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“Hi! You made it! Welcome!” Uraraka found herself pulled into a tight hug, Mina squeezing her so tightly that she lifted a little off of the floor. “I didn’t think you were getting back from your mission till next week!”
“Yeah well,” Uraraka shrugged, trying to play it cool but secretly glad that Mina was so happy to see her. “I finished up a bit early and asked if I could come back to see you all.”
“Chako! That’s so sweet, and we are glad to have you. Come on, most folk are already here.”
She let herself be led into the house, greeting the friends that she hadn’t seen for months thanks to the mission that should have kept her away for that party, too. There were lots of smiles and shouts, people waving to her from across rooms and even one unusually tight hug from Shinsou who was one of the last people she expected to be excited to see her.
But finally she made her way through to the living areas of Mina’s very fancy townhouse where the party was really taking place. Mina had done an incredible job on the decorations, as she always did. There were twinkling lights strung along the top edge of every wall, delicate glass ornaments with tiny electric candles inside hanging from the ceiling in place of the regular lighting, combined with the scent of fresh gingerbread that she was only half sure was coming from a candle, made the room feel absolutely magical.
“Mina this is–”
“I know I know I’m a genius. I need to make sure that Denki hasn’t set something on fire again, but go! Mingle! Get an eggnog! Be merry!”
She nodded, waving Mina off and meandering around the room making small talk with friends and colleagues who she hadn’t seen for a long time, accepting even more welcoming hugs from those she knew a little better, and searching for the drinks table that she knew had to exist somewhere.
“Cheeks?”
“Bakugou!” She spun into a hug before she could stop herself, throwing herself at him and relying on his usually impressive reflexes to catch her. His arms tightened around her immediately, and she was sure that she felt his breath shudder, as though he was breathing her in, in one long deep sigh of relief.
For a moment, she didn’t want to pull away.
“I didn’t think you’d be here,” she whispered into his shoulder, feeling him resist for a moment when she pulled back after what was already a ‘slightly too long to be socially acceptable’ hug. “I’m sure I remember you saying something about parties being a dumb waste of time.”
“Yeah well,” he shrugged. “Figured there might be someone worth seeing here so I dropped in. Guess I was right.”
“Oh yeah? Who’s here? I should make sure that I don’t miss them.”
He rolled his eyes, turning to hide his smile from her and failing entirely. She’d known him too long to not spot his tells, not to see the light flush on the tips of his ears and feel her own blush rise in response.
She hadn’t expected it to be so good to see him, but there she was feeling a little giddy that he’d greeted her so warmly, that he’d apparently been more pleased to see her than just about anyone else there. It was a rare thing to receive a hug from Bakugou, and he hadn’t even threatened to blast her away. With a small huff Uraraka shook the thought away, telling herself not to read into it. This was Bakugou, and that train of thought wasn’t going to get her anywhere helpful.
“You haven’t managed to find the drinks have you?” She asked instead of voicing any other thoughts, doing her best to deflect from the steady and persistent thumping in her chest. “Mina said there were drinks but…”
“Oh, yeah, fucking Pinky didn’t think to put them where everyone would actually want to be . Maybe that was to keep the idiots away, don’t know. But it’s a fucking pain. Come on, there’s snacks too and, knowing you, you’re going to want them.”
“I came straight off the flight so I definitely want snacks.”
She saw his smirk, the one that he wore when he enjoyed being right about something, and despite her better judgement she let it warm her just a little more. She hadn’t realised quite how much she’d missed him, and it was nice to indulge in that just a little.
With a drink in her hand and a spot firmly next to the snacks table Uraraka felt more in the party mood. She bopped her head to the music, laughed at the jokes that were being told around the room, she even let Denki tug her onto the dance floor once — just once — to be whirled around to cheesy festive songs whilst avoiding being stepped on by her uncoordinated partner.
And wherever she was, Bakugou didn’t seem to be too far away, pulling her into conversations when nobody else did, quietly listening in when she was having one of her long animated catch ups with Mina or Tsu. He declined joining her on the dancefloor no matter how many times she asked, but she could see him on the edge, that tiny smile tugging at the sides of his mouth that told her he wasn’t horribly unhappy to be there.
Maybe… maybe she could allow herself to hope there was something there after all.
She’d stopped chasing after the affections of Bakugou Katsuki in their second year when — after significant coaxing and encouragement from her friends — she asked him to go on a coffee date and he turned her down flat. They’d managed to find a friendship again after that, but it wasn’t fair on either of them to keep that flame alive, so she’d tried her very best to push it away. And yet…
“Everyone!” Mina tapped a knife against a tall champagne glass, her cheeks darkened by the flush of the alcohol, a wide smile on her face that was almost certain to spell bad news for anyone who wasn’t her. “It’s time for one of my personal favourite moments of the evening.”
“Oh no–”
“Revealing the mistletoe!”
A mixture of groans and cheers ran through the room, people subtly shifting closer or further away from their neighbours at the prospect of having to kiss them, a kind of anxious tittering following the announcement as they all waited to see where Mina’s famous mistletoe was going to appear. It was almost always hidden, tucked away somewhere waiting for the big reveal, and — at least in the years that Uraraka had been there — it was almost always responsible for most of the chaos of the second half of the evenings.
Because the rule was clear. If you were under it, you kissed the person you were standing there with. No excuses, no trying to get out of it, and no running away. If you were there, you were kissing, and that was the end of that. Uraraka had always secretly suspected that Mina had the mistletoe placed when she knew people were more settled, so that she could set up those of her friends whose love lives she had decided were her duty to fix. There had never been any proof but… this was Mina.
Somewhere someone started a drumroll on their knees, and Mina gave a final gleeful whoop as she pressed a button to reveal…
Mistletoe.
Right above Uraraka’s head.
“Fuck.”
When she looked back down Bakugou was shuffling his feet, his ears tinged with pink, his hands thrust deep into his pockets. Of course it had been placed right over the two of them.
“Well looks like Uraraka needs to pull Bakugou in for a long overdue smooch!”
There was a cheer, which was almost worse than the stunned silence that had come moments before. Her heart was thumping so hard that she was sure that Bakugou would hear it even over the noise, especially when he looked at her, meeting her eyes with that blush staining his cheeks, too.
“I guess it is tradition?” She said, hating the crack in her voice.
“I guess it is.”
The hush had fallen over the room once more, everyone watching, waiting for the moment when lips would finally meet.
Uraraka took a step, taking the slightly clammy hand that Bakugou held out to her. It was like she had drifted into some kind of dream as she leaned in and let her eyes flutter closed. She was finally going to kiss him, and maybe after that…
Of course, the problem with dreams is that you always wake up.
Something bumped into her head, hard , pain blooming suddenly in her nose making her yelp and leap back. Before she could stop them her hands were coming up, her quirk activating on whatever it was that had just hit her and throwing it up and away from her.
“Ack! Cheeks what the fuck!”
“Shit, I think it broke my nose.”
The moment was gone, the hush of the room bubbling into raucous laughter as everyone quickly realised what had happened.
A holiday themed napkin was pressed into Uraraka’s hand, and she looked up to stem the steady flow of blood to find Bakugou, swimming on the ceiling with a face so red he looked like he might explode from the embarrassment alone. She was just as flushed, hot and awkward, trying to find any way to escape the situation without drawing even more attention to themselves.
“Sorry!” She called. “Let me let you down. I’ll just–”
But her fingers still had a napkin in them and what should have been a gentle release was a solid drop, sending Bakugou hurtling back to the ground… right on top of her. And right back under that damn mistletoe.
Again the laughs rose through the room, friends piling in and desperately trying to hide their chuckles, stretching hands out to help the pair up from their crumpled heap on the floor.
“That might have been the worst kiss I’ve ever had,” Uraraka said, doing her best to laugh off the pain in her nose.
“Wasn’t even a fucking kiss,” Bakugou huffed, brushing some dust off of his jeans. “Why did you have to go and– you know what. Forget it.”
He tried to storm away but there were too many bodies in his path, and before he could even get out of sight Uraraka was following him, silently thanking Mina for dragging someone else under the wretched little plant for a kiss that everyone could woop and swoon over.
“Bakugou!”
“Trying to storm away here, Cheeks.”
“I don’t think storming away works if you tell me that you’re storming away.” She reached out to grab him, slipped on something, and for the second time that evening they ended up toppled in a tangle of limbs on Mina’s carpet.
For no reason that she could bring to mind, Uraraka started to laugh. A giggle rose in her throat before she could stop it at the ridiculousness of their situation. For a second Bakugou looked at her as though she had gone insane, but then an ugly snort found its way out of his nose and before either of them really knew why they were laughing so hard that it hurt, clutching their sides and wiping tears out of their eyes, trying and failing to get up from the mess that they found themselves in.
Once again Uraraka felt that warmth seeping into her chest when she looked at him, laughing right along with her at their utterly disastrous moment without a care in the whole world.
Maybe there was still something there after all. Maybe it had never really gone away.
“Come on Cheeks,” he said finally, wheezing, untangling himself from her and holding out a hand to her to help her up. “I think we both need a drink after that.”
She took his hand, letting herself be pulled up and along behind him, and somehow from there the evening got easier. They found a place to sit and watch the rest of their idiot friends get steadily messier, talking and laughing more with one another than anyone else. Uraraka found herself finally relaxing, enjoying the party that she had almost decided that she would leave early the moment that she walked through the door.
But she was having fun, and it was all because of Bakugou’s company.
Because of the jokes that they were able to share about the absolute mess that their mistletoe moment had been.
Because when he looked at her she was sure that she saw the same something in his eyes that she felt in her own.
As the night drew on they found themselves closer, sitting alone by the fireplace watching the flames lick gently around the last crumbling pieces of the logs that Momo had made for it. They were almost touching, almost , enough alcohol in their systems to make them feel warm and comfortable even without the glowing embers at their knees. Enough laughter having passed between them leaving their faces aching in the best possible way.
“I’m glad I decided to come,” Uraraka sighed, settling deeper into the cushions. “It’s actually been fun.”
“Yeah I’m glad too. Been looking for a way to get a decent hit on you since you broke my nose third year. It’s elaborate, but it worked.”
“Right because you had Mina set up a whole party to break my nose.”
“I mean, how else was I going to make sure everyone saw? Gotta have fucking evidence or it doesn’t count, Cheeks.”
For half a second Uraraka believed him — he was certainly competitive enough for it to be true — but there was that tiny tugging smile, and then they were laughing again. The way they had so much through the course of the night.
“But,” he said, suddenly serious. “It has been pretty damn good to see you again. Properly, I mean.”
“Yeah,” Uraraka’s heart thumped in her throat. The way he was looking at her was so intense. So focused. “Me too.”
“Let’s keep doing it.”
“Huh?”
“Seeing each other.”
“Bakugou, we see–”
“No. Not at work or or on the field or any of that shit.” He flushed a little, scratching at the back of his hair, all at once not able to meet her eyes. “I was wrong, back at UA when I said I wasn’t interested. I was just– Stupid. I would like to see you. Outside of work. Just… us.”
“Like… a date.”
“More than one,” he chuckled. “Assuming the first one goes better than this.”
“I… would love that.”
“Good. Great.”
Out of the corner of her eye Uraraka caught Mina giving her a thumbs up, and for a moment — just a moment — wondered if Bakugou hadn’t planned at least some of it after all.
***
“Everyone!” Mina tapped a knife against a tall champagne glass, her cheeks darkened by the flush of the alcohol, a wide smile on her face that was almost certain to spell bad news. “It’s time for one of my personal favourite moments of the evening.”
“Get ready–”
“Revealing the mistletoe!”
Uraraka cheered along with everyone else, bumping the shoulder of the grinning man at her side.
“What are the chances–”
“No fucking way–”
Uraraka started a drumroll on her knees, and Mina gave her a wink as she pressed a button and the mistletoe was revealed.
Right over her head.
“Well would you look at that!” She did her best to fake surprise, but there was no getting anything past Bakugou Katsuki.
“Lets not fuck it up this time, eh Cheeks.”
She grabbed his shirt, tugging him towards her with a smile, leaving him to close the gap amid cheers from their assembled friends.
“I think we can manage that.”