Chapter Text
“Stop looking at me, fuckwads!” Katsuki bellowed, eyebrows deeply furrowed as little but threatening explosions were booming away on his outstretched hand.
“Bakugo, I swear to God, you have your entire life to be a jerk. So just take this night off and sit still,” Ochako scolded, lips down in a frown as her two hands tightly grasped on his bangs, attempting to tie them up in a—not-so neat—coconut ponytail.
“Don’t get me wrong, Bakubro, we love you, but we’re actually amazed at Chaks,” Eijiro stiffly answered with a shine on his eyes, the mask on his face slowly cracking. “I mean, dude! She’s literally tamed you already!”
“You’re talking as if Bakugo’s such a beast,” Sero teasingly chimed in.
“I’d get him like that, but it’s gonna take forever,” Mina commented, before planting her chin on the palm of her pink hand. She grinned devilishly. “Our dear Ochako got you good, huh? That’s something.”
“Shut up!”
Bakugo sneered at the idiots who seemed to take pleasure in their friend who’s about to go down on a skin care routine with the class’ pink-cheeked brunette. Denki and Mina snickered in the background, which was followed by Sero’s chuckling and Eijiro’s cheers of how manly Bakugo is being, which simply earned another string of swear words from said man.
The three boys already had face masks put onto their faces by Mina, who had just casually strolled over to the common room, skin care products in hand, as she hollered, “Who’s up for a skin care night?!”
Ochako thought only the girls would end up doing it anyway, but Eijiro and Denki were too interested on how skin care products work, after hearing them explain that they only use face wash and only that. Unsurprisingly enough, Deku and Iida tagged along, just as interested as the other two, which was how Deku turned out a mumbling mess right now, bangs tied up into a little ponytail, as he went on and on about the benefits of the mask he had on, staring intently at the tub in his hand with Iida doing his Iida arm movements, babbling on about how the mask is hardening around his face and is it supposed to feel itchy?
That was when Ochako had noticed that nobody touched, or even went up to their resident lonewolf-slash-grandpa—who even sleeps at 8 PM?—who only stayed after Sero provoked him, saying he’s allergic to fun. So she took it upon herself to go up to him and make him do the routine, because really, he needed a good face mask.
Katsuki clicked his tongue, and landed his gaze on Ochako, who was still trying to tame his hair, her small tongue sticking out in concentration. He raised an impatient brow. “You’re taking forever, Cheeks.”
She glanced at him briefly, brows furrowed. “Well, it’s not my fault your hair’s a mess,” she huffed, earning a snarl from the man, which didn’t faze her in any way. After a few seconds, she beamed and finally let go of his hair. “Done! Have you washed your face?” She asked with a grin.
“What do you take me for? Of course I washed my face, dimwit,” he answered sternly, his lips curving down even more.
“Okay, you better stop that or you’re gonna look even more like a grandpa. Take your pick.”
“To hell with what I pick? Just put the damned mask on me so I can get this over with,” Katsuki sneered, dramatically folding his arms over his chest. “And that better not have any girly ass scent or I swear—,”
Ochako rolled her eyes. “It’s unscented,” she cut off, much to Katsuki’s annoyance. “Now, face here so I can put it on you.”
Begrudgingly, and with his signature grimace plastered on his lips and eyes rolled far back, he faced the brunette, crossing his legs beside her on the common room couch. Ochako stifled a laugh at his behavior. He was acting like a grade schooler and he’s 18!
If she was faced with 1st-year Bakugo, she’d just choose to goof around with Izuku and Iida instead, even though she feels and knows that she and Bakugo share some kind of mutual respect for each other ever since their fight from the Sports Festival. She was glad that she had managed to earn the respect of the ferocious Pomeranian, but now, she’s just dealing with his behavior after getting used to it for two years.
“Seriously, stop that! You’re gonna have the mask on the wrong places,” she chided, “just stay put and calm down.”
He snorted. “I’m fucking calm, Pink Cheeks!”
But Ochako decided to ignore him—and his raging huffs—and continued on reaching for the tube and squeezing out its contents. “Okay, maybe it’s not unscented unscented, but it’s not that bad,” she said with a small sniff. “It’s smells like... kiwi? Apples? Something like that.”
“Whatever. Just put it on my damn face,”
So she did. She slathered the green mask on Katsuki’s grumpy face, smoothening out the parts where she applied too much, and adding more to the parts that lacked. Her fingers lightly trailed underneath his nose, gentle enough to not get anything misplaced, until she saw him scrunch his face as she applied more on that area.
Then the corner of his mouth twitched.
Ochako furrowed her brows.
Then it hit her.
“Bakugo... are you ticklish here?”
His mouth set in a hard line and his eyes—which Ochako didn’t notice were closed—snapped open. “Ha?”
She giggled, and once again traced that ever so ticklish spot, muffling her laughter after seeing that Katsuki scrunched his face up again. “You really are—,”
“Finish that sentence and see what happens,” he threatened.
Ochako scoffed. “Okay, okay. It’s safe with me.” She assured, to which he replied with a grunt before she resumed applying the mask on his face. One last run over, and she poked his nose with her index finger with a small smile on her lips, “Boop.”
A corner of his mouth twitched upward, which didn’t go unnoticed by Ochako. But in a fraction of a second, his lips were drawn in a straight line and he looked away, “How long is this shit gonna take?”
Bewildered, she answered, “Uh... ten, fifteen minutes...?”
Thundering claps and loud cackles resounded across the room. “Aw Bakugo, you’re so cute!” Denki squealed with a high-pitched voice, Eijiro beside him laughing like a maniac with tears forming on the corners of his eyes. He even had his phone out, taking pictures for God-knows-what Eijiro’s gonna do with those. “You look like Shrek’s Pomeranian son!”
“Wait... Shrek has a Pomeranian son...?” Izuku silently mumbled in the corner.
“Gross, Kami!” Mina exclaimed.
But Denki just pointed at Bakugo with his two hands. “Oh but look at him! Tell me you don’t see a crossbreed of Shrek and a Pomeranian.”
“You’re on thin fucking ice!” Bakugo flipped him off, little explosions on his free hands as he threatened to stand up and saunter over to Denki. Ochako laughed beside him, also earning her a round of curses and a middle finger to top it off nicely.
Five minutes turned to ten, and at the exact second, Katsuki stood up with a grunt, and made a harsh beeline for the bathroom, face towel being gripped tightly in his hand. Whether Denki and Eijiro haven’t gotten enough or just have this silent agreement on following Katsuki wherever he goes, Ochako wasn’t sure. Her eyes followed his retreating form, as if to make sure he’s really going to the bathroom.
And Katsuki came out glowing.
A scowl on his face, but still, glowing. Ochako swore she saw sparkles around his head.
“Whoa, Bakugo, you actually look... good,” Mina breathed out, amazement and disbelief laced in her voice. Denki and Eijiro walked out, nodding at Mina’s statement.
“I’ve always looked good, Racoon Eyes,” he scoffed.
He did, and Ochako decided to keep that to herself, as she did for nearly a year.
A weight settled in beside her. Turning her head, her eyes widened at the sight of a glowing Katsuki. “Uh, why are you still here?”
“Got a problem?” He raised a brow, glancing down at her with his piercing red eyes. It made Ochako flush on the spot.
“Not really...” She straightened up. “So how’s the mask...?”
Katsuki stayed silent, pondering over what had just happened. Ochako simply sat there, half waiting for an answer and half shrugging it off—she was talking to Katsuki anyway. What did she expect?
He shrugged. “Not bad,” he answered with a grunt after a while, surprising Ochako, making her raise a brow. He touched his face, visibly pleased with the results. “You do that all the time?”
“Nope. Just sometimes.”
“Knock on my door when it’s sometimes,” he said with a huff, averting his gaze as he massaged his nape.
Ochako couldn’t help but stare at him, baffled. “Are you... starting a fight or flirting?”
“Go figure, Round Face! And I’m not fucking repeating myself.” He stood up sharply, shoving his hands in the pocket of his sweatpants. He glanced down at her, and Ochako threw her most oblivious face, just to get something out of him. Deep inside though, she was overjoyed.
Katsuki Bakugo invited her to his room. Not that they’d do anything weird of the sort. But he invited her. Ochako doubted he did the same to his so-called Bakusquad.
Turns out, what she got from Katsuki was a glower before turning around and walking to the elevator in huge strides. It was as if he wasn’t attempting to flirt with her less than two minutes ago.
Her phone vibrated in her pocket, and she fished it out. It was Katsuki. She rolled her eyes. Of course, the guy won’t directly tell her in person, but would rather text it to her.
‘ 𝘼𝙣𝙙 𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙬 𝙢𝙚 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙗𝙪𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙩 𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚 .’
She raised a brow, eyes flitting over to his retreating form and smiling wider. ‘ 𝘼𝙧𝙚 𝙬𝙚 𝙜𝙤𝙣𝙣𝙖 𝙜𝙚𝙩 𝙢𝙤𝙘𝙝𝙞 𝙖𝙛𝙩𝙚𝙧 ?’
‘ 𝙔𝙚𝙖𝙝 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 .’