ii.

AN: Oh my goodness are you guys ready for this? I am so damn excited I hope you guys like it!

Another AN: I recently learned that nitroglycerin has a very sweet smell, like caramel or toffee, sort of burnt sugar esk, and sorry not sorry but I couldn't not put that in this story.

In the Light of One Lamp

"And all I want, is all that you posses. And all I want is all that I can't get, and I can't be, for the things I see, and the things I want, and I long to be, and I crave much more than I'd ever need. And I take it all just the way I please."

Uraraka Ochako was well-liked by her peers- for the most part. She was in a small second grade class, every face familiar from the previous year, and the year before that, and so on and so forth. Many of her peers had been in her preschool class even.

Mei Prefecture was not a densely populated provenience, mostly known for its fishing exports; Ise Ebi in particular, with wide swaths of protected land. The Uraraka family was located in a town called Asahi, and it was here that she had lived her entire seven years so far.

Most people knew their neighbors, and who's little boy or girl belonged to which adult. New faces were not uncommon but people didn't usually stay longer than it took to visit the few tourist attractions their home offered.

The tight-knit familiarity lent a certain kind of freedom to her days that Ochako took for granted like the happy child she was. Her walk to school was all of two miles, guarded by passing aunties on their morning walks and oba-sans waving from their patio door ways.

Ochako always waved back, a skip in her step and smile freely given.

Nothing whatsoever changed the day her quirk came tearing into her life. Nothing on her part at least. The smile remained, though maybe tinged a little green sometimes.

The one thing that did change was the way some of the adults looked at her. Like she was suddenly worth more notice just because she had an interesting quirk. She didn't really like that much, she'd even talked to her parents about it at one point- to which her mother and father had had a hearty laugh.

"I'm not different now just because of this!" She thrust her finger pads into her father's face from her position on his lap for emphasis. "I've always been a good girl! I get good grades! I always listen to my teachers!" Frustration coloured the young girls voice as she searched for the right words to express her self-worth.

"Oh, sweet heart." Her father said with a fully belly chuckle.

"Of course nothing's changed darling, all the people who matter most can see that." Her mother agreed.

And that was enough for Ochako, that her family understood what she meant and agreed that she alone was enough- quirk or no quirk.

There was a short period where she resented her quirk for the attention it got her, some of the other children sneaking rueful glances her way when teachers spent one minute too long gushing over a twist of biology that she couldn't help.

It didn't seem fair. She didn't like it.

It didn't take long for that resentment to grow into a desire to hide her quirk, one lost friend and others finding distance every day.

And then she discovered the truly terrifying potential of this terrible thing she was born with, and far beyond all thoughts of social standing or her own personal self-worth was the thought that as long as she couldn't control it- she could truly hurt someone.

Her mother had been lucky that day, there had been something attached to the ground to hold on to.

So maybe it wasn't a lie to say that nothing changed the day she got her quirk, but it hadn't taken too long in the grand scheme of time to turn a few things on their heads.

This potential for loss of control terrified her more than anything else, and so she resented her quirk, and she feared what it might mean if there was another accident- for a time at least.

This phase didn't have a chance to grow into anything else. No, certainly not when Bakugou Katsuki exploded into her life like a two ton iron ball catapulted from a space station launch pad.

There was a chill in the air that morning from all of the recent rain, but Ochako really wanted to wear her new soft green sundress her mother had bought for her. She justified this choice by pairing it with her favorite buttercream yellow sweatshirt; well-loved and three sizes too big with the word 'SUPER' emblazoned across the front. The sleeves were long enough to hide her fingertip pads, the fabric constantly in the way of her making a full five-point touch.

If she accidentally floated her sweater from time to time, then well, she her dress on underneath and it usually only took five or six minutes for objects to come back down.

Ochako didn't skip the tights, it was windy this time of year and wearing only a dress was inviting disaster- as her mother liked to say. She chose a smart pair of red rain boots as the weather had only cleared the previous night and there were still a good many puddles between home and her destination.

The result was quite colourful, and she admired the ensemble in the floor length mirror by the front door as she tucked her bento securely into her bunny backpack.

"Don't forget your homework darling!" Her father called from the kitchen around the corner.

"Don't nag her dear, she knows." Her mother's softer voice admonished, and Ochako couldn't help the smile that curled her lips.

Gods, she loved them so much.

"I got it daddy!" She called back anyways, skipping her way out of the front door.

"Be careful!" He called after her, and her answering laugh rang like a bell.

By the time she made it to her locker, exchanging her cute red boots for soft indoor shoes and stowing her umbrella away- just in case- Ochako was breathless from her self-entertained walk.

She hummed under her breath, an easy smile on her lips as she slid her homeroom door open and made her way to her assigned seat. The sunlight pouring in from the windows was shadowed periodically as swollen, lumpy clouds smattered their way past. It made for a rather intermittently sunny day.

Ochako adjusted the barrette that held the left side of her bangs back, hanging her bag on her desk hook and shuffling around for her pencil case before taking a seat. It took her friend Yuka all of ten seconds to pounce on her, and Ochako very nearly escaped accidentally activating her quick on her mechanical pencil in surprise. She dropped it instead, fingers fanning out inside her sleeve as the plastic clattered against the surface of her desk.

"Did you hear 'Chako-chan?" The pig-tailed girl was practically vibrating in place. "We're getting a transfer student in our class today!" Yuka squealed her excitement, and Ochako felt her friends infectious exuberance bubble up in her belly at the news. Eyes wide and grin stretching, she clapped her hands together in shared glee, her baggy yellow sleeves falling to her elbows. The two girls were joined by a handful of others, the transfer student the hot subject at hand for the morning while they waited for class to start.

"I heard he got kicked out of his last school." Eri interjected conspiratorially, and Yuka snagged on this tid bit of gossip with a dramatic gasp like it was the last candy bar on the 'free to take' table.

"Yeah, I heard he put a kid in the hospital!" Eri continued, and Ochako felt her eyebrows rise into her hairline.

"I heard he poisoned a teacher!" Riku, their groups token boy leaned in to add his two cents from the desk on Ochako's right side. Her smile dimmed, a small frown taking its place.

"It's not really nice to talk about someone we don't even know yet like this. Isn't it kind of rude?" Her musings were bowled over the moment their class door slid open to reveal their serious-faced homeroom teacher, Tanaka-sensei.

Kids scrambled in every direction, chairs scraping across the wooden floor and last minute homework assignment getting stuffed inside of desks.

"Good morning children." Tanaka-sensei announced firmly, striding into the room with purposeful steps.

"Good morning sensei." They all echoed back as one, and if the tone was a tad more excited than usual their teacher didn't comment on it.

Behind their sensei walked a boy- well, he had more of a slouching-strut.

He was dressed in camo-printed cargo shorts and a maroon shirt with the caption 'BANG' vertically down the front. Wild ash blonde hair exploded around his features, his lower lip jutted out in a fierce scowl that paired with red eyes narrowed in distaste.

His hands were shoved so far into his pockets that he had to slouch to accommodate.

He definitely looked like a delinquent with his face full of bad attitude and his 'don't come near me' aura.

Ochako thought that beyond all that he also looked terribly uncomfortable and possibly a razors edge of nervous.

Ochako blinked when his eyes swept over the room before him, never landing on any one classmate in particular.

His gaze came to a stop on the floor, and her first impression was that this boy was like the wild tanuki* that strayed through her backyard at night. Starting fights with cats and exuding bad attitude and an untameable, unfriendly demeanor.

"Introduce yourself." Tanaka-sensei said shortly, never one to waste time.

"Bakugou Katsuki." The boy growled. Like, honest to goodness growled his name.

Ochako clapped a hand over her mouth, low laughter muffled by voluminous buttercream yellow sleeves.

Her efforts were apparently not perfect, either the movement or the sound caught Bakugou's eye and his face turned to look at her, scowl deepening to something edging on menacing.

"You got a problem Round Face?" He snarled at her, and Ochako blinked again, taken aback by his rude tone and rude nickname.

The name itself didn't bother her, but the fact that she knew he meant it to be insulting did.

"Rude." she announced her thoughts under her breath.

He heard her just fine. You could hear a pin drop in the heavy silence that blanketed the second grade classroom.

"Take your seat Bakugou-chan." Tanaka-sensei did not have a lot of patience to begin with, there was no way he was going to put up with this boy for very long.

Ochako didn't like to form opinions of other people based on rumors, but as Bakugou shrugged his way between desks to the back of the class without even an 'excuse me' she wondered if perhaps there was some base to these particular ones.

Stubbornly, she decided she would figure him out for herself should the opportunity arise. She had just told her friends not to do the exact thing she was considering now.

And that wasn't fair to Bakugou, bad attitude or not.

Ochako groaned, rubbing her sleeve covered palms flat against her face like that might relieve some of her boredom induced headache. Her eyes felt fuzzy from staring at black ink on stark white paper for the last four hours.

She gathered her things, making sure her empty bento from lunch was tucked neatly into the bottom of her bunny backpack, and tonight's homework organized into her take home folder.

"Are you coming down to the docks with us? Riku-kun says his dad is making hot pot!" Yuka leaned over her desk, squishing her cheeks between her palms before adjusting a slightly droopy left pigtail.

Ochako blinked at her friend, short hair swishing around her own cheeks as she tilted her head to the side curiously. "Hot pot in summer?" The zipper on her bag added its opinion to the conversation before she swung the straps to lay flat on sweater-clad shoulders.

"Ochako-chan." Her friend said dubiously. "It's food. You love food. Besides, it's pretty much fall already." The gravity child giggled at that, before shaking her head in the negative.

"Sorry Yuka-chan, my dad is expecting me home today."

"Oh, are you guys still painting that fence?" Yuka stood with Ochako, quickly gathering her own things and coming around the aisle so they could walk out of the class room together.

"Yeah, it's-" Ochako cut off, turning towards the door only to step right into another body. It was sudden, jarring, and she found herself flinging both her hands up high and away on reflex to avoid any accidental touching.

"Watch it!" Bakugou snarled, taking a step back from her as she did the same, hands slowly coming down from what must have looked like an 'I surrender' pose to the taller boy.

"Ow." She said to no one but herself, left hand coming down enough to rub her nose which had taken the brunt of the collision. The new boy sneered at her, an ugly expression on his face that Ochako didn't much care for.

His red gaze snagged on her right hand, and before she had a chance to even guess at what he was going to do he snatched her wrist, sweater sleeve having fallen to her elbow.

He jerked her forward hard enough to make her stumble and Ochako started yanking backwards in an immediate panic reflex. The fingers of her captive hand curled in, trying to hide away the pink finger pads that had no doubt caught the boy's eye.

"Hey, let go of her!" Yuka squealed the words right into her ear and Ochako ended up flinching further forward even as her friend's hands landed on her shoulders.

Bakugou didn't seem to notice or care about her discomfort, his red gaze pinning her in place before peering intently at her closed fist.

"Is this your quirk?" He asked in what could almost be a cordial tone if it weren't for the fact that he was invading her personal space and asking about her quirk- how rude!

Yuka gasped behind her, but Bakugou seemed more interested in trying to pry her fist open. His index finger successfully wedged itself under her pinky and started to levy her fingers apart.

His palms were slick with something; it had a heady scent like burnt sugar and smoke. It brought the unbidden, misplaced memory of campfires and light-night star gazing with her father to mind.

His index and middle fingers slid underneath her sensitive finger pads and a harsh shiver ran down her spine from the intensity of the sensation. His skin was hot, and distantly she wondered if that had anything to do with his own quirk.

His touch set her teeth on edge, and she was left feeling like a cat with its fur rubbed backwards.

Bakugou made a curious noise in the back of his throat, a split second from making five points of contact with her thumb.

Ochako panicked.

Mitsuki decided that despite the fact that this house was much smaller that their previous one, that the kitchen was actually quite nice. The sink had window nook for potted plants, and all of the cabinets were a lovely ash wood. It made the room feel bright, open.

Their new neighbors had stopped by earlier with a small container of steamed dumplings; a nice couple only slightly older than herself and Masaru. They hadn't been put off by her curt nature, and Mitsuki appreciated that. She wondered if the daughter they spoke of would have a similar disposition.

Her husband was at work, and she did her best not to think about the fact that this would be her first time without a job since she had been on maternity leave. Mitsuki was not the kind of woman that found idleness comforting or relaxing. She'd much rather be at work right now. In fact, she'd much rather be in her home back in Shizuoka, but sacrifices had to be made on all fronts. She knew Katsuki was trying his best, and now more than ever she needed to lead by example. Hopefully pulling him away from the environment that had fostered such negativity in her son to begin with would put him back on track.

She busied herself with unpacking a molting cardboard box labeled 'dishes' in marker that had mostly run after being transported through the rain.

She paused in her self appointed duty of wiping down flatware, a loud buzzing sound filling the once blessedly silent kitchen.

Her cell phone vibrated against the counter on her left, wiggling across the surface in a bid to catch her attention.

She closed her eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath before looking at the number flashing across the tiny caller ID mini window display.

Her immediate reaction was irritation; because of course Katsuki couldn't go one fucking day. Just one goddamn day without getting into some shit. She grunted, red eyes ablaze as she stomped her way towards the innocent looking flip phone ringing it's little heart out. She wiped the dust on her hands with her tea towel before snapping her phone open with a curt, "What?"

A women on the other line stuttered, sputtering out a greeting.

"Bakugou-san? Uh- uhm, this is, my name is Yui Miho, I work as an assistant teacher to Tanaka-sensei, your son's teacher, and I'm calling to uh-"

"Spit it out." Mitsuki snapped, but regretted it almost immediately. She didn't know this woman, it wasn't her fault Mitsuki's son was a little hooligan. "What's my son done now?" She added with less bite.

"O-oh, uhm. Actually, maybe it's not what you think Bakugou-san…"

She could feel her face turning red.

There was a sound in her chest, trapped just inside her throat and desperate to claw its way out like a demon from the pits of hell. She trampled it down, because it would be entirely inappropriate; considering.

But oh gods above it was so hard.

She clenched her teeth together, her tongue flat on the roof of her mouth and throat tight.

She could feel her ears turning red with the effort. Mitsuki sought her husband's gaze on reflex and when their eyes met she gave him a helpless look to his baffled one.

Well this is… unexpected. The Bakugou parents told each other with nothing but their eyes.

"Uh-" Masaru said intelligently.

"We are so sorry, I cannot apologize enough for my daughter's behavior today." The woman who had introduced herself as the Bakugou families neighbor just a few hours prior bowed low to them on their new doorstep.

The woman- Uraraka Himari, Mitsuki recalled her name, held a little girl down by the back of her head in a low bow at her side, and Mitsuki couldn't help but sum the child up in her head.

She wore a huge pale yellow sweater over a sundress with what looked like the exact same rain boots her son owned, just much smaller. Such a colourful, cheerful looking thing.

"I'm so sorry!" The tiny child squeaked out.

The corner of her lips twitched.

On the girl's other side, stood her son. His face was as surly as ever, looking like he'd bit into a lemon, but being the brat's mother she couldn't help but notice the fact that his eyes had yet to leave little Ochako-chan's bowed head. The look on his face was not one she'd seen on him before, but one she recognized all the same.

This was nothing like all the times with that Midoriya kid, not by a long shot.

Katsuki had his hands shoved into his cargo shorts, and his red eyes rose to catch his mother's.

His right eye was swollen, dark purple already from where this little girl had punched him right in the face.

Mitsuki had no doubt in her mind that whatever had happened Katsuki had probably deserved it. She was under no illusions as to the kind of child her son was.

At her side, her husband let loose a low chuckle, and as if that was the okay signal Mitsuki threw her head back and roared with laughter.

Katsuki scowled all the harder, but the look of interest in his eyes never wavered from the unassuming little girl at his side.

Ochako woke with a snap the moment her back bumped into the ceiling above her bed. Her stomach bucked like a wild horse and she had to stuff the sleeves of her pajama shirt between her teeth and clench her jaw to keep from throwing up onto her bed below her.

Her mom had just washed this set, she didn't want to have to wake her up again.

It was a long, miserable handful of minutes before she wrestled enough control over her quirk to return her gravity to normal. It was a task that was easier said than done, but at least she could manage this much on herself.

Unlike other things she had accidentally floated. Usually she just had to wait for them to come down on their own.

She fell with a light bounce onto her mattress, her pillow flopping onto the floor by the door. She tripped over herself in her haste to rush for the bathroom door down the hall. The toilet lid clattered loudly when she flung it open, shoving her face into the bowl at the same time as the rise of burning stomach acid.

She heaved.

It dripped from her nose and tears stung her eyes but Ochako was used to this routine by now. Even her parents didn't wake up anymore like they had in the beginning.

Vomiting in the middle of the night was old hat for Ochako.

When she was done emptying the contents of her belly she sat back on her heels, wiping the back of her hand across her mouth to keep the spit and other nasty drips from staining her pretty nightgown. After brushing her teeth at the sink she headed for the kitchen to find something to drink.

The house was dark, but her parents didn't mind keeping the blinds open at night. It was a good neighborhood and the moonlight was enough to see by as she navigated around furniture into the kitchen.

A quick check at the clock that glowed an eerie green on the stove told her that it was after eleven- much too late for her to be awake but not really all that unusual considering how often her quirk sent her floating in the middle of the night.

A strange popping sound grabbed her attention as she closed the fridge, her reusable bottle of chilled water in hand, and she found herself peeling the sheer curtains away from the back yard window to peek outside.

Moonlight dappled pretty patterns across her mother's garden and the scattering of her own toys that lay forgotten from previous play.

Flashes of light accompanied the strange noise from the other side of her fence, and Ochako blinked sleepily in surprise. That was her new neighbors yard wasn't it?

She took a drink of her nice cool water and slipped out the back door as quietly as possible. She set the bottle down on the patio table as she passed it, bare feet sliding into dew-damp grass like age old friends greeting one another.

It prickled a bit but she kind of liked the way it felt.

The popping got louder, a fizzing sound tailing the end of each pop and Ochako wondered if maybe her new classmate was setting off fireworks in the middle of the night.

That was… weird.

She mounted the fence, her toes finding foot holds easily and she heaved herself up the horizontal boards that held the vertical ones in place until she reached the top. Ochako poked her head of wild, sleep-mussed hair over to look into the neighbor's yard, fingers tangled in long sleeves that curled over the top of the fence. The extra fabric fluttered down like wind streamers.

Sitting on a small concrete roundabout was Bakugou, legs folded in front of him criss-cross-applesauce staring down at his upturned palms with an intensity that Ochako felt hesitant to interrupt.

He was similarly barefoot, clad in a striped blue shirt and pajama pants. A basketball hoop towered over him, crowning the small circular path that cut to the center of his lawn.

His house was lined with honeysuckle bushes; the smell was familiar and reminded her of summers spent sneaking into this very yard to pull the petals apart and taste the sweetness inside.

Ochako watched as Bakugou's hands lit up like fireworks, hissing and popping in a bright array of colours, and she gasped; impressed in spite of herself. Ochako was a firm believer that a quirk did not define a person or speak for their worth, but even she could admit how pretty his was.

It was beautiful really, but if the look on the boys face was anything to go by whatever he was trying to do wasn't working out like he wanted.

She didn't like the way his brow creased, the way his red eyes crumpled at the corners tiredly. He was a fierce thing, full of the kind of confidence she wished she had, but right now he just looked… like a child.

Which was weird since that's what he was.

So she decided to interpret after all. Her arms slid over the top of the fence until it nestled into the crook on her elbows so she could better lean over it, and on it, tiredly.

"Whatcha' playin'?"

She watched his hackles rise, his hair poofing out comically in surprise as he leapt to his feet and whirled on her. His hands popped and snapped and she watched as he held them away from his body in a reflexive action much the same way she held her own hands away from other people.

His surprise quickly turned into the glare she was used to seeing on his features. His irritated expression seemed to be his most natural state.

"I'm not playing." He snapped defensively, and she blinked at his tone. "It's training."

Ochako laid her chin down on her arms, eyes drooping. "Okay, training." She accepted easily. "Whatcha' training for?"

He gave her a look like he thought she was an idiot.

"You're an idiot."

Ochako snorted a laugh into her arms, amused by how easy he was to read. To be fair though, her daddy had always said she was in-tu-i-tive with people. She could guess what it meant from context clues but the word itself was a bit hard to get her teeth around.

Bakugou just seemed especially easy to pin down, maybe it was because he didn't seem to care to hide how he felt like others did. She kind of liked that about him.

Admired it even, maybe.

Right now though, the little boy stuck his nose high in the air and declared with the utmost confidence: "I'm training to be a hero, I'm going to be better than even All-Might!"

Ochako's eyes widened. That was quite the declaration! But she liked that he wanted to be a hero for all that he acted like maybe he'd rather be the opposite. She grinned at him, all genuine, supportive enthusiasm for his positive goals. He seemed like maybe he could use some more positivity in his life right now.

"You'll have to work hard then!" She told him, because nothing was earned without hard work- her daddy said so. "But why so late at night?" She added, because her mommy said it was important to get sleep at night.

Bakugou flinched, and she wondered what she'd said wrong.

"Shut up." He hissed, taking a step towards her with a raised fist. Ochako just watched him, nonplussed. The moonlight bleached the yellow from his hair, making it look white and deepening the purple bruise around his eye. She kind of regretted hurting him at the reminder, but also kind of didn't because standing up for oneself was something to be proud of.

She suppressed the sudden onset of a yawn but didn't quite make it, and the expression on the boy's face spasmed. It landed somewhere between incredulous and irritated.

He shook his fist at her. "Aren't you scared?" He growled words again, and she couldn't help but remember her first impression of him as a tanuki. The idea seemed more realistic now that she'd caught him playing in his yard in the middle of the night. His bruised eye didn't help either actually.

"Scared of not getting sleep? Yeah." She admitted, eyes drooping. She sighed contentedly when a breeze hushed through the trees in the woods beyond the far side of their conjoined fences and swept up the smell of honeysuckle.

Her hair lifted on the breeze, dancing around her ears and tangling in her eyelashes.

She watched from the sliver of her drooping eyelids as he crouched on the ground, and she only had a moment to wonder what he was up to before he took a running leap at the fence.

His feet slammed onto the opposite side of her, hands gripping tight on either side of her elbows. The wood moaned in protest at the rough treatment. She jerked upright with a, "Woah!" and leaned away from him even as he leaned in.

This close she could see the flecks of gold in his crimson irises and his scowl deepened as the moment of silence stretched between them.

Smoke rose from his fists, the smell of burning fence wood adding to the crisp night air.

His eyes narrowed at her; waiting, and she blinked in confusion.

He leaned farther in, and Ochako let him because she didn't want to jump down from this high up just in case the falling sensation activated her quirk- outside- that was a nightmare she never wanted to experience. She was already leaning as far back as she could without relinquishing her hold on the fence all together. Her grip didn't feel as secure as she would like with her nightgown tangled between her fingers, and she hoped that whatever this boy was on about that he got to the point with a quickness.

Bakugou flashed his jagged white teeth at her and she could smell that strange cloying sweetness on him again.

"Well?" He said between clenched teeth, and she felt her head tilt to the side without meaning to.

"Well, what Bakugou-kun?" Her tired voice laced with befuddlement, and he held her eyes for another short stretch, waiting for something before he seemed to decided that whatever it was wasn't going to happen.

"We're going to be friends." He declared firmly instead, and the statement took her by surprise.

"Okay." She agreed easily, because Ochako was seven and making friends with her strange neighbor boy seemed like a neat thing to do at almost midnight on a school night from the top of her back yard fence.

"I'm Uraraka Ochako." She introduced herself officially- belatedly. He ought to know her name if they were going to be friends after all.

He gave her a queer look, like he wasn't sure why she'd bother to give him information he already knew, but he reciprocated anyways. "Bakugou Katsuki." It sounded a shade more pleasant than the last time she'd heard him introduce himself at least.

He let go of the fence, sliding down its surface with bare feet to land softly in the grass once more. He turned towards his house without another word, and Ochako thought maybe he wasn't sure what else to say.

"Goodnight Bakugou-kun!" Her arm lifted high in the air, sleeve falling to her elbow as she waved at his retreating form.

When he turned to look at her she though his expression looked a little less angry- but that might just be her tired mind making things up.

Crimson eyes flashed in the moonlight, and she didn't miss the way his eyes caught on her finger pads.

His grin was a wild, feral sort of pleased.

Ochako couldn't possibly mistake it for anything else, and she kind of liked that about him too.

"Whatever Round Face!" He hollered as he ran for the open sliding glass door on his porch, entirely too loud for this time of night.

Ochako's own grin was pretty satisfied as she clambered carefully back down and ran for her own bed, swiping up her almost forgotten water bottle on her way.

Mitsuki let the curtain slide closed on her backyard, her smile bright and almost dopey, warmth glowing in her chest.

Mitsuki loved her son so much.

And she so terribly wanted for him to know what love for another actually felt like; but getting him to notice anyone other than himself had always felt like a mountainous hurdle.

It wasn't much, but it was something.

Progress.

Masaru was half way through brushing his teeth, mouth full of toothpaste suds when his wife started yelling at him to answer the front door. His son was puttering around in his room tiredly, gathering up his school supplies and wrangling his socks together for the day.

Masaru had had a hell of a time getting that kid up an hour ago, which was unusual since he'd always been a natural early riser. He'd worried Katsuki might have a fever but then his wife told him she'd caught Katsuki sneaking into the house in the middle of the night.

His sympathies for his son had flown out the window and he'd ended up dragging the kid from under the covers by his ankle.

Never let it be said that Masaru was too soft with his child.

So he answered the door, because Mitsuki told him to and Katsuki was too busy impersonating a snail, only to find no one there.

Until he looked down to see the tiny little girl who'd punched his boy in the face just yesterday. Masaru sniggered around his toothbrush.

She looked tired too- suspicious- but as cute and flowery as she had yesterday in a light pink dress, a massive green sweater, grey tights and running shoes. There was an over sized bow in her hair that flopped to one side of her head and drooped there.

"Good Morning Bakugou-san." She demurred with a short bow, her chin flat against her chest as she stared at her feet.

Masaru melted. So adorable.

"Oi! Dad! Where's my pencil case!" His boy hollered somewhere in the house, only to have his wife shout back, "It's on the kitchen table!" Feet puttered on the hardwood floor around the corner, and he watched as the little neighbor girl's head lifted and leaned past him.

He even caught the moment she saw Katsuki.

A smile lit up her face, bright and genuine and he wasn't sure what to think of that because he was sure it must say something about this girl to have a face like that for Katsuki of all children- but the warmth in his chest damn near exploded at the sight anyways.

Tears welled in the corner of his eyes, and it might have been comical with his toothbrush hanging out of his mouth and with his pink slipper clad feet if it hadn't felt like such a serious step in the right direction.

Finally.

He hoped this girl would be a good friend for his boy. Katsuki needed one so badly.

"Bakugou-kun!" She called into the hall behind him, and the little footsteps stuttered to a halt. Masaru turned to see the surprised face of his son slowly morphing into his mother's scowl as he approached the front door.

The girl's smile didn't dim a single watt.

"Round Face?" He inquired in a tone that almost sounded polite.

Oh, goodness.

The little girl twisted her fingers into her excessively long sleeves anxiously.

"Do you want to walk to school with me?" Her big doe brown eyes found her shoes again and Masaru had to clench his teeth on his toothbrush to keep it from falling out of his mouth.

What is happening right now?

"Okay." Katsuki agreed without a fight. "Let me get my bag." Masaru watched in amazement as his son's eyes flickered up to catch his, the requested permission hanging there unsaid- because Katsuki was loath to ask for anything- so he nodded with a frothy toothpaste grin and sent the two kids off a few minutes later with a jubilant wave and a, "Have a good day at school!"

His wife smothered snickers into her hand at his side, the couple watching with hawk-like gazes as the young girl dragged Katsuki into a conversation about the honeysuckles in their new yard of all things. Katsuki looked irritated as hell but the more important thing was what he didn't say. Which was telling her to shut up as they walked side by side down the sidewalk.

"Don't get into any trouble!" His wife yelled after them, and they were both rewarded when the two kids turned in tandem; one to throw a scowl and the other to grin like the sun had risen on her life anew that day.

"I like her." Mitsuki told him, and he leaned in to give his beautiful wife a kiss. "Me too." He agreed wistfully.

Oh my goodness, I have so much more than this already written but seriously I needed to stop here before too much plot came out at once.

Next Time: Sleepovers, Some foreshadowing fulfilled, Quirk Training, a Return Trip to Shizuoka with new and old friends and so much more. I hope to see you there!

The quote at the beginning of this chapter is from a song called "Take These Thoughts" by Chris and Thomas, please give it a listen, it inspired the majority of this chapter.

*Tanuki: A lot of people think this is a direct translation for raccoon, but its actually a Japan-specific animal that's more like 'raccoon-dog'. They are portrayed in fables as these jolly-happy magical creatures (barring one story that i wont mention cause it's actually gunna come up in this fic) but in real life they are, of course, wild animals. More like opossums in manner than raccoons. I imagine Ochako would have a decent grasp on feral animals seeing as how she lives in an area mostly dedicated to preserving forest and wildlife.

A Final Note: I'm not sure if anyone's really interested but I based a lot of the environment off experiences from my own childhood. Things like the honeysuckle bushes and the basketball hoop in Bakugou's backyard. Anyways~

I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, please leave me a review and tell me what you think!