlling the smoke. They were so focused on their task they didn't see her come from the smoke behind them. From below she heard a series of explosions, distracting the two for just a moment.
Too easy, Ochaco thought as she used her wires again and wrapped both of them up with them. There was the expected struggling and yelling as the winged one stopped flying, dragging all three of them down. Shit, she had to act fast. In their panic the one with the smoke quirk had lost control of their quirk, so now the smoke began to concentrate around them. She couldn't see. She used the retractable feature and pulled herself to the pair, desperate to get rid of their gravity. They had been up rather high when they had started to fall, and with all this smoke she didn't know how close they were to the ground.
Ochaco had finally reached them, activated her quirk on them, but they were still moving towards the ground at an alarming speed. She still couldn't this better work. She reached over and pressed the pressure point on the smoke users user's neck, and after a terrifying moment they had made it clear of the smoke. Only meters from the ground below, so she threw the now unconscious pair above her and braced for impact.
Katsuki trusted Pink Cheeks to know what she was doing as he threw her into the air. They had managed to knock out one first year, that left three in front of him and the missing two. He wiped sweat from his eyes and took a breath, for just a moment he wished for a sip of water. He didn't remember the burning urban area being this hot before. He had to be careful of fire with how much he was sweating, he was pretty sure the ground around him was sprinkled with his explosive sweat. He had decided to do this without his signature gauntlets.
"Are you ready to give up?" A high, but cocky voice came from the smoke behind him. He turned to see a first year standing there, not a care in the world as he stared down a living bomb. With each second more sweat dripped onto the ground.
"Why the fuck would I do that?" Katsuki grinned and rolled his shoulders. The first year's face went from disbelief to frustration in a matter of seconds.
"You should be over heating by now! I'll just keep raising the temperature until you submit!" He yelled as the temperature around Katsuki started to increase.
"Netsu! Stop! Just because he can take it doesn't mean we can!" One of his teammates cried out.
"You should really listen to them." He warned as he stood there, letting his hands gather sweat.
"Why should I even bother with them, they'll do nothing but hold me back!" Hearing that he was reminded of his naïve self from first year. He took a breath to focus, he needed to scare and not injure this brat.
Katsuki cocked his head to the side, fixing red eyes on the first year. "Because without them you'll get nowhere." With one hand he blasted into the air, using the larger initial explosion to get higher, then setting off a series of explosions to getting even more height for the impact he needed for this. With his momentum he began to spin for a howitzer impact. The heat quickly making him sweat more, making this rather dangerous (reckless) to attempt. He was aiming for where he took off, for the sweat soaked blacktop. His aim was perfect, as usual, creating an explosion much larger than he was normally allowed to use against others as the sweat added more fuel to the explosion. But they were playing the villains agains this group of first years.
Katsuki looked around the impact area, noticing the two first years had dragged their unconscious classmate out of the area. The cocky one who challenged him was attempting to stand after he had been thrown into a building from the blast.
At that moment a screaming ball of smoke began hurling towards the ground. He watched as the smoke shifted, a pink pair of boots appearing as the smoke began to dissipate. Uraraka came into view, the missing two first years tied up above her like a rather disturbing balloon. The six that they had started against was down to the two hiding in the building in front of them.
"You brats still want to fight!"
"Not really." One voice called out.
"Tch," Katsuki walked into the building and saw the two of them next to their classmate. "Injuries?"
"Head, and possible back. Their hip," they gestured to the one leaning against the wall.
"Cheeks! Come and float these two!" He yelled and moments later the brunette came through the door, took in the scene and let out a heavy sigh.
They made it out of the burning urban area rather quickly; the first year able to walk holding onto two of their classmates, the one Katsuki had thrown into the wall slung over his shoulder, Uraraka had the last two trailing behind her still strung up like a balloon. They made it to the central area where Recovery Girl had her tent set up, Aizawa waiting for them.
They waited for Recovery Girl to wake the four unconscious students, Aizawa watching over them, hands in his pockets an aura of disapproval coming off of him. Katsuki wasn't sure who it was directed towards. As the last one finally opened their eyes Aizawa cleared his throat, drawing their attention.
"This exercise could have better for some of you. Uraraka, what is your opinion on the match?"
"Well," she pointed at the winged one. "Know your limits and work to improve them. Don't be pressured to overwork yourself." She then pointed at the smoke user. "You, on the other hand, listen to your teammates, get to know them. They are half your size, did you honestly think they could carry you? As for your own control, work on keeping it under control. You started out smart, getting up into the smoke but did you have any form of plan after that if it didn't work?" The two shook their heads.
"Bakugo, your thoughts?" Aizawa asked.
He pointed at the two who had stayed conscious. "You two are the ones who showed any ounce of teamwork, dragging your teammate out of danger." He looked at the one who hadn't lasted long. "You didn't last long enough for me to have an opinion." He turned to the temperature changer. "You had a decent idea," he grinned and the brat flinched, "It failed. Study your opponents if possible, and know your team and its limits."
The first year started to protest at his remark, and Aizawa silenced them with a flash of his quirk. "Enough, he is right you need to improve yourselves. Bakugo, Uraraka, good job on restraint."
"You call that restraint!?" The temperature controller yelled but the one next to his smacked him.
"I told you not to raise the heat on him but of course you didn't listen. Do you not pay attention to social media?"
"Why should I pay attention to social media when soon it will be paying attention to me?" This brat sure was cocky.
"That is Ground Zero."
"Ground Zero has those sweet giant grenades. That can't be him."
"Tch," Katsuki made a small explosion in his hand, cutting their argument short. "I am more than my support equipment. I am more than my hero name." He glared at the kid. "If all you want is fame and flashy support equipment then you shouldn't become a hero. Aizawa, can we go?"
"If you want to go shower that's fine just don't go to the dorms yet, I want you two to come with me to the store. I have everyone's lists and money."
"Yes Sensei."
Ochaco let out a low sigh as she ran her fingers through her damp hair, she knew Aizawa had picked them to go shopping because she had asked earlier. Of course she was the one tasked with keeping Bakugo out of the dorms for a while. The bakusquad couldn't keep a secret so it was up to her. Dressed in a fresh pair of gym pants and a fresh tank top, her gym bag slung over one shoulder, she walked out of the locker room to find Bakugo already waiting for her on a bench just outside the doors. She heard the shuffling of papers and looked over to see Aizawa on one of the benches going through a stack of papers.
"Since you're done we're just waiting for Hizashi to get here with the car." He didn't even look up as he switched between papers and his phone. She sat down on the bench next to Bakugo, ignoring his huff as she leaned up against him. They waited in silence for a few minutes for Present Mic to show up.
The squealing tires announced his approach, much to Aizawa irritation.
The ride to the nearest store was quick thanks to Present Mic's driving, more than once Ochaco and Bakugo ended up pressed into each other when he took a sharp turn. When they finally parked Aizawa just held out his hand for the keys. As they got out of the car he handed them a piece of paper. "This is half the list, you two will grab what is on it and wait up front for us when you're done?"
"Yes Sensei," they walked together into the store, their teachers following until the doors closed behind them. Ochaco grabbing a cart while Bakugo looked over the list.
"Tch, of course we get the noisy extras' list."
"What makes you say that?"
"Its nothing but the snacks they eat. Only Raccoon Eyes eats pop tarts."
"He probably gave that half to us because you know them so well." He just shook his head and started walking towards the snack aisle. He only glanced at the list once more before grabbing snacks and putting them in neat piles in the cart. Time passed quickly as their cart filled up with colorful packaging. Ochaco was grateful that the school provided a food allowance, if they wanted junk food they had to pay for it themselves. She got paid for her internship but she sent most of it to her parents.
Ochaco made it to the end of the aisle and stopped next to Bakugo, who was pretending to read the back of a bag if snacks. She followed his eyes and he was looking at couple doing their shopping. A very familiar couple. It was Aizawa and Present Mic, the blond had his arm wrapped around their teacher's waist as they were picking out specialty foods for some of their classmates. She watched as Aizawa smirked at something Mic said, gesturing to some food, and with a shake of his head he put it in their cart.
"Do you want that?" she asked, and he jumped and quickly put the bag into the cart. "I wasn't talking about the snacks." She saw the blush creep up his face as he tried to turn away. "Its okay to think about the future, Jiro and I talk about it often." She saw the curious look he gave her and continued. "Who we think will stay together once we're out of school, you and Kiri for sure. Who we think will get married first, we both agree on Midoriya and Todoroki."
"What's the point of dating if we don't plan on staying together? We don't have to talk about the future or anything like that." He started to walk ahead of her, she knew that tone of voice of his.
"Its okay to be scared, Bakugo. I'm sure everyone in our class is scared about their future outside of school."
"I'm not scared, Cheeks," he snapped, stopping abruptly causing her to run into him. "I just…"
"You haven't talked about the future, have you?" Katsuki slowly shook his head and stayed silent through the rest of their shopping.
Katsuki had his suspicions that something was up when he was picked to go shopping, Aizawa knew he disliked shopping for the extras. It was probably a good thing Cheeks offered to carry the bags with her quirk, because he probably would have thrown them at the extras for this. The common space was covered in paper streamers and decorations made to look like explosions. He could smell something spicy coming from the kitchen, he hoped none of the extras tried to cook, he never trusted their cooking. He followed the smell and found the Nerd, Ponytail, Gen-Ed, and Lips all cooking together. He nodded in approval, they were the only ones he trusted to cook something for him.
As Cheeks set the bags down there was the normal rush of his classmates grabbing their stuff, and they either put their stuff away in the kitchen or brought it upstairs to their room. Wanting to avoid this, Katsuki made his way to the common space, where someone had set up a table of snacks.
Next to the TV he saw it, the bane of his existence. The karaoke machine. Which was suspiciously missing a microphone. The screen blinked to life and music began, as the guitar began he was looking around for someone to yell at. He froze at the voice that came from the speakers.
He could be a sinner, or a gentleman
He could be a preacher when your soul is damned
He could be a lawyer on a witness stand
But he'll never love you like I can, can
It was the voice that kept Katsuki's dreams peaceful when he had trouble sleeping. Red eyes met red as he turned around, Eijiro's bulky form was leaning against one of the couches. Some of the extras coming down because they heard the music. There were a few whistles as the drums started.
He could be a stranger you gave a second glance
He could be a trophy of a one night stand
He could have your humor, but I don't understand
'Cause he'll never love you like I can, can, can
Katsuki felt the blush creep up to his ears as Eijiro began to walk towards him, his hips swaying in an off beat rhythm. Fuck, Raccoon Eyes must have tried to teach him to dance. If she was in on it, that means….
Why are you looking down all the wrong roads?
When mine is the heart and the salt of the soul
There may be lovers who hold out their hands
But they'll never love you like I can, can, can
They'll never love you like I can, can
There was a small pop, and more cheers from the extras as confetti rained down from hidden confetti cannons. Eijiro held his hand out, reluctantly he took it.
A chance encounter of circumstance
Maybe he's a mantra keeps your mind entranced
He could be the silence in this mayhem, but then again
He'll never love you like I can, can, can
He was lead to one of the chairs, where he was forced to sit as Eijiro knelt down in front of him.
Why are you looking down all the wrong roads?
When mine is the heart and the salt of the soul
There may be lovers who hold out their hands
But they'll never love you like I can, can, can
They'll never love you like I can, can, can
They'll never love you like I can, can,can
The lights dimmed, the extras around them pulling out sparklers from who knows where.
We both have demons, that we can't stand
I love your demons, like devils can
If you're self-seeking an honest man
Then stop deceiving,
Lord, please
Eijiro reached up and took both of his hands in one of his. Even with Katsuki sitting and him kneeling they were eye level.
Why are you looking down all the wrong roads?
When mine is the heart and the salt of the soul
There may be lovers who hold out their hands
But they'll never love you like I can, can, can
They'll never love you like I can, can, can
They'll never love you like I can, can, can
Katsuki's hand were in his hair, pulling him up into a kiss. Closed his eyes to the cheers and whistles of his class. Felt even more confetti fall on them.
When they finally parted Katsuki looked up into Eijiro's goofy, love struck face and whispered three words that he truly meant.
"You're cleaning this."
"Huh?" Katsuki grinned.
"You are cleaning every inch of this room. I just cleaned this room yesterday. For every scrap of confetti I find is an explosion next time we train. If any of you extras help him you will get the same punishment!" Everyone quickly agreed, leaving Eijiro to his fate.
"Does it have to be cleaned right this moment?"
"It has to be done before I wake up." His grin was feral, everyone knew that he woke up at five in the morning. He saw Eijiro think it over, probably trying to get out of it, saw his face fall as he realized hewasn'tgetting out of it.
"Can we at least enjoy the party? We actually put some work into planning this. Todoroki even got his sister's tofu recipe for today." at the mention of the tofu he actually calmed a bit, it was the one recipe he wanted but couldn't get.
"Fine," Katsuki growled as he was then led into the dining area, where several tables were now loaded with food.
The evening that followed was filled with laughter, food, and several horrible song choices. As Katsuki climbed the stairs that evening he smiled. He wouldn't change a thing about the night, he could see a real future with Eijiro, as well as with the shitty extras. He closed his eyes, and even though it was foolish, he made his birthday wish. That everyone would stay this happy, just for a bit longer.
One picture went up from training, simply because Bakugo called it Uraraka's first badass moment from their third year. Someone had taken a screenshot from the cameras of her descending from the smoke. Small streams of it still clinging to her, flames in the background flickering around her. Her determined expression more defined because of the flames. Bakugo called it her badass face; she called it trying not to crash.
So many went up from the party, fun happy moments that they wish would last. Several stood out, much to Bakugo's annoyance. As soon as he finds out who took it they're dead. It was a close up from when Kirishima was singing to him, right as the first of the confetti canons went off. It was his grumpy face, softened by the blush going from the tips of one ear to the other.
The next was taken late that night. The main focus was Kirishima sleeping face down on one of the couches. Kaminari was crouching next to him, head bent, hands pressed together as if in prayer. Someone had even left incense. Just under the couch was several pieces of confetti. They had even timestamped the picture. 4:59 am.