I need Bakugou to avoid Uraraka so bad. Like soooo soo soooooooo bad.

Katsuki is an observant boy.

He could see the way ponytail looked at that half and half bastard. The way she pushed her tits together and prodded her lower lip when they talked to each other to make them+

Look bigger.

He saw the way shitty hair looked at pinky. His eyes always gleaming, a soft smile always crept up his face when she annoying squawked about her latest tiktok dance and then proceeded to show everyone.

The way pikachu looked at earphones. An undignified smile always splayed across his lips when she plucked at her uke in the common room. Even though he was just as much of a perv as that stupid grape head, he could tell that at least /both/ heads were in sync with that one.

The way that frog girl looked at bird brain wasn’t rocket science. In fact, he’d often heard dark shadow trying to out bird brain more than once. Man, he really liked dark shadow. At least that one was brutally honest. Even if his host didn’t know how to be.

And the way that Uraraka looked at the shitty deku. The way her eyes twinkled when he annoyingly mumbled and murmured about tactics and quicks and hero’s and villains and news and this and that and...

UGH!!!

He had to hand it to deku, though. Upon receiving OFA,

He’d seen and accepted his fantastic progress. And even then some, their broken childhood friendship felt like it was slowly mending. Even he wasn’t so blind as to say it wasn’t.

But the way Uraraka looked at deku.. and he had no fucking clue!

The little nerd turned budding hero couldn’t see her. She just wasn’t in his view regarding his tunnel vision. The bright light at the end of his tunnel wasn’t Uraraka. It was being the number one hero.

And katsuki understood that. His goals were the same, but..

But.. then why did it hurt to look at her? To talk to her? To be near her?

After the sports festival, he gave himself away on accident. He’d been watching those two interact with each other for sometime. Well, from the first time in fact.

Upon entering UA’s doors for the entrance exam, he saw the nerd kick that tile hard and send himself flying forward. He was so close to chuckling to himself for another one of deku’s failures except.. /she/ was there to catch his fall.

The way she gave her smile away freely hurt him. Her sweet voice wishing deku good luck post door ways echoed his ears. And more over, the nerd just couldn’t say anything back. /of course/ he’d be too nervous. Girls had never looked in his quirkless direction.

Until now.

Katsuki didn’t realize deku had progressed further until his undeniable rage in their first close quarters training with all might. Villains vs heroes. Uraraka and Deku vs Iida and Bakugou.

It would be easy enough. Even though the bastard wasn’t quirkless anymore,

He still wasn’t as strong!

Or so katsuki thought until deku threw him over his shoulder.

But all together, he just couldn’t stop thinking about how well those two worked together.

A few more weeks into the semester, aizawa prompted class 1A to review everyone’s entrance exam videos to analyze their classmates quirks.

Needless to say, everyone marveled at Katsuki’s destructive power and his undeniable acceptance into UA although,

When he watched Ochako’s review video, he couldn’t help but feel the knot at the bottom of his throat.

There she was, in her cute cheap sweats, stepping gracefully between the faux villains, touching them lightly to make them dance above her, only to release her quirk

To see them crumbling to the ground.

Ah, yes. Katsuki knew Uraraka Ochako’s name before. But, for his sake, he couldn’t let any of the extras know that her name was the only one that mattered.

Never had he seen such graceful and destructive force.

Never had he seen something so beautiful.

And when the sports festival came around, he couldn’t help but feel the knot at the base of his throat thicken.

There she stood in front of him on the stadium floor.

Her eyes were wild with uncertainty.

Fear.

But the one thing that was for certain was she was ready for him. Ready to stand in front of him and give him everything she had; even if that meant her loss.

However, after learning that deku wasn’t that one that assisted her in her loss, not only did his budding respect for

Her grow, but also his envy.

By then he had already recognized how she watched deku. Admired him. Aspired to be just like him. But, is that why she fought so hard against him?

She was worth so much... more.

(Hey y’all give me a sec, imma catch a shower)

When he stared her off the field there in that stretcher an overwhelming feeling of sadness came from boiling up from his stomach. What a disgusting feeling...

All in all, Katsuki was near his limit. She had successfully used up all of his fire power and his last resort was

To go hand to hand with this girl.

But the instant she collapsed, his heart stopped.

She tried. She tried so hard. And he defeated her mercilessly.

Why did she look so sad?

She almost had him!

And yet, when her body made contact with the floor,

And she laid there, crawling toward him, with all the fight she had left in her he felt... hurt?

Her honey eyes were lifeless at her faint.

He didn’t know what he was doing when he grabbed her shredded jacket from the stadium floor and headed off for her waiting room.

He was already enroute but what was he supposed to say?

‘Nice try?’

‘I knew that would be easy’

‘You should have forfeited the match’

But each and every one of those felt just so.. wrong. She fought like she was ready to die. All to show that she was worth more.

Upon arriving and just barely before kicking the door in he could hear her there on the other side.

“I know, daddy”
“I rushed it..”
“I wasn’t very good...”
“I failed...”

How could she.. how could she think that?

Her words felt like they were ripping his innards out.

He waited there, calmly, patiently for once in his life until she finished her phone call to kick the door in but when he crossed the threshold, displaying his crass nature, he wasn’t exactly read for what he was about to see.

His heart felt like it was ripped from him seeing her tear stained cheeks. She had been crying.. telling herself and her parents she wasn’t good enough..

She looked up at him in quick surprise and then with a sad smile congratulated him on his victory and even wished him luck

On the next one!

Katsuki was at a complete loss for words for once in his life. Placing her soiled jacket there on the table he pivoted away from her walking towards the door and for the first time in his life, words he never got, and more so never understood the meaning

Of came from his mouth.

“You did good, Uraraka”.

Leaving he could hear her start to sob. His words of affirmation made her cry more but he didn’t stick around to see if they were happy tears or sad ones.

After that, Katsuki couldn’t bring himself to be around Ochako anymore any longer than he needed to be.

The way she made his heart throb was unlike anything he’d ever felt before. And to see her face so disappointed.. so dismantled.. in such dispair...

He never wanted to see her sweet, stupid, pink, mochi looking cheeks so flushed from sadness ever again...

He all but managed it until summer training camp.

Growing up in the Bakugou household wasn’t without its perks when it came to fashion.

Although, regardless of his mum and dads profession, he couldn’t careless about the fashion world. He couldn’t wait until the day where “no no no! The tool material does NOT go on that dress” bled into “YES! GROUND HERO HAS DEFEATED THE VILLAIN”.

But due to the nature of his childhood, he could often tell who was wearing more expensive clothing just by looking at them.

Katsuki never got ochako’s backstory personally. It was idly passed through the grapevine from person to person of how Ochako was a

Construction workers daughter. How broke her an her family were. About how she just wanted to.. support them.

Support... but what did that mean?

Some people talked illy of Ochako. Saying she was just going to be another “hero” lost in the system for money eventually.

He found her intentions noble ones. Ones that he didn’t have to worry about. Goals that had never crossed his mind. Never once did he think about others in his odyssey to becoming a great hero. It was about him. What /he/ wanted for himself. Not for anyone else.

This made his heart bleed more.

Thinking about Ochako.. and how people could even think to bad mouth her intentions for becoming a hero were ludicrous.

Isnt that what being a hero is all about?

/saving people/?

And here this girl was,

Her heart so big and so full that he could see that she sacrificed everything to give herself up.

To UA

To the hero society

To her studies

To her parents

All so that everyone could live a more comfortable live than she would ever know.

When they arrived at the summer training camp, he did everything he could to be as far from her as possible. He knew she was strong. That she could handle herself going through the forest.

On the second day, after all their intense training only to figure out that the students

Would be responsible for their own meals, he felt his eyes wander. Looking for her. He felt his heart go with them.

How exhausted was she? Was she okay?

But his low cast eyes, trying his hardest to be inconspicuous, couldn’t locate her until she popped up next to him carrying

Firewood.

“WHOA, BAKUGOU! You’re really good with that knife?!”

The knot at the bottom of his throat thickened again. Words of affirmation.. /her/ words of affirmation.

It almost felt as though the knot in his throat was a Sakura tree bulb that had already sprouted

Roots and the roots were crawling into his lungs.

“OF COURSE IM GOOD WITH A KNIFE. HOW CAN YOU EXTRAS BE SO BAD AT EVERYTHING?” He boomed in reply, unable to control the level of his voice.

But it was only then he knew he made a mistake when he looked directly at her.

There in her loose white button up shirt made from cheap cotton and her brown shorts made from inexpensive canvas his eyes downcast to see the way she marveled at him.

The way she looked at him there cutting those carrots was the biggest, most sincere compliment he’d ever

Received in his life.

This simple girl watching his hands skillfully cut those stupid carrots made his heart throb. She had watched him so intently. So.. honestly.

How else was he supposed to react?!

He watched her walked away swiftly after studying his cuts, handing firewood over to ponytail and icyhot.

Out of the corner of his eye he could see a smile curl over her lips and even though her voice was too far away to be audible, he clearly saw her mouth,

/no problem/ and /nah, dont worry about it. The drywall on daddy’s job sites is way heavier/.

Sitting down for dinner he watched her eat several helpings out of the corner of his eye.

Was she not eating properly..?

Only he couldn’t find it in himself to impose on her

Personal life and strifes. Given, he had more than enough of his own money to pay for her lunch every day.. but that meant talking to her.. being around her... offering his /kindness/ to her.

He couldn’t bring himself to process the thought any longer after

The image of her tear streamed face popped up in his mind. The first time he ever said something nice to someone and she /cried/. /Sobbed/.

Would she cry again? Would everyone see it this time if he did?

No.. he wouldn’t be the reason Ochako cried /ever/ again.

After the whole league of villains debacle, that really put Katsuki’s own life in perspective for him.

There he was, in a life or death situation and all he could think about was that stupid deku, and shitty haired Kirishima, and.. ochako’s sweet face...

Her large honey, earnest eyes. So happy and full of light.

And yet, even now he knew that that light wasn’t meant for him.

Regardless of the way he felt, he knew that her eyes weren’t only meant for Izuku. And he hated himself. /Hated/ himself for thinking that it was such a waste.

Deku would never look at her the way he did. Would never see her the way he saw her. Would never notice how strong,

And powerful, and amazing, and graceful, and gorgeous, and just how.. truly Ochako she was.

And it made him furious.

Angrier and angrier he became with the thought of her sacrificing herself to another person like that in the long run.

Angrier that he found himself silenced when she talked to him, or about him.

Angrier when she told himself that she wants him and deku to get along again.. to be friends again.

And all he could do was stare at her in stupor. All he could muster was a stupid grumble of,

“Mind your own damn business...”

Katsuki for the first time in his life understood what it meant to give instead of take.

Ochako didn’t deserve his crass and unruly behavior. She didn’t deserve his rudeness. She didn’t deserve ever feeling less than she truly was.

And he knew that even with a little self development, he would never be able to provide her with the security she needed. Not when so many others so freely provided it for her.

Because they loved her.

It was so grossly easy to see how much class 1A had fallen for Ochako.

How tsuyu guarded her from the other girls when they relentlessly pressed her about her stupidly obvious crush on izuku.

How sometimes Mina and her shared only a single brain cell.

How momo braided her hair sometimes when she was too tired from studying and training and couldn’t bring herself to even pull her hair back.

The way that Kaminari asked her on dates and she would blatantly ignore him.

The way that idiotic grape face lusted after

Her in a constant drooling fashion.

How Kirishima, regardless of his own crush often complimented her in his own “manly” ways with how she could lift such heavy things even without her quirk.

And most of all, even though it was so visible that she had feelings

And izuku did not, the way those two interacted. Both of their blinding smiles in one place. The way that izuku only looked at her to analyze her fighting tactics meanwhile she looked to izuku for confidence and pride in her own progress.

He had to stay away.

He just had to stay away from her at all costs..