Chapter Text
“Ne, Ochako. Are you going to bid on anyone today?”
Tsuyu asked her on their way into the main school building, where the entrance was being set up with a giant banner and balloon arch to greet people into the festival. Class A still had about three hours to set up their carnival out on the field before the public would be admitted onto the campus.
But the cotton candy station that Ochako was responsible for was the least of her worries. How could she focus on spun sugar treats when the date auction was coming up?
Mina was the one to suggest it, of course. She was usually the culprit behind all things remotely boy-related. As a counterpart to the beauty pageant held every year, she thought that the boys of the school could participate in an event where they advertised themselves as potential boyfriend material and people could bid money for the chance to take up their offer.
It definitely took some convincing at first.
“Isn’t that kind of embarrassing?” Kaminari pointed out hesitantly, gaining confidence as the rest of the guys nodded along.
“Only if no one bids on you.” The pink-haired alien girl teased.
“Why wouldn’t they?? I have plenty of girls lining up for me!”
“Then I guess you won’t have a problem doing it!”
“I-I-I guess not?” The poor boy stammered out at the challenge with panicked, wide eyes.
“And the rest of you are also going to join because none of you can pass up an opportunity to show off who’s best.” Mina pointed accusingly at the rest of Class A’s male population with pride, knowing she had hooked them all on the idea.
And that was that.
Word spread quickly about this auction thing and soon, a sizable group of guys had signed up for the chance to prove how desirable they were.
Deku had said he couldn’t possibly participate in something like that, his whole face red and ready to go off on another one of his ramblings, but Ochako brought some cash with her just in case. Not that she was sure she’d be courageous enough to bring attention to the fact that she’d maybe want to go on a date with him in front of so many other people.
It was highly unlikely she'd speak up, she’d already been harboring a crush on him for over a year without any luck. When the idea of a date auction first came up, there was a part of her that thought this would be her chance to do something about it. But, strangely enough, there was an even bigger part that whispered doubts in her head. Like now that a real opportunity had come up, she wasn’t all that sure if that’s what she actually wanted.
“Ah, umm, I’m not sure.” She fumbled out as honestly as she could, patting her jacket pocket with her wallet absent-mindedly. “I don’t think so? What about you?”
“I think I’ll just watch. It should be interesting, kero.” Ochako giggled in agreement. She had overheard some the introductions the boys submitted to Mina to be read as they walked onto the stage. There was an unusually high number of words such as ‘manly’ and ‘stud’ being used.
And there was Bakugo’s reaction to the whole thing too. He immediately announced that he would beat everyone else's offers and come out on top, as he did in most everything else. Ochako imagined him taking a girl out on a romantic date and promptly fell over laughing at the thought. His yelling at her only exacerbated her uncontrollable guffaws.
Reframing the event as a form of entertainment, rather than a nausea inducing opportunity to maybe finally confront her tumultuous feelings, Ochako set to work on her station. She finished decorating the sign indicating her wares and then assembled the two cotton candy machines by the neatly organized row of pink, blue, and purple sugar. Her stand was right between Sato’s funnel cakes and Shoji's corn dogs.
With a little over an hour left before what was sure to be a never-ending flood of people milling around the area, Ochako helped the band plug in all of their speakers and instruments, let Tsuyu practice some face painting on her cheeks, and even snuck in a moment to admire the ice slide that Todoroki and Momo collaborated on.
The school speakers crackled to alert the students that guests would be arriving in 10 minutes, but it was hardly necessary. Being outside, Class A could already see the crowds forming outside the gate.
And sure enough, when the clock struck 10am, Principal Nezu instructed for the visitors to be let in and the carnival was officially open.
Despite the busyness of creating multiple treats at a time, she swiftly mastered the technique of twirling paper cones with both wrists simultaneously, Ochako had a lot of fun serving classmates and the elderly and everyone between. The backdrop of the band and the delighted screams of children playing games made it really seem like she had been transported to an amusement park.
She must’ve made close to 150 sticks of cotton candy when Mina popped by and reminded her of the upcoming auction starting in ten minutes. In her haze of furiously shaping sweet clouds and collecting tickets, Ochako hardly realized that three and a half hours had already passed. Since Class A’s set up was one of the first attractions of the festival, practically everyone stopped by before continuing on to the other class’ attractions.
Ochako closed the stand, as the rest of her class did, for the highly anticipated event of the day. With her heart thumping hard enough to feel it in her stomach, she located Tsuyu and Toru to rush over to the gymnasium.
They arrived just as Mina welcomed the spectators from the podium set off to the side of the decorated stage.
“Welcome to U.A.’s first annual dating auction!” She threw her hands up with palpable excitement, a stark contrast to Ochako's state of mind. “All of Japan knows we have the brightest and strongest upcoming heroes around! But today, I am excited to introduce to you some of our country’s most eligible bachelors!”
Ochako was tempted to laugh. Sure, lots of guys at the school were nice to look at and their strength was to be admired, but it was a bit of a stretch to label them with such ambitious titles.
But maybe other girls knew something that she didn’t, because the room erupted in giddy squeals and more than a couple declarations of love around her. She never knew this event would be in such demand.
“Alright! Let’s get this started off with our first candidate, Todoroki Shouto!” Amidst deafening screams loud enough to make Ochako temporarily jump into a defensive position, Mina held up the application card. “Todoroki likes soba noodles and reading late into the night. He would like everyone to know that he’s ‘Only here to beat Bakugo. Thank you.’”
And despite his apathetic stare as he stood in the middle of the stage, it seemed as though Todoroki’s popularity and good looks in his casual clothes were enough to make multiple girls start clamoring for their chance to be treated to a date with him.
“40 dollars!”
“Make it 50!”
“I have 80 dollars!”
O chako watched with her mouth open as the offers increased until it hit a cap at 106 dollars from a third-year in the Support department. Why would anyone be willing to pay over a hundred dollars for a date with someone they hardly knew?
The absurdity of it all turned out to be really fun. Ochako thoroughly enjoyed herself as more of her classmates took their turns strutting onto the stage and reveling in the attention.
“Kaminari Denki enjoys rock music and fancies himself a chick magnet.” Mina twisted her face in disagreement before opening up the floor to bids.
“Monoma Neito is attentive and loyal, a master manipulator-”
“I know that’s not what I wrote. Those of you from Class A must not know how to read.”
“Why you little-”
After a brief break where Momo had to create some planks to cover up the part of the stage that had been dissolved by acid, they proceeded with the rest of the participants.
“Kirishima Eijiro’s biggest role model is Red Riot and he likes going to arcades. The bid for him will begin at 100 dollars!” Mina winked at the toothily grinning red-haired classmate as she swept him up for herself.
“Mineta will not be participating in today’s auction. Will someone please escort him off the stage? Thank you.”
“Iida Tenya is the class president and would describe himself as responsible and respectful. He’s a family man through and through!”
“Sato Rikido likes to bake in his free time. Ladies, if any of you enjoy sweets, he’s your guy!”
“Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu in one word would describe himself as ‘manly’. His ideal date would be at an arcade.”
Mina read card after card, inserting her own commentary when deemed necessary. She was an incredible host, keeping the energy up in the giant room and making a big deal out of every offer, even though none of them matched up to the standard Todoroki first set.
“Up next is Bakugo Katsuki!" The blonde came out onto the stage with a scowl, though it didn't detract from how great he looked in the suit his classmates forcefully wrangled onto him only a few minutes before. They even managed to slap a tie on him, though he had loosened the knot and let it hang from his neck casually with the top button of his shirt undone. Mina pursed her lips and read off of the card. "He wrote that he aspires to become the number one hero someday-”
“I will and don’t you forget it!”
“-and nothing else.” Mina flipped the hilariously empty piece of paper to check the back in case she’d missed something.
“That’s all anyone needs to know! Now let’s get this over with!” Bakugo crossed his arms and closed his eyes in anticipation of the calls that were sure to come.
But no one said anything.
There were no screams of adoration, no wads of cash waving in the air, not a smidge of interest.
Ochako frowned in confusion. What was going on? She would’ve thought that most girls would want to go out with Bakugo. He was admittedly handsome, wicked smart, and arguably the strongest in their grade. Was his harsh personality that much of a turn off for everyone?
She couldn’t say for the entire population of Japan, but it seemed so in that room. There weren’t any girls willing to take the chance and spend money on what was certain to be a disastrous date with a notoriously rude grump.
As the murmurs grew in a thick cloud over the room, Ochako watched as Bakugo’s normally confident demeanor shrunk. His arms fell to his sides and she could see his jaw tense at the lack of interest. She had never seen him look so small and defeated before.
Maybe she just needed to get the whole thing started? “20 dollars!” Ochako raised her hand and called out from the back of the crowd.
Bakugo’s eyes snapped to hers in surprise, as did everyone else’s in the gymnasium. Cheeks burning from the attention, Ochako waited for someone, anyone, to speak up with a counter offer.
Every second ticking by felt like an eternity, and no one spoke. “Ummm. 30 dollars?” She tried again.
“It looks like we have 30 dollars, folks! Anyone else willing to throw their hat in the ring?” Mina surveyed the room. And as she did, Ochako saw that Bakugo was now narrowing his gaze at her. Oh no. Was he offended that she would offer so little? She only brought 40 dollars with her.
“Tsuyu!” She whispered. “Do you have any money on you?”
“Maybe?” The frog-girl dug around in her themed purse. “I have a 20. Is that ok?”
“60 dollars!” Ochako yelled out and added her friend’s 20 to her hand.
Mina confirmed the new total and offered the confused crowd another chance to dispute it, but Ochako was only paying attention to Bakugo and his reaction. He was now standing stiff with his hands clenched into fists. Noticing he was gritting his teeth, she remembered his vow from a few weeks earlier, that he was looking to beat everyone else. And 60 was certainly lower than 106.
“Toru! Give me your money! Hurry!!” Ochako urged.
“But I’m waiting for Ojiro!” The invisible girl squeaked.
“Just ask him out! He’d drop out of the auction in a heartbeat for you! Please?? I’ll pay you back, I swear!” She let out a relieved ‘thank you’ and grabbed the money to count it out.
“What are you doing, Ochako?”
“60, 80, 100…” She muttered quickly to herself. The moment Ochako tallied up the bills in her hand, she held the stack up victoriously. “160! I bid 160 dollars!”
The entirety of the school burst into gasps and exclamations of surprise. Even the boys from backstage had peeked their heads out from behind the curtain at the commotion.
“Wow! We have 160 from Uraraka against… herself?” Mina paused at the strangeness of the situation. “Uhhh, does anyone else have a higher offer? Going once…”
Ochako held her breath at the slim possibility. There was no way any highschooler would just happen to have more than 160 dollars on them, right?
“Going twice…”
Ohmygosh, she was doing it! She was going to blow everyone else out of the water with her crazy high number!
“Aaaaaaaand sold! Congratulations, Uraraka! You’ve got yourself a date with Bakugo!”
“Ahah! Take that, you extras!” Ochako yelled out excitedly. She couldn’t believe she won!
She squealed with elation and hurried over to the stage as everyone clapped in shock to stuff the money into the box on the stage. Bakugo was going to be so happy with their victory!
Ochako reached the stage and smiled up at him to see him staring at her intensely. Her exhilaration faltered under his gaze, seeing his dark red eyes storm over with something quite different from the gratitude she was expecting. And as Mina enthusiastically forced their limp hands together and ushered them off the stage, reality came crashing down hard enough to make Ochako audibly gasp.
She just paid to go on a date with Bakugo.