The Tinker

Chapter 8 - Cooked

The barbeque was the safest Y/N had felt in months. Being able to act like a normal person without the stress of power or expectations was like a weight was lifted from her shoulders. Her experience in the hospital felt worlds away, and it was nice. Like a breath of fresh air.

"I can't believe they haven't stopped this silly charade. It's been years," Momo sighed, looking at Sero and Kaminari. They were an hour deep into an argument that everyone else was tired of. From what Y/N could tell, it was well worn out. It was definitely not the first (or last) time the topic would be mentioned.

"I swear man, you've gotta believe me! I saw Aizawa smile at her. Like, a romantic smile. AFTER THEY LEFT THE TEACHER'S LOUNGE TOGETHER!" Denki yelled, pointing his fork at Sero as a piece of food fell off of it.

"There's no way in hell that Miss Joke would ever be able to get with him. That man is a brick wall. It would take--"

"A miracle. We get it," Jirou grumbled.

"Yeah, exactly. And last time I checked, they completely avoid each other in the halls."

"Because it would be too suspicious! I KNOW they're hooking up, they've gotta be!" Denki demanded, shoveling a bite into his mouth angrily. 

"Also, Miss Joke's quirk is literally to make people laugh. Of course Aizawa smiled at her," Sero retorted.

"IT WASN'T HER QUIRK!" Denki was standing up at this point, hands in the air. "I know sexual tension when I see it!" 

The group was laughing at him at this point, which only served to make him angrier.

"Enough of that. It's time for Unleash the Beast," Kirishima challenged, stretching his arms.

Y/N frowned, turning to Ochaco. "Unleash the Beast?"

"It's a game we play. Basically a sparring game, but no quirks allowed," Ochaco replied. "It's actually pretty fun, as long as you're not going against--"

"Bring it on, fuckface. I still need to crush you for breaking my gauntlet," Bakugou growled, grabbing Kirishima's shirt and pulling him towards the empty patch of grass next to the patio.

"Against Bakugou," Ochaco finished with a sigh. "Because the loser swaps, it's pretty much the whole class against him, just taking turns." She took a sip from her tea (or juice?) and turned to Y/N. "I recommend not participating. I had bruises for weeks," she giggled. Y/N laughed with her.

Most of the girls chose not to get involved. They knew how it would end, and they'd done it a hundred times over. The matches tended to end so fast that you couldn't even learn anything from it. Instead, they swapped stories and finished up their drinks. Y/N felt much more comfortable doing that than trying to throw hands with the angry boy.

"So why come to Japan?" Momo asked, sipping her tea delicately.

"Uh, career opportunities mostly," Y/N lied. "A lot more engineering needed here." She had pulled that statistic out of her ass and hoped that they wouldn't question it.

"Did you work for an agency before coming here?"

"Yeah, I did." This time she was able to tell the truth. "I really liked it there. But they had to discharge me for health reasons."

"That's... that's terrible. Are you alright?" Ochaco asked gently. 

Y/N nodded and faked a smile. "I'm mostly recovered at this point. Just a few more weeks and I'll be ship shape."

Ochaco gave her a sweet smile, tilting her head. "I'm glad to hear that!"

Y/N didn't really like talking about it, not when there was so much she was told to keep secret. She was glad that they didn't press her for more information.

"HEY! TINKERBELL!" 

Y/N groaned and turned around, knowing exactly who was yelling at her.

"You owe me a fight," He said, a wicked grin on his face.

"What, from Super Smash Bros? That's cute, but--"

"What, you too chicken?" He let explosions fly from his hands, taunting her. "You can surrender now if you want. Just admit I'm better than you." Kirishima was panting on the ground next to him. It was a scary sight.

Recovery Girl had told her to take it easy. It still needs a few more weeks to fully heal, she'd said, but she knew Bakugou wasn't going to take no for an answer unless it came with a full admission of defeat-- and at this point, it would be more suspicious if she chose that.

If she took it easy and pretended to put up a fight for a minute or two, then she could walk away without exacerbating her injury... right?

"You asshat," Y/N grumbled. "Fine." She set her drink aside and stood up. The boys whooped and cheered, but the girls exchanged nervous looks. 

Y/N made her way over to the much-too-excited blonde and stretched her arms out in front of her. "Sorry ladies, this is probably going to be disappointing," she said to the girls. They gave her nervous smiles in response.

She wasn't great with her hand-to-hand combat, let alone sparring. Back on the field, her quirk eliminated any need for it-- now she was wishing she'd taken a lesson or two.

Y/N turned to face Bakugou, who still had that massive grin on his face. He was really in his element. The only other time she'd seen him like this was in his sparring match with Kirishima when his gauntlet broke. She suddenly realized the kind of position she was in, and knew that he fully had the power to kill her where she stood. She tried not to show her hesitation.

"START!" Iida yelled, blowing his whistle.

Bakugou came in fast with the first hit, his fist headed straight for her nose. Thank god she avoided it in time, moving to the side and trying to send an elbow into his head, but he was too quick. He ducked and swept her legs out from under her. She fell to the ground with a painful amount of force, but rolled over before he could pin her down. 

From the ground, she kicked towards his stomach, but he grabbed her leg and flipped her onto her back. He climbed on and pushed his elbow against her back. "Yield, loser!"

"Fuck no," she panted, sending her heel careening into the small of his back. He grunted with the impact, getting distracted enough that she could roll over, but he stayed on top of her, grabbing her wrists and pinning them above her head. 

"Yield!" He was more demanding this time. She could feel the heat of his breath on her neck, his body weight keeping her from fighting back. Y/N squirmed and struggled, trying with all of her might to break from his grasp, but realized it was futile. A sharp pain was growing on her hip-- oh no.

"Fine, fine! You win!" She panted. She had to get him off of her before he noticed.

Bakugou smirked at her, letting go of her and climbing to his feet. "There we go. About time."

Y/N rolled her eyes at him and sat up, leaning on her elbows, panting. 

Suddenly, Bakugou paled. "What the fuck--?" He was looking at her torso.

She looked down and saw a pool of blood forming on her shirt. Fuck.

She quickly covered it up with her jacket, laughing nervously. "Fuck. It's just a scrape," she said, brushing off his concern. "I'll be back in a sec." She stood up, suddenly feeling the sharp pain radiating from her skin, and tried to walk inside quickly without anyone seeing the splash of red, but Bakugou's eyes followed her in.

What the hell just happened?