Chapter Text
It was seven-forty.
It was seven-forty and Katsuki Bakugo was late.
Ochako searched every corner of her brain and couldn’t come up with a single instance of him being even a minute late in the time she’d known him. He was annoyingly punctual, the type to show up early to everything, to tell you you’re late when you showed up on the dot. He hurried people to get ready, barked at them with a hawk’s eye fixed on his watch.
But there he was, ten minutes late to their scheduled video game night. Kaminari had brought his console down from his room and he and Sero were deciding what to play while Kirishima and Mina not-so-subtly cuddled in the corner of the couch. They were still in that phase of their relationship where they acted like a couple and pretended like no one had noticed yet.
(Spoiler: everyone had.)
Then Mina was gently nudging Ochako with her foot from her spot in Kirishima’s lap.
“Where’s your boyfriend, babe?”
Ochako shrugged, chin resting on the knees she had drawn up to her chest. “Dunno. He told me he was taking a nap when we got back to the dorms and then he disappeared.”
Mina pursed her lips and tilted her head. “You think he’s still asleep?”
“Nah, no way,” Kirishima chuckled. “Bakugo would’ve set a hundred alarms.”
With a small smile curled at Kirishima’s extremely true statement, Ochako shrugged again. “I guess it won’t hurt to check on him. I’ll be right back.”
She popped up from the couch and made her way over to the elevators, then she was riding up to the fourth floor and heading down the boys’ hallway. Even though they’d been together for weeks now, it still made her heart flutter every time she approached the door with his last name next to it and knocked. Hearing Bakugo’s gruff voice behind it and seeing him open it and letting him pull her into his arms were things she’d never get tired of.
Except this time, when she knocked, there was no answer.
Ochako knocked a little louder before letting out a soft “okay, coming in!” and slowly opening the door. She could still remember the first time she saw his room, vision blurred by tears, and the way Bakugo had comforted her in the way only he could. In a way only she could appreciate.
The only light in the room this time was the lamp on his desk, throwing a soft glow across the posters on the walls and over his sleeping form in the bed. As Ochako gently closed the door behind her, she took in the way her boyfriend’s face was smushed against his pillow, cheek squished, mouth partly open as a soft snore escaped it. He had a bare arm hanging off the side of the bed and the blankets pulled halfway up his back, showing off the muscles that rippled across his shoulder blades. Even asleep he looked a little menacing, which was endearing to Ochako when contrasted with the cute nose twitch he suddenly did.
“Katsuki,” she whispered as she shuffled over to the bed. “Katsuki, you awake?”
When her legs hit the edge of the bed, she stared down at Bakugo’s sleeping face and felt the corner of her mouth tilting upwards. It was an even cuter sight up close to see him dozing away with his face uncharacteristically soft and angelic. Ochako wondered how many girls he’d have wrapped around his finger if he didn’t embody the spirit of a feral dog half the time.
“Katsuki,” she tried again.
“G’down here,” he suddenly slurred with his hand darting out to catch her wrist. Then she was being yanked down into bed with him as he rolled over on his back and pulled her into his chest.
“Better,” he sighed above her.
Ochako stifled a laugh and adjusted the blankets over them instead. She liked Bakugo all the time, feral dog spirit and all, but sleepy Bakugo was one of her favorites. He was practically drunk when he woke up, cuddly and soft with no idea what he was doing and barely remembering any of it once he was fully awake. God, she adored it.
Her arm stretched across his torso and she snuggled into his pec, laughing at the way he squeezed her even closer at the movement. It was like he was scared she’d run away.
“God, you smell good,” Bakugo muttered with his lips pressed against her forehead. “How do you always smell so damn good?”
“I dunno,” Ochako answered. “How do you always smell so good?”
Bakugo hummed in response before kissing her hairline. “Not as good as you, though, Angel.”
Ochako felt a flutter all the way from her chest to her toes. Yeah, she was definitely in love with this sleepy idiot.
They were silent like that for a little while, just listening to each other’s breathing and floating in and out of sleep. Ochako listened to Bakugo’s heartbeat thump steadily against his ribcage, getting slower and slower as he began to get tugged back into the throes of sleep.
“We don’t have to go downstairs, y’know,” Ochako finally mumbled.
“No,” Bakugo said sleepily. “We can still”— yawn—“go.”
“You sure, Sleeping Beauty?”
“Fuck off.”
His insults never had an edge to them fully awake, and half-asleep they were almost like sweet nothings. The soft-voiced sleepy fuck off washed over Ochako and made her all tingly inside and she could almost imagine it in swirly font with a heart next to it.
Yep. He was a foul-mouthed feral dog, but he was her foul-mouthed feral dog.
Eventually, she coaxed him into sitting up and putting a shirt on. He sat there on the edge of the bed blinking tiredly at her as she grabbed his slippers from across the room and brought them over to him.
“Thanks, Cheeks,” he huffed as he put them on. Then, before Ochako could blink, he was grabbing her by the hips and pulling her close to press a little kiss to the exposed part of her waist.
He didn’t say anything about it as he pulled her shirt down over the spot after, nor did he talk about the way he stood up and pressed a soft kiss to her temple. He just did it and guided her to the door, and Ochako didn’t even bother to hide her smile. She’d never get used to that, and she didn’t want to, either.
When they stepped into the elevator, Bakugo wrapped one arm around her shoulders from behind and set his chin on the top of her head for the whole ride down. His other hand scrolled lazily through his phone, reading any messages he’d gotten during his nap and typing out quick replies. Ochako closed her eyes for a moment and soaked in the last few seconds of his post-nap warmth and smell and tenderness.
When the doors finally opened, he was pretty much fully-awake, already throwing an insult at Kaminari and Sero for still not deciding on a game once they walked into the living room. But he was squeezing Ochako’s hand now, her soft fingers grasped by his big, warm, calloused palm, so she figured she’d accept the yelling.
She was the only one who got to see soft, sleepy Bakugo, and she was okay with that.