Chapter Text
“Oi! Where the fuck you think you’re goin, round face?” Bakugou boomed as he saw Uraraka scamper out of the classroom as soon as the last class of the day ended.
“Eep!” She faltered a bit as she heard his voice, but she kept running toward the dorms.
She hadn’t been scared of him since she started training with him after their first year sports festival. They had built up a rapport over the years, and now, in their third years, they were tasked with developing long term working partnerships with their fellow classmates. Bakugou and Uraraka had been working on their quirks together since their second year, so it only made sense that they would partner up for their third years to cement their quirk chemistry. Both of them planned to work in Tokyo after graduation, and having the ability to partner up with another available hero was becoming more and more important as powerful villains began to show up after the battle with the Liberation Army.
Even Bakugou had accepted that he couldn’t work alone all the time, and if he were to pick someone else to work with, it would have been Uraraka anyways. She was determined and ambitious in a very similar way to Bakugou, and she had developed amazing control with her quirk over the years. She could now manipulate gravity by touching objects instead of just floating them. She was now working on controlling the gravity of objects without directly touching them, but had some issues getting past her new weight restriction on the no touch grav boost, as they were calling it.
Because of how well they had been working together for the last little while, Bakugou was confused when she ran out the door. They were supposed to go to Gym Beta for some light sparring and work on fine grained directional control of their dual rocket attack, where Uraraka made them both weightless and Bakugou propelled them at high speeds toward targets. They had the power down pat, but it was hard to steer, so Bakugou was working on figuring out how to create more focused explosions while Uraraka was playing around with the amount of weight they would lose. They were also thinking about attacks where Uraraka could increase Bakugou’s weight as he plummeted down toward a villain with his explosion, but none of this matter if Uraraka ran away from training. Bakugou was also annoyed because their training days built upon each previous day. If they couldn’t work on their directional control today then they can’t work on airtime tomorrow and they couldn’t work on combat strategies the next day. Every single day was important, and Bakugou thought that Uraraka knew that since she rarely missed training.
Grumbling to himself in confusion and irritation, he packed up his books and walked to the dorms in hopes of catching her in the lounge and finding out what was going on. He had become much more approachable over the years, even occasionally socializing with the whole class on game or movie nights. This meant that even though he still didn’t really like it, he was more accustomed to just talking to people to get what he needed. He was at least much more comfortable talking to Uraraka now with all the time they spent together. He came to the dorms only to find the lounge empty. He went to his room first to drop off his books and change out of his uniform into his standard black tank top and sweatpants. He took the elevator down one floor and crossed the hall to reach Uraraka’s door and knocked harshly with a scowl on his face.
There was no answer.
He put his ear up to the door and he swore he heard some muttering inside along with some shuffling of papers.
“Open the fuck up, round face.” He bellowed and knocked again.
There was no answer.
“I CAN FUCKING HEAR YOU.” He shouted and banged on the door with a fist now.
“I CAN HEAR YOU TOO, BLASTY!” Yelled Mina from the door next to Uraraka’s.
“Goddamnit, Uraraka, open the door. We have training.” He growled with urgency after he was taken back by Mina’s outburst.
The door finally opened as Uraraka quickly grabbed his arm and brought him inside so that he wouldn’t disturb the rest of the floor. She shut the door just as he came in and stood in front of him with her arms crossed. She was already dressed in her lounge clothes, an old shirt from her parents’ construction company and loose shorts with strawberries on them that flowed slightly as she moved.
“I’m not training today.” She said with as much conviction as she could muster as she looked up to hold Bakugou’s crimson gaze.
“Why the fuck not?” He leaned against her desk and crossed his own arms.
He was a full head taller than her now and outweighed her significantly with muscle mass even though she wasn’t lacking in muscle either now. He knew those crossed arms were sculpted and scarred just like his were. Sometime in second year, she realized that the more physically strong she was, the less her quirk really needed to work to make something weightless. It was almost like since she could lift more weight all by herself, her quirk didn’t need to work as hard. So she would join Kirishima, Tetsutetsu, and Bakugou at the gym after their training sessions. With visible quad bumps, triceps, and lats, without sacrificing speed given her small frame, she could now take on some of the strongest hand to hand opponents. Bakugou very much appreciated the fact that she could crush him between her thighs if she wanted.
She uncrossed her arms and sighed as she went to sit on her bed, “I’m so tired, Bakugou. We train like non stop. We’re almost done being teenagers, and I’m just so tired.” She put her head in her hands in fatigue and frustration.
“We’re heroes. It’s what we do.” He pulled out her desk chair to sit so he could face her.
“I know, I know, and it really is what we’ve been doing. But, heroes have to take breaks sometimes. Don’t you need to like recharge or something somehow?” Her voice broke as she felt like she was pleading with him.
“The fuck does that mean? I’m not pikachu with a battery or some shit.” He leaned forward so he was just inches from her face if she looked up.
Of course, she looked up and narrowed her eyes as if challenging him.
He felt his neck heat up with how close they were as he looked right into her big brown eyes filled with determination.
“No, dummy, recharge like… ugh,” she threw her hands up and leaned back on her bed, “like mentally or emotionally. Like I know talking to people or going to big events take a lot out of you, right. Not like a hard training session, but you just feel tired after those. So what do you do to recharge mentally? Get back to the slightly less grumpy Bakugou of your day-to-day self?” She tried explaining.
“I’m never grumpy.” He gruffed without breaking eye contact.
“Ok, well, you still don’t like those things, right? So whatever you do afterwards is what you do to recharge. You recharge so that you can do more of those events in the future without exploding the place, right?” She continued as she searched his face for any sign of comprehension.
“I train afterward, you know this. We fuckin spar after all those shitty galas.” It was his turn to throw up his hands in frustration.
She sighed, “Fine, but I need to recharge now. I’m not training or sparring or whatever for 3 days, Bakugou. We can start back up on Monday, but I just need a weekend. Please.”
“We can’t go a whole fucking weekend without training!” He was starting to raise his voice.
“You don’t have to. Go train with Kiri. I’m gonna watch movies, maybe read a book that isn’t about school, do a face mask, and have a girl’s night or something.”
“Kiri and me don’t have a fucking special move that we’re working on, dumbass.”
“Look, I don’t know what to tell you. I’m taking a break. You can join me or not. I need to recharge. I promise I’ll be back and better than ever on Monday.” She stood up now and walked toward her door.
Bakugou grumbled to himself and looked down as he tried to figure out what he was going to do. At this point, he knew he couldn’t get people to do what he wanted all the time, and that threatening them wasn’t very hero-like. He already knew that Uraraka had far more sway on him than anyone else did. After all, she held the key to their combos and that was obviously the relationship he didn’t want to mess up.
“What movie?” He gritted out.
She quirked an eyebrow and grinned, “The class is having a movie night tonight. I think it’s Tokoyami’s turn to pick, so probably something horror. You really don’t have to come if you don’t want to you know. You should recharge however works for you.” She finished with a tone of concern and understanding as she put her hand on his shoulder.
He looked up at her from the chair with an unreadable expression, “I don’t even know what the fuck this recharging shit means, so I might as well do all the shit you’re doing and find out.” He let out an annoyed growl.
She laughed heartily, “Ok, Mr. Grumpalump. I’ll give you a break you won’t forget. Now get out so I can finish the English assignment and clean a bit, and meet us downstairs in an hour.” She opened the door and gestured for him to leave.
As he stepped out the door, she added half jokingly, “Oh, but you’re not coming to girl’s night. I don’t care if that ends up being how you recharge. My Baku-free safe haven stays.”
He grunted as the door closed.
What the fuck is a Baku-free safe haven? She doesn’t need time away from me. I’m the best, and that means being the best to hang out with. He thought to himself as he walked back to his room with a confused scowl.
He had already finished the English assignment, so he decided to work on brainstorming some things he thought that Uraraka could do for their combos. He thought that since she was now able to manipulate gravity entirely instead of just making things float, it should theoretically be possible for her to increase the gravity on parts of the environment she touches. So kind of like getting into an orbit, he should be able to jump to those heavy gravity spots more easily. Or those spots could be used to trap villains more easily, or even direct debris. He grinned as he wrote all this down, thinking of the formulas they’d need to work through. He loved thinking about what she could do with her quirk. As much as he liked explosion, she could literally control a force of nature and bend it to her will. To him, it was just yet another thing about her that made her magnificent .
The hour went by too quickly for Bakugou. He was really just getting into thinking of all the ways they could shoot through the air together, and he was also thinking of a few ways they could use her quirk for recreation. Just to float in the air together and look at the stars. She liked astronomy and constellations, and he figured she might like to ‘recharge’ that way. He might be figuring out what she meant by ‘recharge’ thinking through all these moves too. He went downstairs in a happier mood than before, having thought up some new things to work on during training.
When he got downstairs, he saw Deku and Todoroki at the entrance to the dorms as they finished up paying for an obscene amount of pizzas. He saw Sato taking cupcakes out of the oven, and he saw floating gloves and pajamas, who he assumed was Hagakure, taking popcorn out of the microwave and filling bowls on the counter. He looked around the rest of the room and found Uraraka sitting on the floor in front of the coffee table as she leaned back against the couch. She had a blanket wrapped around her like a little burrito as she wiggled her arms out to grab a cup of tea in front of her.
Cute.
She spotted him and puffed up her cheeks in excitement as she waved to him, “Bakugou! You’re actually here!”
Cute .
“Tch. Fuckin said I’d be here, didn’t I.” He huffed out as he sat on the couch that she was leaning on so his legs were on either side of her body and she had to lean her head back to look up at him.
Cute.
“Deku and Sho ordered pizza for everyone. Did you eat yet?” She looked up at him upside down with her big eyes beaming at him as little tufts of brown hair peeked out of her blanket burrito hood.
So fucking cute.
“They better not have gotten any of that vegan cheese shit.” He grunted.
“Haha, I don’t think they did. Pretty sure there’s a couple meat lovers on there for Kiri alone.”
“Good. If I’m eating that greasy shit, it better taste damn good.”
“BROO, you’re here for movie night!! My little Bakubro’s growin up and bein sociable!” Kirishima grinned wide and plopped on the couch beside Bakugou.
“Oi, I’m always fuckin sociable.” Bakugou retorted as he heard Uraraka snort in laughter. He glowered at her as he gave her a playful smack on the shoulder.
“Well, you’re sociable to some people.” Kirishima winked.
Bakugou just grunted as pizza boxes and plates were passed around.
“Ooooo, explody boy joining us today! Chaks workin her magic already?” Mina joked as she hopped on the couch to give Kirishima a hug and a kiss.
“This is training Mina! I’m teaching Bakugou how to take a break!” Uraraka chuckled at her pink friend.
“For fuck’s sake.” Bakugou grumbled in a low voice as he took a bite of the pizza and tucked his feet under Uraraka’s burritoed legs telling himself that it was just because his toes were getting chilly.
He finished his pizza as some extras from the B class filed in like the purple haired mind control transfer. He saw as Shinsou came and sat beside Uraraka who was now flanked by Tsu on her other side. He saw her greet him with a wide smile. He moved his feet, that were still under Uraraka's legs, to get her attention.
"Oi, when the fuck is the movie?" He asked softly leaning forward to be close enough to smell her shampoo.
"Be patient, Bakugou. It's not like a checklist or race to finish. We just relax and hang out for a bit." She smiled and patted his knee.
His face heated up at the touch but it relaxed him instead of annoyed him like most other touches. He wanted to reach across her half upside down cheek with his thumb to see just how soft it was. He grunted as a response and sat back as he squeezed his legs around Uraraka. He watched the room and tapped the rhythms of his favourite songs on the arm of the couch.
He watched her nose scrunch up in conversation. He watched her cheeks puff up in excitement. He saw her hug Tsu as they shared some moment. After the movie was put on, he saw her eyes go wide at scary scenes before she jumped and gave a little squeak. He really had to hold back his smile there. He saw her hide her eyes behind her hands when the music ramped up and eventually, he saw her fall asleep with her head on the table as if she weren't scared shitless for the last hour.
He tuned in to the end of the movie and just as he had guessed, the killer was the small,old woman fortune teller. He didn't hate horror, it was just too predictable for him. The lights turned back on as sleepy classmates moved back toward to their bedrooms.
"Umm, Ochako…" said Tsu gently as she put her hand on Uraraka's arm. When the gravity girl didn't stir, Tsu looked up at Bakugou, whose feet were still under her legs and his own legs caging her in.
"I got her, frog face." He gruffed as he gently lifted Uraraka up bridal style. He did it so gently that just a few soft stirs came in the form or sleeping Uraraka humming and sticking her tongue out.
"Her room should be open. She always falls asleep at these." Tsu told him.
Tsu wasn't what she'd call friends with Bakugou but since her best friend had been training with him for over a year now, they had a working relationship especially when it came to dealing with Uraraka. Bakugou liked that Tsu was more straightforward than the rest of friends and Tsu saw the respect and care with which he treated her friend.
Bakugou grunted in acknowledgement and walked toward the elevator. He got in and pushed the button to her floor, looking down at her still mostly burrito form. He saw the flush on her round cheeks and couldn't help but smile. He got off on her floor and gently kicked open her door. He placed her on the bed, gently unrolling her from the burrito to place her actual blanket over her in bed. She cuddled right into the blanket and pillow, sinking her face in and humming again in delight. He tucked in a stray hair before moving to close her blinds and turning off her weekday alarm. It was her break weekend after all. As he moved to leave her room, he took one last look at her sleeping form, smiled, and whispered mostly to himself.
"Goodnight, angel face."