A week had passed since the mid terms and the class anxiously waited to get their results back today in homeroom.

Mina felt nervous about what her score would be, she and Bakugo worked so hard together it would be terrible if she did just alright or barely passed at all. She took a deep breath to calm herself as Mister Aizawa entered the classroom, grades in hand to give the students back.

"Alright i've got your results back. To make it simple I compiled a list of the rankings so you all know where you stand and get a general idea of how you need to improve and where." With that, a tense feeling of anticipation overcame Ashido as Aizawa took out his phone and used some sort of projector app to display the class rankings in the midterms.

Mina shut her eyes, worried at first before opening back up and instinctively looking near the bottom. "Kaminari, Aoyamma, Sero, Hagakure" were all on the bottom 4 spots. Mina felt some relief in that at least, and then began looking up through the list until finally...

"I RANKED TWELFTH?!" She shouted as a giant smile formed over her face and she practically launched herself out of her chair. She had never been so close to the top ten in a written exam before, the girl was so excited and delighted at her ranking that her heart began beating like crazy.

Aizawa opened his mouth about to order her to calm down, but it was futile. She had already blitzed across the classroom and wrapped her arm's around Bakugo as she gave him a thankful and tight hug. "WE DIIIID IT BAKUUUU~" She chimed as her breasts pressed against the blonde's head.

Bakugo's entire face turned red as Kirishima's dyed hair from her unashamed giant hug of affection in front of their whole class. "Hrk!" He bit his tongue and held back telling her not to grab him like that in front of everyone. He hated the teasing Sero, kaminari and the others gave him...but if he was being honest he really liked this right now. She worked hard with him and earned her position in the exam rankings. Plus it felt nice being so genuinely thanked by his girlfriend.

Aizawa then suddenly appeared behind Mina's back, pulling her back and releasing her hold on Bakugo. "Alright enough of that Ashido! Back to your seat." He told her sternly

Mina's bright smiled was maintained as she nodded her head, "Heehee, okay sorry Mister Aizawa~" She almost sang in delight before merrily skipping back to her seat. She sat back down with an air of pride and she began to playfully kick her legs back and forth. She tilted her head back and forth, back and forth as if she was singing to herself.

Aizawa returned to the front and resumed talking about their midterm performances, and how he expected everyone to improve for the finals. Bakugo though, had blocked out pretty much everything his teacher was saying as he looked out the corner of his eyes onto Mina across the room. She looked so genuinely happy ad proud of herself for all her hard work.

It made him feel, good. He had stuck with her and thanks to their constant study dates she's doing better academically than she ever has before. He didn't even know a rare, soft smile had formed on his lips as he watched her merrily celebrate in peace.

It was has he affectionately watched her be so happy he realized something. Part of the reason she studied so hard with him for the past few weeks was because she wanted to impress him, to make him proud and show she could cut it.

He hasn't really done much at all to make her proud about progress has he? Really the most he's done was just leave Deku alone and holding back his rude comments a bit toward his classmates. He moved his eyes down to his desk and stared at his hands as he clenched into tough fists. He grit his teeth and knew that he had to be as good to her as she was to him.

He had to actively work on not just being so much of a jerk, but he had better himself. He had to at least start being a little bit nicer to people, respecting their feelings even if they didn't impress him.

"Fuck that's gonna be hard!" he muttered to himself as he imagined being a nice guy and how unnatural and forced it was going to be getting started.

He supposed the first step would have to start with Deku. Leaving him alone and ignoring him wasn't enough. He would have to actually start...treating him like a decent human being with respect.

As classes let out later that day and everyone gathered their belongings to head home, Bakugo made sure to keep an eye on Deku in the seat behind him. Izuku wasn't the fastest about packing his things since he usually stayed after school a bit to talk with his classmates. Bakugo was usually the opposite. Typically he packed his shit and bailed for the train to head home, even after he and Mina became a thing he was still doing this nearly every single day.

Today though, he was taking his time. He was about to take his first step in something he never thought he would ever even attempt.

After getting his belongings ready to go, he turned ever so slightly to face Midoriya before he spoke up.

"Hey, Deku." he growled out of habit.

Izuku flinched and looked to Bakugo with an anxious expression. It had been a while since Bakugo last spoke to him. Like the blonde promised he had completely been leaving Izuku alone and ignoring him.

"Uh, ye-yeah Kacchan? Something wrong or-"

"Nothing's wrong!" he snapped. Mina had already heard his aggressive attitude and began marching over with a nervous face.

"Oh no he was doing so good!" She thought to herself as she rushed over, hoping she could prevent bakugo going off on midoriya for whatever reason.

Katsuki then cleared his throat and starred Deku square in the eyes. "Good job ranking fourth in the mid terms. It's good you aren't slacking in that just cuz you're training a lot to get that weird quirk of yours under control. Maybe next time we fight you can actually give me a proper challenge..." His voice was strangely calm, for his standards anyway. His usual aggression and temperment was still in his tone, but there was no lies in what he spoke.

The room just about went dead silent. Katsuki Bakugo...complimented Midoriya. Mina stopped in her tracks as she reached Bakugo's desk. She was so worried about preventing him from going off and reverting to his old habit that she never even CONSIDERED this was a possibility. A small smile formed over her face as she quickly realized this was thanks to her.

Izuku gulped and and clenched at his tie in a nervous reaction. The poor boy looked flabbergasted as he processed what Katsuki had told him. Finally a wide smile overtook his face before he quickly bowed his upper torso in gratitude, "Thank you kacchan! That means so much to hea-"

"DON'T BOW TO ME IDIOT! IT WAS JUST A COMPLIMENT!" The blonde roared out at what he thought was an overreaction to his statement. Izuku quickly shot back up and nodded his head.

"Oh, uh, right sorry! uh...honestly though, thank you." Izuku replied with a soft voice. He locked eyes with Bakugo and seemed genuinely glad to have received that small compliment from his complicated childhood frenemy. "That means a lot coming from you."

Bakugo sighed and turned around to face Mina as he ended the talk with izuku saying, "Sure, just don't let it go to your head. It's not like this is a big fucking deal or anything." He was then more than done talking to Deku as he put his focus on his adorable and happy girlfriend standing before him. "Yo you ready to go or are ya gonna stick around some more? I need to know if you're coming with me to the station or not."

Mina giggled a bit and gestured behind her toward the girls, "I'm gonna stick around for a bit and hang out with the gals! You go on ahead we can walk to the station together tomorrow. That alright babe~" She asked playfully before winking with the tip of her tongue sticking out a tad bit.

Bakugo blushed a bit at her cute little wink and instinctively took a step back before rubbing the back of his neck. "Yeah, that's fine. I'll uh...message you when I'm home then, see ya."

Bakugo began walking away, until...

"Nuh uh uh! Not yet Katsu!" Mina chimmed as she grabbed onto his left arm. Bakugo stopped and looked back over at her with an irritated scowl.

"You JUST SAID I could go-"

"Not without a good bye kiss!" She then used her free hand to poke at her cheek, signaling where she wanted the kiss to land.

Bakugo's small blush from before was eclipsed by the one he had now. His irritated expression changed into one of dread as he looked around and saw almost every eye in the class was on him. Sero, Kaminari, Mineta, Uraraka, Hagakure, Jiro and Kirishima were all giving him eager almost mocking like looks as they waited for him to pucker up.

Mina had her eyes closed and was still tapping her cheek as she waited. "Come ooooon~ Just a little peck on the cheek Bakugo, then i'll be satisfied kay?"

Bakugo clenched his fists and harshly shut his eyes. Thinking to himself, "DAMN IT ALL THESE IDIOTS ARE STARRING AT ME EXPECTING ME TO GO ALONG WITH THIS!" He could feel his teeth grinding together as he became angered at the embarrassment he felt. "FINE! THEY ALL WANT A ROMANTIC SHOW, I'LL GIVE EM ONE TO SHUT EM ALL UP! I AINT PLAYING AROUND WHEN IT COMES TO THIS ROMANCE SHIT! THEY'LL ALL SEE!"

Bakugo then forcefully freed his arm out of Mina's grasp and quickly grabbed her waist with that hand, using his other to hold onto the back of her head. He caught everyone off guard as he very sloppily pulled Mina down and imitated that famous kiss of the sailor returning home from war.

"AAAAAH!" Minetta wailed out as she slammed onto his desk in a fit, "NO FAIR HE WAS SPOSE TO CHICKEN OUT!"

Kaminari, Kirishima and Sero all dropped their jaws in in perfect unison, their slapping onto their cheeks heavily as they were blown away at the over the top gesture.

"LUCKY BASTARD!"

"SUCH A MANLY DISPLAY OF AFFECTION!"

"HE'S JUST SHOWING OFF!"

Jiro blushed madly and covered her face at the madly overzealous action while Hagakure screamed with glee. "OOOOOH! IT'S JUST LIKE A MOVIE!" Uraraka just turned her head and tried her best to admittedly not feel a bit jealous.

Bakugo pulled her back up onto her feet and separated from the long kiss. A trail of spit connected their lips until Bakugo wiped his mouth. The two of them both had deep blushes covering their respective faces. Mina looked to be more surprised than anyone else as she showed a rare shy expression after the kiss was over.

"Oh...uh, wo-wow Katsuki that was...that really caught me off guard!" Was all she could manage to get out.

Bakugo coughed into his fist a few times to clear his throat before averting his gaze for the door, "Well, i gave you your kiss! You're the one who wanted it and I delivered ten fold so don't complain!" He turned on his heels and headed for the door as he waved back at her on his way out. "I'll, message you when i'm home, alright?"

Mina brought her fingers up to her lips, gently touching where Bakugo had sloppily and aggressively kissed her. "Yeah, alright." Was all she answered back before her trademark smile returned.

She turned around and happily skipped back to the girls, "Tooold ya'll i could get a kiss in class outta him~" She sang before they all went back to their previous topics per Momo's request of leaving romantic talk to a minimum.

Bakugo may have gone overboard with that big display, but Mina would be a liar if she said she didn't like the grand expression of his feelings for her. This was an instance where his insistence to be as great as he could be in anything he did ended up being incredibly charming to the girl.

Bakugo really was working just as hard to improve himself for her sake as she was for his.

author's notes

sorry this one took longer than i expected. but i hope it was worth the wait as the first little "arc" of this fic wraps up and we move onto the next storyline for this couple. as always criticisms and thoughts are hella appreciated