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zonnbae · 12 days ago

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🕯️𝕓𝕦𝕣𝕟𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕞𝕚𝕕𝕟𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥 𝕠𝕚𝕝 𝕚𝕟 𝕓𝕒𝕜𝕦𝕘𝕠❜𝕤 𝕕𝕠𝕣𝕞 - 𝕡𝕒𝕣𝕥 𝕥𝕨𝕠

𝕓𝕒𝕜𝕦𝕘𝕠 𝕩 𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕕𝕖𝕣

To the fans who crave the danger and intensity of Bakugo's explosive love.

Listen as you read:

part 2, read part one here

Private Collaboration:

Track 4: Stuck with Me

Track 5: Knee Socks

Track 6: You Owe Me

That night the two of you got into a world of trouble.

The silence of the dormitories was broken by the sound of Bakugo’s bedroom door slamming against the hallway wall, followed by the entry to the stairwell. Bakugo was barreling down the staircase just moments after you scrambled to your feet. Something about what you said must have caused him to change his perspective. You were glad he did. One of the gauntlets had still been stuck on his hand while you carried the other against your chest. It was a large piece of equipment, making it difficult for you to track your descent. You may not have been able to see the next step, but you were able to see him.

Bakugo has a certain kind of swagger that you envied as much as you admired. He walked with the confidence of a man who had never been denied anything, ever, in his life. And that was the man who was willing to give your equipment a chance. A mix of excitement and anxiety clenched in your chest, so caught up in your thoughts that you almost missed the turn to the exit. Well, you did. It was a misstep that led to your shoulder bumping into the wall across from the stairs end. This reminded you that Bakugo was also the kind of man that did not have half a mind to hold the door for you. You supposed you were glad he didn’t because he had missed an embarrassing moment for you. There was one benefit to him being a complete asshole. As you pushed the door open with your hip, you saw that he was already waiting for you in a nearby clearing.

In retrospect, you should have known that testing explosive equipment in a decorated field beside the dormitories wouldn’t have gone undetected. You were actually smart enough to consider that but this was the first, and probably only, time he was willing to hear you out. As you approached, you were stunned at the fact that Katsuki Bakugo was observing your equipment, investigating it, and willing to test it.

All sense of reason flew out of the window.

With his undivided attention, you discovered that he was a fast learner. He hadn’t much to say as you detailed the mechanics of the prototype, but he understood them well enough to equip the second gauntlet even before you could warn him.

“When we get to the Training Dome, we’ll be able to see the extent of the recoil–”

“Get out of the way!”

Things had been going so smoothly, but it was foolish of you to believe that he would do anything less than whatever he desired. His command was the only warning you received. He went for the trigger and you were standing right next to him!

Everything happened so fast.

Adrenaline coarse through your veins as you dived out of the way somewhere behind him to avoid the explosion. You hit the ground just as you were able to witness the momentous, vibrant eruption from his palm as he executed the first official test of the gauntlet you created for him. The recoil was so powerful that it sent him flying back off of his feet and, well, directly onto you. He was already incredibly heavy, but with the force of the blast you were practically crushed beneath him. All of the air left your lungs, and yet he didn’t seem to mind having a convenient pillow to cushion his fall.

“Damn right! That blast was huge!” He smirked, rolling off of you. “Tch, a few more tweaks, and I might actually use it!” As you struggled to your knees, you discovered the only thing faster than your confused heart had been how quickly pro-heros responded to an unknown explosion on the premises. “Yeah.. You got it, I’ll work on that.”

“Alright, let’s give it another go!” Bakugo had been up on his feet in no time, but his ambitions were cut short by his inability to use his quirk. EraserHead. As surprised as he was to see you two together, it did not make his punishment, in his words, any less ‘fair.’

- - -

The rumors about what happened in the dark last night were far worse than when Bakugo humiliated you in public. This marked two mornings in a row where you dominated the Class 1-F group chat without ever having to send a message. The assumptions were absurd. The misconceptions from the different courses intermingling had led to outlandish assumptions that were fueled by Bakugo’s bad reputation… but some of it was also your fault. Someone had claimed to have seen you and Bakugo fighting in the hallway (which isn’t entirely incorrect). This story connected with the assumption that he took you outside to ‘finish the job’. You supposed that anyone would look out of their window following an explosion. Someone had a picture of you on your hands and knees on the floor with Bakugo standing at the ready as Eraserhead showed up.

Of course, you knew that he was just excited to test out your prototype again, but even you had to admit that the photo looked bad. Reading through the group chat was nothing compared to the impending storm. Tenjin.

He didn’t even have the courtesy of blowing up your phone this time. Just like how you barely had time to open your dormitory door before he pushed it in when he came to check on you before class. No amount of reason or truth could compete with his absolute disdain for Bakugo. The lecture began in your room and continued well into your shared journey to your first class.

“That guy’s an animal, I swear!” Tenjin exclaimed as the two of you walked the halls to your first period. “I mean, any idiot should know not to set off a literal explosive in proximity to civilians. And he calls himself a hero!” The good news was that his anger was finally being directed to the truth rather than the rumors. Progress.

“Anything could happen when you’re testing a prototype,” You offered innocently enough. “Honestly, I’m just happy that he finally came around to using it.”

“Yeah, anything could happen,” He repeated. “That’s what we have training facilities for. Who knows what could have happened if he, uh, he started a fire! Or what if you broke a rib when he launched at you!” You had long since made your peace with everything that had gone wrong. It may not have been the perfect launch or the perfect training stimulation, but there was a lesson to be learned in accommodating the needs of your clients. Tenjin wouldn’t understand that. His hero partner wasn’t Katsuki Bakugo.

“Don’t even get me started on if his hand exploded! You know what? I kind of wish it did. It would serve him right for being such an asshole!” That was a line that he would come to regret as the two of you rounded the corner. Bakugo had been walking in your direction with a few of his friends (Kirishima and Denki), who had been pressing him for the same story. Whether he had heard Tenjin had been unclear, but the possibility caused your blood pressure to spike. They have had some verbal altercations in the past. You dreaded the day it would become physical. You’d never say it to his face, but Tenjin would not be winning that fight.

The hushed whispers and inquiries from your collective friends came to a halt. There was no way to tell which story Kirishima and Denki believed, which was surprisingly nerve racking. To have someone believe that you were just some damsel in distress that got bulldozed.

That was not taking control of your narrative.

Tenjin took a step forward, ready to relieve the weight of a thousand words from his chest, but he was silenced by your olive branch. If you had seen the rumors, you were sure that Bakugo had, too. Things might not have been perfect last night, but there was progress between the two of you. You had stepped out of your comfort zone last night and found success, and you hoped to do so again when you pushed forward and extended your phone in Bakugo’s direction; in front of your friends, his, and curious on-lookers. Maybe this would clear up the rumors; show people that you were not a victim, but an active participant in pursuit of creating a hero.

“I’m going to be working on improving the gauntlets in class today,” You broke the silence. “It’d be easier to make arrangements for further testing… if I could contact you…” Your voice may have trailed off at the end there, but it was likely masked by Tenjin’s disbelief.

“You’re not seriously thinking about giving this guy your number?” He gawked. He may have been well-meaning, but he was so caught up in himself that he was failing to see how much this meant to you. You wanted to strive each day to be better than what you were before. Yesterday, you were embarrassed and intimidated by Bakugo. Neither his, nor Tenjin’s actions were going to dictate your success on this assignment. This was your story and, for better or worse, Katsuki Bakugo was your hero.

The tension came to a head when Bakugo swiped your phone. “Here,” He muttered once his information was entered, shoving the phone back. In the same motion he pushed between you and Tenjin, causing you both to stumble back as he continued to class. “Just don’t annoy me with useless crap.”

“Watch it, jackass!” Tenjin barked with the entirety of his chest.

“Hey, wait up!” Kirishima announced as he rounded you to catch up with his friend. He, however, turned around to walk backwards; to acknowledge you. “I can’t wait to see the upgrades. See you at the Training Dome!” Denki followed suit. “Yeah, I thought a firework went off in the lawns last night. If it’s going to get any bigger than that, I want to see it.” He complimented while catching up with his clique.

Your heart fell from your throat once all three of them rounded the corner. Tenjin’s complaints fell upon deaf ears as you finally glanced down to your phone to view your new contact.

#1 Fucking Hero

- - -

It would have been peaceful to be a random extra again. No one wanted to select Bakugo as an option for their projects, but everyone seemed interested to know what it was like to work with him. Your class was becoming closer with time, but everyone had their little cliques. You were kind to everyone, but no one had your back like Tenjin and Kisaragi. That’s what made today unbearable and a little overwhelming.

Power Loader had chosen to rebrand some of the encouraging words he shared with you into a lesson for today. There was a class discussion to debrief some of the things everyone had learned in working with their heroes where you had decided not to share, much to everyone’s dismay. Power Loader was able to draw attention away from you by debuting the deadline for everyone’s final projects; the U.A. Sports Festival. This festival was not only a way to introduce the world to the next generation of heroes that were training at U.A., but a stage for support course students to debut their innovative creations to an industry of engineers.

The heroes in Class 1-A and Class 1-B were receiving similar news. Though your class schedules allotted a considerable amount of time for studio hours, it was not enough. The students in the hero courses also needed time for supervised training in addition to their regular academics. That meant windows of 30 minutes or less during school hours to meet with your partners, which wasn’t nearly enough to adequately test equipment. Power Loader implied, but did not explicitly order you all to make time after school to get the assignment done.

The pressure was on.

Which made it difficult for you to concentrate when your class finally did have studio time. Tenjin and Kisaragi did their best to mitigate the curious classmates who took this as an opportunity to ask follow up questions, but they had their own assignments. The inquiries were relentless.

“So.. how many times has he yelled at you today?”

“Blink twice if you’re being held hostage.”

“How do you even survive being in the same room as him?”

“Has he… has he ever been nice to you? Even by accident?”

Admittedly, some of those questions came from Tenjin which was starting to become more grating than hearing it from someone else. This led to you wrapping up your time in the Development Studio early to have some time to yourself.

You couldn’t focus.

You were up late last night fixing the gauntlets that Bakugo had broken and even later convincing him to take them for a spin. And for how tired Eraserhead always seems, his lecture last night could have been shorter. Your body ached at the idea of repairing the landscape the two of you destroyed this weekend, but the punishment could have been far worse. Against your better judgement, the first thing that you had done after class was slip into a much needed nap.

This was the first of many that would become a problematic cycle.

The week had gone by in a blur. Your designated time for rest had become the time when most of your other classmates worked in a studio. You were as lively as you could be, participating in various class lessons and discussions, but you couldn’t help yourself. The final bell always seemed to prompt your sleepiness. This was complemented by your tendency to awake late at night, where you would spend your time doing necessary upgrades on the gauntlets. Despite being a certified side character, your classmates had definitely taken notice of your absence. At this point, you just muted the group chat.

It was Saturday, bright and early, around the time you would usually wake up for class. But today… you had detention. After the fiasco earlier this week with the explosion in the courtyard, Eraserhead made it very clear that you and Bakugo had to report to that same field today to re-sod the lawns. It wasn’t returning to a place that had held both your pride and shame that bothered you…

…it was the forced proximity to Bakugo.

You had arrived early to the courtyard in comfortable clothing, barely finding the reason to freshen up in an attractive manner given that you would be sweating anything off anyways. You heard him before you saw him.

“What’s the purpose of having staff at this place if they’re not cleaning up after us heroes?” He was barking at Eraserhead like they were classmates. It was insane.

“This is your mess, so you’re cleaning it,” Eraserhead responded, irritation at the edge of each word. To be disliked by your classmates is one thing. You couldn’t imagine being the reason your teacher, let alone a pro-hero, drank after work each night. Eraserhead exhaled. “The groundskeepers have better things to do than fixing your mistakes..”

“Tch, then what the hell are they here for? I’m gonna be the Number One Hero. Cleaning up after me should be an honor.”

Eraserhead paused, and simply glared at Bakugo. “You’re not Number One yet. And even if you were, clean up your damn mess. Now.” His words maintained a sense of finality that even Bakugo knew not to push. Eraserhead turned to walk off, muttering. “I swear, if ego was a Quirk, you’d be unstoppable..” And with his final comment he left you with an irritable partner.

You wanted to collapse into yourself when Bakugo’s glare transitioned from him to you. Nervously, you raised a hand to provide a small wave in his direction for a proper greeting, only to be stunted by a “Stay outta my way,” as he went to grab a shovel.

Right.

You retracted your hand and moved to grab a rake. The rejection wouldn’t have been as frustrating if it weren’t for the fact that you had been texting him all week long. To no reply, of course. You had worked on his gauntlets every night since the first test. True to your word, you provided him with regular updates and received not even a ‘seen at’ for days. You couldn’t help but feel foolish for thinking that things had changed between you. That some semblance of progress had been made. It was difficult not to get in your own head the longer you two worked in silence. You just felt so…

No.

This line of thinking was not going to serve you in the long run. Bakugo was difficult. You already knew that. There was no way that you were going to continue to be better than you were yesterday if you kept letting your self-worth be dictated by the actions of others. No text chain from a group chat, pity from a teacher, or insults from your heroic partner was going to stop you from doing what you set out to achieve by attending this school. The completion of this assignment was important to the both of you.

Bakugo might have been a crash out, but you were starting to realize that under the right conditions, you could be, too. “What the hell?” His irritation broke the silence. The two of you were nearing the end of your detention sentence when you had the sudden, uncontrollable urge to gain his attention by grabbing his wrist. “Let go of me–!”

“I’m coming over to your dorm tonight.” Your declaration was so bold that you hardly believed they were your words. “A-And tomorrow, we’re going to the Training Dome.”

He snatched his wrist from your grip with a level of force that was unnecessary. A warning. You were nowhere near as strong as him, after all. “If we’re going public tomorrow, the gauntlets better be flawless tonight.” He stated bluntly as he returned to his work. “I don’t wear garbage.”

There was a swelling of warmth in your chest when you received a response that wasn’t entirely an insult, but you were conflicted. You were a side character that should keep your mouth closed and stay out of his way, and yet this was the second time he seemed to be more responsive to actions that made you feel… assertive.

“I can’t perfect your gear if you’re unresponsive,” You forced out with a little more, well, bass wasn’t the right word. You would settle for saying that your voice didn’t crack as much. The anxiety was still there, but you would die before you allowed this opportunity to go to waste. “You didn’t respond to any of my updates.”

“Yeah, so what?” He retorted dryly as he continued to abuse the ground with his landscaping tools. “Last time I checked, it was your job to make the equipment and my job to make you look good. Nothing you sent needed my input.”

So, he was reading your texts!

The amount of pettiness it took to consistently do it through the notification preview was unmatched. But, he was right. You had sent him countless updates about the process it took to create the gear as if it were an engineering blog. You could have summarized all of it to state simply that you improved the mechanics that actually mattered to him. Bakugo was very direct about what he disliked, rarely what he liked. Now that you were actively listening to him you realized that closed mouths don’t get fed. If you wanted to continue to make progress with him, you couldn’t expect him to assume your needs.

“Right..” You muttered. You may have gotten lost in your own thoughts, but the moment hadn’t passed. “Well, I’m still coming over tonight.. But we should push back ‘going public’ to Wednesday. I’d like to have a few more trials for a proper fitting and dial back the blast output.” You shared, remembering how the initial test had literally blasted him off his feet.

“What are you stupid?” You could feel your confidence collapsing in on itself. “Screw that. Crank the output. I’ll eat the recoil.” And then that sinking feeling was replaced with budding curiosity…

You were smart enough to read in between the lines. With an ego like his, it was not in your best interest to bring up how he fell during the test trial. The type of gear you were producing would have recoil regardless of the output levels. You were so focused on keeping him on his feet that you failed to realize that, perhaps, the only reason he fell was because he was surprised. To be able to wield that kind of power in battle he would need a tremendous amount of upper body strength and…

….warmth pooled in your chest as you realized that something like that would not be a problem for him. He was dressed just as comfortably as you were to tackle manual labor today. Suddenly, you were hyper-aware of the way his arms flex with restrained force, each muscle carved from relentless training. His back was anatomy textbook perfect and he moved with such natural confidence that he must not have known how beautiful he really was.

Woah.

Where did that come from?...

“Alright,” The words left your mouth, but your head was somewhere else entirely. “I’ll crank up the output and I’ll see you… tonight..” Your mind returned to the present with that last word. Showing up to his room for a short while to plead your case was one thing, but turning this into a regular thing…

Was that going to be too much for you?

“Don’t bring your damn drama this time,” he loosely confirmed through barely contained irritation. “And most fans don’t show up empty-handed.”

Was he going to be too much for you?

❖──────❖──────❖

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