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.