Counting Down

Chapter 8

"Right, you're right," I say as I lean on my doorframe. "I slept in and still have sleep brain. Just give me a minute to change."

"Ten minutes," he says before starting to walk away. "That's for you to change and meet me at the front of the building or else I'm leaving you here."

I close my door once more, taking a deep breath already knowing I'm gonna regret this decision to train during the early mornings. It's fine. I'll live, hopefully. Plus then I'll get more time with Bakugo. Wait. What? Why do I care if I spend time with Bakugo? He is just helping me study, right? Nothing more. It can't be anything more. This is solely platonic with no underlying feelings. We are just friends.

I rush to get on some shorts and put on a loose tank top before heading out and racing down the stairs. The elevator definitely would have been faster but I still have a couple minutes before my ten minutes is up. Plus I'm pretty sure he was joking about leaving me if I'm late. I think? I hope so. I'm basically out of breath as I push open the front door of the dorm building and the cold air of the morning hits me and I wish I had a jacket. Bakugo sits on the steps in front of me on his phone and hasn't noticed my presence, yet. Yet. I step closer before tapping my shoe against him. He quickly shoves his phone in his pocket before getting to his feet and dusting his sweatpants off.

"Ready?" he asks with a smirk.

"Hell yeah," I say as I pump a fist in the air.

"Good. We are gonna train till you die," he says and his smirk stretches and is honestly pretty scary looking before he lets out a laugh straight from the chest.

"Yay," I say sarcastically and really can't tell how serious he is being about it.

"Stretches first, then a run and lastly me beating your ass into the ground in a sparing match," he says and he is already leaning down and wrapping his hands around his ankles as he stretches.

I copy him but can't go more than halfway before it starts to hurt. I feel his gaze on me and I can't help but feel embarrassed at least a little bit. Just don't look at him and it'll be fine. I suddenly feel a hand on my back. A warm hand. I carefully look over and surely Bakugo has moved from his spot and as I look back down at the grass I see he is just behind me. Close behind me. His hand is warm against my back, probably a quirk of his well quirk.

"If you are having trouble just spread your legs apart a bit," he says as he lightly taps my heel with his foot and I move them out slightly. "You are too tense. You need to relax your back as you stretch downwards otherwise you'll pull something or it'll just do more harm than good."

He presses slightly into my back and I'm like jelly in his hands as I lean further down and I can feel the pull through my calves and lower back. I let out my breath I had been holding in and that seems to make me bend more down. Too far down. I rock on my feet for a second and then suddenly the grass is getting closer and closer. This is it, he said he was gonna train me till I die. I just wasn't ready for it to be so early on. The warmth from my back moves to my waist and my body seems to pause. My face heats up but at least I'm not face planting into the grass. I slowly stand up straight and I can feel his warmth against my back at his closeness. One of his arms wrapped around my waist still from my almost fall. I look over my shoulder and our eyes lock. It's nothing but us. A swirl of scarlet and ruby that bear into each other.

"Careful Red," he says and his voice is soft and quiet and it's just for me. "I don't need you falling and calling it quits before we even start."

"Heh, right! I'll do better next time," I say enthusiastically as I try to swallow the lump in my throat and to settle the butterflies in my stomach.

"Good," he says before finally letting me go and taking a step back. "I doubt we'll have time for sparring since someone wasn't awake early enough and then someone decided that they wanted to eat dirt for breakfast."

"Oh, sorry," I say as I look down a bit.

"Whatever. We'll do it tomorrow then and I'll just have to beat you twice as hard to make up for it today," he says with a laugh.

"It's Saturday tomorrow though."

"So?" he says as his expression drops. "Do you not want to?"

"What? No. I'd be totally down, normally. But it's family weekend and I'm going home. Aren't you?" I ask and I can see the shift in his expression as his mouth is a firm line as he presses his lips together as if he is in deep thought.

"No," he says and his words are bitter and sharp. "They are out of town for work or something. I'm just gonna stay here with the teachers and train more."

"That doesn't sound fun," I say, trying to joke around but it really doesn't hit.

"It's not supposed to be fun. We are at one of the highest ranking schools to train to become heroes. I don't need those stupid family weekends anyways," he says as he crosses his arms and his words are harsh and I can't help but frown.

"But you still deserve a bit of fun, y'know?" I say as I bump my shoulder onto his. "You could come stay with me, if you want."

"Why would I want to do that?"

"So you aren't here alone with the teacher. Honestly that sounds pretty boring and there is only so much training you can do in a day before it starts to get old," I explain. "Plus then we can do sparing like you wanted and we can do some fun stuff inbetween."

"So, I'd be staying over?" he asks and he looks as if he is actually considering the offer.

"Yeah, totally! It'll be like a sleepover. I haven't had one of those in ages," I say as a grin forms on my face and I just watch as Bakugo just stares into the distance deep in thought. "You've had a sleepover before, right?"

"Of course I have!" he says defensively. "But it was back in elementary school with fucking Deku."

"So you've never had a sleepover since then?" I ask and am a bit surprised.

"Of course not. I've been training," he says as if his reasoning is obvious.

"This is gonna be so fun! We can stay up all night and play games and eat just a bunch of snacks. Plus I know where my parents keep their alcohol so we could do that too if we are feeling up to it," I say excitedly before I pause and realize he never even agreed yet. "That is, if you want to come over."

"Yeah, yeah. I'll go to your family weekend thing," he says with a soft smile. "But don't expect me not to continue our early morning training."

"Got it!" I say as I throw my arms around his shoulders a bit. "This is gonna be so much fun, Bakugo."

"Whatever, you say Red," he says but doesn't pull from my loose hold.