'What about her was frail?'

Full time Kacchako enthusiast - AO3 Writer - @msragdoll

[spicyfloaty]

Give & Take | Chapter 11

pairing: kacchako

genre: slowburn/fluff

words: 9.8k

summary: Ochako's grades are slipping. Bakugo is dangerously nearing suspension, or worse, expulsion. A certain twist of fate pairs them together for tutoring sessions. He teaches her math. She keeps him from getting suspended. A simple exchange, but what if this only brings them closer than necessary?

header credits: @alexbenedetto

[READ ON AO3]

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven: Saved by the Bell

“You’re not listening to me!”

“Guess what, Cheeks? Neither are you!”

After that incident at work last week, things went back to normal. Bakugo stayed true to his word about not mentioning her job to anyone else and much to Ochako’s delight, he had also stopped avoiding her altogether. Despite this good news, it didn’t stop them from spiraling into another tirade of who-got-the-math-question-wrong, but at least they were back to their regular programming of senseless, nerve-wracking bickering, which was about as normal as it could get.

“How many times do I have to tell you that I got this right?” Ochako circles her answer on the whiteboard over and over again with a black marker, hoping the repetitive gesture would somehow convince Bakugo that she answered the problem correctly.

Bakugo sank deeper into his chair as he dragged his palm down his face, “Fucking hell, round face, I’m telling you that it’s wrong.” He groaned.

Her palm flies to the board, producing a resounding thud that echoed around the classroom, “I used the right formula, I had all the calculations down, and--”

“And you still got it wrong.” He interupts.

If Ochako hadn’t already been accustomed to the ever so pleasant experience of arguing with Bakugo, she would have either A.) walked out the door by now or B.) thrown the marker clutched in her hand square on his face, but since she already had enough hours of tutoring as practice, she knew how to stand her ground and bite back.

She walked over to his seat, which wasn’t that far since he had plopped himself smack dab on the first row, “You were the one who taught me this.” She points out, standing in front of his desk.

“I know that.” Bakugo pushes himself up from his seat with his arms, leaning towards her with his eyes narrowed, “So tell me why you got it wrong then?”

“Oh nevermind.” Ochako huffs out, rolling her eyes as she turns to the whiteboard once again, “Let me just show you how I did it.”

If she was getting nowhere trying to make him see her point with her words alone along with the occasional repetitive circling of her answer on the board, she should move on to the next best thing of just literally showing him the exact step-by-step process of how she came up with her answer in the first place. If only her tutor had paid attention to what she was writing on the board as she was solving the problem he gave instead of complaining about it after, things would have gone so much smoother than they were now.

“No you’re not.” He walks after her to the front of the classroom so that he’s just a few feet in front of her, “Give me that.” Bakugo orders, holding his hand out to her.

“Why?” She asks, bringing the marker closer to her chest as if she were guarding the most valuable object on earth from a notorious thief.

Bakugo frowns as he jutted his hand out to her again impatiently, “I’m gonna fix it, dumbass.”

Ochako’s eyebrows knit together as she takes a step away from the board and the boy trying to steal away her chance of proving him wrong, “You’re not fixing anything, Bakugo.”

“Give me the marker.” Bakugo instructs, moving towards the same direction she had gone to.

She shakes her head as she moves farther away from him, walking towards the second row of desks, “I’d rather not.”

He follows her, stopping on one of the chairs in the front row, “I’m not going to ask you twice, round face.” Bakugo’s stern eyes burn into hers so much so to the point where she had felt her knees start to buckle ever so slightly.

Despite this, she knew better than to just back down to him that easily, “Over my dead body, Bakugo.”

In the split second after the last word of her sentence, Ochako could have sworn that she caught a fleeting glimpse of her dead body as Bakugo raced towards her with unparalleled speed. She pushes a chair towards his direction to block his path as she ran to the back of the classroom, looking back to see that her chair distraction had failed since Bakugo was just a few quick steps away from her.

Her feet swiftly take her to the other side of the room, but Bakugo follows just seconds after. She drags a desk in front of her to add some extra distance between them just in time before he could get to her.

“Stop. Acting. Like. A. Fucking. Six-year-old. And. Give. Me. The. Fucking. Marker.” Bakugo growls between attempts to snatch the marker away from her as Ochako just barely manages to dodge every single one of them.

Bakugo stops mid-grab and she sees his eyes flicker to the something behind her. She turns around and sees an eraser sitting on top of the teacher’s desk, her gaze then shifting to the lines of equations she had written on the board. Eyes widening in realization, she whips her head back towards him, “Don’t you dare.” She warns.

He immediately bolts to the front of the classroom and it only takes milliseconds for her to follow suit. Ochako uses her free hand to reach for the eraser, but Bakugo makes it a point to catch her wrist first before going for its target.

“Give it up.” Bakugo instructs. He points the eraser towards the board, fiery eyes never leaving hers in the process, “Or else all your work gets wiped off.”

“I can write it again just as easily.” She fires back, matching his intense stare with her own.

He tilts his head to the side, “Not if I give you another problem to work on, round face.”

The smug look on Bakugo’s face only grows more punchable by the second and him leaning towards her again only makes it harder to resist the urge of knocking his lights out, “Your work will be considered null...and...void.” He finishes, making sure to add extra emphasis on the last three words.

Ochako didn’t know whether to be amused or appalled at how Bakugo would really go the extra mile for a petty fight about a math problem. Despite this thought, she knew that she did the exact same thing starting the whole cat and mouse chase around the classroom. She finally comes to the conclusion that this whole argument was stupid and that she most likely didn’t have the energy nor the stamina to keep it up.

“You just hate being wrong, don’t you?” She sighs, handing him the marker.

He lets go of her wrist and takes it, placing the eraser back to where it was, on top of the teacher’s desk, “Who says I’m wrong?”

“I’ve been telling you that for the past twenty minutes or so, thank you very much.” Ochako retorts, folding her arms over her chest as she turns away from the board. She’d rather not see her work being ‘ corrected’ when she was so sure about being right about it.

Not even ten seconds pass by when Bakugo suddenly speaks up, “The fuck?”

Ochako turns around to see Bakugo staring at the marker with an expression that looked like he was unsure about the fact that what he was holding was indeed a marker, “What is it?” She asks.

“Your flimsy ass marker ran out of ink.” He deadpans, handing the marker back to her.

“Why are you saying it like it’s my fault?” She points out, taking it from him.

“If someone didn’t waste all the ink circling her wrong answer like a deranged person--”

“It wasn’t wrong.” She interjects, walking over to the board to test the marker out. Seeing that the board was still completely white after dragging the marker across a blank area, it was in fact, empty.

A small grin makes its way to her lips as she turns back around to face him, “Oh dear, it really is empty!” She says in mock disappointment, “I guess we’ll just have to leave it like that.” Ochako makes sure to give him the fakest look of dismay to really seal the deal.

“Your acting is as bad as your math.” He drones, unimpressed.

“No insult is going to change the fact that this is empty.” She points out, holding up the marker for him to see.

“And you think that’s gonna stop me?” He retorts.

Ochako shrugs, propping one hand onto her hips, “I mean, where else are you going to write it down?”

He narrows his eyes at her before looking away to stare at the wall in deep thought. An idea seemed to have crossed his mind since he suddenly started walking over to her seat where her bag was and started digging inside.

“Hey!” She protests, walking over to his direction, “You can’t just go around digging in other people’s stuff!”

“And why not?” He asks, still very much digging into the contents of her bag.

“Privacy!” She answers.

Bakugo holds up a stick of gum from her bag, “How scandalous, round face, a piece of gum. How will you ever recover?” He says sarcastically, rolling his eyes at her.

“You knew what I meant.” She mutters, peeking over his shoulder to see if he had already made a mess of her bag’s contents, but to her surprise everything was still as tidy and organized the way she had left it, no item out of its place as Bakugo shuffled through them in search of something she still wasn’t made aware of.

“What are you even looking for?” She asks, “I don’t have an extra marker.”

He fishes out her notebook and turns to her, “Where’s your pen?”

Ochako’s eyes droop at the question, “You’ve been tutoring me for the past five weeks and you still don’t bring your own pen to these sessions?”

Bakugo sends a spine-chilling glare towards her, “Keep that attitude up and I’m dumping all of this shit on the floor to make you look for it.” He threatens, holding her bag up in the air as a warning.

“Fine.” She grumbles, grabbing her bag from him to look for her pen. The only reason why she had this kind of attitude was because of the fact that Bakugo didn’t even give her a chance to prove that her answer was right nor did he show any intention of listening to her side of things a while ago.

“Here.” She hands him the pen and takes the seat beside him, looking towards the window as she rested her elbows on the desk, cupping a cheek in one hand. She honestly just wanted to get this over with.

“You have got to be fucking kidding me.” Bakugo swears.

She turns to him, “What is it now?”

He holds her notebook up from the side and lets its pages fall one by one to show her that all of them were already full of her writing. She had forgotten that this specific notebook was the one she used for when she studied and worked on practice problems alone in the confines of her room. Not only that, but she had also just remembered that all of her notebooks, even the ones back at the dorms, were in fact, already used up.

She quietly chuckles to herself at the situation, but this doesn’t go unnoticed by Bakugo, “What’s so fucking funny?”

The laughter that Ochako had been struggling to suppress had only grown harder to fight, ‘Was this the universe’s way of telling her that she was right with her answer a while ago?’ “C-can I borrow the p-pen?” She asks through stifled laughter.

Bakugo slowly hands her the notebook along with the pen and looks at her as if she had already lost her mind. She tries to scribble on the corner of a page with it and the results only confirm her suspicions. The pen was empty too.

This time Ochako bursts into a fit of laughter. The timing was just all too perfect, “Face it, Bakugo, even fate is on my side!” She proclaims. Who would have guessed that her marker, notebook, and pen were the ones to turn this situation around at the last minute? Her unintentional negligence towards her things had somehow given her another chance at proving  herself right.

Ochako’s laughter dies down and she turns to Bakugo, the ghost of a smile still stretching over her face, “Now, will you let me explain why I think I’m right?”

He studies her for a moment, as if deciding whether or not that option was worth taking. She scoots her chair nearer to his and gives him an expectant look, thinking that this way of saying Please was the way to go.

The creases on Bakugo’s forehead slowly disappear, his eyes slipping away from hers as he sighed. He stands up to head over the back of the classroom where his bag was, slinging it over his shoulder before walking towards the door.

“Wait, what are you doing?” She asks. Was he leaving? Was he really so allergic to the possibility of being wrong that he couldn’t even stand being in the same room with her anymore?

He looks over to her, “It’s better if you explain yourself using the board and you can’t do that if your flimsy ass marker is empty.”

This catches her off guard. She didn’t actually think he’d let her if she had asked, nor did she think it would take him that fast to even consider it. She had already assumed that he was already steadfast, hell-bent even, with the fact that only his opinion was acceptable.

“That doesn’t really answer my question, why does it look like you’re leaving?” She asks once more.

“Do I really need to spell it out for you?” He asks impatiently, “We’re buying another fucking marker.”

Another look of frustration crawls its way back to his face as he gestures to the bag next to her, “You coming or not?”

---

Ochako lags behind him as they descend upon the school’s stairs, making sure to keep up the pace since Bakugo made it clear that he had no intention of waiting for her nor did it look like he cared that she could potentially trip and fall with the speed he’s going at.

“Make sure you pause that timer you got on your phone.” He calls out to her as they reach the bottom of the last flight of stairs.

“Yeah, yeah, I got it.” She breathes out, pulling her phone out of her pocket to pause it as she followed close behind him. They had about half an hour left to their session, which was more than enough for her to thoroughly explain her answer to him once they get back. Nearing the grounds, she sees Bakugo head towards the opposite direction of the front exit, which was unusual since everybody exits through the front.

“I know I should have asked this before, but where are we going?” She asks, still a number of steps behind him as they reach UA’s back exit.

“Kinoku.” He answered shortly, stepping outside their campus’s back doors which connected to a wide walkway that stretched hundreds of feet towards the UA Arch at its end.

“The Dead Street?” She asked quizzically. Before they had been moved into their dorms, Ochako would usually tread the downhill path found in the forefront of UA on her way home. Almost everyone did, come to think of it. Nobody had really seen what the trail behind UA led to, but all they knew was that at the foot of that trail was Kinoku street, also commonly known among the students as The Dead Street because of its desertedness.

“And where exactly in Kinoku are you planning on taking us?” She follows up as they walk under the UA arch found behind the school. It was identical to the one found in the front, the only difference being the vines crawling up both of its legs, which was another telltale sign that this place was indeed devoid of people. It looked like it had been like that for quite a long time.

“Somewhere that has what we need.” Bakugo replies.

The concrete that covered UA’s grounds turn into dirt as they went past the arch, marking the start of the downhill trail. They walk in silence as they trudge along the unfamiliar path. Unfamiliar to her, at least. The soft rustling of the trees around them paired with the sound of their feet making contact with the soil were the only things keeping the atmosphere from being completely quiet.

“Is it far from here?” She asks.

“No.” Another clipped response. “We’ll be quick.”

Bakugo’s back was to her as she continued to walk a considerable amount of steps behind him. His answers made it seem like he had been here before, it only made sense since he somehow knew where to go and also knew that this place had what they needed.

Ochako picks up the pace and speeds along to walk beside him, “You’ve been to Kinoku before?” She asks, voicing out the curiosities inside her head. Bakugo looks at her questionably as if she had just spoken German to him. To be more specific, the expression on his face asked the unspoken question, ‘What do you think you’re doing?’

“I’m just trying to kill the awkward silence.” She quickly explains, slightly holding up both of her hands.

“It’s only awkward if you make it awkward.” He says, shifting his focus back on the trail ahead of them, his gaze cold and distant. Small talk with Bakugo is truly proving to be a difficult task.

“Okay, you don’t have to talk to me if you don’t want to.” She concedes, slowing her pace back down to how it was before when she was lagging behind him, allowing the silence to stretch between them once more.

Ochako didn't know where she stood with Bakugo, if anything, she didn't know where Bakugo stood with her. Replaying every single instance they had interacted with one another in her head, she wasn't sure what to consider him as. It wouldn't be right for her to say that they were strangers to one another, but at the same time, they weren't exactly friends.

She'd like to be friends, though. A part of her wanted to get to know him better, with that part of her only growing twice its size ever since last week's incident at work. Despite this, Bakugo seemed to be closed off most of the time, leaving only the tiniest of spaces for her to squeeze into to try and find out more about him. The last thing she wanted was to make him uncomfortable so she decided not to push for a conversation any further.

Ochako was about to put her earphones on and listen to music instead when she saw that Bakugo's footsteps were beginning to slow down ever so slightly until both their paces were now in sync with one another, with him now walking by her side.

“I have.” He mutters.

Ochako lowers her earphones down from her ears, “You have what?”

“You asked if I’ve been to Kinoku before,” He says, shoving both his hands into his pockets, “I have.”

“Oh.” She turns to him and sees that he was still looking towards the path ahead of them. Despite this, she knew that Bakugo purposefully walking beside her, let alone talking to her was still remarkable progress, “What’s it like?”

“Quiet.” He answers, the hardened features of his face relaxing a bit under the memory of it.

“Dead quiet?” She asks, referring to Kinoku’s infamous nickname.

“No.” This time he turns to her, finally facing her full on, “Peaceful quiet.”

She observes his reaction, taking note of the faint softness in his voice compared to the distant replies he had thrown her way just minutes ago. This place must be as peaceful as he says it is if it had gotten him to sound this fond of it.

“That sounds nice.” She muses, smiling to herself. It felt nice to know that Bakugo was particularly fond of this place. He looked calmer.

“It’s a nice fucking change from the bumbling idiots I hang out with everyday.” He adds with a heavy touch of irritation, the calmness in his face being stripped away by the mention of his group of friends.

“You mean your friends?” Ochako clarifies. Bakugo did have a habit of referring to the people closest to him with questionable descriptions and nicknames.

“Whatever you wanna call ‘em, it doesn’t change the fact that they’re annoying as all hell.” He counters along with a sour look on his face. Ochako almost chuckles at the quick change in his mood.

“You know,” She begins, turning to him, “If they’re as annoying as you say they are, you wouldn’t be hanging out with them anymore.”

Bakugo’s eyebrows furrow at her simple explanation, his expression seemed like he was trying to come up with some logical, snarky remark to hit her back with, but needless to say, none came out.

“Tch.”

The corner of her lips quirk upwards, I got him there. She knew that his friends meant a lot to him, he just wasn’t the type to show it as well as they do. One might even say that most of his insulting quips and jabs at them were some kind of undiscovered love language that only he had the capability of expressing.

“Why not take them to Kinoku?” She suggests. Taking the people you care about to a place you enjoy might be a pleasant experience for both parties.

“Those damn extras are just gonna complain about how boring it is.” He deadpans.

Boring? Ochako doubts that his friends would say that about any place Bakugo would voluntarily take them to, but then again, it could be because Bakugo wasn’t ready to take them there yet so she won’t push the idea any further.

Does this make her the first? No, stop thinking like that, Ochako.

“What’s in Kinoku anyways?” She asks, shoving the previous thought into a small corner of her mind.

“Not much.” Bakugo answers, “That’s why they’d find it boring.”

“Peaceful boring.” She corrects him.

“Peaceful boring.” He agrees.

“And yet you still go there often, huh?” She adds. Sure, Kinoku didn’t have much to it, neither was it the liveliest place out there, but there must be another reason why Bakugo liked it so much apart from the kind of quiet it had offered.

“Only for this one place.” He recalls.

“Is it the place we’re headed to?” She asks, her curiosity morphing into excitement.

Bakugo nods, “A bookshop.”

Ochako’s eyebrows slightly spring upwards at the mention of a bookshop. A person favoring those kinds of places usually meant that they were fond of reading as well, which leads to the conclusion that Bakugo must be an avid reader too.

“So you're a book lover.” She smiles at him.

Bakugo lifts an eyebrow, “And what of it?”

He must have thought she was making fun of him for liking books, but she couldn’t have been any more delighted by the fact. Ochako liked the feeling of knowing such a tiny detail about him. ‘Bakugo Katsuki liked to read’, she repeated in her head.

“Nothing,” She dismisses with a shake of her head, “It just fits you.”

Bakugo’s face only clouds over with more confusion, “You calling me a nerd, round face?” He asks suspiciously.

“No!” She quickly replies, “I mean, yeah, you’re really good at math, but other than that, you see things differently, you know?”

“You're perceptive, quick-witted, observant,” Ochako enumerates. There was a lot more she could have said, but it would take the entire journey to and from the bookshop if she had done that. “And probably everything in between.” She turns to him, giving him the warmest of smiles.

A tiny look of surprise flashes over his face before turning away, one of his hands finding the back of his neck, “Thanks.” He mumbles.

“So yeah, being a book nerd does suit you.” She teases.

Bakugo’s head instantly whips back to face her, fiery, red eyes narrowing at her once again, “So you were calling me a nerd.” He bites.

“You already thanked me for it.” Ochako chuckles, earning her another nasty look from Bakugo. His mood really does change as quickly as she thought, it could beat Iida in a foot race.

“Honestly speaking, I have been curious about Kinoku for a long time.” She says after a short moment of silence. It  was  true, so many people had already been calling it The Dead Street, and yet none of those people had ever been there before, which had only piqued her interest more.

“Then why didn’t you go?” He asked, raising a questioning eyebrow at her.

“I was planning to,” She starts, “But as you now know, I’ve been busy with--”

“Training.” He finishes for her.

Ochako smiles a little, “Yes, with training.”

“With Gunhead.” He adds.

This time she chuckles, “Yep, that’s the one.”

She found it nice how Bakugo played along with their little joke. What she found most comforting was the fact that she was able to talk about her job with someone else that wasn’t Kit. It was a funny feeling, having someone know about her secret. It was an even funnier feeling, how she felt so comfortable mentioning it to the last person she thought that would find out about it.

“How long have you been training with him?” He asks.

“Not long after my dad’s injury, so about two months now.” Ochako thought it was weird how two months could pass by so quickly, hell, she couldn’t believe that it had already been more than a month of her undergoing Bakugo’s tutoring sessions.

“Do they know?” He follows up, looking at her with an unreadable expression on his face. A strange sensation settles in her stomach, had he been keeping these questions to himself for a while now? Had he just been holding them back ever since last week, waiting for a time when she was comfortable enough to talk about it?

“Yes and no.” She answers.

His face scrunches up in confusion, “The hell does yes and no mean?”

“Maybe if you listened with this,” Ochako points to her ear, “Rather than this,” then down to her mouth, “You’d find out.”

Bakugo rolls his eyes at her as he taps a finger to his ear three times, “I’m all ears, round face.”

“Good.” She smiles. Ochako was definitely getting used to his attitude, on top of that, she’s getting better at handling it.

“Well, yes, they know that I have a part time job.” She begins, brushing her hands against each other to fiddle with her fingers, “No, they don’t know what my actual job is.”

“What did you tell them then?” He asks.

“It’s stupid.” Ochako had only just now realized how stupidly ironic the answer to that question was.

His eyes droop at her avoidance of the question, “I’ll be the judge of that.”

“I told them,” She looks up at him, a bit hesitant of what she was about to say, “that I was working as a part-time tutor.”

Bakugo’s lips draw tighter and the first signs of laughter prickle on the features of his face, but he decides against it and looks away instead, “Shit.”

“You’re allowed to laugh.” She says, “It’s ironic, isn’t it?”

“I’m not laughing.” Ochako hears him retort, still looking away.

“Like I’ve said before, it’s not that I’m ashamed of it.” She recalls, “I just think I’d be less worried if my daughter was tutoring people during her spare time instead of cleaning up vomit and bussing tables.”

Bakugo turns to her, the traces of laughter gone from his face, “It fits you, though.”

She raises an eyebrow at him, “Cleaning up vomit?”

“No, you idiot, your job.” He corrects her, eyebrows slightly furrowing in annoyance.

“You think that being a waitress in some cafe suits me?” She asks. It’s not everyday she gets to hear that from anybody, but then again there only used to be one person who knew about her job.

Bakugo focuses on the trail ahead of them once more, “You’re kind, selfless, tough.” he pauses, taking the time to look at her straight in the eyes, “And probably everything in between.”

Ochako would have teased him about using her own words from before if not for the rush of sparks that sent warm tingles from her arms to her toes, “You really think so?”

Another look of annoyance twists in his face, “I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t, dumbass.” He barked.

“You got me there.” She laughs.

The path of soil they were treading gradually turned into concrete as they neared the bottom of the hill, the trees around them were getting fewer and fewer until most of them were now replaced by electric posts and houses. Ochako lagged behind Bakugo once again so that he could lead the way through all of the twists and turns until the houses morph into laundromats and convenience stores, finally stopping at an antique looking bookshop beside an even more ancestral looking house.

“This house looks different from all the other ones we passed by.” She points out, looking up at the enormous house before them, it’s wooden exterior looked worn, but still steadfast, as if it had endured the harshest of winds and the deepest of floods.

“You mean it looks older.” Bakugo asks, looking over to her.

“A lot older.” She confirms.

“Mr. Fujioka, the bookshop's owner, lives there.”  He explains, looking up at the house as well, “They've lived here for more than forty years, and his bookshop has been around for no more than twenty.”

“You know him?” Ochako asks. He seemed to know a lot about this place, especially this house.

Bakugo shakes his head as he grabs the handle of the bookshop’s front door, “The old man just loves to talk my ear off about it whenever I come here.”

A strong musk of paper, ink, and wood immediately envelopes her the moment they step inside. What Ochako notices first is the shelves upon shelves of books covering almost every square inch of the store, leaving only narrow strips of carpeting as walkways to pass through, most of which were also littered with books stacked in piles on the floor.

She was stunted by how so many shelves could fit in such a small-scale place, and just when Ochako had thought that this place couldn't have any more room for books, she had noticed that even the walls that stretched from each side of the shop seemed to also function as wide, towering bookshelves. The only spot spared from the sight of books was the small, wooden, flat-top counter nestled in the far right corner of the store, in which a girl about her age, reading a magazine, seemed to be manning.

Ochako's initial thoughts would have said that this bookshop was overcrowded and cramped, but instead, for some reason it felt cozy, as if the entire bookshop was giving her a nice, warm, hug.

The girl behind the small counter, to which Ochako now knows has braided hair, looks up from her magazine, eyes instantly lighting up at the sight of Bakugo, "Katsuki!" She chirps, waving her hand vigorously towards him.

“Ignore her.” He says flatly, gently pushing her forward so that both of them would be out of the braided girl's sight behind the shelves.

“I’m guessing that’s not Mr. Fujioka?” She jokes.

He frowns at her, “You think?”

Ochako shoots him a nasty look back, “You don’t have to be a dick about it.”

Bakugo clicks his tongue in frustration, his hand raking through the golden locks on his head, “His granddaughter watches over this place from time to time.” He explains before steering her farther into the plethora of bookshelves, “She’s annoying.”

Bakugo must have been here a lot of times for him to know that Mr. Fujioka's granddaughter works here from time to time, he’s probably interacted with her enough times for him to consider her as someone who was annoying. She had deduced from before that Bakugo often refers to the people closest to him as annoying or bothersome, so using that logic, ‘Were they close?’

“Earth to round face.” Bakugo snaps his fingers in front of her face, forcing her out of her reverie.

“Hm?” Ochako turns to him, “What were you saying?”

“I said, the school supplies are over there.” He repeats impatiently, pointing to the back of the shop, “I’ll be in the fiction section.”

“Want me to get anything for you?” She asks him.

Bakugo looks to the side, quickly muttering some sort of checklist to himself before turning to her, “Two notebooks, one binder.”  

“Okay.” She nodded before heading to the back of the store and true to what he had said, there was a small rack of school supplies that stood beside the shelf dedicated to children’s books. Ochako scanned the selection of items before her and swiftly picked out two pens, a black binder, and four notebooks. Two of them pink and the other two plain black.

Ochako makes her way to the fiction section of the store, approaching Bakugo as she spots him fixated on reading the back of a book, “Found anything good?” She asks.

“Looks sappy.” He points out.

“Sappy can be good.” She proposes, glancing at the book’s cover.

With a frown curling his lips, Bakugo returns the book and goes back to scanning the various titles etched on the worn spines on each book adorning the rickety shelf towering over them. ‘Picky’, she says in her head. Ochako transfers the school supplies she had picked out in one arm and takes the book he had just returned, reading the synopsis on the back.

“I’m buying it.” She smiles to herself.

Bakugo looks over to her, a disapproving frown once again twisting on his lips, “But it’s bad.”

“Come on,” She holds the book up with one hand to show him the cover, “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover.”

“I read the plot and my judgement says it’s trash.” He deadpans, going back to examining the wall of books before him.

“To each their own, I guess.” Ochako acknowledges, flipping through the novel in her hands. It wasn’t hard to tell that the books sold in this place were secondhand books that have probably been passed down from person to person, given the yellowish hue of their pages and the highlighted or underlined parts in some of them, “This will be for my dad, he likes to read too.”

“What genre?” Bakugo asks, shifting his attention away from the shelf once again.

“I think he prefers romance novels above all else,” She recalls grinning at the book in her hand, “You should see how much his vital signs spike up when he gets to a good part.”

Her father had been a dedicated reader ever since forever, but with the demands of work and family, he never really had the time to sit down and indulge in a good book as much as he used to, but now that he’s bedridden and confined in a hospital, he had all the time in the world to catch up on all the reading he had missed out on.

“He’s been reading a lot now since it kept him busy when mom and I aren’t around to visit.” She adds.

“How often do you get to see him?” He asks, the same unreadable expression hanging over his face. Ochako notices the similar, strange feeling sitting in the pit of her stomach and it confuses her. He was only asking questions, nothing bizarre about that.

“Not as much as I would want to because of my job, not to mention how long the trip to the hospital is, but you take what you can get.” She shrugs, hugging the romance novel to her chest.

“So he’s staying somewhere far away.” He speculates.

“Couldn’t get any farther than Hinode Hospital.” She points out, “But it’s fine, the doctors are top notch, the facilities are state of the art and my job pays well enough to help my mom keep it that way.”

Bakugo looks away, his attention shifting back to the array of books on the shelf, “They’re lucky to have you.” He says quietly, eyes still focused on the books.

Ochako sees him finally pluck out a thinner book from the top half of the shelf, “Give him this.” He says, holding it out for her to see, “It’s better.”

She leans over and peeks at the book’s cover, Yep, that looks like a romance novel.

“I don’t know, it looks sappy.” She observes, looking up at him, feigning disapproval. He frowns at her in response.

“I’m kidding.” She smiles, earning herself another irritated eye roll from him.

Bakugo offers to carry the items in her arms and his eyes fall to the black notebooks she had gotten him, “You got black ones?”

“You always have black ones.” She points out. Ochako had been his classmate for over two years now and his study partner for over a month. It only made sense that she would remember what color his notebooks were and without fail, they would always be black.

They head to the counter up front and Ochako doesn’t miss the lingering looks Mr. Fujioka’s granddaughter had been giving Bakugo as he placed their items on the counter top. She knew that Bakugo was objectively attractive, but this girl was practically devouring him with her eyes, something that the object of her attraction failed to see since he was focused only on the items being scanned one by one in front of him.

The braided girl’s hand accidentally brushes over Bakugo’s as he was bringing the last item over to the counter, “Oh, sorry.” She apologizes in a soft voice. Unfortunately for her, Bakugo didn’t seem to hear what she had said nor did he even notice her hand brushing over his.

A negative sensation floods her system. Something about this girl was getting to Ochako, and it was probably because of her shameless attempts to catch his attention, not to mention the non consensual touching she had covered up as a simple ‘accident’.

They pay for the books and supplies before exiting the store, the negative feeling in Ochako’s gut finally diffusing out of her system because of the gentle breeze that had greeted them outside. Maybe it was also due to the cramped space inside, she thinks to herself.

“Let’s head back.” Bakugo says, taking the plastic bag of supplies from her hands.

“I can’t wait to see the look on your face when I prove you wrong.” She grins to herself, rubbing both of her palms together.

“You fucking wish.” Bakugo scoffs, rolling his eyes.

Ochako was about to start walking away from the store when a thought hits her like a bullet train running at 200 miles per hour, “The marker!” She exclaims, looking back at the bookshop.

“Ah, fuck.” Bakugo curses under his breath.

“I’ll be back!” She calls out to him as she runs back inside the store, racing towards the small rack of supplies at the back to grab the first marker she lays eyes on. Ochako rushes to the counter, but finds no one there. She leaned over to check if the braided girl had somehow hidden underneath the countertop, but she was still nowhere to be found.

She rushes outside to see Mr. Fujioka’s granddaughter talking to Bakugo just across the shop from where Ochako had left him. His back was to her, but she could clearly see the smile stretched on the braided girl’s face as she beamed at him.

Ochako's first instinct was to get away from there as far as she can, her second instinct telling her that she was thirsty. ‘Yeah, she needed to find a drink’, she thinks to herself and that was exactly where her feet had taken her. She kept walking and rounding every corner she came across until she found a group of vending machines situated next to an electric post.

She walks towards them, leaning her back against the one on the right. She looks down at her hand and sees the marker she had grabbed, the same marker she absolutely did not pay for.

Crap.

What was she even doing? Wandering off on her own to god knows where just to find something to drink and now look at how well that went for her. Now, she’s lost and not only that, but she technically had a stolen marker under her name now.

She pushes herself off the vending machine and sighs before reaching for her wallet. Might as well do what I came here for.

Before she could even fish out enough change from her wallet, Ochako felt a buzz in her uniform’s pocket, only to see Bakugo’s name flash on the screen.

“Where the hell are you?” He immediately barks in her ear as soon as she had accepted the call.

Ochako looks around the vicinity, hoping for some kind of street post that would tell her where she was, but there were none, “I, um, don’t know.” She replies.

“What do you mean you don’t know?” He snaps as soon as she finishes her sentence, “Where the hell did you go?”

“I got thirsty and tried looking for something to drink.” She glances over at the vending machines near her. That could be a landmark, “There’s vending machines where I am.”

“God fucking dammit, Cheeks.” She hears him curse on the other end of the line along with the sound of wind rushing past. Was he running? “How many vending machines and what color?” He presses on.

“Three red ones.” She answers, making sure to check again just to be sure.

“You're not far off,” Ochako hears another string of profanities on the other side of the call paired with alternating thuds of his sprinting footsteps, “Stay where you are. I'll go to you.”

“I’m sorry--”

“Apologize later, I’m almost there.”

“Okay.” She replies softly. There were honestly no more words left in her head to describe how stupid she felt at that moment. Wandering off on her own to find some stupid vending machine with some stupid drink thinking about that stupid girl with the stupid braids.

“Found you.”

She looks over to her right and sees Bakugo coming to a stop beside an electrical post several feet away from where she was standing with his phone brought up to one ear.

“Yeah.” She breathes out, holding the phone on her hand tighter.

“Now get off the fucking phone and get over here.” He barks, making her almost drop her phone.

Ochako rushes over to him, already prepared for the ear splitting lecture she was about to receive. One of the first things she noticed was the thin, sheen of sweat covering his face, making strands of his hair stick to his skin, the other was the sound of his breaths, heavy and labored.

“Remind me again why you wandered off without telling me?” He breathes out, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration.

“You were talking to Mr. Fujioka’s granddaughter and I didn’t want to interrupt--”

He frowns and turns away from her, walking towards the direction of where he had come from, “You clearly don’t know your way around here and then you go off on your own as if you fucking do.” He spits out. The harshness of his words reached her even if she was a good few feet behind him.

“You said it yourself that you haven’t been here before and yet here you are getting yourself lost because of some stupid--”

“It was a stupid thing to do, okay?” She calls out to him, “I’m sorry.”

Bakugo keeps on walking at his own quickened pace, but after a while, his hands find both sides of his face, dragging them downwards accompanied by an exasperated groan. Ochako notices his footsteps slow down to match hers so that they were once again walking side by side.

He turns to her, “Did you atleast get the damn marker.”

“About that,” Ochako starts, “I may or may not have accidentally shoplifted it.” She lifts the unpaid marker up for him to see.

“You what?” He asks in disbelief.

“I promise I didn’t mean to, let’s just go back and I’ll apologize and pay for it--”

“We’re not going back there.” Bakugo interjects as they rounded a corner, ultimately walking past the bookshop.  

“Why not?” She asks him, a little winded because of the brisk walking she was doing due to all the twists and turns they were taking as the laundromats and convenience stores around them turned back into electrical posts and residential houses.

“I don’t want to get ambushed by that gremlin again.” He huffs out.

“But how am I supposed to pay for this?” She waves the technically stolen marker up in the air once more as they walk back to the uphill trail headed to UA.

“I’ll figure something out.” He says, taking the maker from her and placing it inside the plastic bag along with the rest of their stuff. She turns to him, still a bit puzzled by how much Bakugo wanted to avoid that place because of Mr. Fujioka’s granddaughter

“What happened?” Ochako asks, “You and Mr. Fujioka’s granddaughter?” It must have been really bad if it made Bakugo want to steer clear of that bookshop.

“She said that she had some kind of message from her grandfather, but turns out the crazy witch just wanted my number in the fucking end.” He explains, kicking a stray pebble to the side of the dirt trail.

“Ah.” A part of her had already expected that answer from him, considering the way that braided girl had been undressing him with her eyes the entire time they were paying for their items a while ago. Another part of her was relieved that Bakugo had reacted the way he did with Mr. Fujioka’s granddaughter, not because she was jealous or anything, no, but it was simply because she wouldn’t be good for him to begin with and Bakugo was clearly not interested.

Before her thoughts could have any more chances to delve into matters such as Bakugo and jealousy, Ochako feels a buzz in her coat pocket.

“Mom?” She says as soon as her phone meets her ear. She sees Bakugo stop walking as he shoots her a look that asked, ‘Let’s stop?’ , but Ochako shakes her head and carries on in response, it would be better if they returned to UA faster.

“Honey!” Ochako hears her mom exclaim, “I hope I didn't catch you at a bad time.”

“No, no, you’re fine, mom.” She quickly replies. Her mom couldn’t have chosen a better time to call since the thoughts in her head had been needing a push towards a different direction, “What's up?”

“Well, you know how particularly chatty your father gets whenever we visit.” Her mother starts. Ochako could already hear the fond smile in her voice, “He couldn't stop talking about you, honey, and we both just ended up missing you more.”

“Oh, Mom.” She croaked, “I miss you too, both of you.”

Ochako’s classmates would normally visit home during the weekends, some even having the luxury of going home to visit their families after classes, but she only gets to see hers on Sundays, but even those sundays weren’t always free for her to use on family time since sometimes she needed it to study the lessons and finish the homework she had missed out on because of her job.

“Your father and I just wanted to know how you were doing, Ochako.”

“Everything's okay, mom.” She reassures her, “I’m okay.”

“Have you been eating well?” Her mother asks with a considerable amount of worry coating her voice. Ochako almost laughs at this, her mom has never failed to ask her about how well she’s eating in every conversation they have. She’s too worrisome for her own good, but then again, she was a mother.

“Yes, mom. I’m eating perfectly well.” Ochako chuckles.

“Are you sure?” Her mom adds, “You don’t miss my cooking at all?”

“Mom!” She laughs, “Of course I do, I miss it everyday.” Ochako hears her mother laugh on the other side of the line. There was no lie there, one of the many things she missed about home was the dishes her mother used to prepare for her and her father everyday. Nothing could ever replace that.

“How’s dad doing?” She asks, the cheerfulness in her voice decreasing at the thought of her father in a hospital.

“Here, why don’t you ask him yourself.”

She hears some distant shuffling in the background as her mother transfers the phone to her dad. Ochako’s heart almost beats out of her chest in anticipation.

“Dumpling! I missed you!” She hears her dad cheer. If Bakugo weren’t around, Ochako would have already burst into tears at the sound of her father's voice. As sappy as it may sound, she was getting desperate to hear it after all the stress the past weeks have been bringing down upon her. If only she was there to see the smile on his face as he greeted her by her favorite nickname.

“I miss you too, dad.” She smiles, “How’ve you been?”

“Bored.” Her father says flatly, “The nurses here have no sense of humor.”

“Don’t worry,” Ochako laughs, “Mom’s there to laugh at all your jokes.”

“She’s no fun.” She hears him pout, “Your mother makes better ones.”

Ochako’s chuckles and smiles so hard she feels her cheeks begin to cramp. She missed her dad’s jokes. It was another kind of joy to hear them and it had been a while since she last did.

“Oh! Before I forget to mention it.” She adds, “I bought something for you.”

“Oh?”

“The Forbidden Kiss by Yui Himari.” She recalls the book that Bakugo had picked out for her. It was the perfect novel for her father to read because if he loved anything more than he loved romances, it would be forbidden romances.

“I’ve heard good things about that one!” He says, brimming with enthusiasm, “I gotta give it to you, dumpling, you got good taste in books.”

“Yep.” Ochako glances at the blond walking beside her only to see that he was already looking at her, “I do have pretty good taste in books.” She smiles at him.

‘Damn right, I do.’ He mouths.

“Is there a sequel?” Her father asks, “I gotta know in case there’s a cliffhanger.”

“Is there a sequel?” She repeats, looking up at Bakugo once again in hopes of getting an answer from him. He holds up three fingers and mouths, ‘Trilogy’.

“It’s a trilogy actually,” She replies, “So you don’t have to worry about getting cliffhangered.”

“That’s good.” He laughs, “Visit soon, okay, dumpling?”

Ochako feels a tight squeeze in her heart, homesickness flooding her veins once more, “I will, dad. I promise.”

“Now, shoo. I have a wife I need to annoy.” He teases with mock annoyance.

“Bye, dad.” She smiles before her father ends the call.

“When are you gonna give it to him?” Bakugo asks as they walk past the UA Arch at the back of their campus. They were finally back.

“Thankfully, I’m free this Sunday, so I’ll be spending the entire day there.” Ochako claps her hands together, the smile on her face still unwavering. That phone call really did the trick, she feels as if she could take on another month no matter how stressful it may be. Honestly speaking, she thinks she could take on anything.  

“Training with Gunhead and keeping up with school fucks everything up for you, doesn’t it?” Bakugo asks as they begin to climb the first flight of stairs.

“Yep.” She agrees.

“You can do it.” He says, stopping in the middle of the second set of stairs. She pauses as well, looking up at him to see that unreadable expression back on his face once again, “That shit’s child’s play for you, round face.”

Ochako smiles at him before speeding past him, “Easy peasy, Lemon squeezy.”

“And another thing,” Bakugo adds, “You’re a little miss hotshot all of a sudden, aren’t you?”

“Hotshot?” She calls out to him. Ochako doesn’t remember doing anything that would merit a nickname like that. Round Face, Cheeks, and Weirdo, she understood, but Little Miss Hotshot?

“Getting the best grade in Midnight’s essay, answering all of Mic’s questions in straight english, beating ponytail’s ass to all of Ectoplasm’s practice problems?” He enumerates as they stand in front of the classroom’s entrance, “Ring a bell?”

Ochako was stunned by the fact that he even remembered all of those things when she herself had forgotten about it. It had been more than a month of her being tutored by Bakugo and she hadn’t even noticed how much she had been improving over the weeks. Turns out she was improving a lot.

“I couldn’t have done it without you, though.” She turns to him, a warm smile stretching over her face before opening the door and stepping inside. It was true. She wouldn’t have gotten this far if not for his help, no matter how much they may argue and bicker during their sessions, she will never deny the fact that she was learning from him.

“Go on, hotshot.” He says before handing her the marker, “Prove me wrong.”

---

“And that’s why I used the second formula to solve it.” She underlines the first part of her work before facing her one-man audience sitting at the far end of the classroom with his feet resting on top of the chair in front of him.

“Why not the first one?” He challenges.

“That’s where you’re wrong.” She starts, “See this? What number is this?” Ochako encircles a part of the given problem.

“I’m not blind, round face.” He says flatly.

“Just answer the damn question, Bakugo.” She snaps. She was this close to proving him wrong, she’d like it if he wouldn’t throw anymore snarky comments that would only prolong the grand finale.

“Three.” He drones impatiently.

“You only use the first formula for even limits and the second for odd ones.” Ochako explains, “Since when was three an even number?”

Bakugo’s eyebrows furrow at the sudden revelation of his mistake, but after a few seconds, he scoffs and rolls his eyes at her, “It’s not.”

“Then I rest my case.” She gloats, taking a seat at one of the desks at the front. Ochako knew for damn sure that she was right all along. All she needed was a chance to prove it and for Bakugo to listen and cooperate.

“Happy with yourself, Cheeks?” He asks sarcastically.

“Oh, you know it.” Ochako smiles to herself. She glances at the timer on her phone and to make matters even better, they had finished their session earlier than usual.

“By the way,” She turns to him and holds up the marker she had just used, “How am I going to pay for this again?”

Bakugo holds his hand up in the air and she tosses it to him, “I’ll text the old man and pay for it the next time I stop by Kinoku.” He says, catching it just in time before it hit the ground. Ochako notices the slight movement in his chair as he caught the marker, if he had leaned back a little further, he could have fallen.

“You know, if you keep tipping your chair back like that, you’re going to end up falling.” She warns him.

“Just because you got a math problem right, doesn’t mean you get to tell me what to-- Shit!”

Ochako’s prediction comes true, Bakugo’s chair slips and tumbles to the ground, bringing him along with it. She didn’t mean to laugh, but the look on Bakugo’s face when the chair fell over was just too priceless for her not to.

“I told you so.” She chortles in between laughs.

She doesn’t hear anything from Bakugo after her laughter had died down, nor did she see him try standing back up. From where she was sitting, she could see part of his legs flat on the floor, unmoving.

“Bakugo?” She lifts herself up from her seat and walks over to the back of the classroom. Her heart pounded with worry in each step she took towards the farthest chair in the back. Did he hurt himself? Oh, god, what if he hit his head?

Ochako reaches Bakugo’s seat, but she didn’t even have enough seconds to react to the leg that swiftly swipes across her feet.

“That’s what you get for laughin-- Fuck!”

Bakugo's sentence was cut short by her body crash landing on his. Bakugo's hands instinctively reach for her waist in an attempt to catch her while Ochako's arms quickly fly in front of her to prevent both their heads from colliding.

Bakugo's little revenge plan may have intended for her her to fall flat on the floor like he did, but it only led to the unfavorable position of Ochako being pressed on top of Bakugo, both their legs slightly tangled in one another as the strands of hair that hung from her head brush against the stunned expression on Bakugo's face.

None of them dared to move an inch, with both their eyes locking onto each other, wide with surprise as the steady rhythm of their breaths filled the empty, unsure silence that settled in the room. Her heart raced a thousand miles per minute upon the delayed realization of how close their faces were, not to mention the grip Bakugo still had on her sides that only grew tighter with each passing moment.

Don’t look at his lips. Don't look at his lips. Don't look at his lips. The desperate mantra in her head repeated over and over, making sure her eyes never left his.

Don't look at his lips.

It might just be a trick of the light, but to her surprise, Bakugo looks down at hers.

The resounding ring of the alarm on her phone suddenly fills the air and they immediately scramble off of each other in lightning speed. Bakugo hurriedly collects his bag from the floor and rushes out of the room while Ochako hastily grabs her things from her seat.

She looks back at the door and sees it turn upside down. Ochako feels the two pieces of hair that framed her face fall in front of her as she realizes that her feet were no longer on the ground.

She was floating.

[anna-scribbles]

merry christmas @kenna-nor!! i was ur aps secret santa :)) I hope this satisfied all your marichat/post reveal needs haha

[the-bluespirit]

[kenna-nor]

My life has been CONSUMED making this over the past few days 

I hope you guys like this animatic as much as I do :)

[makiema]

★ Welcome to the Madness ★

[spicyfloaty]

Ochako's Birthday

Bakugo: *sitting on his girlfriend's bed with a bow wrapped around his head*

Ochako (enters rooom): What are you-

Bakugo: I've been sitting here for over two hours, if you don't kiss me right now I will kill you

[spicyfloaty]

I enjoy Kacchako so much because it involves the basic shipping principles of pairing polar opposites, in this case: explosion boy and sunshine girl

[spicyfloaty]

ochako: breathes

bakugo: her guts and roundness are respectable

[miltalz]

i make the rules

[spicyfloaty]

i initially wrote fanfic for myself and my unrealistic needs and this is a perfect illustration to show what went on in my head during that time

[rosiebrie]

not to be *that* person,,,

but Mahoro

and Katsuma

lowkey

look like Kacchako lovechildren

[dailykacchako]

Here’s a Kacchako kiss that no one asked for but here it is anyway

Fan animation by: DailyKrumbs Twitter

[spicyfloaty]

the noise that came out of my mouth was not human KSJDHKJFH

[blondthndrninja]

Kacchako in 1 picture:

[tinnymisu]

redrew a scene from wolf children bc i fell in love with this kacchako AU 💌🐺

[spicyfloaty]

tears. just tears. 

[dailykacchako]

Cold nights and Coffee

Fan-art by dailykrumbs Twitter

[forevershadowbannedswordblade]

shipping the main female character with the main male protagonist

Shipping the main female character with the other guy

[spicyfloaty]

second lead syndrome never fails me

[spicyfloaty]

Give & Take | Chapter 10

pairing: kacchako

genre: slowburn/fluff

words: 7.3k

summary: Ochako's grades are slipping. Bakugo is dangerously nearing suspension, or worse, expulsion. A certain twist of fate pairs them together for tutoring sessions. He teaches her math. She keeps him from getting suspended. A simple exchange, but what if this only brings them closer than necessary?

header credits: @alexbenedetto

[READ ON AO3]

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten: Gunhead’s Agency

Bakugo had not spoken to nor looked at Ochako for the rest of the week. If she hadn’t known any better, she would have said that he was avoiding her. Did she actually know better though, was the question.

She had expected him to approach her the next day to quiz her like before, the earliest hours of her day were spent anxiously waiting at the dining hall first thing in the morning only to find out that she was waiting for nothing. The days after that were no different. Ochako still sat on the table to the left, nearest to the kitchens, the same one both of them had occupied, making sure that she sat there even at the same time of day so that she didn’t miss him.

He never came.

Her best bet was the two sessions they still had that week, but even those days weren’t enough for him to give her the time of day. The two hours they were required to spend together were simply reduced to study period, which left her independently sifting through her textbook while Bakugo sat on the other side of the room, listening to music, much like the same situation they had during the very first time they started studying together. She didn’t complain nor was she annoyed by this since she already understood the topics she was tasked to read and because she knew that his silence probably had something to do with what happened with Kai and Shintani.

Even with that assumption in mind, Ochako still wasn’t sure. It’s not like they were all buddy-buddy that she can just ask him directly about what’s been going on in that head of his, but at the same time, on the other side of the coin, she can’t help but feel hurt. She chastised herself for even feeling this way, it sounded selfish, but she dared to admit that she cared for him. Probably cared a little too much to the point where she actually feels upset because he wasn’t talking to her.

She wanted to know why he was avoiding her, if it was really because of Kai and Shintani, something entirely unrelated, or something she had done?

Ochako squeezes her eyes shut and winces at the thought. She hated overthinking things. All this time, she had assumed that Bakugo and her were kind of headed to a path that maybe resembled friendship. She thought that they were actually beginning to see each other eye to eye, but now he ignores her.

Despite these troublesome feelings, a part of Ochako knew that there was probably a really good reason why he had been acting the way he did. Along with those selfish emotions, there was genuine worry. Was he okay? What’s he thinking about right now? Was he dealing with something she didn’t know about? Was he dealing with it alone?

Ochako sighs, placing the last of her belongings in the yellow backpack. I have got to stop thinking about this.

She zips the bag shut and quietly makes her way downstairs, careful so as to not draw any kind of attention towards her as the rest of her classmates pooled around the couches, some even grouped together at different tables in the dining hall. She carefully sneaks to the back area of the dorms, a familiar routine she had been practicing ever since she started working at her part time job.

Slipping away unnoticed was a difficult task, especially during the weekends when she leaves the dorms at exactly the time when most of her classmates were clumped amongst each other in the common area. She’d leave at an earlier time, but doing so would leave her sitting on concrete outside the locked doors of the cafe since only Kit had the key to it.

Ochako reaches for the doorknob, grinning to herself. Once again, Ochako Uraraka sneaks away completely unnoticed.

“Uraraka! Where are you headed off to?” A lively voice asks.

She whips her head around to see Mina behind her with Koda’s pet rabbit snuggled up in her arms. As adorable as the sight may be, she feels an immediate surge of panic. The timing of it all! Just when she was about to open the door to another successful escape.

“Oh, me?” She sputters like an idiot, but frankly, there weren't many rational responses floating around in her head to choose from.

“Yeah, silly!” Mina giggles, “Who else would I be talking to?”

“Oh, of course.” She nervously giggled back, “I’m off to Gunhead’s actually.” There was a slight tremor in her voice as the lie passed through her lips. She really had to get better at saying that  reused and recycled excuse with more confidence if she wanted people to believe it.

Ochako manages to regain her composure. All she had to do was to tell her what she usually tells everyone when they ask about her whereabouts.

“Oh right, I forgot you were still training with him” Mina recalls, gently stroking Kawaii-chan’s soft, white, fur, “Why are you sneaking out through the back, though?” She follows up, tilting her head and Ochako could have sworn that she saw the bunny so the same.

Before she could reply, Kirishima waltzes over to Mina’s side, dragging along a scowling Bakugo underneath one arm, “Minaaaaa, it’s our turn with Kawaii-chan!” He whines.

“It’s too fucking early for you to drag me all over the place, shitty hair.” Bakugo snarls under his breath, irritated eyes focused on his phone.

“You let me get away with it anyways.” Kirishima teases sweetly. He finally spots her when he turns back to face Mina, “And what’s going on here?” The redhead asks, a pointed finger switching back and forth between the two ladies.

Ochako feels her heart begin to race at the sudden increase of people surrounding her when what she had originally planned to do was sneak out of anyone’s sight without drawing attention to herself. Her eyes flicker to Bakugo, half-expecting for him to be doing the same, only to see him still fixated on his phone.

Mina turns to Kirishima, “Uraraka’s going to Gunhead’s Agency.” She replies, and for the first time in days, Bakugo looks up from his phone, curious, red eyes locking onto hers.

“Wait, why are you going through the back door, though?” Kirishima repeats.

“Yeah, that’s what I said!” Mina adds. All three of them watched her expectantly, but it was Bakugo’s stare that made her stutter the most.

“I’m going this way b-because um,” Come on, Ochako, think! “Because there was...a spider!” She finally spits out. Once again, there wasn’t an abundant supply of excuses to choose from right that second.

“A spider?” Kirishima asks, his eyebrows drawn together hopefully due to confusion and not skepticism.

“Yes!” She nods, “There was a really, really big one over there by the front door, it was about the size of my hand!” Ochako holds her palm up and stretches it out as wide as she can to fully exaggerate the size of this non-existent spider as her voice feigned horror the best it can.

“I didn’t know you were afraid of spiders.” Mina smiles, seemingly amused to discover something new about her friend.

“Deathly afraid.” Ochako quickly replies, making sure to visibly shudder to seal the deal.

Kirishima’s arm fall from Bakugo’s shoulders as he started to make his way towards the other direction, “I can get it for you if you wa--”

“No!” Ochako immediately protests. Shocked even by her own sudden outburst, she attempts to regroup, “I mean um, you really don’t have to.”  

Before anyone can add anything else and before Bakugo’s eyes could bore more holes into her skull, she grabs the doorknob behind her, “But yeah, I really have to go now.” Ochako swings the door open and hurriedly steps outside, “Bye!”

The door closes and she exhales a breath of relief, she’s going to be needing another strategy the next time she sneaks out because she does not want to be cornered like that ever again. She hastily made her way to the train station, the city’s streets were already bustling with morning commuters. You’d think that the station would be somewhat deserted this early in the morning, but then again, the grind doesn’t stop with the rising and setting of the sun.

Ochako squeezes herself through the sea of bodies swarming around the edge of the station, waiting for the next train to arrive. An inexperienced commuter would have easily been tossed to the side or swept away by the sheer force of the crowd, but she was already accustomed to this sort of thing since her family couldn’t exactly afford to buy themselves a personal car to take them places.

She manages to position herself at the forefront of the buzzing crowd when a weird feeling settles in her gut. She feels all her senses spike up and the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end. Her head instinctively turned to see if there was someone staring at her from behind, but strangely enough, there was no one.

That’s weird, she thinks to herself.

A train finally arrives, its doors sliding open to welcome a new set of passengers. She turned around once more before entering to make sure that no one really was watching at her, but despite the nagging feeling, there really was no one. She takes a seat and places her backpack on her lap, running her fingers through the fabric to seek some kind of comfort from them.

Ochako recalls the little children by the playground near her home following a singular ant to its anthill while focusing the heat of the sun on the poor thing with a magnifying glass. Right now, she felt like an ant. For some strange reason, she feels like she’s being watched, or worse followed.

She spends almost the entire journey feeling as though someone’s eyes were on her, but the paranoia welling up in her stomach was interrupted by the phone buzzing in her pocket. What surprised her was the name that flashed on the screen.

Bakugo: Where are you actually going?

Her thoughts shift to the days when Bakugo had avoided her and the silence that engulfed the classroom they studied in a few days ago. Along with these thoughts, came that selfish feeling she was trying so hard to suppress.

Ochako: So you’re talking to me now?

Oh, how Ochako had wished she had never sent that message. Her palm immediately flies to her forehead, regret instantly flooding her system. She was trying so hard to hide the part of her that was upset, promising herself that it would never see the light of day, but here she was, unintentionally being petty.

Bakugo: I asked for answers, not attitude.

Ochako: Like I said, I’m going to Gunhead’s Agency.

Bakugo: Really.

Bakugo: Without any training gear?

Ochako could almost hear the condescending tone in his voice while reading his last message. Her thumbs did a clumsy dance over the keyboard as she tried to come up with a logical excuse.

Ochako: I already have it there.

Bakugo: You’re lying.

She stares at her phone, dumbfounded. Seriously. Bakugo doesn’t talk to her for days, barely giving her the time of day and the first thing on his to do list when he finally does talk to her was to call her a liar. Well, technically, she was, but still.

Bakugo: Got no more excuses to pull out of your ass?

Ochako: I’m not replying because I already told you the truth.

Bakugo: No you didn’t.

Bakugo: What are you hiding?

Ochako decides on not replying any further, sliding the phone back in her pocket, out of sight, out of mind. A minute barely passes when it starts ringing.

“Are you being serious right now?” Ochako snaps the second her phone lands on her ear.

“Did you seriously just leave me on fucking read?” She hears him bark from the other side of the line. She didn’t need to see him right now to visualize the scowl on his face.

“You kept calling me a liar, what else was I supposed to do?” She retorts, making sure to still keep her voice leveled despite the rising temperature of both their tempers. There was no need for her to make a scene in the train.

“I don’t know, tell the truth?” He argues. The train comes to a stop and Ochako hears the faint wail of a car horn on his side of the call as she stepped outside. Now that she mentioned it, she heard the sounds of people that seemed to be rushing past him as well.

“Wait, you’re not in the dorms?” She asks, pushing past the throng of incoming commuters as she made her way out of the station. “Where are you?”

“I’m asking you that.” He counters. Ochako still heard the indiscriminate buzz of a busy street coming from wherever he was as she walked towards the direction of the cafe.

“Bakugo, I’m literally walking into Gunhead’s building right now.” She informs him, looking up at the wooden signboard perched on top of the cafe’s entrance as she opened its doors.

“Funny,” He scoffs, “Not everyday a hero agency installs a fucking bell on their doorstep.”

Ochako’s stomach drops to the floor as she realizes her mistake, mentally cursing whoever decided to place a decorative bell above the cafe’s entrance. Her finger instantly slides towards the glowing red circle on her screen, ultimately hanging up on him. She walks in on Kit flipping the chairs kept on top of the tables, “Good morning, ‘Chako--Woah are you okay? You look constipated.”

“It’s nothing, I’m fine.” She dismisses him, shaking her head as she walked towards him, “Let me help you with that.”

She changed into her uniform after each table had been set. Ochako tied her apron around her waist securely as she took her position by the entrance, it was her turn on door and table duty as Kit manned the cashier.

If not for the overwhelming rush of customers, Ochako might have already been consumed with the question of what Bakugo could possibly be doing out of the dorms on a Saturday. He rarely ever has any plans other than staying up in his room to study or train, and if he ever did end up having plans, it would usually be on a Sunday.

She nearly messes up an order thanks to the thoughts swarming around her head, but thankfully, the sweet, old lady was nice about it when she apologized profusely for the mistake. Of all the people who could place their suspicions on her, why did it have to be Bakugo?

Ochako was wiping the surface of a newly vacated table when she heard a woman raise her voice in one of the tables from the other side of the cafe. Her head whips towards that direction and it seemed like a mother was scolding her toddler while also rocking a baby back and forth in her arms. The toddler bursts in tears not long after and Ochako decides to approach the scene only to see that there was a pool of vomit beside their table.

“I’m so sorry.” The mother tries to apologize through the wails of the toddler beside her while also hastily wiping her baby’s face clean with a napkin.

“It’s okay,” She reassures her with a kind smile, “I’ll take care of it.”

Ochako walks over to one of the sinks in the restroom and wets a rag from her apron. She heads back to their table and starts wiping off the gunk on their table, then proceeding to the pool of vomit on the floor. She doesn’t flinch at the sight of it nor was she the slightest bit disgusted by the smell since she had been used to vomit all her life. Most of her elementary days consisted of her cleaning up after herself, wiping almost every square inch of her house clean of vomit after using her quirk for too long.

She finishes up cleaning and rinses the soiled rag in the kitchens with a small smile on her face, only for it to be wiped off when she returns to the front to see that the toddler had made his way out of his seat, throwing a louder tantrum than before as he stood next to his visibly distressed mother, trying to rock his sister to sleep.

She also notices that half of the patrons had their eyes on the scene, some even glaring at the poor woman who was desperately trying to calm her kid down. Ochako heads over to their table once more and slightly raises her hand to get the mother’s attention. The woman finally turns to her and Ochako mouths, “May I?”

The mother quickly nods and Ochako takes that as a signal to kneel in front of the fussy, little boy, “Hello.” She begins.

The boy opens his tear-streaked eyes, the ear-splitting wails also come to a halt when he sees her, “What’s your name?” Ochako asks.

“M-mako.” He sniffles, wiping his nose with the back of his hand.

“Hi, Mako.” She smiles, “I’m Ochako. Is it okay if you tell me what’s wrong?”

“I d-dont like b-brussels sprouts!” He shrieks, stomping a tiny foot down to the floor.

“I see,” Ochako’s eyes fall to the toy Mako was clutching within his small fingers. An All Might fan, huh?

“I don’t like them too but,” she starts before leaning in as if to tell him a secret, “I’ve heard that All Might’s favorite food is Brussels sprouts.” She whispers as though she had spilled the beans on the greatest piece of gossip ever.

Mako crosses his arms, watery but doubtful eyes trained on hers, “How would you even know that?” He snivels.

Ochako was prepared for this question. She grins and leans in even further, “He’s one of my teachers at school.”

Mako’s eyes light up to a million watts, enough to power the entire cafe if you asked her, “You’re from UA!” He gasps, holding the toy with both hands this time.

“Mhm.” She nods, smiling.

“What’s your quirk?” Mako asks excitedly, his eyes shifting to different parts of her body trying to find some sort of sign that would give away her quirk.

Ochako chuckles at his excitement, “Mind if I borrow him for a second?” She asks, gesturing to the figurine in his hand.

He hurriedly hands her his toy without any hesitation, eager eyes trained on her hands as she took it from him, “Watch this.” Ochako places all five fingers around the toy and activates her quirk, making it float just a few feet from her hands.

Mako stares at the All Might figurine in the air with awe, his eyes sparkling with pure, child-like wonder, “He’s flying!”

“Do you want to be a hero too, Mako?” She asks.

He nods vigorously, “More than I hate Brussels sprouts!” Mako cries out, glistening eyes still fixated on the levitating figurine.

“Well, if you eat your vegetables everyday, even if they’re Brussels sprouts, you’ll become stronger and stronger by the day and before you know it--” Ochako draws her palms together and releases the figurine, catching it just in time before handing it back to him, “You’ll be one of the greatest heroes in history.” She finishes with a warm smile.

Mako grabs a piece of Brussels sprout from the table and quickly takes two hasty bites out of it, “I’ll be a hero!” He proclaims through a cheeky-sprout-filled smile. Ochako laughed, ruffling his hair before standing back up.

“Thank you.” His mother beamed at her, now looking more relaxed as she cradled his now sleeping sister in her arms.

“Anytime, ma’am.” She beams back at her before walking back to the counter to pick up some orders, not missing the subtle high-five from Kit while doing so. Ochako loved her job. She loved it despite difficult customers like the business lady from last week, because days like these and people like Mako are what make it worthwhile.

Patrons start to slowly depart one by one as their lunch break draws near. Ochako mentally thanked whoever came up with the idea of a break since it was the number one thing she needed as of the moment. She can’t even imagine how haggard she must have looked despite the fact that she was only halfway through her shift for today.

Ochako was bussing one of the empty tables when Kit suddenly called out to her from the counter, “What’s up?” she asked as she approached him.

“See that customer in the back?” He points to a hooded figure seated at the farthest side of the cafe. She hadn’t noticed them before nor did she remember approaching their table before.

“They haven’t ordered anything since they got here a while ago,” Kit explains, “it’s almost break time and they’re still not budging.” He says with a worried look on his face.

“I’ll go check up on them.” Ochako picks up the tray of dishes and makes her way to the far end of the cafe. She thanks her lucky stars for the tight grip that she had on them, because it almost drops to the ground when she sees Bakugo staring right back at her when she finally reaches his table.

“I didn’t know that Gunhead ran his agency like a cafe.” He quips, not taking his eyes off her as it trailed up and down her uniform.

“Didn’t know he’d let his interns wear that too.” He follows up, lips curling in disapproval.

Ochako didn't know whether to be insulted about his comment about her appearance or downright mortified that Bakugo Katsuki had caught her in a lie she just told him on the phone a few hours ago. She looks back at Kit and mouths “Cover for me?” Her co-worker gives her a thumbs up, a worried look stretching over his face.

She quickly sets the tray of dirty dishes on the table and slides in the seat across from him, “What are you doing here?” She hisses in a hushed tone.

“What are you doing here?” He hisses back with the same, if not more ferocity, compared to hers, “You’re supposed to be training.”

Ochako’s eyes widened at the realization as her thoughts raced back to the weird feeling she had on the train and what Bakugo’s side of the call sounded like as they were talking, “Were you the one following me?” She presses on.

“I’m asking the questions here, round face.” He retorts, narrowing his eyes at her.

How is he here? How did she not notice him come in? When did he get here? The tiny Ochakos in her head were bursting at the seams, running around in a panic, trying to figure out how this was even possible. He must have gotten inside while she wasn’t looking and the only time she remembered doing that was when she was cleaning up after Mako’s sister. Her cheeks flush red at the thought, this would mean that Bakugo had seen her clean up vomit on the floor.

“How long have you been here?” She questions him. God knows what he’s seen her doing-- scratch that--God knows how unsightly she must have looked like .

Bakugo crosses his arms, “Long enough to know that you’re a liar.”

“Oh my god, who else is here?” She asks, looking around the cafe and out of the window, expecting to see Mina, Kirishima, and Kaminari to jump out of the tall tree sitting outside.

“Will you stop looking around like a crazy person?” He chided, “I came alone.”

Ochako turns to him, “You could’ve been followed.” She points out, eyes still shifting towards the tree outside the window.

“Unlike you, I can actually tell if I’m being followed.” He jeers, rolling his eyes at her incompetence.

“So you were following me!” She fumed, her voice raising just a few decibels from what was necessary.

“Is everything okay here?” Kit suddenly appears beside them, a concerned expression painting over his face. Ochako immediately stands up from her seat and steers Kit a few steps away from their table, “What’s going on, ‘Chako?” He asks after she stops dragging him away from Bakugo.

“He’s a um,” She looks back at Bakugo, not exactly sure how to describe their relationship, “friend from school. He doesn't know I work here.”

Kit’s eyebrows shoot upwards, “Holy shit, is that him?” He asks loudly.

Her palm instantly finds Kit’s mouth, “Keep it down.” She hisses. This was definitely not the time for Kit’s suggestive remarks, not when Bakugo was here to hear them, “Just give me a minute.”

She releases him from her grip, “You’re good, ‘Chako.” He laughs, “Break time just rolled in, go get him, tiger!” Kit cheers her on as he makes his way back to the counter, earning him a nasty look from her and upon returning to her seat, she sees that Bakugo already had been giving Kit a nastier one.

“Okay.” She starts. Ochako can’t lie her way out of this one. “I’m not really interning for Gunhead anymore.”

“Well no shit, Sherlock.” Bakugo scoffs.

“Will you please let me finish.” She snaps back, shooting him a pointed look. This seems to catch him by surprise, his demeanor changing for a moment before sinking deeper into his chair with a defeated look on his face, “Thank you.” She breathes out.

Ochako shifts in her own seat, trying to come up with the right words to explain everything that had been going on, “I don’t know if Mr. Aizawa told you about my father, but he’s…” She looks away before continuing, “Not fit to work right now.”

Her words could’ve been considered as the understatement of the century, they weren’t even sure if her father would be able to walk again after suffering from a severe hip injury at one of their construction sites.

She finds a stray napkin and begins to fiddle with it as if it would help with the bleak atmosphere she had brought down on the table, “With my dad out of commission and my mom shouldering the family business all by herself, we eventually lost a lot of money.”

“On top of that, there’s dad’s medical bills and I needed the extra money for that so,” She looks up from the crumpled napkin on her hands and gestures to the cafe around her, “Here I am.”

It’s weird how she could sum up all her troubles in a few sentences when it had plagued her life for over a month now. What’s weirder was that she had never said it out loud to anyone before and now she was doing just that in front of the person she had least expected to know about it first.

Bakugo’s eyes were still trained on her after she had finished her piece. Ochako’s gaze drops to the crumpled napkin once again, unsure of what else there is to say about her situation.

“Why are you hiding it?” He asks. She looked up at him and it seemed like his eyes never left her even as she was focused on the napkin in her hands, “You're just taking orders and bussing tables, it’s not like you’re selling drugs or something.” He reasons and this time it actually sounded like he genuinely didn’t know the answer.

“It’s not that I’m ashamed of what I do.” She replies. Like she said before, Ochako loved her job and everything that came with it. It was an honorable profession and she was beyond thankful for even getting the chance to do it, “Nobody knows about my dad or what’s happening with the family business and my friends don’t even know how bad my grades actually are, they just know that I’m being tutored by you.”

“I just don’t want anyone to...” She trails off.

“To worry about you.” He finishes for her.

“Yeah.”

She remembered how Bakugo had never told anyone about his conduct grade or how close he got to being suspended, or worse expelled, after that incident with 2C. It doesn’t even look like he had told Kirishima, or any of his close friends about his situation and a small part of her brain had told her that there was a chance that he might have had the same reasons as her.

“I won’t tell anyone.” He quietly adds after a while, looking away as his hand reached for the back of his neck.

And just like that, the conversation about her job ends. He doesn't look at her with pitiful eyes, his expression doesn’t change into anything that mirrored sympathy, nor does he treat her explanation as a sob story. All Bakugo does is what Ochako actually wanted him to do, which was to just simply understand.

Her thoughts fly back to the days prior and how Bakugo had acted after that incident with Kai and Shintani. She wanted to put the thoughts that had been ringing in her head to rest, but more importantly, she just wanted to know if he was okay. Whatever his reasons may be, she hoped that maybe, just maybe, she could return the favor and understand them too.

“Hey, Bakugo?” She starts, brown eyes finding their way back to the red ones in front of her, “Were you...avoiding me all week?” Ochako tried her best not to sound like someone who was even a tiny smidge affected by his actions, but the sadness in her voice had betrayed her.

He averted his gaze and for a moment, he was silent, his lips forming a thin line. Bakugo looked as though he was struggling for the right words to say, if not that, it looked like he was having a lot of trouble trying to say it. Either way, he didn’t immediately deny it so there must be some truth to what she had said.

“I didn’t mean to.” He finally answers, “There was a lot on my mind after…”

“Monday.” She finishes for him and he nods as a final sign to confirm her suspicions, but there was still one more question aching to be asked.

“Bakugo,” She began, “What happened during that fight?”

Her eyes find his once again, but this time he refused to meet them. Bakugo looked like he was having a harder time answering this particular question and Ochako began to have second thoughts asking him about it all of a sudden.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to pry.” She quickly adds, “You don’t have to tell me.”

“Not now.” He says, finally looking at her. Bakugo may not be ready to tell her about it now, but his response promised a time when he would.

“Okay.” She doesn’t press on any further. In all honesty, she was just relieved that they were talking again.

“Did it bother you that much?” He suddenly asks.

She lifts an eyebrow, “What did?”

“Me not talking to you.” He answers.

“No.” Ochako should have known better than to throw another lie in Bakugo’s way. He had already caught her in the last one she told him.

“You’re lying again.” He points out, eyes drooping in displeasure.

“It bothered me a little bit.” She offers. That was still a lie.

Bakugo’s eyes narrow as his lips twist into a frown, “Bullshit.”

“Ok, I was upset.” She finally gives in, “Happy?” There was absolutely no point in lying to him at this point. She knew he’d catch her either way.

“I fuckin’ knew it.” He grins, “Attached much?”

It was Ochako’s turn to frown, “Says the one who followed me here.”

“Shut up, that’s different.” He retorts.

She folds her arms over her chest, “Different how?”

“I was chasing after a liar.” Bakugo tilts his head to the side, pointing an accusatory finger at her, “You just miss me.”

Ochako rolls her eyes so hard, she’s surprised it didn’t get stuck behind her skull, “Oh, give me a break.”

As if on cue, Kit appears beside their table once again, “Hey, break’s almost over.”

“Buzz off, prince charming.” Bakugo barks, “We’re not done here yet.”

Ochako whips her head to face Bakugo, surprised at the sudden change in his tone. She quickly turns to Kit, ready to pour out a thousand apologies, only to see him grinning at the blond hot head.

“Prince charming? I’ll take that as a compliment.” He chuckles, “I’ll be waiting by the counter, ‘Chako.”

“Chako?” Bakugo spits out as if the word had left the foulest taste in his mouth.

Kit leans against Ochako’s chair, still smiling at him, “Chill, man, it’s just a nickname.”

Ochako turns to Bakugo, “You do call me round face a lot.” She points out. Come to think of it, she couldn’t remember the last time he called her by her actual name.

Kit’s face lights up at this fact as he turns to Ochako, “He calls you round face?” Kit is smiling so wide that she was afraid he would need stitches by the end of the day.

“Then again, I can see why.” Kit remarked as he pinched the left side of her cheek.

“Cut it out, that hurts.” She whines. It didn’t actually hurt that much, it was just a force of habit since he usually pinched them so aggressively.

Bakugo swats his hand away from her, “You fucking heard her.”

“Bakugo.” She warns.

“It’s fine, ‘Chako.” He laughs. Kit turns to Bakugo, the smile on his face unwavering as he holds his hand out to him, “It’s really nice to finally meet you, Bakugo.”

Bakugo ignores her co-worker’s hand and his sentiment, “Can’t say the same for you.” He sneers, turning the other way. Kit shakes his head, still smiling, as he walks back to the counter, leaving the two of them alone.

“I’d appreciate it if you were nicer to Kit.” She points out. His reaction was completely unnecessary.

“Great,” Bakugo scoffs, “The fucker has a name.”

Ochako’s eyes furrow at his comment, “Yes he does, so will you please call him by it?”

“Whatever.” He grumbles, turning away once more. She sighs, there’s no way she’ll get through to him like this, not right now.

“Have a safe trip back to the dorms, Bakugo.” She says before collecting the tray of dirty dishes from their table, standing up from her seat to make her way towards the kitchens. They only had about ten more minutes left until their break was officially over.

“Who says I’m leaving?” Bakugo calls out to her.

She turns to him, “You’re not?”

“I followed you all the way to the other side of town, I might as well get a meal out of it.” He deadpans, another frown making its way back to his face. Ochako is amazed, but at the same time appalled by how Bakugo’s mood could just shift in a few seconds, she could never pinpoint what he’s thinking or how he’s feeling at any given moment.

“So are you gonna take my order, or are you just gonna stand around sucking at your job?” He drones.

Ochako turns around and takes a deep, calming breath. For some reason, Bakugo is fouler than usual, but she can handle it. She had mastered the art of keeping herself from chucking inanimate objects at him, which definitely came in handy since she had a tray’s worth of dishes that she could easily use as ammunition right now.

She turns back at him and flashes him her best customer-service-esque smile, “I’ll be right back.” She chirps in the friendliest tone she can muster. Ochako knew damn well that she didn’t suck at her job, she was great at it.

She takes his order after disposing of the dirty dishes she was carrying and it took every kind of will-power to pretend that he was just a normal, average, customer that she didn’t know so that she could get her job done with ease, not having to worry about getting distracted or being self-conscious about her movements.

Thankfully, his order doesn’t take long to arrive since he was literally the only customer there. She walks back to the counter after handing him his meal, “He doesn’t like me does he?” Kit observes.

“Please don’t take it personally,” Ochako tries to plead, “He could really be, um, harsh sometimes.” She explains.

“Oh, no, I’m fine!” He beams, “What about you though?” He suggestively elbows her sides, wiggling his eyebrows at her.

She laughs, “Oh, shut up, Kit.”

Right as she finishes her sentence, she  catches movement by the corner of her eye. She turns to see Bakugo holding his empty glass up for her to see with an impatient look hanging on his face. She grabs the pitcher of water and heads over to his table, still staying true to that mantra in her head that told her to just think of him as a regular customer as she poured him another glass.

She makes her way back to the counter to continue her chat with Kit, but a minute doesn’t even pass when Bakugo holds up another empty glass for her to fill up. This goes on for a few more times and Ochako would normally pay no mind to this, but when a customer asks for water at a five second interval without fail, that’s when you draw the line.

“I swear to god, if he calls me back there again, I’m quitting.” She groans after coming back from Bakugo’s table again. She didn’t mean that, of course, but walking back and forth to the same place during a short amount of time is getting under her nerves. It’s not so often that the cafe is low on customers and Ochako would have liked to spend that time actually resting and talking to Kit, but how else can she do that when she can’t even strike a proper conversation with him because Bakugo keeps on asking for water every five god damn seconds.

“Strange…” Kit mutters to himself.

“What is?” She asks, tired eyes looking up at him.

“Hold on, let me try something.” He mumbles, and before she could say anything else, Kit slings his arm around her shoulder and laughs as if she had just told him the funniest joke in the world. As if on command, Bakugo’s empty glass comes flying through the air once again.

“Okay, I see what’s going on here.” Kit smirks.

Ochako’s eyebrows knit together. She is not following whatever Kit was trying to do, “What do you mean?”

“Nothing, nothing.” He dismisses, giving her a gentle push towards Bakugo’s direction, “Now go, loverboy’s waiting.”

She begrudgingly walks back towards the only patron in the cafe and sets the pitcher of water on his table a little too forcefully for someone who was supposed to be calm and collected right now, “If you’re going to keep asking for water every ten seconds, I might as well leave the pitcher here.”

“You always talk to your customers like that?” He says as he pours himself his, what fifth?, glass of water.

“Only to you.” She says sarcastically.

He rolls his eyes, taking a full swig of water before standing up from his seat, “I’m leaving, have fun with that pompous asshole over there.” Bakugo shoves both hands in his pockets as he walked away from the table.

“You know, Kit meant it when he said that he was really happy to meet you.” She says, watching him as his back was to her. He pauses and for a moment, his shoulders sag, an exasperated breath following soon after. He paces towards Kit and Ochako’s eyes widen as she quickly catches up to him. Oh, please. Not another fight.

Bakugo stops just in front of the cashier where Kit was wiping the countertop. Kit immediately notices the frowning blond in front of him, but before he could ask him what he could help him with, Bakugo holds his hand out to him, “It was nice to fucking meet you too.” He mumbles in a low voice.

Kit was visibly at a loss for words, surprised eyes shifting from Bakugo’s hand, to Bakugo’s face, then to Ochako. He slowly reaches for Bakugo’s outstretched hand and shakes it, “The pleasures all mine, loverboy.” He smiles.

“Don’t call me that.” Bakugo fires back.

“You called me prince charming first.” Kit laughs heartily.

“Tch.” Bakugo rolls his eyes for the last time before walking out of the cafe. She follows him outside before he could get any farther, “Bakugo!”

He stops and looks back at her, “What?”

“Thank you.” She smiles at him. They were a good several feet away from each other, but she knew that he heard her.

His eyes widen ever so slightly and she takes note of how he always reacted this way whenever she thanked him for anything. Bakugo’s forehead creases as his lips twist into one final frown, “Weirdo.” He says before walking away, the wind lightly brushing the golden tufts of hair on the back of his head as he dissolved into the crowd of people also heading towards the train station.

The smile doesn't fall from her face when she goes back inside, her mind was debating on what nickname Bakugo had used for her the most, weirdo or round face.

“You look happy.” Kit muses from behind the counter.

Ochako walks over to the table Bakugo had just vacated, “Am I not allowed to be happy?” She joked as she collected the dishes he had used, which was an easy task since he had left them in a neat pile.

She hears Kit chuckle, “He’s quite the catch, isn’t he?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Kit.” She says, bringing the dirty dishes to one of the kitchen sinks.

“Yes you doooo” He teases in a sing-song voice.

Ochako walks back to her post near the entrance in preparation for the next set of customers that were about to walk through them any minute now, “Will you stop it with the suggestive undertones?” She asks flatly.

“Only if you stop being a dum-dum.” He replies.

She props a hand on her hips, “How am I a dum-dum?”

“That boy was obviously jealous, ‘Chako.” He deadpans as if it were the most obvious thing in the world for her to even miss it.

“Bakugo. Jealous.” She weighed in on every word making sure to emphasize that the two don’t go together.

“I’ll do you one better,” Kit interjects, “Bakugo. Smitten.”

She rolls her eyes, “Come on, Kit, Bakugo doesn’t like me like that.”

“Oh, yes he absolutely does.” He presses.

“He does not.” She fires back.

Kit moves out from the counter and walks over to her, placing the back of his hand over her forehead, “What are you doing?” She asks him.

“Just checking for a fever,” He says a matter of factly, “No healthy person would say something that stupid.”

She swats his hand away, leaving Kit doubling over with laughter, “I’m serious, Kit.”

He regains his composure, wiping away a solitary tear from the corner of his eye, “I’m serious too!”

“Trust me,” Kit returns to his post behind the counter, grabbing a rag beside the cashier to point towards her, “give it a month--oh wait, I don’t know how dense the both of you actually are so it’ll probably take longer than that--but besides the point, give it time and so help me if you two end up dating, you owe me a month’s worth of mochi.”

“You’re on,” Ochako laughs. Kit could have asked her to buy him a lifetime’s worth of mochi and she still would have agreed. There was no way that was going to happen.

[spicyfloaty]

Give & Take | Chapter 9

pairing: kacchako

genre: slowburn/fluff

words: 4.5k

summary: Ochako's grades are slipping. Bakugo is dangerously nearing suspension, or worse, expulsion. A certain twist of fate pairs them together for tutoring sessions. He teaches her math. She keeps him from getting suspended. A simple exchange, but what if this only brings them closer than necessary?

header credits: @alexbenedetto

[READ ON AO3]

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine: Mornings with Bakugo

Ochako was a morning person, the kind who purposefully wakes up before the sun does just so they could witness the day start. She had always loved early mornings back at home since it gave her the chance to cook her parents breakfast and see them off to work soon after. Getting a head start to a new day was a principle and routine she had stood by before her father got hurt on the job. 

Ever since her father’s injury, Ochako somehow morphed into the night owl she never thought she’d become. Despite this, the only reason you would catch her up late at night was either because she just got off of work or because she was finishing up some homework, both being tasks she was not too happy to do. She rarely got the chance to enjoy being a morning person, since late nights would require late mornings, which were much different from the early mornings she used to love.

Today was a blessing. Ochako had spent her entire Sunday holed up in her room to study for all her subjects, finishing all of her homework early on before it gets the opportunity to steal away precious hours of sleep later at night. Those precious hours, she made sure to spend them wisely by actually sleeping early that time.

Ochako takes another crunchy bite of toast, looking over to watch the first rays of sunshine spill from the rows of tall, glass windows. A soft, honey, morning glow bathe the dorm’s kitchens, tables, and common area. She takes a deep breath, basking in the comforting silence of the empty dining hall. She closes her eyes and groggily smiles into another sleepy bite of her toast, It’ll be awhile before I get a time like this again.

“Hey.” A familiar voice huffs.

Ochako drops her toast and almost jumps off her seat, a surprised squeak escapes her as she whips her head to see Bakugo standing beside her. He had both hands tucked in the pockets of his sweatpants, red eyes peering down at her waiting for a response. 

“God,” Her whole body sags in relief as she brings a hand up to her chest, “You almost gave me a heart attack.” She breathes out.

His eyes narrow, the rest of his expression unchanging, “What’s the derivative of cosine?”

Ochako tilts her head as her eyebrows knit together in confusion, “Good morning to you, too?”

“You’re still not answering the question.” He says impatiently.

The cogs in her mind have yet to completely wake up in order to fully function and comprehend what’s going on. Bakugo doesn’t usually wake up until much later so why the sudden change in schedule? Ochako rubs her tired eyes to double check if she’s seeing things right, but alas, Bakugo was still standing in front of her, proving that she was in fact not hallucinating.

“Wait, what is this again, exactly?” She asks.

His lips curl in disdain, “What does it look like I’m doing? I’m obviously quizzing you.”

“At six in the morning?” She hears the morning rasp in her voice. How, where, and when did he get the idea of doing this on the earliest crack of dawn and on top of that, how is he managing to not sound or look like someone who just woke up?

“So?” Bakugo prods, one eyebrow raised.

“I’m barely awake, Bakugo.” She says hoarsely, her words slow and steady much like how a person still coming out of sleep would sound like.

Two seconds hardly pass after the last syllable of her sentence when Bakugo swiftly leans towards her until their faces are mere centimeters away from each other.

“Hey!” Ochako yelps, hastily leaning back before their noses could touch.

“You look pretty awake to me, round face.” He deadpans, the space between their faces still a finger’s width apart.

She places both hands on his chest to push him away, which unfortunately didn’t do much since she might as well be trying to move a statue, “Okay, jeez, I get it!” Her face turns to the side to hide the deep shade of red flooding her cheeks. “Personal space, Bakugo, have you heard of it?”

“Answering the goddamn question, have you heard of it?” He fires back, finally stepping away to give her some room to recover.

“Fine,” She drags her fingers through her unkempt hair, Ochako’s self-consciousness wasn’t awake enough for her to care how haggard she looked in front of him, “What was the question again?”

Bakugo folds both arms across his chest, “Derivative of cosine.”

Ochako looks away for a moment, squinting her eyes in concentration as the tiny Ochakos in her head scurry about in her head rummaging for an answer. Her eyes find their way back to his expectant ones once she has the right one, “Negative sine.”

Bakugo nods, walking away to head for the kitchens. A sigh of relief escapes her lips as she thanked her lucky stars that she somehow managed to give the correct answer without being a hundred percent sure of it.

She picks up the piece of toast on her plate, taking another bite while her eyes follow Bakugo’s movements as he moved around the kitchen, grabbing some items from the fridge and cupboards. His back was to her as he settled in front of the stove, grabbing a pan in preparation to cook a meal.

Ochako’s thoughts wander to more obvious questions such as why Bakugo was up this early in the morning when he usually wakes up around the same time Kirishima does, which was much later than now. Bakugo was the type to sleep early, so maybe he had coincidentally woke up and got hungry the same time as her today? Did she somehow mess up her alarm’s volume, accidentally setting it off on full blast, thereby waking Bakugo up since they’re on the same floor? No, that’s not it, she would have woken up the entire fourth floor if that were the case.

She drops the thought soon after, deciding that it was none of her business. Her eyes shifted to Bakugo once again as she took another crisp bite of her toast. From afar, Ochako notices the dampness of his hair, its usual explosive nature had it spiking through every direction, but now they were more down than up. He must have just gotten out of the shower before he got here.

Ochako’s gaze drop to the shape of his back, his muscles flexing as Bakugo reached for one of the spices on the top shelf. It was easy to look at since his tank top left the skin on his arms and most of his back bare. She wonders how much of his free time was spent training since it would certainly take a lot of time to sculpt and tone muscles like his.

Her eyes widened as she realized how inappropriate her thoughts were getting. She shakes her head free of those unnecessary thoughts, bringing her attention back to her breakfast and calls out to him, “So was that the last question or...?”

“No.” Bakugo says, setting his spatula aside, “I’m quizzing you the whole damn day, round face.”  

“The whole day?” She sputters in disbelief. Ochako had thought that this was just something he planned on doing this morning.

“What did I just say?” He bites. She doesn’t need to see his face to know that he was frowning, she could already hear the scowl in his voice.

“When?”

“When I say so.” He says with finality. Bakugo turns around, holding two plates of the meal he had just finished cooking. She had expected him to move past her to sit at one of the tables behind her, but instead, he places his meal beside hers and takes the seat on her left.

“Um, Bakugo?”

“What.” He asks through a mouthful of rice.

“Why are you sitting next to me?” Her question was out of genuine confusion and had no intention of sounding rude, but it seemed to come off that way nonetheless.

“The hell kind of question is that?” He bites, shooting her a nasty look, “You got a problem with me being here?”

“No!” She shakes her hands nervously, “It’s just that, um, you usually sit over there.” She says sheepishly, pointing to the tables behind them.

Bakugo’s eyebrows draw together, his lips twisting to a frown, “I can do whatever the hell I want and I--” He scoots his chair nearer to the table in protest, “feel like sitting here.”

“Why--”

“What’s the derivative of negative cosine?” He interrupts.

“Sine.” She instinctively answers.

“Good.” He says, returning to his meal. Ochako chooses to do the same since he had made it quite clear that he wasn’t answering any more questions from her. She thinks about how Bakugo could have done this whole quizzing thing of his during their sessions instead of breaking off of their regular tutoring schedule. Come to think of it, Bakugo and her don’t usually interact that much outside of their sessions, so him eating breakfast with her is definitely something new.

Ochako hears a strained yawn coming from the staircase and sees Kaminari stretching his arms in the air. He walks past the kitchens, eyes widening to the size of saucers when he spots the both of them. Kaminari’s face morphs to that of someone who had  just uncovered the holy grail, his mouth forming the beginning of a sentence only to be interrupted by Bakugo.

“Keep walking, Dunce Face.” He hisses, eyes not leaving his plate.

Kaminari turns to Ochako and she shrugs as if to say, “I don’t know what’s going on either.”

He walks towards the couches, wide, questioning, eyes still trained on both of them, “That’s all your gonna eat?” Bakugo asks, pointing his chopsticks to the piece of bread on her hands.

“Yeah?” Ochako’s breakfast had always consisted of the cheapest alternative, but it’s not like she was starving herself. She thinks back to days when she’d be eating costly food like tuna and salmon whenever she’d receive an especially good tip from patrons the day before. Ochako’s mouth waters at the memory.

A pair of chopsticks place a helping of fish on her plate, “Tch, You’re an idiot if you think that’s gonna last you through the day.” Bakugo sneers.

“Oh, you don’t have to.” She quickly tries to decline, that is very expensive looking fish.

His eyes stare daggers into her soul, “Do you really want to argue with me about fucking fish?” He snaps.

“No, but--”

“Then just take the damn thing already, Jesus.” Bakugo grumbles.

Ochako hears a faint squeal coming from behind them. She turns to see Mina with Kaminari peeking from the couches, both of them whipping their heads back to the television as soon as she catches them staring. When did Mina get here?

She directs her attention back to the meal before her, unwrapping the spare chopsticks on the table before starting to pick the fish apart.

“You’re doing it wrong.” Bakugo suddenly bites, his face scrunching up at the sight of her work.

“No, I’m not.” She protests. She was just preparing it just as she’s always done before and as far as she knew, there was nothing wrong with it.

“Yes you fucking are.” He argues, “You start here and work your way to the tail.” Bakugo's arm brushes over hers as he leaned towards her, pointing to the back of the fish’s head to its tail. He turns to her, “Got that?”

“Yeah” She mutters, ignoring the slight contact of skin. Ochako does as she’s told, working her way to the tail. She takes her first bite of fish and her eyes widen twice her size, “This tastes amazing.” She takes another bite before turning to him, “How did you do that?”

She knew he could cook, but she didn’t know he was this good at it. She scarfs down another couple bites of his cooking, her taste buds bursting with joy and delight.

“Why the hell do you look so surprised?” Bakugo’s face scrunches up in confusion, “It’s basic ass seasoning.”

Ochako can’t help but close her eyes and smile as she savors every single bite with gusto, “Weirdo.” Bakugo mutters with a bewildered expression on his face.

She starts to debone the rest of her fish under Bakugo’s guidance when she hears another strained squeal from behind them, this one being louder than the last. She turns to see that the couches  were now occupied by Kaminari, Mina, Kirishima, and Sero, watching them as if they were a newly opened attraction at the zoo. Kirishima slaps his hand to his mouth as four of them whip their heads back towards the TV.

She feels Bakugo bump her shoulder, “Focus.” He snaps impatiently, “You’ll end up choking on a fucking bone if you don’t do this properly.”

Both of them eventually finish their breakfast, with Ochako making a conscious effort not to get distracted by their peeking audience. Bakugo collects his empty plates, standing up from his seat, red eyes landing on hers.

“What’s the derivative of tangent.”

Ochako sighs, “Secant squared.” I almost forgot about that one.

---

“You two have gotten really close, Ochako, ribbit .” Asui observes, sitting beside Ochako’s desk, Hagakure in tow. She didn’t notice her approaching since she was preoccupied with a practice question on her textbook. Yes, I study during free periods in between classes, sue me.

“Who?” She asks.

“Bakugo.”

“Oh no, not really.” She replies dismissively, “We don’t really do much other than argue and study.” She chuckles nervously. She wasn’t lying, the only reason why they seemed so close was the fact that they were studying together, no more, no less.

“He literally ate breakfast with you!” Hagakure squeals, her uniform bouncing up and down in excitement.

“Come on, Hagakure that doesn’t mean anything.” She looks away, her hand scratching the back of her neck.

“It does when it’s Bakugo!” Hagakure insists.

“She’s right,” Asui agreed, “Bakugo usually sits alone during breakfast ribbit.”

Ochako shakes her head in response. It was just breakfast, there was no subliminal message between two people eating together, plus Bakugo probably just sat next to her so he could do his little quizzing plan with ease.

“You should see the way he looks at you all the time!” Hagakure adds, her skirt vigorously swishing from side to side.

“With annoyance and distaste?” Ochako quips. She couldn’t exactly recall a time when Bakugo had looked at her fondly or even longingly, so it's puzzling for her to be hearing such claims from her friend.

Before Ochako could add to her argument, she’s startled by a voice that booms from the back of her seat, “Oi.”

She whips her head to face the frowning blond behind her, “You have got to stop sneaking up on me like that, Bakugo.” She exhales.

He squints his eyes at her, ignoring her remark, “The limit of one over x.”

Ochako narrows her eyes right back at him. This was the eighth time, probably more, that he had come up to her unannounced to randomly quiz her. He wasn’t even asking questions at this point, it was just an unfinished statement waiting for her to fill in the missing blank, “X is approaching what?” She asks.

“Zero.” He continues to stare her down, as if to pressure her into spitting out the wrong answer.

She lifts her chin, immune to his intimidation tactics, “The limit doesn’t exist.”

Bakugo nods and wordlessly heads back to his seat. Ochako only then notices the dumbfounded looks on their classmates’ faces.

“Is this a new kind of flirting I haven’t heard about?” Kaminari asks, eyes shifting back and forth from her to Bakugo.

“I don’t know, looks pretty hot to me.” Mineta shrugs, leaning against Kaminari’s desk.

“You’d think a lamp post was hot if we put a skirt on it.” Kirishima retorts, giving Mineta a genuinely concerned look.

The purple-haired student crosses his arms in mock offense, “Oh shut up, I have taste.”

Boisterous laughter erupts from Mina and Jirou, both girls’ arms grabbing at their sides as Jirou almost falls from her seat, “He says he has taste!”

Thankfully, the spotlight shifts to Mineta, away from her and Bakugo, as he continues to defend himself. She glances at his direction to see that his eyes were already trained on her, an unreadable expression hanging on his face. Ochako quickly turns away to face her friends once more, sputtering a new topic for them to talk about. Despite this, Hagakure’s words still echoed from the back of her mind.

Ochako had definitely seen the way he looked at her.

---

The resounding ring of the lunch bell marks the end of fourth period. Ochako put away her books and started to make her way out of the classroom when Midnight suddenly calls her to the teacher’s desk.

“Yes, Ms. Midnight?”

“Uraraka-san, would you please be a dear and bring these papers to Aizawa,” she gestures to the stack of paperwork bundled in her arms, “I have to rush over to a meeting with Principal Nezu in five.”

“Of course!” Ochako takes the papers off her hands without hesitation, a bright smile stretching over her face, “I’ll bring it to him right away.”

“Thank you so much, dear.” Midnight purrs. Ochako gives her teacher another warm smile before heading outside, “Fabulous job on your essay by the way!” She calls out from the classroom.

Ochako looks back at the grinning brunette, “Don’t tell anyone, but I gave you an A plus!” She adds, bringing a manicured finger to her lips as she winked at her.

She chuckles at this, Midnight had said that quite loudly for someone who meant for it to be a secret, “Thanks, Ms. Midnight.”

Ochako rushes to the hallway to catch up to her friends. She nudges Iida with her shoulder since both of her hands were occupied as of the moment, “Uraraka! There you are!”

“You guys can go ahead without me,” she gestures to the bundle of paperwork she was carrying, “I’ll be at the teacher’s lounge for a bit.”

“Sure, we’ll be waiting.” Deku says, offering her a small smile.

She musters an awkward, tight-lipped smile before heading towards the other direction. Ochako had only gotten a few steps in before feeling a tap on her shoulder. She turns to see Bakugo, fierce, red eyes zeroing in on her once again.

Ochako was somewhat glad to know that he had learned to not sneak up on her anymore.

“Cosine of pi.” He says flatly.

Her lips curl into a smirk, “Negative one.”

“You guys are the weirdest couple ever.” Kaminari announces as the rest of Bakugo’s friends caught up with him and as if on cue, both him and Ochako objected.

“We’re not a couple.”

“Aw, they’re so in sync!” Kirishima gushes, “You sure you didn’t rehearse that beforehand?”

Bakugo sends a spine-tingling glare to the redhead’s direction, “Kidding, kidding.” He says, laughing nervously.

Ochako turns to Bakugo, “Got anything else you want to ask?” She urges. He might have another question ready to throw at her for all she knows.

“Yeah, what the hell is that? ” He barks, gesturing to the stack of papers in her arms.

“Let me rephrase,” She began, “Got anything else you want to ask nicely?”

Bakugo rolls his eyes, “What’s that?” He asks through grit teeth. All three boys behind him bring their hands to their mouths to stop themselves from laughing, “Shut the fuck up.” Bakugo hisses at them.

“Some papers for Mr. Aizawa,” She smiles, satisfied with the change in his tone, “and speaking of, I gotta go.”

She turns to Bakugo, “If you have any more questions, you know where to find me.”

Ochako quickly waves them goodbye as she briskly walked towards the faculty room’s direction. It wasn’t a long way from where their classroom was located, but the journey felt like forever because of the weight on her arms. This was a heavy stack of papers.

She finally reaches her destination when she feels another tap on her shoulder. Ochako half expected to see Bakugo’s frowning face again, but she turned to see a tall, lanky boy with a seemingly crooked nose smiling at her, “Uraraka, right?” He asks.

Her eyes shift to the shorter, pudgier boy beside him, then back to the lankier one, trying to recall if she knew them, “Yes?”

“It really is you!” The shorter one beams at her.

Ochako smiles nervously, “Can I help you?” Her eyes were still shifting back and forth between the two boys, her mind trying to figure out why they looked so familiar. Had she seen them before at the sport’s festival? Or maybe walked past them in the cafeteria one time?

“This is Shintani,” The tall one gestured to his friend, “And I’m Kai.” He turns to her, still smiling, but something about the glint in his eyes tells her that he had something else up his sleeve.

“You’re in Class 2A, right?” Kai continues, “With Katsuki Bakugo.”

Bakugo? She thought to herself. Why bring him up all of a sudden?

“Yeah, I am.” She replies cautiously, the first signs of suspicion snaking its way to her gut. Ochako still couldn’t put her finger on where she had seen them before, but now with the  sudden mention of Bakugo, she had all the more reason to stay on alert.

“Must be tough being classmates with someone like that, huh?” Shintani says sympathetically, like he felt the need to console her as if she had been dealt the worst hand of cards in a game.

“What are you talking about?” She asks quizzically.

“Oh, come on,” Shintani sniggers as if she had told him an inside joke, “You know how that animal gets.”  

Kai nods in agreement, “A borderline savage, if you ask me.”

“But nobody asked you.” Ochako retorts, blinking back her shock afterwards. She hadn’t meant to say that, but a couple of strangers badmouthing Bakugo was getting on her nerves.

He turns to her, the kind smile on his face slips into a smug, lopsided grin, his facade instantly crumbling to partly show her what his true colors really were, “See this?” He asks, pointing to his nose, “That bastard did this to me.”

Ochako’s steps back, eyes widening in realization. The students from Class 2C. That’s why they looked so familiar. They were the ones she saw in that fight with Bakugo.

“I don’t even know why this school still lets him stay in the hero course.” Shintani adds.

Kai laughs before turning to her once again, “He only gives the rest of us a bad image, don’t you think so?”

Ochako’s grip on the stack of papers tighten as she takes a step towards them, “If both of you think that I’m going to join in some petty rant about Bakugo, then you’re barking up the wrong tree.”

She attempts to walk past them, but Kai steps aside to block her path, “You were matched up with him during last year’s sports festival, weren’t you, Ochako?”

“He was truly out of line treating you like some ragdoll he can throw around so easily.” Shintani adds.

Ochako’s face twists in annoyance, “First of all,” she begins, turning to Kai, “Do not call me by my first name.”

“Second,” She turns to Shintani, “He was fighting me seriously. That’s what you do in a competition.”

“And a piece of advice,” She steps closer to Kai, shoving a finger onto his chest. She didn’t know where she had gotten the strength to be able to carry the weight of Ms. Midnight’s paperwork with one hand, but it was there. “Don’t talk about someone like that when you don’t know the first thing about them.”

“And you do?” Kai challenges.

“I may not know Bakugo from head to toe, but I have enough decency in me to not walk up to random strangers to badmouth somebody I don’t know.” She bites back venomously before turning the other direction.

Before she could get any farther, Kai grabs her arm, his ironclad grip almost making her wince in pain, “Hey!” She protests.

“Come on, just hear us out--”

In a blink of an eye, Ochako is suddenly pulled away from his grasp. A tall, looming figure stood in between them, shielding her from both students.

“Don’t you fucking touch her.” Bakugo growls.

Ochako stares at him, wide-eyed. Bakugo’s back was to her, his shoulders rising and falling along the furious rhythm in each of his breaths.

Kai and Shintani fall back, fear and surprise flashing in both students’ eyes. Despite this, Kai nervously grins and takes a brave step forward, “Speak of the devil!”

“Shut the fuck up and piss off while you can still walk.” Bakugo snarls, his voice seething with malice.

Shintani follows in his friends footsteps and also steps towards Bakugo, “You’re all bark and no bite.”

“Walk away or I break your nose next .” He threatens. Ochako places her hand on Bakugo’s shoulder, her grip firm, “Bakugo, let’s just go.”

Bakugo doesn’t move, his body still rigid with rage, “You heard your girlfriend!” Shintani calls out.

“Unless you want to hit me again, I’ll show her what a real man looks like!” Kai taunts, making sure to look behind Bakugo to give Ochako a suggestive grin.

She feels him tense up even more under her palms as he begins to pace towards them. Ochako takes his hand and for the first time, Bakugo looks back at her, his expression livid, “They’re not worth it.” She warned, adding weight to every word she spoke.

Ochako holds his gaze as she gives his hand a gentle squeeze and for a moment, the anger in his eyes subside.

Kai takes another step forward, ready to hurl another insult at him when the door to the faculty’s office opens, “What seems to be the problem here?” Aizawa asks, hooded eyes flickering between Bakugo and the two students from 2C.

A bright smile works its way back to Kai’s face, “Nothing at all, Mr. Aizawa!” He beams, “We were just about to leave!”

Kai paced towards Bakugo, pausing so that he was directly beside him. “One of these days, when you least expect it, you’ll get what’s coming to you, Katsuki.” He says, barely above a whisper, but loud enough so that only Bakugo and her could hear it. Cold eyes still aimed forward, Kai walked away, Shintani in tow.

Aizawa turns to Ochako, his tired eyes dropping to Midnight’s paperwork, “Those must be from Midnight, bring them over here.” He instructs, walking back inside the office.

She feels Bakugo let go of her hand as he walked away, not even giving her the chance to talk to him. Ochako’s hand fold inwards as she stood there with a million questions swarming in her head.

“Uraraka.” Aizawa calls out from inside.

“Coming!”