Love Like You (KatsukixOC)

8. Good or Bad

Katsuki stared at his bracelet, his face uncharacteristically blushing. He had simply taken the gift, unsure of what to say to Awako and left, muttering a simple "Later."

So he laid in bed now, dangling it from his fingers. His mind was too noisy to sleep now. He tossed and turned in his bed, rubbing the smooth beads with his fingers as he did.

"Awako..." he breathed, looking up at the ceiling. His chest tightened once more as he thought of the expression on her face when he took the bracelet from her hands. Like a damn puppy dog she lit up. If she had a tail it would have been wagging.

He spent hours just staring off into space. Eventually he popped his earbuds in his ears, listening to music to try and soothe him to sleep. The first song that popped up was one Awako had insisted on him listening to over and over.

"It's good! I promise!" she whined, trying to put the earbud in his ear. It was before they had their fight. Before they graduated middleschool.

"Fine, fine, give me the fucking thing," he snapped, holding his hand out. He took the earbud and placed it in his ear, preparing himself to space out for the next four or five minutes but actually found himself enjoying the song. It wasn't much his style but he could see why she liked it.

"It's alright I guess," he said, yanking the earbud from his ear and handing back to her. For weeks after he listened to her hum it to herself as she braided her bracelets. He even walked in on her singing it as she waited for him to get out of class.

He muttered the lyrics to himself, rolling onto his side and closing his eyes.

He dreamt of his fingers running through soft bushy brown hair.

~

Awako fidgeted in her seat. They were on a bus heading towards the UA training grounds for rescue training. She had taken up a seat next to Katsuki, nervously glancing at the bracelet he wore on his wrist.

She wore her bracelet also.

She wasn't much paying attention to the conversation. Her body jerked with every bump of the bus. It caused their hand to bump. He didn't really seem to notice but her face was bright red. She was clad in her hero costume, a new backpack sitting in her lap that looked much like the one Katsuki broke beforehand. There was a note saying to be more careful and that it was made of stronger material. She kept her focus on the water sloshing inside of it and not to the closeness of their hands now. If anything it felt as if his hand was getting closer.

"You wanna talk strong and cool? That'd be Todoroki and Bakugou." The comment pulled her out of her thoughts and both Katsuki and herself perked up, listening to the conversation. Katsuki made a noise, turning his gaze back out the window. His pinky finger almost wrapped around hers.

"But Bakugou's so unhinged he'd never be popular," Tsuyu said, causing the blonde to bristle.

"What'd you say, Frog Face?" he snarled, shooting up. Tsuyu replied "See?"

"We've hardly started socializing and already you've made it clear to us the unpleasantness of your steam turd of a personality," a blond boy with a black streak in his hair said. Awako racked her brain for a name. Denki. Kaminari Denki.

"Yeah, okay Mr. Vocabulary. How about I pound you!?" Katsuki snarled. Awako began to flail a bit before grabbing his hand looking up at him.

"C-Calm down K-Kacchan," she whispered, pulling him down. He snorted and went back to sitting, crossing his legs. He squeezed her hand tightly, keeping his grip on it for the rest of the ride.