"Conflict Resolution"

Disclaimer: Boku no Hero Academia belongs to some other super cool person. I am just poor shipper trash.

It suddenly dawns on Katsuki Bakugou that he's dating Uraraka, and the revelation comes less like an epiphany and more like a natural disaster.

"What the fuck!" Bakugou slams his fist on the table. The table is reduced to dust and Kaminari is left to weep over the remains of his lunch.

"You okay there Bakugou?" Kirishima asks through his straw, completely unfazed. Three years of hero training has honed his skills to the point that he can save his lunch from a Bakugou outburst, and honestly, that alone is worthy of high praise.

Bakugou blinks, then snarls, because Kirishima... Kirishima betrayed him.

Bakugou hates the sentimental and so he doesn't casually call people "friends" or say sappy shit like "well I don't hate you," but he still expects Kirishima to have his back in situations like this. Kirishima knew that Bakugou was in a relationship, and he didn't do anything.

"You fucking traitor!" he jabs his finger towards Kirishima's direction and Kirishima doesn't particularly know what he's talking about so he shrugs and figures that Bakugou will either solve this on his own or the teachers will stop him before he inadvertently commits any crimes.

Bakugou has enough fraternizing with the deadweights who let their comrades (not quite friends, he reminds himself) into these situations, so he roars to his feet. He glares, explosively, stomps away from them, explosively, and slams the door open, explosively. Because nothing he does is subtle and if there was ever a time to be dramatic, this would be it.

He sees the small girl float down the hallway, as she always does nowadays. Training she tells him once. Bakugou doesn't get it because he doesn't consider it a good a training session until someone threatens to call heroes on them (and then has to explain that they are heroes in training, you dumbass).

Oh shit. Bakugou palms his face. He's dating Uraraka and they have conversations. This was madness.

"Uraraka!" he rages impressively.

She twists her body midair at an interesting angle, and then her breaks out in a genuine smile. She smiles like a child and not like the teenagers on the cusp of graduation they were, with her whole body, like this is the single greatest moment in her life, and her grin is wide, and her cheeks are rosy, and her eyes crinkle. She's smiling at him.

Bakugou feels offended.

He marches up to her like he's ready for a fucking fight. He feels like it, adrenaline pumping in his body, burning through veins. "We're fucking dating," he announces with disgust.

"Yes," she says, still smiling.

Bakugou stops because he doesn't know what to do next. He hasn't thought it out this far. He thought that by informing Uraraka, she would have recognized the insanity of this whole situation and they would be done with it.

And now he's just staring at her like she developed a new quirk that lets her spout three heads and she's looking at him like she's in love.

"We are dating," he repeats hesitantly.

She nods. "We are."

He looks at her dumbfounded, then nods to nothing in particular, walking away. He can't think when she's looking at him with those wide eyes and glowing grin. It makes him all messed up.

Shit.

"Shit," he repeats.

She nods. "Shit," she echoes sagely.

She floats away to talk to Deku. Bakugou just stands there; whenever he sets to do something, he does it, usually to the effect of burning buildings and broken bones. He has never failed so spectacularly.

What the fuck just happened?

-x-

Bakugou scowls with his whole body, his eyes are narrow and his teeth threaten to grind into a fine dust. He leans into Kirishima, who hardens his body in natural response to danger. Bakugou, however, doesn't punch him in the face. Yet.

"I'm dating Uraraka."

"Yeah," Kirishima acknowledges the fact, relaxing his posture a bit. "For a year, man."

"That's not the fucking point!"

Kirishima looks confused. "There's a point? I thought you were just saying things."

That face punching ultimatum is looking even likelier now.

It doesn't make sense, really. Bakugou has been thinking about this for two days, in between screaming at people and breaking things, and even people who don't know him are pointing out that he seems irritable. More than usual, he means.

"No, you know them," Kirishima says, "We've known Class B for years… are you really saying you don't remember any of them?"

"It's not my fault they're fucking forgettable." Goddamn, are people really expecting him to remember every fucking mediocre face that passes him.

"You should at least remember your schoolmates. We like… fought for our lives together on multiple occasions."

Face punch with an extra explosion to increase the velocity. Kirishima would survive it, with that damn quirk of his.

"My point is," he says. "Why?"

"Why do you need to remember your classmates?"

Bakugou slams his hand down. Another desk is destroyed. Ilida screeches in the background.

"Why there is… this… relationship… thing." He lips is downturned in annoyance.

"I dunno man," Kirishima shrugs, not complaining that his desk is now in splinters. "That's kinda not my question to answer. Only you two know. You got to… you know," he squints, trying to find the right word, "look into your heart or something like that."

Bakugou recoils in disgust, what the fuck? Listen to your heart, who the fuck says this kind of shit? Is this a thing? It's pretty fucking stupid.

But he's at a loss, so he listens to his heart.

"What does it say?"

Punch Kirishima in the face.

This is getting nowhere. Everyone is stupid and he's just getting angrier and a little hungry, and there is a limit to how many desks there are to destroy.

He has only one more alternative, to talk to the source of it all. He is going to confront to Uraraka.

-x-

Bakugou cannot confront Uraraka.

The fact leaves him utterly speechless. He's confronted scum and villainy of the most depraved. One of them kept fucking detached hands on his ugly face for no other reason than to be a fucking creep.

But then Uraraka comes in with her stupid smile, and stupid cheerfulness that robs him any ability to string together coherent thought. He assumes that in any normal situation where he was confronted with some mind stealing quirk, his body would react on instinct and just attack, but then she cocks her head, and her brown bangs frame her face and he stops wanting to punch things… which is the most terrifying part of it all.

He looks at her and just thinks, maybe I don't need to explode the people around him or inform them of how fucking stupid and unimpressive they are. It's almost a moment of peace when Uraraka stops what she's doing and gives him her undivided attention.

And that's just weird as all hell. How is she doing this? Is this a new quirk? Is he going to have to develop a strategy to combat this?

Why does she always give me that look?

"Because I like you," she says in response, as light as air. Everything is all light and bouncy with her.

Bakugou almost chokes on spit.

"Oh," he says. No, you fucking idiot, you can't give in now. Respond like yourself. "That's fucking stupid," he says weakly.

Bakugou congratulates himself.

"Probably, but I'm okay with that," she says, hiding her amused smile under her hands.

It's cute, he thinks. No it's not, not cute, he corrects himself. Uraraka has never been a stunner, if he looks at her this closely, her face was round, and lips were always upturned in a smile, soft brown eyes were a little too wide, and her cheeks were always rosy. She is more cute than beautiful, she instantly endears people to her, and flares an internal instinct to protect.

He doesn't have that instinct though, no point. She is strong despite her fluffy looks and bubbly attitude.

He likes it that way.

Bakugou rubs his eyes.

He doesn't like it that way, he corrects. He doesn't care.

Wait, why is he staring at her like she's the prize to the school sports festival?

Why isn't she bothered with his blatant glaring?

"Let's go to a café together," she says.

No, fuck off, he thinks.

"Fine," he says.

He mentally strangles someone, probably Deku, until she gives him a pleased, almost shy smile, and her face warms to an inviting red, and she twists her fingers together in nervousness, and he temporarily forgets about violence.

"Great! See you later!"

And he stares into empty space.

What the hell just happened, again?

-x-

Is this a fucking date? No, it couldn't be. Katsuki Bakugou doesn't go on dates.

"It's a date," Uraraka informs him.

"Okay," he says.

Bakugou is prone to narcissism and pride. And Bakugou hates himself right now. It's a weird feeling, he doesn't like it.

"You aren't going to get anything?" Uraraka asks curiously. "The food here is really good. And look, they do the latte art, how cute."

"Oh fuck no," he says with his lips curled, he doesn't know a more horrifying combination of words.

She shrugs. "More for me." She looks like she enjoys it, and for some reason it makes him think that going to this place, with all the disgustingly uppity waitresses and its terrible latte art, is worth it. After all, you never know when disaster could strike, he tells himself. Sometimes you have to patrol places you would never set foot in.

When it's all done, she pays her own way. Partly because it is completely and utterly not a date, but also because Uraraka would never let anyone pay for her, date or not. Come to think of it, Uraraka lives off of bottle water filled by free fountain water and discount grocery items- paid with coupons. She wouldn't willingly go to a cafe either.

A trap.

She sees him staring at the yen on the table like it insulted him. She bashfully scratches the back of her head.

"Heh, I just wanted to go out with you." She looks up from under her lashes at Bakugou's non reaction. He's so stone faced, he's not moving at all actually. He's just... standing there at the confession. Uraraka doesn't seem to think this is strange. "I've got anti gravity training at the park," she says looking at the time on the wall. "Walk me there?" she asks hopefully.

Well, he's a hero so he might as well escort her. He shoves his fists into his pockets. Even though she doesn't need an escort, but he ignores that.

It's spring, the cherry blossoms are in season, and it only gets warmer from here. That's good because a lot of the crime that remains dormant in the winter cold starts back up, and Bakugou's ready to break some heads.

Uraraka looks at his hands in his pockets with a frown, and Bakugou ignores it. He digs his hands deeper, protecting it from the outside, and slouches to further his defensive position. Uraraka slows down her pace in thought, and then suddenly wraps her arm around his.

He almost falls on the ground.

"Is this okay?" she asks tentatively.

Bakugou tries to respond, but his mind stutters. He listens to his heart. Punch Deku.

"Do whatever you want," he says instead. She smiles wide.

Yeah, maybe this walk is worth it, too. He could always use some exercise.

-x-

He doesn't get it. He's sitting on his bed, cross legged, eyes glaring at the wall, deep in thought, and he still doesn't understand why they're together.

He also doesn't get why Kirishima is in his room, eating his bag of his chips, reading his issue of Face Puncher Magazine.

Uraraka likes things like latte art, hanging out with friends, and smiling and Bakugou doesn't do things like pay for dates, or smile, or engage in conversation. They don't like the same things and they don't even particularly hang out with each other outside of dates and class.

"Did we just both go temporarily insane at the same time?" It's a disturbing thought, Bakugou always prides himself of being the pinnacle of mental stability. He prides himself on many things.

"I dunno, man," Kirishima digs his hand back into the chips, but his search is fruitless. He looks away from his magazine to inspect this travesty. "Telling you why you guys like each other is sort of out my purview. Finding the answer is just a fight you're going to have to win on your own." He turned the bag upside and gave it a few mournful shakes, revealing only crumbs. He pauses to look thoughtfully to the ceiling. "Didn't we go through this already?"

Fight, right. Bakugou inherently understand fighting, he is born with a natural aptitude to kick ass and has been living up to his potential since he knew how to crawl. He just has to visualize the enemy and destroy it.

So… Uraraka is the enemy? He pictures her round cheeks and her thousand watt smile.

No, she isn't the enemy technically. So how is he supposed to fight her?

Kirishima is useless, he thinks.

"You're fucking useless," he says. Kirishima shrugs good naturedly, crumbling the bag in his hand and searches for more.

"Glad I could be there for you," he says, particularly uselessly.

Bakugou sits there with crossed arms and fumes, before coming to the conclusion that there is no reason for Uraraka and himself to like and date each other. He must inform her of this.

He finds her in the courtyard, balancing on the tip of a floating chair with a dedicated look of concentration. Some people might think the look on her face is cute, but Bakugou isn't "some people" so fuck it.

"You," he shouts. She looks down and smiles again, like her whole day is made. It makes Bakugou incredibly uncomfortable.

"We have no reason to date," he announces. She pauses, and it causes her to fall on her ass. That's also… completely not cute, at all. She winces, but she's still smiling, as she rubs the offended area.

"True. I mean, if you're looking for a logical reason that two people should date, it would be hard to think of one that could convince you." She taps her chin thoughtfully.

"Can you give me an answer why we have to date or not?"

"Have too?" she ponders. "What kind of answer do you want?"

Bakugou is completely over this "answer a question with a question" bullshit so he says, "If we're really that different, then we should break up."

Uraraka raises a brow to him and says nothing for so long, Bakugou wonders if he's gone temporarily deaf. Maybe it really is a quirk induced epidemic, it slowly robs you of your senses, first the sanity, then the hearing.

"Well," she says sighing as if she conceded something without much though, "if that's what you want, we'll break up." She looks at her watch. "Oh, I'm taking supplementary fighting lessons. See you in class, Katsuki." And she bounds off in a single, gravity reduced leap, out of the courtyard and his life.

He's standing there slackjawed, because he doesn't know what to say. They just broke up, and that's what he wanted, right? Why does it feel so anticlimactic? Was she supposed to just agree? He thought she would… fight a little bit more. Tear up. Convince him that they should stay together.

Something writhes in his stomach, wormy and unpleasant. Fucking hell, he's getting sick right at the same moment she leaves, what are the odds?

Bakugou's shoulder slump, just a little, his scowl deepens, and his mood darkens. What a time to be sick.

And anyway, he thinks as he walks away, she said "If that's what you want." But when the fuck did he ever say that's what he wanted?

-x-

Bakugou is in a bad mood. Also the sky is blue.

Bakugou slams his fist down and another desk is eviscerated. "Why the fuck is it so godamn blue!"

"You're angry about the color of the sky?" Kirishima asks lightly, turning another page in his magazine.

Bakugou glares. "It doesn't have to be so fucking bright."

"If you say so."

Bakugou fumes as he produces fumes from his skin. Nothing is going right this week. The weather is oppressively cheery with its mild temperature and cloudless sky, he won two free tickets to a hot spring but he hates relaxing in hot springs, and everyone is in good spirits because they all did well on their tests.

"Those are all good things, Bakugou," Kirishima says inaccurately, he flips the magazine to get a better view of the two page "Manliest Heroic Poses" spread. Then he has the gall to suggest, "Maybe something else has gotten under your skin."

There is a gnashing of teeth. "I'm not angry Uraraka broke up with me."

"I didn't say that," Kirishima points out.

"No," Bakugou leans in dangerously, "But you were thinking it."

"Well it's the first thing you said, so you're thinking about it too."

Bakugou reaches for the magazine, takes it out of Kirishima's hands, looks at him straight in the eye, and explodes the entire fucking thing. Kirishima just procures another of the same exact magazine from his bag.

"Listen, if it really is upsetting you, why don't you ask her out again. Uraraka would say yes," he says, flipping through to find his lost page.

"What the fuck do you know?" Bakugou says, trying not to sound too interested in what he is saying, because, well, would she really say yes? She didn't seem to mind going out with him, but she didn't seem to mind breaking up either. "This is just the way it is." Bakugou leans angrily on his fist, definitely not pouting. He kind of feels like he's lying, which is fucking stupid. "Even you said you don't know why we worked together, anyway."

"I never said that," Kirishima replies.

"Yes you fucking did. Last week."

"No. I said I don't know why you guys fell for each other. Everyone and their mothers know why you manage to stay together."

Bakugou almost pales at the idea of everyone's mothers knowing his shit. Because everyone includes fucking Deku, and if his mom knows it, his nosy ass mom will find out about a few days later, and she'll drag him his school and hang him by his teeth while screaming nonsense at him.

"I've got to go," he says seriously.

"What?"

"To beat up people's moms."

"It's an expression, Bakugou."

"I know, jackass." But it's a chance he can't take.

Kirishima pacifies him the only way he can. "The reason you and Uraraka work together," and Bakugou pauses, makes an entirely unconvincing bored face, and shits back down. "Is because she's the only one that has the patience to date you. You have the romantic capacity of a fungal infection and you're about as friendly as one too. Uraraka just manages to go with your flow. She just naturally goes at your pace and isn't bothered by it.

Bakugou stares at Kirishima like he's not speaking in Japanese. "That makes no damn sense."

Kirishima scrunches his eyebrows in thought. "Well, like, think of it as a battle. Imagine you are in a fight."

"Done."

"Okay, so you take out a villain and then the building explodes and almost falls on civilians. Uraraka is there and she floats the entire building. Or there's villain in the sky you can't reach, so Uraraka is always there and she floats you too him. Or your about to be blasted by an attack and boom, Uraraka drops a slab of rock to be a shield."

Bakugou squints at him. "So you're saying she's my sidekick."

That kind of pisses him off, because the idea of Uraraka being anyone's second is ridiculous, she was good enough to be world renown on her own. Why do people keep underestimating her? It made him want to fucking fight them.

"No, I'm saying she compliments you. It's like… a metaphor. Uraraka is carefree and you're always reckless and somehow, she always manages to work with it. While still liking you. Not a lot of people can do that."

Bakugou isn't sure about complimentary or metaphors or any of that corny shit; it's not that he's stupid, fuck off, but his life is all straight lines with frequent explosions. He's about winning and dominating and being number one, and number two is somewhere left in the dust or a pile of once-human residue. Things are meant to look at him with awe, or be defeated by him, not intertwine into his life until he isn't sure what part of her ends and where he begins.

But assuming all this shit is true, and she is complementary and likes his pace, then why did she agree to break up with him.

The feeling comes back, it's heavy and feels sick, and it fucking sucks.

But Kirishima says she would still date him, and that means she likes him, right? Fucking hell… why is this shit so complicated?

"Where you going?" Kirishima asks warily as Bakugou begins to storm off. "You're not going to beat up peoples' moms are you?"

"No." He looks on resolutely. "I'm going to defeat Uraraka."

"Oh that's nice." Kirishima yawns and leans back into the chair.

Bakugou considers him for a second. "You know, we kind of have that… fucking… complimentary shit." The thought disgusts him.

"Yeah," Kirishima agrees. "But Uraraka has a nicer body."

"Yes." Then. "If you fucking look at her again I'll kill you."

-x-

Uraraka is in her gym outfit, sweat pouring off her and her brown hair clamped down on her skin, her face slightly pinker from exertion, and her eyes narrowed in concentration.

It's a good look, he decides. She bends a little, resting her hands on her knees, breathing heavily before she spots Bakugou. She smiles again, and it makes him feel like coming here was a good idea.

"Just doing some training. Wanna spar?" she asks, and she flexes to show off. It's endearing. He'll enjoy kicking her ass.

Bakugou grins, slides one foot in front of the other, his arms ready to hit something. He came here ready for more talk, but he fucking hates talking, he's needed this for awhile, and this is more fun away.

Uraraka launches herself as Bakugou swings a right hook, straight at her face. She jumps over his head effortlessly, and she's been a pain the ass to hit ever since she got use to zero-graviting herself.

He propels off the ground towards her in the air with a well placed explosion, his other arm gathering the sweat, because he needs to be close enough to not miss, but getting too close would be a risk. She's good enough at hand to hand combat to take advantage, and she only needed one touch to launch him out of the gym.

Uraraka sees him and shifts her weight so he misses and she's back on the ground, rolling out of the trajectory. His right hand explodes and splinters the floor, so she immediately slaps the missing debris and lets it hang in the air as a threat.

None of it would be the instrument of his defeat, but it isn't meant to be, it is just enough of a risk to stop his constant advancement. When he goes after her, he barely dodges a slab of wood. It's annoying so he opts to shoot it all out of the sky and be done with it, but the minute he takes his eyes off of her she sweeps in, smiling and determined.

It's a diversion. Nice. But Bakugou is the fucking number one, so he dodges her outstretched hand and throws an explosive fist to her, she rolls out of the way but it's not fast enough and slams into her shoulder. She lands on the ground so hard she rebounds off the floors. Before she can struggle up, Bakugou is on top of her, pinning her down with a fist raised. No more moves left.

"I win." He laughs with abandon. Finally. He has defeated Uraraka. He ignores the nagging in his head that maybe this isn't what he originally meant to do.

Uraraka doesn't move from under him for a solid minute, but Bakugou knows she's too strong to have died just from that. Probably. Then she starts to giggle, she snorts, and slaps a hand over her mouth.

She looks up at him with a look of satisfaction. "I haven't had a good spar like that in awhile." Then she bends her neck and pulls down the collar of her gym shirt just enough to see an angry bruise on her shoulder. For some reason, this pleases her more and she says cheerily, "I guess I'll have to see Recovery Girl later."

They're both panting, her chest rising and falling as she tries to catch her breath. She rests her head on the broken floor, still pinned between his legs. Bakugou thinks this is a fucked up position, but for some reason doesn't get up.

"But you know, I had a handicap," she says slyly. Mood broken.

"Hah?" He grabs a handful of her shirt and lifts her closer up with a glower. "Don't give me that bullshit."

"I was already tired from my workout. I totally could have won."

"Another round then," he snarls and she giggles again. She's messing with him, he realizes. He lets go and her head nearly hits on the ground.

She gives him a look. "That's why I like you."

Bakugou sputters. "What the fuck- What? What the fuck does that have to do with anything!" Then after a string of curses says, "If you do, why did you break up with me."

"Because you said you wanted to."

This is, truly, an infuriating conversation. The worst he's ever had. And he's been in the same school as Deku since Deku was still wetting his fucking pants.

"That's a fucking stupid reason."

"It's fine you know," she says as she gets leans up with her elbows. The movement causes a lot of rubbing, and really, she should \stop doing that. It's getting hard to ignore. "You can take your time with this whole dating thing, it's perfectly okay to be uncomfortable."

That sounds like a fucking challenge. "I'm not scared of any feelings shit."

She nods like she's entertaining a child. "If you say so. But just for your edification...(Bakugou snorts) "I like this part about you too. The whole eyes-straight-forward, do what you want." She points to her bruise, he only notices now that she's showing a bit of skin to put it on display. "You never went easy on me, even back when we barely knew each other's names. Even now when you could have but you always came at me with everything you have. It's just… really refreshing."

Bakugou has been called many things. Refreshing is not one of them. There's a swelling in his chest, he negates it by crossing his arms.

"So you like it when I beat you up," he deadpans. Oh fucking hell, do they have a sort of masochist, sadist thing going on? Fuck that shit.

"No, I like you. Period." His face is a little hot, and she moves again and it's that fucking rubbing then again, and he hastily gets off of her because it's too much. Uraraka stands up on her own, dusts herself off, then pauses with a thoughtful look.

"So you didn't want to break up."

"I didn't say shit."

"Well," she says clasping her hands behind her back, leaning in. "If you really don't mind, I would really like it if we started going out again. I really like you, and I'd like to be with you, and I don't mind if we take it slow. Is that okay?"

Bakugou makes a strangled noise and blames it on the heat. He squints at her angrily, then angrily looks at the floor, and angrily looks at the door, and then angrily turns red. He ruffles his own hair. "Do what you want."

"Thank you," she says sincerely and he grunts in response.

He can spot a projectile filled with dark matter, shot out by a villain, coming at him at terminal velocity a mile away, but he somehow is completely surprises when Uraraka tilts her head closer and brushes her lips against his cheek. His hand slaps to his face in reflex, looking horrified and also if she did it again he wouldn't quite mind.

She floats away with another smile. "See you in class."

"Shit!" he says because he doesn't know what else to do.

"Shit," she echoes agreeably, floating to the roof.

Bakugou is dating Uraraka. He doesn't know how it happened, but he's fine with it.

-x-

"What the fuck!"

Katsuki Bakugou shoots up from the bed, alarmed. It's midnight, and Ochako Bakugou rolls from her side to look at him with one sleepy eye open.

He looks at her, completely awake with wide eyes.

"Whatsa matter," she slurs, curling around her pillow.

"We're fucking married!" he says.

"Oh it's one of these moments." She yawns before turning away. "Yes, been married for two years. G'night."

He runs his hands through his hair taking it all in and Ochako snores away.

AN: kacchako where Bakugou occasionally goes into a state of panic when he realizes he is on a committed relationship and what it means, and Uraraka is totally okay supportive and lets him figure it out on his own. Also more of this Kirishima-Bakugou thing, platonic or otherwise.

I make fun of Bakugou a lot in this, but I love Bakugou. I also would love it if Bakugou gets punched in the face more for being a dick. It's a complicated feeling.