Hot-Headed (Now also a podfic on spotify!)

Chapter 15

The first day of second term began like most any other school day.

Ochako met up with Mina, Toru, and Tsuyu on the roof to stretch where they briefly caught up on what they had done over the summer.

Mina and Toru had worked together at Mirko's agency. They had gotten to do a few low risk missions, they told her, but most of their days had been spent in an office filing paperwork and preparing support equipment ("which should be a support student's job," Toru complained.) Mirko had worked with them a bit on refining their quirks but, overall, their summer had been boring. After hearing about it, Ochako was glad she didn't choose to work there.

Tsuyu had gone down to Okinawa and worked with an ocean rescue crew. Her summer had been slightly more exciting, having been brought along on rescue missions for people whose boat had sunk or had gotten lost in a storm. The stories she told them about her missions were captivating.

By the time the girls got around to Ochako, they had eaten breakfast and were headed down the walkway toward the school building.

"So," Mina asked, turning to her, "you worked with Mt. Lady, right? Was it as awful as Mineta made it out to be in first year?"

Ochako shook her head, "Well I don't know what it was like before, but working with Mt. Lady was really awesome actually! She gave us missions all the time and when we weren't doing that, she sent us out on patrols just like all the other heroes at the agency."

The other three girls shared a look of confusion and Mina cocked her head asking, "'Us'? Who is 'us'? I thought you were the only one who took the internship with Mt. Lady."

"Oh, yeah I was but you know she works with Kamui Woods and Edgeshot sometimes."

The other girls nodded.

"Well it turns out Bakugo interned for Edgeshot and we kinda ended up working together for the summer."

"BAKUGO?!" Toru and Mina screamed in unison. Tsuyu held a perplexed expression.

"You're gonna have to tell us more about your summer, Ochako-chan," the frog-like girl said, putting a large finger to her chin.

They'd reached their class and it was already 8:25 so Ochako had no time to expound on this new information. She gave them an ingratiating smile and nodded, "I will."

Sliding open the door, the girls dispersed to their seats. It looked like they were the last to arrive and Ochako felt a little awkward at that, considering she was a class rep. She probably should've been a little more prompt.

Forest green eyes met hers when she greeted Deku as she approached her seat.

"Good morning, Deku-kun," she said with a friendly smile.

He beamed back at her, "Good morning!"

She turned to Iida seated next to him, "Good morning, Iida."

He nodded and also responded in kind.

She passed them and looked at the ash blonde boy lounging with his chin in his palm in the seat next to hers, his crimson eyes already following her.

Nerves bunched up in her chest as she peered down at him and gave a more timid smile, "Good morning, Bakugo-kun."

She felt a few eyes shift in their direction quizzically.

He didn't smile, which was not unexpected, but he did respond.

"Morning, floaty," he said, his eyes not leaving hers.

A few more people in the classroom quieted to look and watch. Ochako could see from her peripheral vision that the three girls she'd just dropped the information about how she'd spent her summer were practically gawking with interest.