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"Don't yawn, you're making me yawn!"
Uraraka lazily put a hand in front of her mouth and blinked away the tears that were forming in her eyes.
"I can't help it, it's so early after all." She moaned.
It had been a while since she had woken up before noon. Since it had been one of the warmest summers she had ever experienced she started living in the night when it was significantly colder and she didn't feel sluggish.
After ten is when she came up with most of her ways to enliven her summer. Around the time where people would fold their chairs, get their last drink from their koolbox, switched from flip-flops to slippers and called it a day. Uraraka would lie down on the floor in the hallway, with their house phone on speaker next to her head and talk to Bakugou about all the things she felt like doing. She had been watching a lot of films lately, those ones where teenagers have the most outrageous summers. On one hand, it was comical, how extravagant those summers were. But on the other hand, she wouldn't have minded being in their place. So it was only natural that most of her ideas were inspired by that.
Bakugou would laugh at her and tell her to lay off the films for a while. But he would still listen to her ramble on and on about them. He sometimes even thought along with her, thinking about if it was possible for them to do something like that, right at that moment. Uraraka would tell him it could be more likely than they thought, Bakugou would keep thinking. And there would always be a moment where he would stay silent for too long and he would suddenly hang up on her.
That's when she knew she should probably get up and change out of her pajama's and take a shower because it wouldn't be long until he would be standing there with his bike laying on the curb. Often he would meet her there having done neither of those things.
"You sure smell great."
"Oh shut it."
They would sit down on the front doorstep and Bakugou would tell her his plans. They were less farfetched than hers, but came to close to what she wanted to do and were still fun. Since it would be past Uraraka's curfew at that time, they were only allowed to go as far only two blocks away from her house. Bakugou could make it work. He had once dragged a shopping cart from someone's front yard and managed to make it look somewhat like a car. Uraraka would sit in the cart and a paper plate would be her steering wheel. Bakugou pushed her through a drive-through just on the edge of the two-block area, as she squirmed that it was not going to work. Somehow they ended up ‘cruising' away from the restaurant with two brown bags full of fries. Uraraka could hardly catch her breath.
They would also have water gun fights in her backyard with the sprinklers on and set up a hammock in between street signs and talk for hours on end.
Bakugou didn't have a curfew, she thinks. Regardless of that he always ended up staying by her side until all the energy was drained from her body and she was nodding off. He would stay in her street until he saw her bedroom lights go off and then bike home. And the next day they would do the same.
Today, however, Bakugou was at her bedside at 8:30 in the morning. He threw her blankets off her and opened her curtains. Thinking she was getting ambushed she jolted up and jumped out of bed. She groaned as she saw it was just her boyfriend.
Actually, it wasn't just her boyfriend, it was her boyfriend, in her room, at 8:30 in the morning.
"Oi sleepyhead, get dressed and grab some breakfast, we're going to the beach today." He said before quickly kissing her forehead and going downstairs.
Uraraka thought he was somehow joking at first but there they were, on a familiar long road, Bakugou pedaling and Uraraka on the carrier.
"My parents looked really happy to see you again," Uraraka spoke softly to his back.
Bakugou stopped pedaling for a second and turned his head around. "You think?"
"Couldn't you tell? They were almost late for work because they couldn't stop talking to you."
Bakugou's cheeks turned pink and he turned back. Though he didn't want to admit it, he cared a lot about what kind of impression he made on her parents. She thought they were one of the few people Bakugou actually worried about of what they thought of him. Uraraka tried to reassure him that even though they try to scare him with being overprotective, they absolutely adored him. He still found it hard to believe. But it was among those things that he was currently trying to work on.
And it was going well. Three weeks ago Uraraka wouldn't even have known that Bakugou genuinely felt that way, it would've remained a simple guess of hers that would take her all of her might to confirm.
Uraraka hugged his waist tighter and mushed her cheek against his back.
"They love you."
"Sure."
"They really do."
The boy leaned forward and picked up the pace. They had been on their way for only half an hour or so, maybe a bit longer? She thought they already passed the city sign at least. They had quite the journey ahead of them, therefore the early departure. Bakugou had properly planned the trip this time, unlike the first attempt to reach the beach by bike. He went out of his way to make them lunch, bring his own money along with the beach supplies they once bought. He knew the way and it knew exactly how long it would take them to reach the beach,
Three hours by bike to be exact.
However, it didn't take a lot of Bakugou to calm Uraraka down when she heard that. The pillow on the carrier and the promise that they would take many breaks during the trip was all it took. She still felt slightly bad about Bakugou biking the entire way. Offering to switch was not an option since the boy had too much pride and was the most stubborn person she had ever encountered. So Uraraka decided that when they got to the beach, she would make sure they would have the best day the possibly could have. That wasn't hard since she had waited for this day the entire summer. Heck, she even dreamed about this day.
"How are things with your parents?" Uraraka asked as she slowly blinked.
"They haven't seen your round face in a while so they can't shut up about you. Especially the old hag, she misses you a lot."
"I should stop sleeping in so much."
"You definitely should. I can't have you falling asleep right now or else I'm going to be so fucking bored." Bakugou scoffed.
Uraraka doubted Bakugou could get bored if she fell asleep. She might have thought that since she was getting close to dozing off and didn't want to feel bad about doing so, but there was also no way he could get bored riding the long and empty road. The atmosphere felt grand to her, the silence wasn't deafening but it was peaceful, the scenery wasn't annoyingly repetitive but a very welcomed sight. She thought it was almost impossible for him to not feel what she felt.
And if for some reason it was. Then her presence should be enough. It had proven to be many times.
She placed her hands on Bakugou's lower back and began to graze her fingernails along and across it slowly, to make up for her nodding off in a small moment from now. He adjusted and leaned into her touch. If they were anywhere else he would've been sleeping as well, in a matter of seconds. The longer Uraraka went on the slower their pace became.
She hoped Bakugou's eyes weren't closing like hers were. Her fingers started to droop of his lower back and slid to the end of his shirt, which she loosely clung onto. Her body let itself give in to the tiredness and with all of her weight, she leaned against Bakugou. She felt his muscles move beneath her cheeks, stretching and loosening themselves. The tempo and the rhythm lulling her to sleep.
Uraraka didn't manage to rest her eyes for long. Bakugou had been leaning in all different directions and holding onto her every time she shifted, trying to make sure she wouldn't summersault of the back of the bike. Causing her to be in a light state of sleep for the majority of the time, waking up every few minutes or so, and jerking because she kept forgetting where she was.
Her boyfriend cursed under his breath and mumbled to himself to keep himself entertained. After some time he seemed to be at a loss for words, last syllables of his words were spoken inaudibly. That's when she decided to force herself to wake up. As she moved into sitting upwards Bakugou pulled at her shirt. Quickly she pinched his sides and tried to look over his shoulder.
"I'm awake."
"Good, I was about to wake you up anyways."
Her eyes had to get used to the sun that was getting higher and chattering started to fill her ears. Looking around she saw a scenery she was familiar with and had a good idea of where their first break was going to be. The town was quite lively for this time a day, many had decided to run their errands and get together early in the day.
It felt like she hadn't moved a mile. Like she was still at home. She had no idea a place other than her house could make her feel that way. Maybe it was because of Bakugou. Maybe it was because she was convinced that she fitted in here. Not just her as a person, but her dreams, fantasies and ideas, her future. They all worked in this town. Something she had never felt back in her hometown. It made sense to be here. Ever since they first rode in.
She tried to explain to Bakugou how she felt, it was hard to translate her feelings into something that wasn't vague and to give it to him straight because yes, it was strange. She never expected Bakugou to completely understand since he said her thoughts sounded stupid the first time she voiced them. But Uraraka had the feeling he could see where she was coming from, just a little. And maybe he felt the same, just a little.
He was more than happy to bike her to the town whenever she missed it. He didn't care if they had to travel 13 miles just to grab a bite to eat or go for a walk in the park. Bakugou was fine with whatever. They made a promise after all. They promised to come back at least once but it wouldn't hurt to come back as often as two, three times a week, right?
As they biked on the broad main road of the town Uraraka had started to recognize people's faces. And at the way they looked back at her, it made her feel that they recognized her too. What could they be thinking about them? They could be asking themselves if they had perhaps moved here since Uraraka smiled and greeted the locals as if she had.
The short, blonde girl with the colorful bows in her hair was chalking in front of her house again. The woman who's always carrying too many things has managed to drop a carton of milk right after exiting the supermarket.
Just like she got to know the people, she got to know the town, which wasn't that difficult considering the size of it. Bakugou and her have inspected pretty much every nook and crevasse of it and now know their way around as if they were born and raised here.
A week and a half ago, they discovered something. Uraraka knew that they were headed there again. As he predicted Bakugou came to a halt in front of an empty plot of land, surrounded by a metal fence. The weeds had started to grow next to the poles of the fence and more sand had been blown onto the sidewalk. Uraraka slid off the carrier and sat down on the ground. Bakugou parked his bike against the fence, went up behind her and unzipped the backpack she had been carrying. Over her head, he handed her a fruit sandwich and a bottle of water and then sat down next to her. Bakugou was barely panting, which was quite remarkable considering all the trouble he went through of getting Uraraka to stay seated on the carrier. He probably didn't need a break yet. He had biked this distance a lot of times by now and it seemed to get shorter every time.
But he knew Uraraka would've asked him to stop by anyways.
He was very hungry though. Devouring his sandwiches in a matter of minutes and chugging down his water as if that was the first drink he had that day.
"Did mom make these?" Uraraka asked.
"Yeah."
"I thought so. You always put in more strawberries than kiwi's."
"Because kiwi is fucking disgusting and should not even be classed as edible." Bakugou scowled as he glared at Uraraka's half-eaten sandwich.
Uraraka giggled. "You're dramatic."
"And you don't have working taste buds." he went through his hair with his hand and scratched the back of his head, where the hair had started to grow back.
Uraraka stayed silent and continued eating, turned around and looked across the empty plot of land. If they were a couple of years older and had a bit of money, this would be theirs. At the border of the town, they would build their home from scratch. And it would look like any other house in the town, it would look like it had always been there. They would have a green front yard and backyard, surrounded by a white picket fence. Undoubtedly that would get broken at some point, and Bakugou would fix it again, give it a new coat of white paint even and it would like nothing ever touched it.
She wanted large windows, Bakugou hated them. Bakugou wanted a garage that fits two cars, Uraraka thought one of them was enough. So they discussed what kind of house they wanted to build on the piece of land. Uraraka would do most of the talking since Bakugou struggled to get his words out. It was quite a sensitive topic after all. By speaking about it they confirmed their bond to last for years and years and that's not something that rolls of the tongue easily for a person that continues to find it hard to put his emotions into words.
It was fine with her if he mostly listened, and give his opinion when she asked for it.
"If you keep changing your mind I will never be able to fucking finish this you know?"
"I can't help it!" Uraraka laughed as she playfully bumped her shoulder against Bakugou's to make his frown disappear.
She could imagine how frustrating it was, to keep erasing and adding new things to the drawings and the blueprints. Bakugou planned to be an architect, and since he didn't have the patience to wait until he learned about it after he graduated, he read the books his dad had displayed in the bookcase in his office. Since the day they first talked about the house he started practicing drawing, by using the house they had in mind. It was meant to stay a secret until her birthday came up, but it slipped out when Uraraka changed placing of the windows for the third time, causing Bakugou to lose his mind and reveal her present in anger.
It was the quite possibly the best present she had yet to receive. Uraraka was completely over the moon when Bakugou explained himself. She was eager to see the progress since her boyfriend rarely showed his designs and all she could remember was the scribbles he made when he was a few years younger, and those were not exactly the best of drawings. She also wanted to help, seeing as it was a thing that was essentially theirs. But of course, she wasn't allowed. It was her present. Uraraka decided to ask her dad, for his books on architecture instead, whilst awkwardly avoiding the exact reason why, and lent them to Bakugou. That was her way of helping.
"Is it actually close to being done?" Uraraka curiously asked.
"Do I look superhuman to you? Of course not! It's going to take a lot of time before it's actually done done. When I go to university I'm going to alter it with the shit I learned, make it even better."
The girl sighed and cupped her own face. "Bummer."
"Though, it would be done sooner if you would stop changing your damn mind all the time." Bakugou teased.
"Hey!"
He mischievously grinned as Uraraka glared at him with puffed up pink cheeks. Her face quickly softened which Bakugou's cheeky smile always managed to do to her. When she broke out in a giggle he started packing up all their stuff and putting it back in Uraraka's backpack. He offered his hand to help her stand up and she gave the land one more look before walking back to the bike.
The two had one more stop to make before they could leave town and continue their journey. Uraraka felt tingles all over her body as if she laid down in a field of high grass when she saw the purple colored front garden of the old people's home. What was once merely just a bed was now a small field of bellflowers. Th eyecatchers looked healthy and beautiful and made the white frames of the window really stand out. And to think this was the result of her work.
Today they had put the rocking chair outside and the old lady that had waved at them the first time they passed through the town was smiling from ear to ear the second she heard the rattling of the card in the spokes. Even she looked healthier and more beautiful than usual.
Uraraka jumped off the bike before it came to a stop and rushed to the porch.
"Good morning Suzuki, have you been admiring the garden this morning?"
The woman slowly nodded, closed her eyes and let the sun shine on her face.
"Enjoying the sun as well I see, today is a lovely day after all. Bakugou and I are going to spend it at the beach!" Uraraka looked back at Bakugou who sat waiting on his bike in front of the home.
Suzuki slightly opened her eyes and looked at Bakugou. She slightly opened her mouth and took her hand from underneath her blanket to raise it in greeting. She managed to create a small noise.
Uraraka had come to learn that the woman was mute. When watering the bellflowers one day like she always did when they came to town, a caretaker approached her with Suzuki attached at her arm. The caretaker explained that how Suzuki had been watching the bellflowers get watered and waved at them every time they left, how she wanted to properly meet Uraraka and Bakugou.
Uraraka felt flattered in a way, that a stranger wanted to meet them. After shaking hands with the both of them they sat on the porch and talked for a long time. That day the caretaker translated Suzuki's sign language for the two kids, the other times Suzuki wrote in her notebook what she wanted to say.
Apparently, Bakugou looked exactly like the boy she fell in love with on her first day of high school, and Uraraka reminded her of her sister, who also admired flowers and plants and whom Suzuki loved very dearly.
Suzuki arranged for Uraraka to have a watering-can, which was much needed since the bellflowers had started to spread and a bottle of water wasn't enough anymore. She would sit there and watch Uraraka do her thing with the most content smile on her face.
Besides seeing them two, she liked drawing, which she was very good at. She liked cherries, especially cherry jam. She liked old sports cars with pretty bold colors, just like the shiny red of Bakugou's bike. She liked nature and she wished there were more plants inside of the home. But since a couple of elders reacted badly to them, Suzuki had to admire them from a distance.
Uraraka watched Suzuki take her time to scribble a sentence down in her notebook on her lap.
"Has it really been that long since you've been to the beach? Don't you want to go someday?"
She shook her head and continued writing.
"You can't imagine leaving this place? Well, I can't really blame you, especially since the garden is looking so beautiful now!" Uraraka chirped.
She went to the side of the house to fill the water-can to the brim and showered the plants in the cold water. Bakugou walked past her to Suzuki that waved him over, after glancing over the notebook he disappeared inside and came back with another notebook, this one bigger.
The woman beamed and held the book to her chest until Uraraka approached her.
"What's this?" curiosity gleamed in her eyes as she glanced from back and forth between the two faces in front of her.
"She wants to give something to you," Bakugou explained.
Suzuki flipped the book open and revealed a beautiful piece of hand-drawn artwork of Uraraka watering the flowers in a sundress and Bakugou leaning against the fence, watching her. It was so accurate it made Uraraka and Bakugou's jaw drop. The folds in Uraraka's dress, the expression on Bakugou's face, all so neatly done it might as well have been a picture.
"My blueprints are like a kid's drawing compared to this. She's totally outdone me." Bakugou mumbled.
Uraraka chuckled and took a hold of the drawing. With her thumb, she stroked over the signature and thanked the elderly woman for her gift. Carefully she handed it back over, explaining that If they would bring it to the beach with them it would get ruined. She promised that she would come and collect it on the way back. Once more she thanked Suzuki and expressed how beautiful the drawing was.
She gave her a hug, told Suzuki she would be back soon and walked with Bakugou back to the bike. Suzuki waved them goodbye as the two continued their journey.
When they biked out of town it was 10:45 and had to travel for another two hours. Bakugou was feeling pretty energized and was boasting about how he could probably cut fifteen minutes of the trip. Uraraka simply hummed after every sentence, her head in the clouds and her thoughts hazy as she kept seeing the drawing in front of her.
It didn't take long before her boyfriend demanded her full attention. Jokingly swerving around the road to keep her in the moment. She yelped and took a handful of his shirt as he laughed and asked her to at least properly pretend to listen to him. Even though after his antics Uraraka properly listened to him, he kept swerving, to make sure she was.
He needed to be kissed. He tended to act up when he was touch starved. In moments like this, his craving for her attention seemed endless but all he really wanted was some physical affection. Like a baby that didn't get too much sleep he could get cranky, or like a playful child, he could act silly. This time he went for the latter and did so in a rather dangerous manner.
So for their safety, and for that reason only. Uraraka practically demanded the boy to stop at the side of the road, went to stand in front of him and kissed the silly out of him. The longer they went on the more annoying the bike in between them was. Uraraka laughed against Bakugou's lips as he awkwardly tried to step of it and throw it to the side. But before he could trade in ‘silly' for ‘annoyed with a large amount of lust' she pulled away.
She stuck her tongue out as Bakugou frowned and went back to her seat. They resumed the journey with Uraraka teasing Bakugou for the cute habit he had and him fully denying that this happened regularly.
‘A stupid coincidence.'
A stupid coincidence that has stopped him from going from one side of the road to the other.
The landscapes started to slightly change and both of them started to question each other if they've ever seen something like it. It's been a while since either of them had been this far out of town and when they were it was by car. They were either sleeping during the journey or not paying attention, so now the teens were ogling at the land, pointing out things that stood out the most to them.
More and more cars started to pass them by and Uraraka's eyes got itchy from the dust they left behind. Bakugou kept cursing at them, speeding up every time one past them by.
At this rate, it looked like he was truly going to cut the trip short by fifteen minutes.
After the conversations died down, Uraraka asked how many songs it would take them before they got to their destination. ‘Ten or nine songs', Bakugou answered. And so she kept humming songs from start till finish. She only knew a few songs by heart. After the fourth song, she kept repeating her favorite song at the moment, which happened to be in the soundtrack of her favorite films she ha watched this summer, maybe even her favorite film ever. By the eight time Bakugou softly hummed along with her. He did it so softly she only noticed by the vibrations that went through his back to her arms.
The tenth time Bakugou didn't hum along since he was busy fighting the steep rocky road they were on. The sun was getting close to it's highest point and the beach breezes weren't cool at all. He damned the absurd increase in temperature and the annoying screeching seagulls that were zooming over their heads.
Uraraka started singing, to distract Bakugou from them, to encourage him, hopefully, cheer him up. They were so close after all. So close to the bright blue of the ocean, the jam-packed beach, filled with parasols and towels.
The pedals had to go around just a few times and they would rocket down the hill and be down there in no time.
Two times around, one time around.
And there they went, the bike went so fast Uraraka had to close her eyes. When she blinked her eyes open she met one of the most amazing sights she had ever seen. She wasn't seeing this on a television screen, she was inside the tv, she was there.
"Finally," Bakugou said, rubbing the sweat off his chin.
Uraraka jumped off to let him park the bike among the mass of vehicles. Impatiently she hopped from one foot to another when other visitors past her, like her they were all smiles. The second Bakugou turned around she already started skipping towards the beach. As soon as she reached the sand she kicked her flip-flops off and dipped her toes in the sand that was too hot to stand still in.
Before she could sprint as fast as she could into the sea to cool down her toes that felt like they were getting deep fried, Uraraka got tugged back out of the sand by her backpack.
"Fucking hell, don't go running off like that! I don't want to spend the day searching the entire beach looking for you."
"But-!"
"I get you're excited, but let's get it together now."
He pulled her back once more and threw his arm around her.
"The first one to find an empty spot has to buy the other ice cream," Bakugou said.
Uraraka jolted and scanned the beach. It looked like it couldn't be any more full. Like half the country decided to go to the beach today. Just when she was about to give up, she spotted a tiny bit of space between towels and pointed at it. At the same time, Bakugou did.
"A tie!"
"Pink cheeks, I don't do ties. We'll have to settle this one later."
Bakugou kicked his own flip-flops off and together they walked over towels, legs, underneath parasols and avoiding koolboxes to the empty spot. Jumping from foot to foot they unloaded. Uraraka threw down the towels as Bakugou went to pluck out a random parasol to put over their heads. She kicked off her denim shorts and with her fingers, she went underneath and along the lines of her blue and white striped bathing suit. With a loud groan, she fell down on her towel and flung her backpack on her lap. She took out sunglasses and Bakugou's cap which she put on backwards.
A large shadow cast over her and a shirt got chucked next to her in the sand. Bakugou sat down next to her on his towel and bent over to feel his feet. As he was bent over Uraraka took the opportunity to put sunscreen on him.
The boy was still too exhausted to refuse it like he usually did. For some reason, he didn't want to admit he wasn't tougher than the sun and did, in fact, get burned very easily. At least now when they're laying next to each other tonight he wouldn't moan and complain about burned areas on his body and she could hug him as tightly as she wanted.
After spending more time than needed on his shoulders, Uraraka went to sit in front of him and raised his face. She went around his nose with her ring fingers, rubbing his cheeks and the bridge of his nose with her thumbs, rubbing the folds of his frown away. The remaining bit of sunscreen she carelessly wiped across his chest and stomach.
Bakugou followed her hands with his eyes when she smeared her arms and legs in, face flushed red from either the heat or her. He looked away to the ocean when she glanced at him.
"Oi." He suddenly said after a while.
"Hm?" Uraraka replied.
He placed his hand on her neck and pulled her in close. Uraraka's eyes started darting from his eyes that were focused on her, to their surroundings. She felt her cheeks get even hotter by the sudden display of affection.
He came in closer, slowly shutting his eyes. Quickly she shut hers and waited for the touch.
"The first one in the ocean has to buy the other ice cream."
"What?"
Uraraka's eyes shut open, and before she even got another word out he tried to pull her backwards. She pushed his smug face away and tried to stand up, but Bakugou pulled her back by the hips and launched himself off his towel. Uraraka adjusted her hat and ran after him, careful not to kick sand in anyone's face or get hit in the face by a beach ball. She could see all the annoyed looks Bakugou was getting from a distance. Since all he cared about was replacing the tie with a victory, he didn't even look twice at all the people that got sand on them because of him.
Uraraka tried to speed up, lifting her knees up higher so her feet wouldn't get stuck in the heavy sand. She was getting closer to him, she could probably just about pass him where the waves were crashing.
He turned around, started running backwards, that confident he was going to win. Oh, how she couldn't wait to see his stupid face after her foot first touches the water.
"You better-WAIT!" Uraraka yelled at Bakugou.
Backwards he bulldozered through a sandcastle, completely destroying every tower and almost tripping over the canal.
The girl cursed and went to stand beside Bakugou. Together they stared in silence at a sorry lump of sand.
"…If we go now then…" Bakugou murmured.
He turned around and staring at his legs was a little boy with the most devastated look on his face. With a bucket full of sand in one hand and beach shovel in his other.
"Oh no," Bakugou whispered.
The kid dropped his utensils and tears started appearing in his eyes. He started sniffling and hiccupping, then he sharply breathed in to belt out one of the loudest cries a kid could make. So loud it could pop eardrums.
Uraraka kneeled down beside him to calm him down but then the tantrum started. He stepped forward to kick Bakugou's shins and punch his knees, barely getting his words out as he did so. As Bakugou tried to back away from the attack he went to step on the broken castle again, making the kid even more upset.
"Bakugou get off the castle!" Uraraka tried to yell above the screaming.
"Get that tiny gremlin away from me then!"
She went in between the two, dodging kicks and held on to the little boy's fists. He instantly cut his screaming off and looked at her with wide eyes.
"Can we stop the kicking now please?" Uraraka asked him, making her voice as sweet as her mother's voice.
The boy pointed at Bakugou. "B-b-but he d-destroyed my sandc-castle!" He hiccupped.
Uraraka dried his face and hushed him as he was about to start crying again.
"It was for the contest. Now I'm definitely going to lose. And I already told mommy I was going to win!"
She looked around the beach and only then noticed that there were surprisingly many sandcastles being built all across the beach. How this one was the only one Bakugou trampled over baffled her.
"We can help you rebuild your sandcastle for the contest if you want?"
"Uraraka!"
"Bakugou!...and I would love to help you if you let us." Uraraka glared at Bakugou.
The child pulled at the strings of his red swimming shorts and took his time to think it over.
"You can help me, but he can't. He'll just ruin it with his big ugly feet!"
Uraraka sensed that Bakugou was close to flying past her and launching the kid into the ocean, so she laughed his comment away.
"He won't! He's actually really good at building sand castles. He wants to help to build a lot of things when he's older. Right Bakugou?"
"Yes." He gritted his teeth.
"So you'll be good at helping us, won't you?" Uraraka asked.
"Sure."
She smiled at the little boy. "Is that okay with you?"
He nodded.
"So what's your name little guy?"
"Kaito."
She took his hand and shook it. "Nice to meet you Kaito! My name is Uraraka Ochako and that's my boyfriend Bakugou Katsuki."
Uraraka handed the bucket and the shovel back to him, she stood up and pointed forwards. "We're going to get first place alright?"
Kaito looked back at what used to be his sandcastle and then back at Uraraka. He pointed his shovel in front of him and smiled.
"Yes! We're going to win!"
The kid ran closer to the ocean and plopped down, determinedly shoveling wet sand into his bucket.
Uraraka went over to loosen Bakugou's crossed arms, she held his hands and stared at him until he turned his face back to her.
"Thank you for being civil."
"Whatever, let's build this stupid castle."
They crouched down and inspected the remains, looking if there was anything they could salvage. But to their disappointment, there really wasn't. The kid had a good thing going too. Bakugou suggested that they fill up the canals and make the surface flat again for a fresh start. Then he ordered Uraraka to draw a big circle around them, that being the new canals. This might not be exactly how he wanted to spend his day at the beach but if this is what they were doing, he wanted to do it well.
It was a competition after all and since he had all the knowledge about buildings, losing was definitely not an option.
When Kaito collected enough sand he waddled back and told them more about the contest. The competition was for kids ages four to ten and were allowed help from parents. But the child was so determined to do it on his own and impress his mother that he refused her help. They had a little less than three hours before the competition ended and the sandcastles would be judged.
Kaito had a castle in mind that was as large as him, with a lot of towers and a bridge that goes over the canal. He wanted tunnels through the castle and windows to place his little figurines behind. And of course, he wanted the castle to have a flag on top.
As he got excited about his plans, Uraraka saw Bakugou's facial expression change from bitter to thoughtful. He started pulling his bottom lip, meaning he was actually deep in thought. Before Uraraka could praise Kaito for his wonderful ideas, her boyfriend jumped in and added a few suggestions of his own. He talked about possible additions and adjustments, promising the kid a certain victory if they did it that way.
Using words like ‘bigger', ‘cooler' and ‘more awesome', caught the child's attention.
So they created a building plan that was still very much Kaito's but strengthened with Bakugou's knowledge of architecture.
The way Bakugou spoke about the castle even got her fired up. Uraraka would be lying if she said she hadn't become almost as excited as Kaito.
"Mr. Bakugou, you really do know a lot about building castles!" Kaito chirped at him as he smoothened a tower.
"Are you going to build a real castle someday? When you become an archimetecturer?"
"Sort of." He replied.
It made her heart flutter.
The child kept asking Bakugou all sort of questions, now that he had forgiven him and warmed up to him. Chatted his ears off whilst giving him and Uraraka commands. Bakugou replied with short answers, mostly because he hadn't had many conversations with kids and had no idea what to say. Uraraka could tell he was starting to find it less and less of a nightmare and started to actually like the kid that started to think the world of him.
The innocence, broad fantasy and brutal honesty managed to crack Bakugou up every once in a while. She wondered if Bakugou also saw the similarities between the two. It was a sight, she had to admit. Really thinking about it, she had mostly been staring with a dopey look on her face then doing much building.
They were halfway done when Kaito's mother came to check on him. Obviously surprised at first when she saw her son hanging around two teenagers but as Uraraka did the explaining she became less nervous. She was even able to chuckle at the whole situation.
The mother thanked them more than enough times for taking care of her son and told them she was rooting for them. Lovingly she placed a kiss on Kaito's temple and returned to her towel.
"You sure have a great mommy Kaito," Uraraka said.
"She's the best! She always tells me how awesome I am, reads me stories before bed and gets me ice cream whenever I want."
He turned to Bakugou. "What about your mommy's?"
Uraraka felt her heart skip a beat, she had no idea how Bakugou was going to answer. She knew things were getting better between him and his parents but it wasn't like everything was fine. There were still bad days. Days that he had to get out of the house again. But those days went much differently then they used to. Bad days had turned into a bad few hours.
"My mom's alright. She also gets me ice cream and sh-."
"Ice cream and sugar honey ice tea." Bakugou corrected himself. "But sometime's she's not so alright. And then I go to my second mom, she doesn't live so far away, she's always good to me. But she's not my mom. Nothing can compare to my mom."
Wow.
He had grown so much. Never in a million years did Uraraka think that would come out of Bakugou's mouth. Or at least not now and to a stranger for that matter. Maybe he was just able to say it like that because it was a child that asked an innocent question that couldn't be left unanswered. Or maybe because he knew Kaito wouldn't look too deep into it, only really taken in his first sentence. Whatever motivated Bakugou to say that out loud, she was proud.
Could it be that he was finally getting used to saying things out loud?
Uraraka wanted to ask him a million other questions. When he started seeing Uraraka's mom as his second mom and if he has ever told his mom how much he actually admired her. Did he even notice his own development, could he tell by how tight she was gripping her shovel how proud she was of him?
But instead she said:
"Yeah, my mom is alright too."
At this point, when Kaito stood next to the castle it only needed a few more towers to reach his height. The canal had been dug out and filled with water and some of the windows already had little people standing behind them.
They all agreed it still needed something more, and Uraraka was the one to think of shells, that could easily decorate the castle. The two boys groaned as they couldn't believe how they didn't think of that.
"Of course, how the frick could we forget!" Bakugou said.
"Do you think we're going to find enough shells before the contest ends?" Kaito shot a worried look at Uraraka.
She picked up a white shell she had brought back from the shore when she had to collect water for the canal. Held it in between two fingers and smiled from ear to ear.
"Don't worry boys. I've seen a lot of these lying around. We're going to be fine, just leave it to me!"
The pouts slowly disappeared and their eyes widened. Mouths a little agape but neither of them could bring themselves to say a word. They kept staring at her for so long it made her smile even brighter, making her cheeks almost push her eyes shut.
When picking up a bucket and running off she could hear them whispering.
"Your girlfriend is really pretty and cool."
"I know."
Uraraka came back with a more than satisfactory amount of pretty seashells and took it upon herself to decorate the towers as Bakugou was circling the castle looking for last adjustments they could make in the remaining ten minutes.
She had to say it looked pretty impressive. When looking for shells she had a quick look around and it had made her more and more confident that they were going to win.
Bakugou picked up Kaito so he could put the flag on the top tower that was higher up then they originally intended it to be. The kid excitedly jumped up and down as soon as his feet touched the sand again, clapping in his little hands and whooping. Uraraka couldn't help but clap as well.
The judges started to make their rounds around the beach at three o'clock exact. The closer they came how more tense the three became. They became fidgety and kept looking back at the castle as if it would collapse behind their back at any second.
"I don't even know what I'm going to do if we don't win," Bakugou whispered in Uraraka's ear.
"Nothing too violent I hope."
"Something between lashing out and homicide."
"I can't even say anything because in your eyes that truly is ‘not too violent'."
When the judges arrived at their castle, they immediately had a good reaction. Some good ‘ooh!'s' and ‘wow!'s' came from them. They continued to walk around in circles in a clump and mumble things only they seemed to understand. It looked so silly when given it much thought since they were taking it far too seriously for a contest for children.
After scribbling a few things down on a form, one of the judges took two polaroid picture of them in front of the castle, left one with them and then went to the next castle.
As soon as the judges were far enough away, Kaito dropped his cool and repeatedly tugged at Bakugou swimming shorts and Uraraka's bathing suit.
"And, and, and? Do you think they liked it? Do you think we'll win?! What if we don't win?!"
Uraraka looked at the picture, still catching color. She couldn't help but giggle at Kaito's obvious wobbly smile and the tight grip of Uraraka's hand. And that to think that this was the boy that had been so confident the whole time.
Bakugou kneeled down before Kaito.
"Hey…hey! Look at me. Don't start crying. What did you tell us?"
The child rubbed his eyes. "That we were going to win." He said softly.
Bakugou raised his chin and turned away. "What did you say?"
"That we were going to win!" Kaito yelled.
He pat him on the back.
"That's the spirit kid."
They ended up coming second place.
They got handed blue ribbons as they watched the kid that snatched first place get a small trophy and a children's surfboard. Uraraka could almost hear Kaito's heart break when they handed the prizes over. When Bakugou took his time to argue with a judge over the points they received Uraraka pinned the ribbon to Kaito's swimming shorts.
"Well that was a bit unexpected, wasn't it? I thought we had this one." She awkwardly started a conversation with the boy that had a gloomy look on his face.
As she expected, he didn't reply to her.
She thought hard of how to cheer up the devastated kid, luckily the answer came walking up to them.
"Oh Kaito, did you win?" His mother asked.
He turned his hip to show the ribbon.
"No mommy, we didn't win."
"We should've!" Bakugou growled as he threw back the pen on the judge's clipboard and walked back to them.
Kaito's mother picked up her son and laughed at his clouded face.
"There's no reason to be so sad sweetheart! You still made a really good castle, you still won a prize. And you know you'll always be my number one right?"
Kaito's lip started trembling. "Really?"
"Of course! Always and forever. Now cheer up okay? You don't want these two to see you sad the last time they see your face?"
The little boy nestled his mother's neck and hugged her tight.
"No take back's mommy!"
"No take backs!" the woman laughed.
He then continued to struggle out of his mother's arms and walked right up to two teenager's feet.
"Thank you Mr. Bakugou and Mrs. Uraraka. I had a lot of fun."
Uraraka wrapped her arm around Bakugou and looked up at him.
"No problem, we had a lot of fun too, didn't we?"
Bakugou wrapped his arm around her shoulder. "'Guess you could say that."
He smirked at her and kissed her on her smile.
"Gross!" Kaito smeared out the word.
He scrunched up his face and ran back to his mother, hiding behind her legs.
"Get over it kid."
The mother laughed at the scene, picked her son up and thanked the two again for taking such good care of her son, hoping it wasn't too much trouble.
Bakugou and Uraraka waved it off, saying they genuinely did have fun.
Kaito and his mother left the two behind at the sandcastle.
They only had three hours left before they should start heading home, both of them determined to make the most of that little time. Heading into the water as fast as they could as soon as the child and his mother disappeared from their sight.
Bakugou had to pay for Uraraka's ice cream.
In the water, they played and fooled around. Let the waves that crashed onto shore take them along and tickle them with the white foam of the sea. Tightly they held onto to the blue ribbon, attached to their swimming suits, not intending on losing their prize today.
Uraraka's eyes got prickly, her fingers were wrinkly and all of the kisses she shared with Bakugou tasted like salt. The cut in her lip burned with every impact, but she could not resist the urge to put her lips on his. Not when his skin had started to turn into a beautiful golden-brown color, not when a romantic shade of the sun started to drown his face, making her squint at her so innocently.
She kept thinking about how much she loved him.
How much she loved the way he looked, how much she loved him for taking her here.
This was better than any film she ever watched.