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‘Fuck.’
‘Shit.’
‘Motherfucker.’
‘Ow.’
As Katsuki shakily stands up, quickly dusting himself off from the onslaught of the last attack sent his way, he has just enough time for the realisation that… yep.
Katsuki is in one hell of a dilemma.
On one hand, he should be fucking pissed. This was supposed to be his chance to shine— to prove himself to the heroes watching that he’s more than just a dumb first year to have as an intern—he’s the best of the best and a future contender for the top ten hero rankings. He’s going to be number one.
On another hand, he’s too busy to be pissed. Because he’s losing— and he’s losing to a girl who’s name he learned just a few minutes ago.
Uraraka Ochako.
She’s incredibly strong. And she’s smart, too. Katsuki hadn’t seen those boulders up above him in time—only realising his mistake when she clasped her hands together as her eyes narrowed in determination. They did significant damage when they fell on him—fuck, they nearly knocked him unconscious. But he’s still going. And he’s going to win.
Except—
He only just manages to dodge her next punch, clumsily stumbling backward as he flails to catch himself from falling. He barely succeeds.
Uraraka seems just as determined as him. Beaten and bloody though she may be, she steels herself as she wipes the dripping blood away from her nose, snarling animalistically.
Distantly, Katsuki is aware of the audience watching, how they screamed profanity at him as he gave this fight his all, as it looked more and more like he was going to win. He’s tuned them out by now, but he briefly wonders if they still think he should’ve gone easy on her.
Katsuki thinks the absolute fuck not.
And anyone who does—including a select few in his class—is going to find themselves flat on their asses when they fight her.
Because Katsuki now knows for certain as her fingers briefly brush against his shoulder while she collapses in front of him from pure exhaustion: she’s won. She’s well and truly beaten him—and the shock he feels at that isn’t misplaced confidence in his abilities or some shit.
He’s good . That’s just a fact.
Apparently, Uraraka is better. Or at least she was today.
It’s not like he gives up—as he rises higher and higher in the air he narrows his eyes and then, sure enough, he’s falling again. He breaks the fall, but before he can stand up—before he can do anything, Uraraka musters up enough energy to flip him onto his back and crawl on top of him, hands clasped tight around both of his wrists to restrain him.
And he… can’t do anything but struggle futilely.
Katsuki hadn’t expected to lose in the Sport’s Festival, let alone lose to the girl who’s name he forgot prior to fighting her.
And yet here he is, pinned to the ground with her body pressed against his. She has a triumphant little smirk on her face as she leans down closer to whisper in his ear:
“Bet you won’t forget my name now, huh?”
And oh.
Oh fuck.
He definitely will not.
Katsuki’s eyes widen comically. “Uh—“
Her smile grows wider as she wipes the beads of sweat off of her face.
“ Uh—“
If Katsuki says ‘uh’ one more time, he will beat his own ass.
Enter another problem: Katsuki is only realising now that Uraraka really is quite beautiful—with her soft features and plump lips curled into a grin, cheeks flushed and eyes sparkling. She’s cute— fucking adorable, actually. He doesn’t know why he feels inclined to acknowledge that now.
More importantly, she’s strong. She’s brave. And she’s taunting him to his face. Katsuki can’t remember the last time he met someone with the balls to do that to him.
And she’s doing all of this on top of him, pinning him to the ground as Midnight starts counting down from ten—Katsuki has ten seconds to unpin himself or it’s over—
Uraraka tightens her grip on his wrists. Katsuki’s heart skips a beat as he stills . He furrows his brow—he’s never experienced that before. Is he actually injured? Seriously, what the fuck? What’s going on with him —?
“URARAKA OCHAKO WINS!”
“Oh!” She giggles, sounding surprised, and even that is fucking cute. What the fuck that has to do with anything, Katsuki sure as hell doesn’t know. “I—I didn’t think I’d win—“
Her eyes roll back as she slumps to the ground, unconscious.
A moment passes as the adrenaline seeps out of him, and then the searing pain throughout his entire body hits him too.
Katsuki follows her into oblivion shortly after.
.
.
.
When Katsuki opens his eyes, he’s greeted with the sight of an irate Recovery Girl shining a bright light in his face. “Ugh—“
“Oh, calm yourself,” she snaps. “Honestly, you would think a bunch of hero students would have the common sense to not almost give each other career-altering injuries, but—“
“ Career-altering injuries?!” He snaps back. “ Huh?! The fuck do you mean—“
“ Almost,” she tuts, cutting him off. “Your arm was broken pretty badly, dear, but it’s fixed now. That’s why you were asleep for so long—you missed the rest of the Festival.”
Yet again, Katsuki should be fucking angry. Uraraka broke his arm and knocked him out long enough for him to miss the rest of the competition—and yet… he just feels warm. “Who won?”
“The girl you faced off against,” Recovery Girl replies. “Uraraka Ochako. Her final match was against Todoroki Shouto—I think he was shaken up about something before their match, but… well, I can’t say that I think that’s the reason why she won.”
“No,” Katsuki grumbles and yep, there’s that dumb fucking feeling again—like something’s fluttering in his stomach or something. “She won because she’s fucking good.”
“Hmph,” Recovery Girl pats him on the shoulder. “She’s a strong one. So are you. They haven’t stopped talking about your match against her, you know. According to Present Mic, it’s gone viral on social media.”
Katsuki can’t help the scowl that appears on his face. He can already imagine what they’re saying about him—
“It’s nothing bad,” Recovery Girl assures him. “Quite the opposite, dear. You’ll see.”
•••
They’re calling them the Astrobomb duo, which all things considered… is actually a sick fucking name. Looking back on the footage of their fight is pretty cool too—it’s already been deemed the most viewed first year fight online, and hero fans are claiming it’s the best fight they’ve watched of the entire year, rivalled only by Icy-Hot and the stupid nerd Deku.
There are some people who still claim that Katsuki should’ve gone easier on a girl, and even more people who claim that he did go easier on her and that’s why she won, and Katsuki feels zero remorse for creating a secret account just to send a long string of profanity to those fuckers. He’s Bakugou Katsuki—he doesn’t go easy on anyone. And sexism is fucking stupid. Uraraka probably has more strength in her pinky than the guys commenting have in their whole fucking bodies.
Either way, the general consensus is that their fight was fucking amazing. Katsuki, despite losing, is inclined to agree.
Katsuki starts watching the footage obsessively—he sits there for hours at a time with a notebook in hand, writing down what he could’ve done better, where he went wrong, and what he did right. By the time he feels as though he’s sufficiently garnered enough analysis about himself to improve and do better, something else has caught his eye.
Uraraka moves across the screen jaggedly, roughly and tough as fuck . Her movements are short and sharp as she repeatedly throws her entire body in Katsuki’s direction. There’s something about her way of fighting that seems almost feral, but he sees the calculation in the glint of her eyes as she sends boulder after boulder up in the air all without him knowing.
The way the Uraraka on screen moves around is far from anything like a fluid dance, but it mesmerises Katsuki nonetheless—has him sitting there with his mouth agape like a dumbass.
“Oi Explody—“
Katsuki hurries to shut his laptop. He’s not sure why— it’s not like he was doing anything, but… fuck, why did he feel like there was something he needed to hide to avoid teasing from his group of idiots? “Why don’t any of you fucking knock?”
“Woah!” Raccoon-Eyes chirps. “Were you like… having some self-loving time? We can leave—“
Pikachu and Shitty-Hair snort obnoxiously. Tape-Face smirks.
“No,” Katsuki grits out as their eyes very annoyingly trail to the laptop he just so happened to shut very fast and therefore suspiciously . “I was analysing my fight with Uraraka.”
“ Uraraka?” Tape-Face says in confusion. “You don’t have an insulting nickname for her?”
Ah, fuck. “I meant Pink-Cheeks.”
“Kind of a fitting nickname for you right now, bro,” Shitty-Hair grins and what. Katsuki slaps a hand over his cheek and sure enough it’s warm—he’s burning.
Fuck, is he blushing? Why the fuck would he be blushing?
And why does Raccoon-Eyes look like she struck gold? “Oh my god!” She squeals. “Guys, Bakugou’s got a crush!”
“ No fucking way!”
This is the first time Katsuki’s heard of this. If he had a crush, he’s pretty sure he’d fucking know.
“ What ,” Katsuki snaps, sure his face is about to burn off because of how hot he feels. “No I don’t—“
“—I’ve been saying that there’s homoerotic energy between him and Midoriya since the start of the year,” Pikachu says solemnly. “I knew it.”
“The fuck do you mean by that?” Katsuki growls dangerously because holy fuck, did he seriously think he and Deku fucking like—
He almost gags. Almost.
Raccoon-Eyes sends a bewildered look in Pikachu’s direction too. “Kaminari… what. I meant Uraraka.”
“… Oh,” he shrugs a little sheepishly. “My bad. My next guess would’ve been her.”
“No it wouldn’t have been,” Tape-Face snorts.
Pikachu gives him a look as he sighs. “Man, you’re right. It would’ve been Todoroki.”
Raccoon-Eyes freezes. “That one makes sense, actually. You’re always weirdly antagonistic around him, almost like you’re trying to hide your attraction to the Ice-Prince of 1A! Blasty, is your crush on Uraraka or Todoroki?”
Where in the fresh fuck are they getting this?
Katsuki grits his teeth. “I do not have a fucking crush on Icy-Hot—“
“—Uraraka it is then!”
“ —Or Uraraka,” he says finally. “Don’t be fucking stupid—“
“—She’s the only one in the class who you refer to by name,” Raccoon-Eyes sing-songs. “It’s a crush. You literally had a crush beaten into you. That’s hilarious. ”
Katsuki is growing tired of this fast. “For the last time, I don’t have a fucking crush.”
“Alright then,” Raccoon-Eyes grins at him slyly. Katsuki thinks it’s over—finally, they’ve conceded that he simply just doesn’t do crushes, but then:
“Prove it.”
“Huh?” Katsuki blurts. “How the fuck am I supposed to prove that I don’t have a crush on Ura— Pink Cheeks ?”
“Oh,” Shitty-Hair smiles. “Don’t worry. We have that handled bro.”
•••
Katsuki hates most people.
He hates his so-called ‘ Bakusquad’ even more. Because of course Raccoon-Eyes somehow got Uraraka and her friends (Tape-Face has already started calling them the Dekusquad— Katsuki refuses to ever call them that) to join them on a day out.
Deku, Icy-Hot, Four-Eyes, and Frog-Girl are up ahead with everyone else, leaving only—
Yeah. And Raccoon-Eyes thought she was slick.
Of course Katsuki is hyper-aware of the fact that Ura— fuck, Pink-Cheeks is walking right beside him, chattering on about how she enjoys nice days like these, with the sky a bright blue and the sun beaming down on them.
“Don’t you agree, Bakugou?”
Katsuki successfully hides the fact that he nearly tripped upon being addressed by her—not that he stumbled at all shutthefuckupbrain. “I don’t give a fuck about the weather,” he grumbles. It’s true for the most part. He couldn’t care less unless it’s harmful to him in some way.
“Huh, you don’t care one bit?” She tilts her head as she looks up at him. Her eyes are so round and enthralling, Katsuki finds himself responding before he even knows what he’s doing:
“I don’t like the rain, that’s about it. And the cold. Harder to fight in.”
Her eyes light up. Cute, Katsuki thinks, and then immediately shoves that thought aside because no, he does not have a fucking crush. “Fighting is harder when it’s cold, even for me. I feel slower and more run-down and it sucks—“
Katsuki nods once in agreement, because that’s totally something he can do and has done with other people before, which therefore proves that he doesn’t have a fucking crush. Suck on that, Raccoon-Eyes.
“—but what about when you’re not fighting?” She smiles softly. “When it’s raining or snowing, my favourite thing to do is read. There’s nothing better than curling up with some hot chocolate and a blanket and picking up a nice novel! Do you read Bakugou?”
The question takes him a little off guard—nobody has ever asked him that before.
“Yes,” he says shortly, stuffing his hands in his pockets. Reading has never been something he’s hidden from anyone, but not a lot of people make the connection that the books on his shelf aren’t just for show. They see him and make the assumption that he can’t sit down and recognize the art behind words—masterfully strung together to create striking images in the minds of readers. They see him and make the assumption that he’s all brawn and no brain.
Katsuki knew though—knew that the girl who beat him in the Sport’s Festival wouldn’t just be like everyone else.
Now that he thinks about it, he’s beginning to realise that here at U.A, the extras aren’t all dumbasses.
But something about her in particular …
Uraraka claps her hands together excitedly and okay, fuck, anyone with eyes would deem that cute. Katsuki thinking it too does not mean he likes her like that.
“Cool! Nobody else in the class except Iida and Yaomomo read a lot as far as I know, so talking about books with the class is so hard. What’s your favourite genre?”
Katsuki stays silent. Uraraka’s lips quirk upward. “It’s romance, isn’t it?”
Katsuki swivels his head back towards her. “How the fuck did you know that?”
“You went suspiciously quiet,” Uraraka lifts a finger as she begins counting teasingly. “You actually looked away from me—I’ve never seen you break eye contact first with anyone, and I—“
Her cheeks flush a bright crimson red. “W-well, I think we might actually have a lot in common with each other. Romance is my favourite book genre too. Those books fuel my middle-of-class daydreams when Aizawa-Sensei’s voice starts to become as boring as watching paint dry, you know.”
Katsuki can’t stop the small laugh from escaping his mouth. Uraraka playfully slaps him on the shoulder—neither of them even really notice that she did it, except for the brief moment where Katsuki feels electrified by her touch, heart pounding frantically in his chest. The light atmosphere of it all just seems… so natural.
Until he realises—
Oh fuck. Maybe he does have a crush on her.
“Oh come on,” she laughs while Katsuki secretly deals with the internal conflict that comes post-realisation that he can indeed crush on someone, and that someone is walking right beside him. “Don’t you ever fantasise about something romantic you’ve read?”
“I’m not fucking answering that.”
She grins. “Is that a ‘yes’ then, Bakugou?”
He tries to look at Uraraka flatly. She giggles. He’s pretty sure he fails. “It’s an ‘I’m not answering that’.”
“I can’t believe I found you intimidating. You’re actually really nice to talk to.”
Katsuki can feel his face go warm. “ You found me intimidating? You kicked my ass in the Sport’s Festival.”
Uraraka shakes her head. “Ahh, that was just a fluke!”
“Nah,” Katsuki scoffs. “Don’t be fucking stupid. You’re a strong fighter. That wasn’t just a fluke—you won the entire goddamn thing. Don’t make yourself out to be weak, unless you’re trying to say I’m even fucking weaker.”
“ No!” She squeaks, hands flailing around dramatically. “You’re nowhere near weak—“
“I know. And you beat me,” Katsuki says. “So what does that make you?”
“I—“ she flushes. Katsuki tries not to find the difference between the toughness she exhibits while fighting versus the softness everywhere else endearing, but it’s a losing battle. “Well—“ she laughs shakily.
“It makes you strong as fuck,” Katsuki tells her brazenly as he interrupts her stuttering.
“Because I was able to beat you?” She asks with a smile, recovering quickly.
“Yeah,” Katsuki huffs unabashedly. So what if he sounds arrogant? He’s right— no one has beaten him in a one-on-one fight in ages before Uraraka finally did it . “I’m fucking strong. That’s just a fact. So are you.”
“…Thank you,” she says softly, eyes filled with so much warmth that Katsuki’s sure his face has gone beet red while looking into them.
He turns away sharply, rubbing his neck. “Tch, for what?”
He steadfastly ignores Raccoon-Eyes’ knowing look sent back in their direction as they continue walking on. Uraraka talks the entire time—strangely, Katsuki doesn’t find it annoying at all.
He finds it endearing.
Katsuki has always been fond of the sun and the stars and the things that shine bright, after all.
.
.
Wait a damn minute.
This is getting a little fucked up. Katsuki doesn’t do crushes. So then why does he have a fucking crush?
This is insane.
He’s going to go insane if his mind brings up the fact that Uraraka has really kissable lips one more fucking time.
Eventually, they make it inside an arcade. It’s loud and full of screaming children with messy, pizza-stained faces and t-shirts. Katsuki feels like there might be a ginormous migraine in his future.
He stays back a little, watching as everyone else moves around to buy a card and then play. Shitty-Hair and Tape-Face make a beeline for the shooting games while Pikachu and Raccoon-Eyes make a run for something to do with fishing of all things, leaving Uraraka, Frog-Girl, and Four-Eyes behind to argue about where to start. Katsuki doesn’t give a shit about Deku, but he’s pretty sure he sees him out of the corner of his eye with Icy-Hot by a claw machine. Actually—
Katsuki narrows his eyes at Icy-Hot. “Oh, holy fuck ,” he whispers under his breath as he watches him win a plushy and then immediately give it to Deku with a stupid-looking blush on his face. Icy-Hot needs better taste in men, but more importantly… Does he look that stupid too?!
“Bakugou!”
Motherfucker. Katsuki just barely stops himself from jumping. Uraraka is next to him again, and he tries not to be confused, but… “Aren’t you supposed to be with your friends or some shit?”
“They’re all partnered up,” she chirps. “And you’re standing in the corner all grumpy when you could be joining in on the fun.”
“You think dodging a bunch of snot-nosed children is fun?”
She laughs as she takes his hand and drags him away. Katsuki’s heart is never going to be the same again—he swears he’s gonna have a fucking heart attack if this continues. Still, he allows himself to be pulled along.
“Here,” Uraraka taps the air-hockey table. “Is where we’re going to compete for the title of best air-hockey player. I’m the best at this game.”
Katsuki snorts. “Did you give yourself that title?”
“Yeah,” she says unashamedly. “But there was a small arcade in my hometown and this was one of the only games that worked, and I was pretty good at kicking everyone’s asses. Nobody ever won against me .”
“Is that a fucking challenge?”
Uraraka grins as she nods. Katsuki finds himself grinning back.
“You’re on, Pink-Cheeks.”
Katsuki ends up winning, but only by a point. Hours pass by as he’s dragged along to multiple arcade games by Uraraka—he wins some and loses some equally. Uraraka gets so fucking competitive, it’s insane. She goes from soft smiles and a somewhat shy demeanour to narrowed glares and muffled curses in the blink of an eye. Katsuki is so fucking done for. He’s never clicked with someone as fast as he’s clicked with her.
“Oh my god,” Uraraka breathes when they finally reach the claw machine—their last game of the day. “That one looks like you.”
She points to an orange and black teddy-bear. It’s cute as shit—Katsuki is far from cute. “Are you fucking blind?”
She snorts as she swipes the card. “I’m winning you that one so we can go show everyone else your twin.”
“W- what,” Katsuki fucking stutters. “These stupid things are rigged anyway—“
She wins him the teddy-bear, handing it to him with a bright smile on her face. Katsuki takes it gently, staring at it with wide eyes.
“Huh,” she says, tilting her head. “You’re blushing. You’re kind of cuter than the bear right now.”
Katsuki’s face flames at the same time Uraraka realises what she said. At least she’s too flustered herself to notice that Katsuki is even more flustered than she is. “I–I mean—“
“Oi” Pikachu yells from across the room. “Bakugou! Uraraka! We’re all gonna start heading home!”
“O-okay!” Uraraka waves good-bye, before turning to Katsuki. “Bakugou… before you go, I was wondering—“
She swallows, twirling a strand of her hair nervously. “Well, I had so much fun talking to you and I think we— ugh, sorry. Can I um… have your number?”
Katsuki bluescreens. “My what?”
“It’s okay if you don’t feel the same way!” She exclaims hurriedly. “I just thought that it would be cool to hang out more, maybe become fr—“
“—Fuck. You can have it,” Katsuki interrupts a little dazedly as he takes her phone and types his name into her contacts.
That dazed feeling doesn’t leave for a long time— until of course, he steps inside his house and is instantly greeted with his mother’s face twisted in confusion. “The fuck are you looking at, hag?”
“Don’t call me that,” she snaps. “ Oi, Masaru!”
“ Yes dear?” His father calls from the kitchen.
“Come here for a second! Doesn’t our son look weird?”
“What the fuck are you on—“
His father’s head peaks around the corner. He frowns as he pushes up his glasses. “You’re a little red in the face, Kats. Are you feeling w—“
His phone goes off. His mother snatches his phone before he can even look down at it. “What the fuck happened to respecting my privacy?”
“ Uraraka?” His mother tilts her head. “Wait a fucking minute… ‘ I had fun today’ with an orange and pink heart—“
She gasps. “It’s a fucking girl! Masaru, a girl is texting our son—“
“No shit,” Katsuki snaps heatedly. “Now hand me back my phone—“
“—I never thought this day would come—“
“ Wow,” Katsuki says flatly.
“—Is she nice? She better be fucking nice, Katsuki. You deserve a loving girlfriend, you hear me? Not a demon from the pits of hell—“
“So don’t end up like dad, basically—“
“— Oi! Fucking brat—!”
“Mitsuki,” His father sighs. “You’re embarrassing the poor boy. Give him his phone back.”
“Also, what the fuck is an astrobomb?” his mom asks as he gives him his phone back.
Katsuki scowls. “It’s what we were called after our fight at the fucking Sport’s Festival.”
“Oh,” and then she freezes. “You mean to tell me that this Uraraka girl is the same girl who beat your ass? My god, I love her already.”
Katsuki glares at her.
“Is that why you have a crush on her, Kats?” his father grins. “Because she’s strong and powerful?”
His mom cackles. “You’re your father’s son, alright. Let me tell you the story of how your father and I met. It was at work, and I pushed him up against the wall and—“
Fuck no. He’s heard this story way more times than he can count.
Katsuki fumes as he pushes past his parents and stomps up the stairs to his room. “I fucking hate you both.”
Their combined laughter doesn’t die down for the rest of the night, and the teasing at dinner is absolute fucking hell.
Right before going to sleep, Katsuki sends a reply to Uraraka’s message:
~
Pink-Cheeks:
Hey Bakugou! I had a lot of fun at the arcade today. See you at school after the weekend’s over!! Speaking of school, maybe we should team up for our next heroics class? Team Astrobomb! 💗🧡
Me:
Yeah. We’d kick everyone’s asses.
Pink-Cheeks:
We’d demolish them!! Goodnight Bakugou! :)
Me:
Goodnight.
~
•••
It starts with teaming up more in class, working on projects together, and merging friend groups some days when Raccoon-Eyes suggests that they all go on an outing. Then, Katsuki gets kidnapped, and the dorms are put in place fast. Suddenly, there aren’t many more opportunities to go out, and he’s left… coping.
He’s fine. The villains hardly even touched him. It’s just that… spending almost twenty-four hours with a bunch of people means that they get close to him, and in turn he’s… well, he has actual friends now. Uraraka included. It’s just that for some inexplicable reason, Katsuki’s allowed her to get closer to him than anyone else.
And the thing with being around Uraraka more is that it’s no longer possible for him to deny having a crush on her, because those feelings have blossomed into so much more than thinking she looks like a goddamn goddess. He’s learned so much about her—like how her favourite movie is Princess Mononoke, how she wanted to be a ballet dancer for a bit as a kid, she loves mochi, she has to sleep with gloves on so she doesn’t accidentally activate her quirk, and she’s extremely affectionate. Katsuki just about died the first time she played with his hands in the middle of the common room, tracing the burns and calluses built up from quirk use just because she was bored.
She’s doing it now, lips pursed in concentration as she traces one particularly jagged scar in the middle of his palm. “You’re so fucking weird,” he snorts.
She hums. “Yeah, but not as weird as you calling my finger pads cat-paws.”
“That’s what they fucking look like.”
She rolls her eyes playfully. “Bakugou—“
“Katsuki,” he blurts. Her eyes widen comically. “We’ve known each other for months now. You can call me Katsuki if you want to or whatever.”
“Katsuki,” she whispers, his name falling off her lips as sweet as honey. Katsuki has never liked the sound of his name more. “Then call me Ochako. Or you can continue with the Pink-Cheeks nickname if you want. I think your nicknames for everyone are kinda cute.”
Katsuki’s face scrunches up briefly at being called ‘ cute’ again because fuck that, he’s not. He’s not sure what she sees in him when she looks at him like that—like he’s good, and kind, and just as sweet as she is.
“Ochako,” he breathes, testing out the name much like she had done for his own. It has a peculiar effect on her—he watches as she shivers from head to toe, brown eyes locking onto his own. It’s like the energy in the room freezes, and all that matters is that they both get closer to the warmth that they exude. And then Katsuki’s gaze flickers down to her lips once more, soft and pillowy and—
“Hey, has anyone seen Todoroki—OH FUCK!”
Katsuki and Ochako both jump away from each other as if they’d been stung. Katsuki turns his murderous gaze onto Deku, who has his hands clasped over his eyes like a fucking idiot . “Kacchan! Uraraka! I’m so sorry for— uh… intruding on uh… that!”
‘ Deku,’ Katsuki thinks viciously as Ochako makes a quick excuse to go back to her dorm room, her face a blotchy red. ‘I am going to kill you.’
Deku sees the dangerous glint in his eyes and makes the smart decision of running the hell away.
They don’t talk after that—not even so much as a single text for three days. Three long days where Katsuki obsesses over finding out where exactly he went wrong. Was he too forward? Did he just imagine Ochako leaning in for a kiss as well? Fuck, fuck—
It’s literally keeping him up at night. It’s 3:00 AM on a school night and Katsuki is pacing around his room with only Ochako on his mind. And this right here is why Katsuki should’ve never indulged in a crush—because god, he’ll actually miss talking to her and now she’ll probably find it way too fucking uncomfortable to so much as be in his presence—
A knock on his door brings him out of his thoughts. He furrows his brow. Who the hell would be knocking at his door at 3:00 AM in the fucking morning?
He gets his answer when he opens his door to come face to face with Ochako. That’s only for a brief second, though, because next thing Katsuki knows he’s being pushed back into his room, shoved against his own damn wall, and Ochako’s floating herself up to his height level so she can crash her lips into his own.
Katsuki’s mind goes blank as his arms wrap around her waist, keeping her in place as her own hands move to cup his face as she deepens the kiss, Katsuki parting his lips to let her tongue slip inside. He feels her body pressed against his own and their heavy breaths mingling together as his eyes flutter shut. The feel of her skin is pleasantly warm and soft against his body, and the pure need that arises upon hearing the gorgeous little sounds she makes into his mouth when he tangles his hand in her hair makes him feel like he’s a starved man who craves one thing only: her.
When Ochako breaks the kiss with a gasp, Katsuki looks at her, dazed. She’s beautiful, with red swollen lips and tousled hair, but— “hello to you too, Pink Cheeks.”
She looks at him sheepishly. “I—I’m sorry for not talking to you, Katsuki. When you leaned forward that night on the couch, I honestly—I didn’t think you’d ever like me back. I thought I was dreaming. And then Deku came in and I panicked . I’ve been freaking out non-stop trying to gain enough confidence to confess to you—“
“I think you fucking managed that,” Katsuki says in shock. “Jesus fuck, you jumped me.”
“In my defence, you have really nice lips,” Ochako points out, blushing. “And you were just standing there with that white tank-top on and your muscles showing and I kind of went a little stupid.”
Katsuki raises a brow. “Are you saying that you jumped me because I look good?”
“D-don’t get an even bigger head than you already have,” she stutters weakly. Katsuki snorts loudly before biting his bottom lip.
“You look good too. You always do.”
She brightens up at that, eyes sparkling. “Really?”
“I’ve had a fat fucking crush on you since you kicked my ass in the Sport’s Festival. I remember thinking that you looked really beautiful before I passed out. Raccoon-Eyes and Pikachu like to joke that you beat it into me.”
She laughs softly as she presses her forehead against his. “Maybe I did. If I did, I’m sorry for beating you up, but I’m happy you like me because I really like you, Katsuki.”
And oh .
Oh.
Katsuki feels fucking euphoric. “Say that again.”
She plants a kiss on the tip of his nose as she giggles. “I like you, Katsuki. Now you say it.”
As Katsuki holds her gently without any fear of her floating away from him, he plants his own chaste kiss against her cheek, feeling weirdly shy. “I like you , Ochako.”
When their lips meet again—soft and languid and without any hurry as they both begin to learn what makes each other tick , Katsuki feels no rush—no desperation to move things faster.
Because right now in this moment, it feels like they have all the time in the world for just the two of them, just like in those dumb romance books they read.