Upstream [Kacchako] [ENG]

II. Static - Sunny with 100% Gravity

From: Round Face
Time: 7:56 pm
Hey! I have a favor to ask, can I call you?

To: Round Face
Time: 8:01 pm
Only if it's a quick thing, Round Face. I don't have time to waste on bullshit.

From: Round Face
Time: 8:04 pm
Thanks! I'll be quick, I promise!

To: Round Face
Time: 8:16 pm
This'll be the first and last time, understood? If you bullshit your friends that's your business. And if you mention it to someone, you're dead.

From: Round Face
Hours: 8:19 pm
Hey, you have earned my notes forever! See you tomorrow at 5 pm at the bar, don't be late! Bye!

Although Round Face is not among the top of the class, she's quite good at taking notes. Taking advantage of it will buy me some time to train. That's just why I do it, I don't give a damn about this bullshit.
"Here you are, Kacchan!"
Upon hearing Ochaco's chirping voice, Bakugō interrupted his stream of consciousness and stopped scrolling absent-mindedly through yesterday's messages.
When he looked up at her, he seemed not to disdain her clothing: she was wearing a rather unbuttoned white blouse, a fluttering black skirt and had tied her hair with pink clips.
Following her were two girls, friends from Mie prefecture who for that day should have believed Katsuki was her boyfriend.
I didn't know they were ever going to come here, so I said I had a boyfriend.
They love gossiping, I don't want to be seen as a failure.
There is neither Deku nor Iida tomorrow, please help me!
Two weeks before she asked him to train together, then the fake dating thing, then being called "Kacchan".
Although they were getting closer, wasn't Ochaco taking both an inch and a mile?
In any case, it did not matter, it was still a bargain: two hours of deadly boredom traded with halved effort with taking notes at school for the next three years.
"Hey, Round Face. You're late, where the fuck were you?"
The brunette winced, her eyes widening. Not that it was surprising, Katsuki Bakugō could not have behaved differently; however, a part of her had hoped for an attitude a bit more appropriate to the situation.
"Um... He is Katsuki Bakugō, my beloved boyfriend! We met here at U.A.!"
She forced a smile, taking the blond by the arm with little naturalness.
"Um... I'm Shiro and she is Akemi, nice to meet you. Please excuse us for a moment", the shorter of the two guests smiled coldly and grabbed the other's hand; they stifled a giggle and slipped inside the bar. That Ochaco was a bad liar was obvious and the lack of cooperation of the classmate did nothing but accentuate it.
The latter would not even have cared that much, if only he hadn't seen the girl's gaze lower and cloud. She was holding tightly to the hem of her skirt and began to tremble, as if she could burst into tears at any moment.
As little knight as Katsuki might be, he knew he couldn't be okay seeing someone he deeply respected in that way.
He got up from her chair and went inside the bar to pay what he had ordered while waiting for the girls and take Ochaco away, but familiar voices caught his attention.
"Did you see that, Shiro? Uraraka is not only not among the best in the class, but she's still got that old phone."
"Shall we talk about her fake boyfriend? So embarrassing! I was wondering how much she paid him, before remembering how poor she is!"
They burst into almost synchronous laughter, before going out and finding the blond in front of them. They winced and were petrified in front of that vermilion and dangerous gaze.
"What the fuck are you saying about Uraraka, you sluts?", he barked, blocking the passage of one of the girls by sticking an arm to the wall, "she's the one with the most grit and potential in the class and I'm training her personally. I don't give a fuck how much money you have, after her graduation you can only envy her. She has an exceptional quirk, and I'm sure she will be a great heroine. "
The patrons of the place turned to him, some frightened by that thundering voice and others in admiration for the winner of the U.A. Sports Festival.
"Bakugō, what...?"
Ochaco jumped at the sight of her classmate's bloodshot eyes, matched only when he argued on Deku or Todoroki.
With his mind clouded by anger, he thought back to their battle at the festival, to the training of the last few weeks, even to the sweet and motivated smile of the girl when she was able to use her own quirk on him; nothing and no one should have or could have diminished her immense efforts, not in front of those who was taking care of Uraraka with care, like an orchid.
"Moreover...", he turned towards her looking into her eyes with an intensity that was almost shivering, and surrounded her hips with his arm, making her elicit a slight gasp.
"... She is really my girlfriend. And because I love her, I won't allow her to hang out with shit like you."
He slipped his hand onto her wrist and dragged her away, not without encountering a modicum of resistance from her.
They remained silent for a couple of hundred meters before stopping in a crowded avenue.
They looked at each other for a long, interminable instant. Ochaco seemed to have crystallized, with one hand clutched to her chest and the other still in the grip of the blond.
"Round Face, promise me...", the latter grunted, strengthening his grip, "... that you will never talk to those bastards again."
The heroine began to tremble, no longer from fear.
Her heart was traveling at an unprecedented, almost worrying, number of beats.
It was his hand, big and strong, around her thin wrist, it was those tiny rubies set in his pupils, it was him.
Ochaco Uraraka had just realized that there was no escape from Katsuki Bakugō.