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Mineta had mixed feelings about the little competition slash project their class had started. He found the idea great and was looking forward to both receiving favors as well as doing something nice for his classmates. There was only one big problem. He knew many of his classmates- especially the girls were not very fond of him. He didn't know how to do something nice for them and he also was afraid to be the only one receiving no stickers from the girls.
Despite his worries, he didn't want to give up right away or ruin the fun for everyone else. It just hurt to feel more and more left out. The first people started to hand out stickers and people started growing closer in the process. Of course his classmates still trained with him and they worked with him if group work was required during their lessons, but when they were at the dorms he felt pretty lonely.
Mineta waited a few days... then a few more...and by the time a week had passed he decided he had to do something. That something manifested itself into him sitting in front of the school councilor’s office, waiting for Hound Dog to call him in. He was nervous about coming here and the longer he waited, the more he thought about getting up and leaving. Before he could do so however, the door opened and Bakugou, followed by Hound Dog stepped out.
Hound Dog didn't even notice him from the looks of it and turned in the direction of the teacher's lounge saying something about getting coffee. Neither Bakugou nor Mineta listened to him closely. Instead they stared at each other.
"The fuck are you doing here?" Bakugou asked. Mineta wasn't sure if Bakugou sounded more defensive or offensive. The blonde for his part wished he hadn't said anything. It didn't matter nor was it his business why Mineta was here. He should have just moved on, ignoring the small boy, who's legs dangled over the edge of the chair without getting even close to reaching the ground.
"I er....wanted to see Hound Dog. Do you know if he is coming back?"
"I guess so." Bakugou shrugged, then decided to elaborate a little. Mineta looked surprisingly nervous and he'd had a fairly good session today. It couldn't hurt to give a better answer. "He's just getting coffee, cause the machine in his office is broken. If you have an appointment he should be back soon."
"I need an appointment? I just saw the office hours." Mineta asked.
"Were you sent here?"
"No..."
"You came here willingly?" Bakugou asked. It had taken his parents and Aizawa's pestering to get him to agree to at least one session. He never would have went voluntarily.
"I wanted to talk to him about something." Mineta said and looked even smaller than he usually did. His entire mood seemed down and nervous. It was a strange sight. So strange Bakugou was kind of curious about what was going on.
"Well, his office hours go on for a while longer, so he'll probably be back." An awkward silence settled between the two, though Bakugou didn't make a move to leave. "What are you here for?" The blonde asked skeptically since Mineta never seemed to have problems. His grades where surprisingly good, his quirk Bakugou could admit was fairly useful, he didn't seem anxious or depressed. It just didn't make much sense to see him here. Bakugou hadn't really expected an answer, but as he started to learn, that probably had mostly to do with the fact that he himself wasn't fond of trusting others. He noticed The Bakusquad shared far more of their worries and concerns amongst each other than he did.
"Well...it's kind of about our sticker challenge. I'm not sure how I can be nice to the girls."
Ugh? Bakugou felt himself doing a double take. Had he heard correctly?
"They don't really like me..."
"No shit." Bakugou said. Honestly, what did the grape expect?
"It's not only because of our challenge." Mineta clarified. "But it made me realize I can't really do anything with them."
"You better keep your hands off them." Bakugou warned.
"I wasn't going to touch them!"
"Maybe you should have made that clearer earlier. You can't just be a pervert and expect people to respect you." Bakugou stared down at Mineta who had his eyes cast downward onto the floor.
"I know that now..." Mineta sounded honestly saddened.
"You really never thought it was wrong before?" Bakugou always kept himself himself out of the stunts Mineta pulled. He never was worth much of his time before. This must have been the most he's talked to Mineta in total.
"I don't really know what to do with girls." Mineta admitted. "I went to an all boys school and I lived alone with my dad. I've never really been around girls."
Bakugou truly regretted staying. What had he gotten himself into? Bakugou didn't give advice about good behavior. One of the reasons for him to be here right now was so he could discuss his anger issues with Hound Dog. Mineta definitely came to the right spot if he wanted advice, but he currently was talking to the wrong person. Hound Dog was still no where in sight though. Bakugou should probably say something. Use this moment to work on his social skills a little.
"Just treat them like people." Bakugou settled on saying. "The main reason they don't like you is because you act like a pervy creep. You can't do shit like that. You wouldn't go through the guy's laundry."
"I'm not gay!" Mineta said and his eyes widened as he looked at Bakugou who stared him down with a deathly glare.
"Not that I mind! It's okay if you are!" Mineta hastily tried to fight himself out of the hole he dug himself.
"Who said I'm gay?!"
"What? No one! I meant in general. It's not bad in general." Having two people with different social interaction deficiencies communicate could only end badly, but luckily Mineta's quick reaction made Bakugou settle a little.
Mineta sighed. "Do you have any ideas what I can do?"
"Do what?"
"Get people to like me more."
Bakugou was seriously confused by the question. "Have you met me? What gives you the idea I know how to get people to like me?"
"You are loud and aggressive but people still like you. You were the first to get stickers."
"Yeah, because I demanded Mina to give them to me." Bakugou said. He wasn't used to talking himself down, but he also wasn't used to talking with Mineta.
"But what could I do for them?"
Bakugou sighed. "You'll have to earn their trust again first. You could..." Yeah, Bakugou was giving advice for something he hated himself. This must be karma. "You can just ask them what they want."
Mineta nodded thoughtfully as he heard someone coming down the hall.
"I don't know what your shitty middle school or father taught- or didn't teach you, but you should bring it up with Hound Dog." Bakugou said. When Mineta looked up he saw Hound Dog coming back to his office.
Bakugou nodded in lieu of a goodbye before escaping. Depending on how things with Mineta went Hound dog would either lecture him during their next meeting, or he would tell him how proud he was about 'offering help to a friend'. Bakugou couldn't decide what was worse.
The only good outcome for him personally was that he noticed a new grape sticker on his poster later that day. When it came to Mineta, Bakugou decided to keep a closer eye on the sticky balled grape for a few days. He had to admit he was impressed by Minetas change in behavior. He also was a little jealous of how easy it seemed for Mineta to work on himself. But he couldn't say he was mad. Not, when Minetas change in behavior was for the better, especially for the girls.
-----.....-----.....-----
Mineta had taken Bakugou's advice and talked to Hound Dog about his father and his school. From his first impression of the man, he never would have imagined Hound Dog could be calm and make sense, but he had helped Mineta to put things into perspective. It was difficult to adjust to a new way of thinking, forget a lot of what he had been taught and admit that not only was it wrong what he was taught, but also that he himself made mistakes based on his wrong view of things.
Hound Dog had offered Mineta to schedule another meeting, so they could see how he adjusted and worked on improving his interactions and relationships to his classmates. Mineta didn't mention their class sticker project in particular, but just like Bakugou he decided to take it as an opportunity to test himself. Things went fairly well, especially because he chose to keep his distance to the girls. Bakugou had said to treat the girls as people, so he hoped working on his interactions with the guys would eventually help with the girls.
Of course things had to go wrong eventually. It was an accident really, but the scene unfolded catastrophically. Mineta was walking past a group of his classmates, not even intending to interact with them, because he was on his way outside. Kaminari stumbled from behind a corner, scaring Ochachako unintentionally. Surprised she waved her hands around, somehow managing to touch Mineta. Before he knew it Mineta was floating up in the air. The next thing he knew he hit something soft and a scream rang in his ears. Not just any scream, but Yaoyorozu's.
Mineta felt someone yanking him around and he painfully hit the wall, unable to stop himself from floating. He was honestly starting to feel a little motion sick. Someone, Jirou he realized grabbed him and slammed onto the ground. When he looked around he saw horrified faces staring at him.
"You disgusting little creep!" Jirou hissed at him. Yaoyorozu wrapped her arms around herself.
"Yeah! This is enough. We're going to tell Aizawa!" Mina glared at Mineta, who would fly away if it wasn't for Jirou's tight grip.
"That's pretty unfair." An unexpected voice spoke up. Everyone turned to Bakugou, who looked at the group with his hands in the pockets of his sweatpants.
"What?!" Mina asked shocked. Bakugou never defended Mineta before. She couldn't even remember a time where he bothered to get involved with anything the grape did. "He jumped at Momo!"
"If you'd let him go you'd realizes he's floating because round face hit him and he couldn't redirect himself."
Jirou slowly loosened her grip on Mineta. As soon as she did he floated upwards. "Oh."
Oachako quickly stopped the effects of her quirk affecting Mineta. He fell to the ground with a thud.
Mineta felt hurt and guilty. He did not mean for that to happen and he could see that no one found it funny. A few weeks ago he might have used the chance to land on a girl's breasts on purpose. The other boys in his middle school always joked about thing like that. He was trying to learn and do better, but right now it felt like the universe was out to get him. The girls had looked at him with so much disgust and hatred he felt hopeless. There was nothing he could do to redeem himself.
A fear, that had crossed his mind a few times so far overwhelmed Mineta. What if they would hate him for the rest of their school time and beyond? How could he ever be a hero if everyone hated him?
"I am sorry I crashed into you." Mineta apologized to Yoyorozu. A shocked silence hung over everyone.
"Well...I guess it really wasn't your fault." Kaminari said. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." He turned to Oachoko. Him and Sero had been goofing around and hadn't realized so many people were around the corner.
"Umm...I'm sorry for using my quirk on you." Ochako said. She still felt rather shell shocked. She hadn't noticed she touched Mineta at all.
"This better be the last accident of the sort." Jirou muttered.
"I really didn't mean to." Mineta said. "I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable and I realize that I havn't been nice to you."
"You don't say." Mina said coldly.
Yaoyorozu kept quiet the entire time and listened to what everyone had to say. It was quite difficult to believe Mineta after everything he had done, but then there was that one thing..."Is that why you've been avoiding us girls recently?"
Mineta gave an affirmative nod.
"Sounds suspicious." Mina noted.
"Hey, this really wasn't his fault though..." Sero put in. He protected the girls from Mineta before and even tied him up, so the words coming from him held some weight.
"Maybe not this time, but he's a pervert all the same."
"Just give him a chance."
Every one turned to Bakugou, who if he was honest, wouldn't be there anyone if he wasn't waiting for Ojiro to arrive so they could go to the gym together. Since he was there and had to deal with the idiotic drama though, he figured he'd at least try to put an end to the fight.
"You really want us to forgive him for everything he's done?! He tried to look at us changing in the locker rooms!" Mina said affronted.
"He almost went through Hagakure's laundry." Jirou said.
"I didn't say to forgive him, I said to give him a chance when he's trying to do better." Bakugou said and left. He really did not want to have any more to do with this. He could wait for Ojiro in front of the dorms as well.
"You forgave me..." Kaminari said, rubbing the back of his head. Seeing how Mineta was treated now made him realize once again how shitty he himself had acted. He- and other guys still joked around but it was different behind closed doors. He might have never gone as far as Mineta, but he could have stopped him sooner. Any of them could have talked with Mineta sooner, but they always just put it off as a joke.
"I'm not opposed to giving you a second chance." Yaoyorozu spoke up quietly. "It will be difficult because you made us feel very uncomfortable, but I appreciate your apology and efforts to change."
"If you mess up one more time we'll tell Aizawa for sure." Mina warned.
"That's fair. I understand." Mineta agreed to everyone's surprise. It was so strange to see him not putting up a fight or defending himself.
Although the situation started out awful for everyone involved, it ended pretty well. When Bakugou returned from training with Ojiro he noticed not only he, but also Kaminari, Sero, Mina, Jirou and of course Yaoyorozu had new grape stickers on their posters. Even though they would remain cautious, they were willing to give Mineta a chance.
-----.....-----.....-----
After the accident with Ochako and Yaoyorozu, things started to fall into place. Bakugo noticed the girls as well as Mineta got along better but started paying less attention to them. Even though he helped Mineta - twice now no less - he did not care much about the small grape boy. Naturally their paths crossed fairly often and the sticker project gave both a reason not to avoid one another.
Bakugou walked across UA's campus, coming back from a run when he noticed a heap of moving bags. Only on second glance did he notice the short legs struggling underneath. UA had people in all shapes, forms and sizes and Bakugou was sure there were several short people. However, it was not difficult to recognize Mineta once he caught a glance of his purple sticky balls on his head.
Mineta regretted going shopping so much. He went with Kaminari, who suddenly ditched him in favor or staying behind because Kirishima, Sero and Mina apparently wanted to meet up. Someone had to bring their purchases back to the dorms, especially because they also bought things that belonged in the freezer. Kaminari had helped carry everything to the train station, where he met up with his friends. The real struggle started when Mineta had to get out of the train and carry everything back by himself.
He was far from the strongest in his class, in fact he was pretty sure he was the weakest. That coupled with his short height made dealing with the shopping bags a tedious task. He was about to fall over, when he felt the weight of the shopping bags being lifted from him. He looked up, only to be blinded by the sun. After blinking a few times and looking more carefully he recognized blond hair, red eyes and a familiar frown.
"The fuck are you trying to do?" Bakugou asked and Mineta set the bags down. His arms hurt, where the bags had dug into his muscles and he rubbed them to get his blood circulating better again.
"Trying to get this stuff back to the dorms." Mineta said. Honestly, wasn't it obvious?
Bakugou huffed out some air, but he picked up most of the bags and moved forward. He didn't say anything or wait. Mineta had to hurry to catch up with him.
It was amazing how Bakugou could be so rude, while still helping others. But if there was one thing Mineta had learned in the past few days it was that patience paid off. Bakugou liked helping others. He wouldn't study to be a hero otherwise. He was so used to putting up a front it was difficult to change his language. It helped him keep a distance to others. Luckily Mineta did not strike up a conversation with him.
They brought the shopping bags into the dorm and sorted the things in silence. Mineta stored away everything that went in the lower shelves, drawers and the freezer, while Bakugou put everything in the higher shelves and the fridge. Bakugou did everything without getting asked to. He saw Mineta needed help and he helped without making a big deal out of it. It felt like words weren't needed and they still grew somewhat closer. It was the least Mineta talked to Bakugou while still interacting with him, but he still picked out a grape sticker from his set for the help.