Kacchako Drabbles For The Soul

Happy Birthday Uraraka Ochako!!

His hand was shaking, his cheeks were a blooming red, and his throat was bobbing with insecurity.

But she couldn't see all that. Not in the darkness of the hallway he pulled her into right before the movie began. Instead she saw the silhouette of Bakugo's spiked hair against the hallway window, the chill of December air somehow still nipping at her nose even as she stood bundled up with fuzzy socks and an ugly sweater inside of the UA dorms.

"Here." He says, voice still that same amount of gruff gentleness he's always had.

A small silver box is prodding her shoulder now, his impatient scowl staring down at her as she blinks at the small box dumbly.

"What's this?"

She watches him narrow his eyes at her, scoffing impatiently as she makes no move to accept the present.

"It's your fucking birthday, isn't it?"

She frowns, mildly confused.

He's not wrong. It is her birthday. It's just...

Ochako looks from the box to him, an eyebrow quirked.

"You got me a birthday gift?"

He got her a birthday gift?

"I guess."

His grunt is noncommittal, and he forces the box into her hands before crossing his arms and leaning against the wall, all the while being painfully obvious that he is avoiding eye contact with her.

Ochako has to fight the smile tugging at her lips.

It's been six months since Bakugo Katsuki agreed to train with her.

In the beginning, it was strictly business. He would fight her, give her some pointers, and she would let him go all out. It was a mutually beneficial agreement they had set with each other.

A little while after their first match, maybe around week three or four, she remembers him bringing her an extra one of his protein bars that she thought he never noticed her eyeing before training.

'You're not slick, Cheeks.' He'd snapped, tossing the bar at her and expecting nothing in return all the same.

Somewhere in the middle, she'd found them getting lunch together after training. Sometimes he cooked for her, and sometimes he took her out to his favorite local places around town. It was then that she realized that maybe they were friends.

A bit after that, he'd noticed her struggling in their Hero's Economics class.

That meant lunch and studying.

Well-

Studying is a term to be used lightly. It was mostly Ochako sitting there with her textbook and notes while Bakugo repeated the same exact lesson over and over again until she understood.

That was how they spent their weeks up until now. A routine. A partnership. A friendship, if Ochako dares.

So maybe it isn't so out of the ordinary for Bakugo to give her a gift on her birthday. Maybe it isn't something that should shock her, or leave her speechless in an empty hallway.

As she looks up at his ruby red eyes, still fixed on anything but her, Ochako feels a rush of warmth fall over her.

There's a small crease in between his eyebrows, and his lips are tugged into a frown, and if she didn't know better, Ochako may think that he was nervous.

But she knows better. Bakugo doesn't get nervous.

She bites back a giggle.

Turning the slim box over in her palms, Ochako marvels at the way the silver ribbon on it catches the moonlight drafting in from the window.