Chapter Text
You were starting to get sick of putting Mina on to your music. You mean you loved having a friend in Japan who understood at least some of your song references, but it was currently Music Monday again (her idea, not yours) and for once, you weren’t feeling up to having company in your room.
She had recently discovered Noname and, in true Mina fashion, she’d ran with the opportunity for flashy alliteration and dubbed this Music Monday’s subcategory as Noname Night. At exactly 8:16pm, she’d clopped into your room sixteen minutes late and, having connected to your speaker from down the hallway, immediately started blasting Noname’s greatest hits at a slightly uncomfortable volume for a dorm with such thin walls.
“~All my everything’s for you; all my terrible sense of humor, incredible interviews~”
“Sorry I’m late, girl! Blasty almost killed Denki again and you know Kiri and I had to go help,” Mina said, scanning your room for a spot to throw her stuff down. You snorted as she settled on the oversized bean bag next to your bed.
“And by ‘help’ you mean instigate, right?”
“You know it,” she winked.
Mina was the boldest girl in the class and reminded you of the types of girls you were used to experiencing back home. When you moved to Japan to attend UA, she was almost like a beacon of light and you guys immediately hit it off.
However, her song choice and mention of a certain blond-haired firecracker stirred something in you that made you regret letting her come over tonight.
He’d been popping into your mind unprovoked lately, and you hated it. Every day for the past month, you’d had an unwanted addition to your morning routine. You brushed your teeth as normal. Washed your face as normal. Pulled on your socks as normal. But as you decided what to do with your hair—whether to wear your braids up or down or in some flashy variation—you would have that thought.
‘What would Bakugou think?’
You couldn’t help but hope he thought you looked pretty in the passing glance he always gave you when you walked into the classroom. That in those .5 seconds of having his passive attention, he would somehow get hooked enough into giving it to you actively.
You hated yourself for it, as you should. He was a bully. He was rude. Uncouth. He referred to you as an extra—actually, he rarely referred to you at all. But ever the sucker for a challenge, you couldn’t help but want to crack that shell of apathy he held towards you.
Music Mondays were always a mix of studying and gossiping about random things with Mina and, occasionally, Jirou. Sometimes it was a 50/50 split. Sometimes it was 20/80 in either direction. The fact that Mina was already scrolling through Instagram on her burner phone made you realize that this would probably be a 20/80 night with studying taking the back burner. You didn’t mind. Her bringing up Bakugou had put you in a headspace that wasn’t conducive to focusing on homework anyways.
You had heard he kept to an early bedtime. You wondered how early. You wondered if he was getting ready for bed right now.
Three harsh knocks on your door jolted you out of your thoughts before your mind could wander any further. Suddenly, you were back in your squeaky desk chair, facing the row of trinkets on the back edge of your desk. You spun around to look at Mina, who stared back with a deliberately blank expression.
Who could be visiting your room? Did Jirou decide to stop by after all?
Confused, you called out, “It’s open!”
After a heavy beat, the door banged open, revealing the very object of your ruminations.
A grumpy Bakugou—headed up by a smiling Kirishima—stomped into your room with arms full of grocery bags.
“Hey [Y/N], sorry to barge in so late, but we came to drop off these snacks for you and Mina,” Kirishima explained sweetly.
Your brow furrowed again, confusion deepening.
“Uh...Why.?” It’s not as if snacks weren’t appreciated—they were always welcome in this dorm room—but it didn’t make sense why they would be randomly bringing you guys some. Especially when the “they” in question included Bakugou, who’d always seemed vehemently against being nice to others.
Mina and Kiri let out small laughs at your bluntness. “It’s because Bakugou lost a bet with me,” Mina replied smugly, reaching over to grab the bags from Kirishima’s hands. “That’s why Blasty tried to murder Denki. ‘Cause he made fun of him for losing.”
“Shut up,” the loser in question snapped.
“What was the bet?” You asked curiously. Bakugou was kind of intense and put 150% into everything he did. You wondered what type of bet he could possibly have lost, especially to someone as laidback as Mina.
Mina and Kirishima glanced at each other, and suddenly, Bakugou stepped up to the desk chair you were sitting at, shoving the bags into your face.
“Just take the stuff and stop asking questions, Sparkles,” he grumbled with slightly less malice than his usual tone.
Sparkles?
“O-oh-kay,” you stuttered, caught off guard by both the nickname and the sudden intrusion in your personal space. Had he really just called you Sparkles? You gripped the bags and his hand fell away. “Thanks…”
Bakugou’s ‘creative’ nicknames seemed to only be reserved for his friends. Well, maybe you were using that word too loosely. The nicknames were reserved for people he respected enough to at least acknowledge as separate entities from the plebeian masses—though not enough to use or remember their actual names. You had always been lumped in with those masses, whom he unaffectionately referred to as “extras”. Until now, it seemed. Now, you were “Sparkles”. Your brain was slow to make the connection that the nickname probably referred to the fact that you seemed to emit sparkles when you used your quirk. As you buffered in real time, he turned to Kirishima, who looked suspiciously smug.
“C’mon stupid hair, let’s go. It’s getting late,” Bakugou demanded, annoyed. His hands sunk into his pockets and he glared daggers into the unphased red-head.
“But it’s not even 9 ‘o clock yet!” Mina whined, already rooting through the contents of a grocery bag she’d unceremoniously dumped onto your floor.
“Let’s keep it that way,” he quipped back, causing you to stifle a laugh. Bakugou’s eyes shot to yours before he nodded his head at you. “Night.”
“Night,” you echoed in reply while he turned to leave and Mina groaned about their departure.
“Goodnight Sparkles~” Kirishima singsonged teasingly, backing towards the door and grinning like the Chesire Cat.
“Shut the hell up!” Bakugou called roughly from the hallway, causing Kiri to laugh. Bidding his goodnight to Mina, he sauntered after Bakugou, letting your door swing closed in his wake.
Sparkles. Maybe I have gotten his attention after all.