i hate you. (Bakugou Katsuki x OC)

12 | Etterath

My father is alone in the box room.

There aren't any hovering assistants or eager heroes begging for him to just look in their direction. Even Aki is missing from the scene. The image is so foreign that I can't help but search through my memory to find the last time he and I had one-on-one time. It takes longer to find than I'm comfortable with.

"Father," I call, rapping my knuckles against the door frame. "You wanted to see me?"

He stirs at the sudden sound but doesn't turn. "Yes, please come in."

Despite my best efforts to stay perfectly poised as his publicist taught me time and again, his simple request sends me scurrying to stand beside him.

Father stands in front of wall-length windows, but he doesn't pay them any attention. Instead, his eyes shift between an array of laptops – revealing the current match, reruns, and a graph – and a hologram of me entering the stadium with my diamonds. I can't help the smile that rises to my face at the sight of Father's quirk. It used to be the only thing that could get me to bed at night, my father projecting various memories into the empty space.

"Not my best work," I criticize, watching as the sparkling gems melt off my skin in his memory. Knowing that Father was watching, I can't help but second guess the entrance. "Diamonds are overused, I should have thought of emeralds. Or maybe jade–"

"No, you were perfect."

My eyes snap up from the projection to find that Father is already staring at me. The look on his face matches his voice perfectly. Desperate, honest... open. All so intense that I almost wanted to look away like I did with Bakugou this morning.

I don't have the chance to do so, though. Like always, the moment that his brown eyes meet mine, a flash of horror overwhelms his features. And, like always, he immediately drops his gaze in favor of something else.

"I mean, it was perfect," He sighs, waving a hand toward his projection. "Diamonds are a spring gem, so it was in season. Not to mention that they symbolize strength and grace."

"Thank you, Father," I say softly, trying to hold onto the moment of praise instead of the tone.

He nods absently, his fingers flicking a new screen onto one of his laptops. This time, it's the obstacle course. On the screen, I'm kneeling beside Mineta while he tries to kiss my hand. "You handled yourself well out there. You ranked towards the middle, popularity-wise, but I think we can attribute that more to your classmates than you. The boy with the speech and the one that won the obstacle course stole the limelight."

"Yeah, they tend to do that," I murmur, trying to process what Father was getting at.

"We'll have to factor that into our media campaigns in the future," He continues without missing a beat. "But, the good news is that you had a positive response when the attention did fall on you. Making it to the final round spoke to your skill while moments like this–" He waves to the picture of me and Mineta once more. "Spoke to your heroism, a necessity in this field. I think we could lean into the 'gentle hero' image if we do it right."

"Gentle hero image..." I quote, the pieces finally clicking together in my head. "Wait, is that why you called me here? To talk about my image?"

My father doesn't immediately respond. Instead, he taps his fingers rhythmically on the desk, a gesture I recognize as him organizing his thoughts. The silence stretches just long enough to make me uncomfortable before he finally speaks.

"Yes, partially," he admits, his eyes still not meeting mine. "Your success today was well-received, Koyasu, but you must understand that being a hero is not just about strength or skill. It's about perception. How the public views you is just as important, if not more so."