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Ochako sits by his side, her hands in her lap as she looks at the sky above them. He’s deaf to the many different booms andbangs overhead, but the way her face lights up at every single firework is amusing to him.
She’s happy, excited, her eyes squinting at each flash of light and when they finally end, she’s quick to jump from her spot on the ground and start cheering. She’s the only thing he can hear, the only thing he can see in the dead of night; when he stands to join her, Ochako is still jumping and clapping and Katsuki can only let a content low growl.
He still feels sticky and hot from their training session but Ochako begged him to go with her to watch the fireworks. At first, he had no problem with telling her no, but the look in her eyes reflected sadness and it let loose guilt in his chest.
So he changed his answer and now he’s standing by her side on the outskirts of their city, watching the cars and city lights twinkle in the distance. The street lights are faint but Ochako pulls her phone from her bag and begins to light the way with her flashlight.
It’s not unusual for the two of them to be seen around town together. Albeit, Bakugou wasn’t one to always agree to this type of stuff two years ago, but the brunette’s bubbly personality grew on him and he found himself actually enjoying her presence, rather than telling her to beat it or get lost.
She talks the entire way back and Katsuki finds himself listening to every single word.
Ochako talks about her day, her grades, their training and how she’s thankful for him and how he never goes easy on her and he feels butterflies in his stomach. It brings his mind back to their first fight and how excited he was to fight her.
Now they’re training buddies and he loves seeing that fire in her eyes with each punch she throws and each counter attack she thinks of.
They finally arrive at the dorms and she’s still talking and he’s still listening. Once they reach the floor that both of them live on, Katsuki walks her to her dorm and waits for her to finish talking about how she plans to visit her parents soon.
Her watches the way her eyes squint slightly when she talks of her mother, her cheeks pressing against her eyes as she grins when she mentions her.
And he watches how her eyes grow wider when she mentions her father, clearly admiring the man that raised her and cheered her on from the very get go.
Now she’s quiet, looking at Katsuki with a content smile lining her lips and he can’t take his eyes off of her. He finds himself lost in her eyes; they’re colored in a rich auburn, golden flecks shimmering from within the confines of her pools and that’s when he notices that Infinity Girl’s eyes are painted with a galaxy of their own.
Millions of tiny stars shimmering in the golden depths, caramel swirls coloring the milky-ways that reside there and he’s lost in a different world.
“Katsuki?”
He blinks, lips parting before his cheeks itch with a blush.
“I’m gonna go to sleep now,” she says with a soft smile and he only scratches at the back of his neck before nodding. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Yeah, sure. Whatever,” he muses before taking a step back.
He eventually wanders down the hall to his own dorm and escapes to the darkness inside. He doesn’t bother flipping the lights on, doesn’t bother stripping his work out clothes from his body or even wandering down to showers.
He’s got his back pressed to the wall as his hand comes to cover his heart. It’s beating a million miles per hour, mirroring the way he feels when he’s dressed in his hero costume, explosions crackling from the palms of his hands, only he’s not doing any of that right now.
Ochako has worked some kind of spell on him over the past two years, wiggling under his skin and muscles until she’s sitting next to his heart, content smile on her face. He’s grown soft for the brunette, grown soft in many different ways and he hasn’t even tried to fight it.
He exhales slowly, trying to reel in his thoughts but the only thing he can focus on is her.
He thinks of the stars in her eyes that paint a galaxy and eventually, he feels himself calm. He’s never felt this way until now and as much as he wants to march back to her door and challenge her to a rematch, his bottom is pressed to the floor, his back against the wall while his fingers comb through his hair.
Katsuki saw more than fireworks that night with Ochako.
Not only did he see them, but felt them.