summary: bakugou was never one to believe in superstitions, so when he learned that his sparring mate wore a wish bracelet, he nearly lost his shit. not because he didn’t want you to wear it, but because you were the only match for his strength in your batch, and you just had to believe in something as shallow as that. however, he finds out the reason why you keep the red string wrapped around your wrist—and soon enough, he finds himself in a “relationship” with you, making out in a corner while your ex stares.
pairing: bakugou katsuki x reader
warnings: strong language.
YO i’m back!! i know i took like a four month long hiatus but i was having a mini writing crisis and today i said fuck it and wrote this draft. i’m planning on making it a series, so stay tuned for the next parts. also thank u so much for 200 followers i feel like i don’t deserve u guys bc i barely post but TT thank u i’ll be more active soon hooray for academic breaks
also i know that this may not look like much at the moment but stay with me! i swear it gets better
one | two | three | four | five | six | seven
You generally considered your patience to be pretty long.
“Dumbass, it’s 720!” Bakugou screamed. You ran a hand through your hair and glared at the paper, hand holding your pen shaking beneath. “I told you! You never believe me!”
“That’s because you’re 5 yards off, bastard!” you screamed in retaliation, bringing up your calculation to his reddening face and placing a hand on your hip. “If only your listening skills were as polished as your quirk—“
“They are, idiot!” He stomped on the hardwood floor with every word, and you rolled your eyes. He looked like a spoiled child, which he probably was for the most part.
An eyebrow raise from you caused him to nearly flip the table. “Doesn’t seem like it to me.”
Explosions set off from his hand. You smirked. You were aware that Bakugou knew better than to hurt a classmate over homework, laughing when he sighed and plopped himself down on a chair, glaring up at you behind hooded eyelids. “Shut up, idiot.”
Normally, students doing homework would be focusing on the task at hand. And at this time, most people would stay quiet in respect to the rooms beside them. Instead, you and Bakugou were screaming your lungs out over math homework, one that was given to you by your teacher in pairs.
If it weren’t for his undeniable math skills and critical mindedness, Bakugou would have never been your choice for a partner. But everyone in 1-A was taken by the time you had gathered enough courage to ask anyone else, so with a sulking face and fear shoved to the back of your head, you asked him, and to your surprise, found out that he was partnerless too.
Which brings you to your current predicament.
“I can’t believe I have to deal with your shit for an entire quarter,” he groaned with his head shoved in his palm. You tilted your head and gaped.
“That’s rich coming from you, asshole.”
Patience wearing painfully thin, Bakugou averted his gaze to your cork board of memories. “How the fuck did you manage to be on the same level as me?”
You knew that if you bantered with him, you’d loose, so you went with the next best thing—and that was pissing him off. “Because I don’t call people names as a personality trait.”
“Lame ass comeback,” he snarled, but you swore he almost looked taken aback.
“Lame ass quirk. Oh, what am I supposed to do, I’m a civilian trapped in a rummage of building materials, oh, I know! Maybe Lord Explosion Murder can help explode this poor victim to pieces!” you mocked, holding back a smirk as his signature frown started tracing his face again.
“It’s Dynamight for you, asshead!”
“That’s even worse! Imagine being a hero and fucking Lord Explosion Murder Dynamight swoops in to save you. I’d run for my fucking life.”
Feeling his pride wounded up, he groaned. “Can you let it go? You’re fucking...”
“Fucking what?” you pushed, but you knew you weren’t getting any more out of the blonde.
“Look, can we just finish this homework?” He picked up his pencil and started solving the first thing he saw on the paper. “If I argue one more minute with you in this room I will throw you out.”
This boy had the audacity. This was your room.
“You wouldn’t dare,” you teased, but you too were getting tired and took a seat next to him, hoping to finish the task at hand. “It’s 715.”
He stayed silent, making you tilt your head in confusion. “Did you hear me, Bakugou?”
Bakugou mumbled something under his breath that vaguely sounded like an agreement, but you wanted a confirmation. “Huh?”
“I said I fucking know,” he grumbled, writing down your answer. You tried to hide your grin as he complied. “Four is permutations. I got this.”
You leaned over him to grab your notebook, hoping to solve the last part of the paper. But as you were leaning back to your chair, he pulled your wrist and you yelped in surprise.
“You believe in this shit?”
His grip was tight but painless. His crimson eyes bore into yours, and before you could stare any longer, you looked at where your hands met—the red bracelet that almost matched the color of his orbs.
Feeling your cheeks heat up, you pulled your arm away and tucked your hair behind your ears. “That’s none of your business.”
“Pathetic.” He made a ‘tsk’ sound with his mouth while you stared at your wrist.
He raised an eyebrow, momentarily stopping his writing. “You do know that’s superstition, right?”
“Of course.” You rolled your eyes. This had nothing to do with him.
But Bakugou had a reputation for diving himself into matters that didn’t involve him. “It’s a piece of twine. It’s a marketing scheme.”
“For someone so smart, you are so dense.”
He shrugged. “I’m not telling you to take it off, stop being so defensive. It’s just pathetic to look at.”
“How is this”—you raised it up to his face, taking him aback and noticing how close the two of you were—“pathetic?”
“You’re not proving anything, if you think you are,” he argued.
You pulled at the gem in the middle, eyes widening. It glimmered under the study lamp on your table, and for a moment, he did think it was rather enticing.
But Bakugou remembered that he could not be fazed by something as shallow as a fake piece of ruby, so he gently swatted it away. He knew he was an asshole, but not enough to break something you owned.
Pouting, you turned away and tightened the red twine. Bakugou saw you sniffle for a second before he looked back at his paper.
“Believe what you want.” He didn’t want to push this any further. “Have you solved the fifth problem?”
“Almost,” you said in a low voice. And this is how Katsuki knew he hit a nerve.
He didn’t care about what other people thought of him, but you were two things those people weren’t. One, you were as strong as him (if not stronger) and two, he had to deal with you for an entire quarter. He was aware that grades were important to graduate UA, and he didn’t want a guidance complaint. Mitsuki would smack him in the head.
Katsuki knew his place the moment you had him under you in Hero Basics training. Your breaths were heavy as you kneeled on his abdomen, his back aching like hell from the fall you gave him. To be honest, he never thought much of you before that. Your quirk seemed pretty regular, if anything you reminded him of Deku, or Kirishima. But when you plastered a victorious smirk over your fatigued features, looking down on him like he was dirt on your shoes, he knew he met his match.
But he couldn’t deny how appalling he found you at times. You seriously had the gut to answer back to him, but maybe that was the reason why he couldn’t find himself hating you at all.
Yet equal strengths meant rivalry, and you were no exception.
“Why don’t you take it off?”
You thought he was ordering you to until you saw the softened look on his face. “I don’t know.”
And a blanket of silence fell. You felt your eyes start to sting, but it wasn’t because of the harsh words, no. You were used to his rough edges. The memories just came flooding back, and you were shocked at how many flashbacks a single piece of twine could hold.
“Well, I don’t care anymore.” He put down the pencil and stood up abruptly, taking you by surprise. “Everything’s done. I’ll check it tomorrow if there’s anything else but I’m out of here.”
He headed towards the door, and something in you just told you to call him. He stopped but kept his back to you.
“Have you ever felt love, Bakugou?”
“I don’t know,” he passively replied, observing the carvings on the wooden floor.
You picked at where the ties met, glued together for security. “Maybe that’s why you don’t understand.”
“Don’t have time for that.” He shoved his hands in his pockets and shook his head. “Love won’t make you number one.”
“Is being number one all you have to live for?”
You’d never understand. And you knew just by how he and Midoriya had the thickest wall of tension between them from years of reaching the same goal. He’d never bother to let anyone else get it, though. But in that moment, you wanted to take what he’d give you.
“What a bummer.” You blew a raspberry, leaning back.
Bakugou lightly turned his head to your direction. “It doesn’t matter to you.”
“Well, that was the case for my wish bracelet, but you crossed that line.”
“It’s just—“ Bakugou placed his hand on the knob, turning it. “Never mind.”
And just like that, he left. But hey, at least your homework was done.
Bakugou was never the type to skip on a commitment, no matter how unbearable or annoying his companions would be. But since it was Saturday, he figured people wouldn’t be fond of rechecking math homework on rest days, making him stay behind in his room, a screwdriver in hand as he meddled with an All Might figurine on his desk.
Come to think of it, he never figured out who gave the figurine. It was from your Christmas party two years ago. He didn’t really expect to receive anything—not that he’d want gifts, anyway. But he was more than surprised to catch sight of a red box on his desk, gently ribboned and topped with a delicate note in neat handwriting. From the corner of his eye, a girl in a UA uniform ran from one side of the door, three more coming after her. Mina smirked from the back seat, seeing Bakugou’s softened gaze as he took notice of the All Might wrapper.
He had never felt love. Of course, family love was given. He loved his mother—monstrous anger and all. But anything more than that was a distraction to him, a pebble to his road to number one. Maybe that girl who gave him this figurine felt it—he didn’t care.
Bakugou was about to polish All Might’s blonde hair when his door abruptly opened.
“Don’t you know how to knock?” he complained at the door, then he saw Denki flooding in with an ominous grin on his face. “The fuck you want, Dunce Face?”
Kaminari giggled before approaching him. “I’ve got gossip.”
“You’re worse than a fourth grade girl,” Bakugou countered, but he couldn’t deny he grew curious, too.
“So, you know how Monoma was rumored to have a relationship with someone in our class in the first year, right?”
Bakugou hummed. That memory was too long ago, but Monoma’s menacing grin and annoying laugh were practically etched in the back of his head.
“Well, I think I know who.” Kaminari leaned in to whisper, but the door just had to open again, revealing Kirishima with a paper bag in hand. “Oh, come on!”
“Sorry, did I interrupt something?” the redhead asked.
“Not really,” Kaminari said. “But you do know about the rumor, right?”
“Rumor?” Kirishima tilted his head in confusion. “What rumor?”
“You know, the one with...” Denki trailed off, Eijiro’s eyes widening in surprise.
Denki nodded. “Yes, where they....”
“Oh my god,” Kirishima gasped, and Bakugou couldn’t stand it any more.
“What the fuck were you going to tell me, Dunce Face?”
“Oh, sorry, forgot you there.” The electricity user turned to his friend as Kirishima took a seat across him. “Where was I again?”
“The one with copycat and someone from 3-A...” Bakugou groaned.
“Right!” He snapped up. “It’s (Y/N).”
Denki noticed his change of demeanor. “Yeah...?”
How could someone as smart as you fall for someone as trashy as Neito Monoma, he wondered, but to each their own. But that would mean that someone of his caliber could date someone like him, and he shuddered at the thought. Monoma was appalling, in every sense.
“I know what you’re going to say—“
“The copycat tortured us only for him to date her?” he exclaimed. Kirishima scratched his head.
“Well, funny story. They didn’t actually date, but that’s not the rumor,” he said. “Or at least that’s what Denki told me earlier.”
“God, how many layers are there to this story?” Bakugou grew impatient.
“He’s dating someone else now, but I noticed (Y/N) acting weird lately, so it was more of a knowledgeable guess.”
Bakugou’s palm landed on his face, dragging it down. “What the fuck.”
“Okay, let me explain, but first...”
Kaminari took the paper bag from Kirishima’s outstretched arm, digging in and taking a cookie. “Want some?”
“Whatever,” Bakugou grimaced, taking chocolate chip.
“So,” Kaminari started through crumbs. “He was rumored to date, but he didn’t actually date anybody. Yet I saw (Y/N) looking like the embodiment of bitterness when she entered the dorm today, then when I walked out, I saw Monoma and some second year holding hands.”
“Yeah, so I was like, wait a second, something’s off. Then I pieced it together.”
“Man, you’re so smart,” Kirishima praised. “But damn, someone like Monoma managed to get a girlfriend. Too bad for you, man.”
“Hey!” Denki exclaimed, and Eijiro laughed. “I’m single and ready to mingle.”
“Stop digging your nose into that,” was the only thing Bakugou could say, and Kaminari could almost laugh.
As he nearly tortured his electric friend alive, the thought of you possibly being linked to someone like Monoma appalled him—you were as strong as he was. Your quirk was as powerful as his. You weren’t supposed to fall for people as unhinged as that blonde bastard. It wasn’t that he cared for you, though. He worried that people would take his rank less seriously with this, and he wanted to stay on top.
Then he remembered you had one problem with a wrong answer, so he made his way downstairs with his two friends, trailing behind as they passed your room.
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