Emote: Bakugo x OC Reader

Chapter 73

Bakugo's POV

"DAMN IT!" I screamed as I pulled my hands out of the boiling water and activated my quirk, producing a massive explosion. The fiery orange flames projected towards the sky and were already starting to fade away before I plunged my hands into the water again.

I could feel beads of sweat sliding down my back as I repeated the action. This time I noticed that my hands were slightly trembling.

Weak. I thought, as I felt the heat of the water close in around my hands. Even though I'm past my limit, that's the whole point. I need to work harder.

I recalled the memory from the previous morning when I had been instructed to throw the same ball I did when the school year started using my quirk. Sure that I would surpass my previous record by a landslide, I used all of the force of my quirk to send the ball catapulting through the air, a streak of flames following in its wake. But the damn thing had barely inched past my previous record. Did that mean that I had barely improved since I started at UA?

The thought gave me renewed energy as I produced another enormous explosion above my head. As I continued repeating this motion over and over, I caught a glimpse of Deku nearby flailing around like an idiot. Who knew what the hell he was doing, but either way I was going to beat him. The idea of it fueled me to push myself even farther.

Further in the distance, up on the rocky plateau, I saw her. She had been working pretty closely with the brunette lady over the past few days. She was currently hunched over, hands on her knees as she tried to catch her breath. When they weren't sparing, y/n was doing exercises. She must be catching her breath from that, since I didn't see the cat lady anywhere nearby. 

We hadn't talked much since the camp started. She always seemed so emotional and worn out. It was only the third day and she had gone to bed early both nights so far. I couldn't deny that I was worried about her. She had mentioned at dinner last night that she was using her quirk to project pain more often, which I know had a strong backlash for her. Beyond that, I was aware that overuse of her quirk caused her emotions to get all out of whack and our instructions were to use our quirk consistently. From the times I've seen her overuse her quirk in the past, she's been an emotional roller coaster and each step taken around her could result in triggering a land mine. I was exhausted myself, but she seemed to project the aura of a ticking time bomb, which was the main reason I had been avoiding her. It seemed like she was avoiding me too, though, probably for the same reason.

She looked over at me then, as though she had been able to feel my eyes on her. Her face was red and glistening with sweat. Her dark hair was pulled back in a bun although it was fighting to escape the restrictive hair tie. I watched as she lifted a hand to her lips and pressed it there before she tilted her hand down and blew a puff of air.

Did she just blow me a fucking kiss?! I thought and immediately looked away. What if someone saw that?

Mortified, I continued on with my training for the next few hours until we were told to stop and transition to making dinner. After the first night, it had become our task to prepare our own food. I secretly enjoyed chopping vegetables, so I had assigned myself to that station right away.

Since the kiss blowing incident, y/n hadn't made eye contact with me. I watched as she walked by me yet again without so much as glancing in my direction. I was beginning to feel pissed off. Is she purposely ignoring me now? What the hell is her problem?

"Oi," I said, wrapping my fingers around her wrist. She spun around, her sparkling green eyes piercing me like daggers. "Help me chop up these vegetables."

"No," She sounded like a toddler who was refusing to do what they were told. She pulled herself out of my grip as she continued, "I'm collecting fire wood with Todoroki."

Narrowing my eyes at her, I opened my mouth to respond, but she was already walking away. I bit down on my tongue to stop from yelling out something out of anger but when I slammed my knife down on the cutting board, a small explosion erupted from my palm.

"Dude, chill out," Jiro said. "What's your problem?"

Shooting a glare at the girl and ignoring her question, I started stomping after y/n, who had already walked into the forest. She was moving surprisingly fast but my long legs were easily able to surpass her gait and I caught up with her quickly. This time when I grabbed her wrist, she spun around and hissed, "What?"

"What is your problem?" I fired back. "You've been ignoring me. I'm not fucking stupid, I know what you're doing."

"What? What am I doing? If you're so goddamn enlightened, please!" She broke out of my grip, throwing her hands up in the air. "Please, tell me what I'm doing."

The way that she crossed her arms in front of her chest, a look of defiance in her eyes as though she was challenging me, caused a fire to ignite within me. "You're trying to make me jealous with that Icy Hot bastard. But if you think I give a shit you must be more of an idiot than I thought you were."

Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped open slightly. "Are you fucking kidding me?! Is this how you're going to be?" Her voice was rising with each passing second and it occurred to me that the others might be able to hear us if we continued like this. "Is this what being in a relationship with you is going to be like because if it is -"

"Who the fuck said anything about us being in a relationship, emo chick?"

Regret. The feeling consumed me so immediately it wiped away every ounce of fury that had been controlling me seconds ago. Why the fuck did I say that? I tried to reach out and grasp her hand but it was as though everything was going in slow motion and she was already pulling it away. Her eyes were filling with tears as she began to back up slowly.

No, no, no. I didn't mean that. Say it. Say you didn't mean that.

I opened my mouth but no words came out. Why the fuck couldn't I say it? My attention was focused on her, so it was as though he appeared out of no where when he came to stand next to her.

"Y/n? What's going on?"

She tripped over a tree root as she turned to face him. I stepped forward as she stumbled backwards, but he was the one who caught her before she fell. I could practically hear the snap within me, like the crisp break of a stick beneath the force of a boot.

"GODDAMN IT ICY HOT NO ONE ASKED YOU!" I exploded.

"I've gotta go," She mumbled, pushing off of that half and half bastard as she turned away. I watched as the tears fell from her face, shining in the sunlight that filtered through the trees.

"Wait," Todoroki said as he held out a hand, but she was already running away. When he turned back to face me, his eyes were cold. "You were supposed to protect her, weren't you?"

It was as though I could feel my blood pressure sky rocket. The anger made me surge forward, my palms already crackling as I formed them into fists. "What did you -"

"Bakugo, you're such an idiooooot!" The whiny voice came from somewhere behind me and I spun around to find raccoon eyes face palming and shaking her head. "I'm too tired for this, seriously."

"HAH?!" I boomed as she started walking towards us.

"Clearly you're new to this whole being in a relationship thing but I'm not going to lie, you kind of suck at it." She said it so casually, as though the statement didn't make my blood boil. "You really like being the best, right? So why not try to do your best at being in a relationship? Or at the very least -"

At this point she was only a few feet away and as she came to stand beside me her voice dropped to an ominously quiet tone. "Do better."

She started running then, past the idiotic two toned bastard, and as she did she called over her shoulder, "Keep doing the tasks you were assigned. I'll take care of y/n."

As I watched her pink retreating back an internal war raged inside of me. I was so angry at the nerve of that stupid alien girl to speak to me like she did. I was angry at the damn Icy Hot bastard and his judgmental eyes and condescending words. My desire to kill him still hadn't subsided. But I was mostly angry at myself for being such an asshole.

"Fuck!" I yelled, slamming my fist into a nearby tree before I started walking back towards the camp.

The biting pain that lingered on my knuckles served as a reminder that I did, in fact, need to do better.