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The idea of going on a blind date sounded terrible to Uraraka for a lot of reasons. One) it involved her spending at least an hour with a complete stranger; two) she could clam up and not know what to say or, even worse, blabber because she was nervous; and three) she was kind of already in a relationship. That probably should’ve been the first reason, but she wouldn’t be in this stupid position if Bakugou hadn’t been so persnickety about keeping things between them private, so she was bumping it down to three out of stubbornness.
It wasn’t that he was ashamed of her or anything. On the contrary, Uraraka had never known that someone could be so smug about who they were dating. Sometimes, his pride in her made her blush all the way to her roots. He certainly didn’t mind being physical with her. He seemed to struggle with keeping his hands to himself; he kind of always had once they’d become more or less friends, like he was pulled towards her. Once they were in the privacy of their own apartments, he was all hands and the two of them ended tangled up even innocently.
Admittedly, most of their relationship was behind closed doors, but that was only because he didn’t like public displays of affection at all. He wasn’t into all that cutesy stuff that Uraraka had always pictured her relationships would be like. Not that it disappointed her or anything. She found it kind of funny that she’d ended up here with him.
It didn’t help that they were pro heroes and that meant gossip. With fame came scrutiny. The hero tabloids were filled to the brim with rumors, especially about new up-and-coming heroes. She could still remember when she’d been in school and Kumai Wood and Mount Lady had started dating. So many teenagers had been both ecstatic and devastated. They had tried to keep it under wraps, but it was almost impossible to do.
Now it was Ground Zero and Uravity trying to do the same. The last time they’d gone on a date, she had worn a blonde wig, hat, and sunglasses. It had looked appropriate since they’d been eating lunch on a restaurant’s patio, but she had still felt a little absurd. Sometimes, putting on costumes and pretending to be someone else was fun. They made a game out of it. One of these days though, she wanted to go on a date as just Ochako and Katsuki without the threat of paparazzi getting all in their business.
(The last person to pop up on Bakugou to shove a mic in his face and ask about his dating life had quit the hero gossip business right after.)
She figured that the only reason they’d managed to keep their relationship a secret so far was because they hadn’t even told their friends about their relationship. She did feel guilty about not telling Tsu, Deku, and Iida. Maybe not telling Deku made her feel the worst. He and Bakugou were on much better terms these days and had even worked together on multiple missions and villain fights, but they would never be close friends, not after everything. She wondered if Bakugou felt bad about not telling Kirishima or the others.
Of course, since they didn’t know, that left them believing that she had been woefully single for two years and they couldn’t have that.
Her last relationship had been with another sidekick from a different hero agency. She’d met him while on the job, of course. It had lasted approximately eight months before she had moved up from sidekick status and he had not. Apparently, the moment that she’d started to rank higher than him, he hadn’t liked it. He had thought that she would one day work under him.
After that relationship had ended sourly, she had decided to focus solely on her job, throwing herself into her work with a kind of intensity and viciousness that eventually caught Bakugou’s eye. She had worked with him a few times as well, but not very often. Somehow or another though, their lives became entangled again, at first only on the professional level and then something more. It was the kind of secret whirlwind romance filled with danger and passion that she’d read about in romance novels growing up, minus the flowery compliments and ridiculous swooning.
As much as she was starting to want to be more open about their relationship, she was happy with Bakugou and she wasn’t interested in dating anyone else.
Which was why Uraraka was sitting at a table drinking a glass of red wine before her blind date even arrived. She didn’t want to be here. Maybe she could get a little buzzed to take off the edge. She’d be polite, nice, friendly, and then apologize for wasting their time.
Mina had been very specific about her not running off in the very beginning, as if she’d been able to read Uraraka’s mind. “You might not think he’s your type at first, but trust me, I know what I’m doing. The sparks will fly!” Uraraka highly doubted that, seeing as how she was already in a relationship where sparks were doing more than just flying -- they were exploding -- but she couldn’t say that.
After months of pestering Uraraka about needing to go out on dates and get herself out there, she had caved and let Mina set her up on a blind date. She probably should’ve told Bakugou beforehand, but he’d make such a big deal out of it and might even get pissy with Mina, who was only trying to be a good friend. The potential damage for his ego was too high if she told him beforehand. Besides, this wasn’t an actual date, seeing as how she had absolutely zero interest in dating someone else. It’d be like a blind friendly outing. She’d tell him about it after, he’d get grumpy, and then she’d make it up to him. No harm, no foul.
“I believe this is the table you’re looking for, sir.”
Uraraka almost jumped in her seat. She’d taken the one facing the door so she could keep an eye on whoever was walking into the restaurant, but had gotten distracted by the menu. She was hungry and, now that she was a pro hero, she didn’t have to worry about money nearly as much. Lost in her thoughts, she hadn’t noticed the host bringing over her blind date.
Putting on a fake smile, Uraraka dropped the menu on the table and started, “Oh, sorry--”
Only to have the words snatched right out of her mouth because it was Bakugou sitting in front of her. He looked equally shocked. “What the fuck are you doing here, Uraraka?”
“What are you doing here?” Uraraka demanded. If the guy Mina was trying to set her up with saw Bakugou sitting at the table with her, there was no doubt he’d call Mina to complain. Then Uraraka and Bakugou’s relationship would get found out because, as much as she loved the other girl, Mina could not keep a secret for the life of her. “I thought you didn’t want to be seen in public together!”
“I asked first,” Bakugou shot back, completely ignoring her last statement.
Uraraka folded her hands on top of the table. “You know how Mina has been pestering me about going on a blind date for months? I agreed to get her off my back.” She saw something heated flash in Bakugou’s red eyes like a warning sign and continued before he could erupt. “Nothing was going to happen! I was going to politely tell the guy after it was done that I wasn’t interested.”
“After?” Bakugou watched her with calculating eyes. “Why not before?”
“Because I thought I could get something to eat and I know how much you like yakitori,” Uraraka told him honestly. It sounded kind of messed up now that she thought about it, but she’d figured that she could take the leftovers to Bakugou afterwards. It wasn’t like she’d planned on letting the guy pay for her. That would have been extra weird. “Okay now seriously, what are you doing here? Did you follow me or something? I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I just didn’t want you to get upset.”
Instead of growling furiously or stomping off or glaring at her, Bakugou did something else entirely that she had not expected at all: he barked out a laugh. She blinked at him in surprise, not sure what to make of it and at a loss of words. When he was done, he propped an elbow on the table and dropped his face in his hand, hiding his eyes. He laughed under his breath to himself a few more times and then lifted his head to look up at her.
“I did the same thing,” Bakugou told her.
Uraraka furrowed her brow. “Huh?”
Sighing to himself, Bakugou leaned back in his seat. “Kirishima always goes on and on about how happy he and Ashido are now that they’re together -- how I’m missing out on a big part of my life by not dating. He’s been hounding me about it for months. It was driving me crazy. He was convinced that he had my ‘dream girl’ just waiting to be noticed.” He scoffed and shook his head. “I told him I’d go on the stupid blind date, but figured I’d let the girl down right away, snag some to-go food, and go over to your place.”
At first, Uraraka was too dumbfounded to think, much less say anything. And then it hit her. What had happened. Their well-meaning friends, in hopes that they could help Uraraka and Bakugou find the same happiness that they did, had set them up on a blind date...with each other. The guy that she had been waiting for was Bakugou. He was her blind date tonight and she was his. Somehow, Mina and Kirishima had decided that they would work well together without even realizing that they were already together.
It was so ridiculous that Uraraka began to laugh and she had to put a hand over her mouth to keep herself from getting too loud. It wasn’t enough to keep people from looking over at them and giving them weird looks, but she didn’t care and neither did Bakugou. He was too busy smirking. This was so dumb. The first time they were sitting in a restaurant together as themselves and it wasn’t even their doing. It had been a complete and utter accident.
When Uraraka finally calmed down, she let out a breath and looked at him. “I suppose you’ll want to get out of here quickly so we don’t cause any more of a scene.” Everyone around them was back to eating their meals again, paying them no attention. “I don’t think anyone has recognized us as Uravity and Ground Zero yet.” She grinned at him. “Must be that nice outfit. You don’t dress that nice for me .”
Bakugou rolled his eyes and then leaned over to snatch her glass of red wine so that he could take a swig from it. He bobbed his head as he decided if it was good or not and then set it back down in front of her as he lifted up his other hand. Their waiter appeared seconds later and Bakugou asked, “Can we get a bottle of what she’s drinking?”
“Of course, sir,” the waiter replied before hurrying away.
Uraraka’s eyes widened. “Katsuki…”
Shrugging his shoulders, Bakugou casually said, “It seems like a shame to waste Kirishima’s and Ashido’s hard work.” He smirked again. “How about it, Ochako? Want to be my date for the night?”
“Let me see how I feel after I finish this glass,” Uraraka replied cheekily as she raised the wine glass to her upturned lips and took a sip, her eyes never once leaving his. Well, they’d both planned on ending the night eating dinner with one another. It made sense to just do that here now. She was really going to have to thank Mina after this.