Up in Smoke (Soulmate AU)

Jesus, Bakugou.

Now, how the fuck was he going to do this?

The thought cycled in his head every time he turned to look at her. Stop staring. Stop staring. She was so distracting, so mind clouding, everything about her drove him insane. He couldn't count how many times he had to wipe his palms on his pant legs - so how the fuck was he going to manage doing what he had planned to do. He'd die before then, he was sure of it.

She met him in the hallway like he had asked - which half surprised him - sporting a one-pieced bodysuit and some workout shoes, but get this ~ she was wearing a ponytail. He didn't even know it was possible to manage one with all that smoky shit always taking up her head. And it probably wouldn't last long but, he got to see her face. All of it! Not slightly covered in its usual den of misty spirals and inward curls, but her face. The type of face that'd make you pick up a pen and write a song about it. The type of face you'd paint in a dream and then lose your mind about it because it could never be - but it was. It was and it was staring up at him, saying his name.

Bakugou. Bakugou. "Bakugou?" The finger that tapped against his bicep burned into his skin. "You there?"

Blowing out a brief sigh through his nostrils, he nodded as he reached for his water bottle. His throat was too damn dry. He had barely gotten a word out since they got here.

She tittered halfheartedly before shaking her head at him. "Okay, well what are we doing then? Are we training separately? Are we sparring? Do you want me to help you with something?"

"Sparring."

He saw the smoke rise in her hair when he said that, but just slightly. He silently prayed that it wouldn't fall through the band. Not yet, he wanted to look at her more. She seemed a little surprised by that. "Oh. Okay."

She stepped back, making some distance between her and where he leaned on the wall. "Are there any rules?"

Sitting his water aside and moving toward the mat in the center of the room, he shrugged the joints in his shoulder as he walked past her. "No smoke tricks. Just you."

She nodded, following him to oppose his position on the other side of the mat. He was being oddly cryptic today. She noticed. From the walk here to the way he seemed to quietly fold into himself from time to time ~ it kind of worried her. He had said - what - barely six words to her since he invited her here? And even then, they were barely more than a few choppy sentences. She didn't really think he could be angry. Sure the scowl was still there but his tone. It was so flat ~ so heavy. Maybe if she saw the chance she'd ask him what was up.

"Ready?"

"Yeah."

They both took a running start at each other, her leg connecting with his side first. He predicted that'd be her first initial blow but was gonna let her get the first few hits in. He needed the momentum. And let his body move in a quarter circle at her left side, forcing her to stumble back so he could get his first hit in at the mid of her back. The force of which sending her a few involuntary steps forward, but not enough to discourage her maneuvering.

(Y/N) took a half turn and a half step back, going in for another onset. Her knee this time. He was waiting for it. But his anticipation came at a close second. It wasn't her knee but her shin this time, hard and at the right side of his stomach - her knee came after that. He barely avoided the reach for his shoulder before the ball of her knee came crashing just above his pelvic bone. Any lower and she would have killed him on the spot. He took the evaded attack at his shoulder and pulled it into him, pointing his elbow at her shoulder instead and landing it on a pressure point. She recoiled at the impact. Earning him a hiss-like whine and a small prickling sensation at his wrist.