Why Us?

School Festival pt. 2

To be honest, Izumi nearly forgot she invited Bakugo to hang out during her class's lunch. That is- until he comes through the haunted maze.

She's practically on autopilot, ready to get some food, when she realizes a familiar head of spiky blond hair is about to walk past her spot. And she just used her quirk to make the walls drip fake blood. Izumi tenses, preparing for some kind of explosive reaction, but he just freezes and makes a small noise of surprise when Shinsou is dropped from the ceiling to ramble something about stealing souls.

A full body shiver and a squeak of surprise. That's his reaction when scared? Izumi giggles softly and accidentally knocks over one of the fake walls, ruining the creepy atmosphere. Bakugo snaps out of his frozen state.

"Hirai? Ready to look around the festival?" Bakugo asks, rubbing his neck sheepishly and pretending nothing happened.

A couple of Izumi's classmates snicker at her clumsiness. Izumi's face heats up in embarrassment. Bakugo glares at her laughing classmates until they look away.

"Yeah... uhh, sure. I kinda messed up the vibes for the rest of the maze," Izumi agrees softly, hastily fixing the wall.

"Whatever. It's fine," Bakugo grumbles, trying to be nonchalant while reassuring the anxious girl.

Izumi nods and leads Bakugo out of the maze, quickly waving bye to Shinsou on the way. Once outside the classroom-turned maze, Izomi stops and hesitates on what direction to go.

"Let's go. We can start this way and circle back around." 

Izumi looks up at her soulmate in surprise, not expecting him to take the lead when she was the one who asked him to go around the festival with her. Bakugo starts walking, but stops and glances over his shoulder, waiting for Izumi to follow. His hands are shoved in his pockets, and he looks almost bored except for a surprisingly gentle expression on his face. Izumi only hesitates for a moment before hurrying to Bakugo's side to check out the festival together.

They walk around aimlessly for a while until a photo op catches Izumi's eye.

"Look! There's a photo stand-in of principal Nezu and UA!" Izumi bounces on her toes, excited to see it closer.

But she realizes she's with Bakugo, and deflates, muttering soft apologies almost immediately after when he speaks.

"It's not even a good one- UA is a building, it doesn't even have a face," he snorts, looking in the direction Izumi was pointing to just a moment before.

She looks down, avoiding eye contact. Of course, he wouldn't be interested in a silly cutout board-type photo op. He probably isn't interested in taking photos in general. She's just a quirkless-

"But sure, let's go."

Izumi stares blankly at the ground, cut off mid-thought. What?

"I mean, unless you don't want to go," Bakugo hesitates.

Izumi whips her head up and looks at the boy in front of her.

"No. I mean, yes. I mean- let's go take a photo!" Izumi rushes, a smile making its way onto her face.

She follows Bakugo over and listens to him grumble about how they 'have so many other options for a photo stand-in like All Might or literally ANY pro heroes instead of a goddamn building.' Izumi chokes back a laugh and graciously doesn't say anything as he puts his face in the stand-in hole for UA because Izumi is too short and can only reach principal Nezu. She smiles for the camera and Bakugo glares.

After the photos are taken, the pair wanders around more. Bakugo gets a text from one of his friends, making him pause as he checks his phone. Izumi politely waits off to the side, checking her own phone to pass the time.