I was in my waiting room, counting how many specks of dust were on the table when the door flew open with a sharp kick.
With a bent leg, Bakugo glowered at me. "This is my room, you ugly fu-" He paused, glancing at the sign next to the door that proved I was in the right place.
He dropped the scowl, looking away and muttering how I was still an idiot. "Crybaby, you know you're going to lose, right?"
I snapped my head upwards, "So your quirk is fortune-telling? Go to hell, Bakugo."
His face remained deadly serious. "You can try your best, and it still won't be good enough." His voice wasn't loud, that was what tugged at my anxiety that had been sky-rocketing since I found out he won the battle against Tokoyami.
I could be uneasy of the deathly quiet Todoroki, but Bakugo's vindictive determination to win was what kept me rooted to my chair, keeping me silent.
"Don't try making a strategy against me, I'll shut it down." He just wasn't stopping today, huh?
I brought a palm to my face, dragging it slowly to stop myself from insulting him. With a sigh, I rested my forehead against the table, humming a soft tune my mother used to sing when I was younger.
I had no time to waste on this blonde boy with anger issues. I was trying to remember the month of torture that I endured back when I trained with the QAP. That month was especially grueling because they were using each day to test the limits of my quirk. The farthest I had gone was wiping an acre of forest clean before restoring the land, then creating a landslide in an unpopulated area all in the same day.
The angrier I was, the more my quirk would amplify its strength, but how would that help me in the final match? I already guaranteed my family's safety net by making it to the finals, but I wanted more. I owe it to myself to give nothing but my all.
His presence was still in the edge of the room, he was watching me, probably trying to assess what he needed to do to beat me. I didn't have the energy in me to tell him to leave, so I only continued humming.
I was startled when his finger pressed on my arm that was bent, covering my face. "Ugly, if you don't bring everything to this fight, I'll hate you forever."
"Wow, I thought I already had that guarantee, I guess I'm going to half-ass it then." I muttered, lifting my head slightly to roll my eyes.
His palm swung at the back of my head lightly, "You're such a shitty person," he said in boredom. I only nodded, tapping the metal table.
"Florence, do you-" Izuku's voice broke through the air, I turned to see him standing in the entry. "Oh, Kacchan, I didn't know you were here, too!" His voice was nervous, Uraraka spilled the beans to me that Bakugo used to bully Midoriya but they had been childhood friends. I didn't understand the depth of their relationship to one another, but I wouldn't crack my skull trying to figure out why Bakugo mistreated Midoriya when it was obvious.
"Get the fuck out of here, Deku. I'm trying to show this ugly girl that trying to fight like you is pointless." Bakugo's voice was finally revealing that deep rage that always gets strung out when the green-haired boy is around him.
"Hey, Izuku," my tone was passive, but welcoming. He smiled at me, walking to sit at the opposite end of the table.
"So you've made up with him even though he called you weak?" Bakugo boomed, causing Izuku and I to wince at the harshness.
Standing up, I faced the blonde before grabbing his collar and yanking him. "He apologized and explained himself, what's it to you? You said some rude crap and I'm still your fucking friend, aren't I?"
I shouldn't have asked that. I knew what he would say.
He flung my hand that was gripping the material of his shirt before speaking. "You and I will never be friends. You're worthless, and I think you're disgusting."
I stepped back as a strange sorrow bloomed across my chest, lips parted in shock before snapping my jaw shut. "This isn't even your room, leave."
In the smallest fraction of a second, regret passed through his eyes before it returned to the same anger I had grown accustomed to.
"Look, cry-"
I shoved his chest, sending him stumbling. "Screw you. I'm disgusting? At least I'm not mean to others because of some inferiority complex, I won't be the one who ends up alone." I walked out of the room, straightening out my uniform and redoing my ponytail.
I remembered Bakugo's threat before the USJ attack. He promised that he'd make me cry, and he almost got close to achieving his goal.
Izuku had followed me, similar to the way I pursued him when he was going up against Todoroki.
He walked with swiftness, making sure to block my path. "Yes, Izuku?" I raised my eyebrow, studying his freckles.
"He's tough to understand, but I don't think he meant what he said. You're not disgusting or worthless," his hand was resting on my shoulder while I tried to look away from the intense stare that came from under his long, curled eyelashes.
"I know Deku is supposed to be an insult, but it sounds nice for some reason," I told him, he stepped back and began blushing while swinging his arms frantically, so I used his action to step aside and near my exit to the stadium. I wasn't lying, I just didn't feel like addressing what Bakugo had said about me.
"Florence, do your best, I have faith in you."
I nodded, hearing Present Mic cry out, "The final battle will start shortly, introducing our lady of the event, my favorite student of class 1-A, Florence Reyna!" I turned to wink at Izuku before walking out, hearing the deafening applause of the audience.
"Now for our man of the event, the short-tempered one and only Katsuki Bakugo who is also from class 1-A!" He sauntered up to the platform, making the angriest face I've seen while his features seemed to be forced to look daunting.
We stared, eyes never breaking from each other's frame.
My lips were pressed into a harsh, thin line. He smirked, before speaking, "Let's make a bet. If I win, you never walk away from me like that again, if you win, I'll call you that word you're so desperate to hear."
Now what's he going on about? I blinked, shrugging before I decided to close my eyes to tune out the thousands of people up in the stands. I was only focusing on the rumble of the Earth, the different rock structures I can manifest when the battle begins.
My cold shoulder must've angered Bakugo, he spoke bluntly, "Stop acting like a brat and talk to me, ugly."
I made no movement nor did my eyes open, even when Midnight raised her whip and screamed, "Begin!"
I concentrated on the sound of his footsteps that neared me, I heard the movement when his arm raised. Right when the explosion sounded, my eyes flashed open as I launched myself upwards, flipping in the air as waves of stone flew to him in all directions.
He growled, releasing more explosions to shatter my targets. When I landed on the ground, he ran for me, screaming, "Fight harder, Crybaby!"
Four vines flew from the cement on all corners of the square, lunging to him as explosions were appearing left and right, creating billows of smoke that probably obscured the battle from the people watching.
I moved through the smoke, careful to be quiet as Bakugo yelled for me.
I saw his taut muscles on his back and I jumped, grabbing his shoulders as I forced the upper half of his body to be encased in stone.
He grabbed my wrist, flipping me to where he had a strong grip to body slam me.
I gasped, air being knocked from my lungs as I was painfully pressed into the cement before I quickly retreated when a blast aimed straight for my face.
Feeling my skin peel, I hissed, summoning three of the largest boulders I could to land near him. I could hear the debris flying from the way he overused his quirk to blow my rocks to pieces.
We ran towards each other, both raising our arms as I released pillars of rock, while the detonation of his quirk forced my body backwards. I fanned away as much of the heat as possible with the same palm tree leaves from our first fight.
My clothing was beginning to have holes from his blasts while he had different cuts and scrapes littered on his arms and face.
I glided higher on stone, using my speed and direction to hurl thorns and heavy tablets of granite to land on him.
His arm tightened on the last explosion. I'm tiring him out.
I purposely slid from my perimeter-structured stone wall to land on the floor, worming two thick vines to wrap around his waist, flinging him to the only opening that was in my wall.
He grabbed on my vine, lurching me forward as his fist met my stomach, what was worse was that he packed an explosion into the punch and I was thrown into my wall, groaning in pain before I felt my makeshift defense collapse.
"Die, Crybaby!" Neither of us were letting the other off the hook. He grabbed me by my collar, dragging me to the end of the line.
"I'm not giving in that easily, you bastard!" I cried out, as a rock soared into his temple, allowing him to release his hold on me. I kicked his stomach upwards, sending him away as I scrambled back to my feet.
Bakugo got up easily, preparing for another attack.
He was rushing towards me, but I raised a hand out, "Meteor Shower." I whispered, different sizes of stones, rock, and other hard material of the Earth all appeared behind me, creating an array of stone that stretched taller than the viewing room my friends were in.
This is the move I've been working on. Uraraka's battle against Bakugo only helped solidify my plan on how to weaken Bakugo's quirk.
I blinked, snapping my fingers as my quirk released the material at once, all of it heading straight towards my classmate in front of me.
He leapt, turning into a human torpedo as he spun his body rapidly. His face appeared in a funnel-shaped smoke; one of his hands grabbed the other wrist as he opened his palm. I wedged a vine into the ground, letting it wrap around my hips.
I created another wave of vines, roots, and Venus flytraps to touch him immediately after my rocky ripple would.
It sounds like a grenade. "Howitzer Impact!" He yelled, a bloodthirsty grin on his face. The explosion was so powerful and large, the heat reached every layer of my skin as I was thrown.
Before I could be shoved past the line because of his quirk, I pictured my stone wall to capture me, and it did, forcing me to make a hole because of the powerful impact before I collapsed to the ground.
This was only slightly less painful than when that Nomu punched me.
He blew my offensive waves to dust, I was on my knees with my palms touching the floor. I closed my eyes for a second, sending stone to cover the floor beneath him and I.
I imagined the same friction of the molecules rubbing together, picturing it right below Bakugo's feet. He jumped, grunting in pain, as he tried moving away from the melted stone.
I stood upright, no longer thinking about aim, only doing a rapid-fire shooting of anything I could muster.
He was only dodging, releasing small explosions when needed.
The closer he got to me, the more I stumbled back, panicking. "Stay away! I won't lose!" I screamed, moving my arms upwards as I pictured another large boulder to his path.
I coughed, feeling my lungs tighten. The smoke and heat must be getting to me. I could no longer feel my arms or legs, I was only acting on pure instinct and adrenaline.
He was oddly quiet, studying me as he sauntered in my direction, the way a predator would its prey.
I clenched my fists, resorting to my final option as I knew I barely had it in me to produce one more thing. I layered my knuckles with obsidian, hoping it would give me the last strength and courage I needed.
I pounced on him, hitting his jaw repeatedly, while yelling frantically, "I won't lose! I'm not weak, I told you I'm not weak!" He grabbed the roots of my hair, holding my face only centimeters away as he released one last explosion.
My body crumpled to the floor, I felt my mind spinning, as I crawled away. He leaned down, dragging me by the neck of my gym uniform. He's going to throw me outside the line.
As if a switch turned on, I went ballistic. I was shaking, scratching, flipping, anything to get his hardened grip off of me.
"Let go, damn it, Bakugo! Please, I need to win!" I shouted, but it was pointless.
My body is giving up. "No!" I kicked at his arms, it must've hurt because he let go, as I ran towards the center of the square, falling to my knees again.
I pictured a vine wrapping around his thigh, hurling him away from the square so I could recover some sort of victory.
I turned to see if it worked, but he only pulled it off him, my vine was as thick as a simple stem, dissipating easily from the touch.
I forced myself back up, standing as I took a step forward. "Bakugo, you don't understand," I cried out, hearing my voice soften.
I only had a few seconds.
"Winning is all I have to give myself. I won't stop considering you a friend, even if you're a hot-headed prick, so please-" I stopped, my legs weakened, and I fell face-forward.
I didn't hit the cement as I should've. His arms were around me, one hand pressed to the back of my head, holding me up.
"My all isn't enough." I choked out, feeling the tears build.
I couldn't hear him anymore, I stopped hearing a while ago. His explosions were so powerful that my ears rung till dead silence ensued. How does he handle it?
My eyes closed, I felt my body shaking, but I knew it was him. Is he still trying to attack me? I've already lost.
My ears picked up a sentence.
"Florence Reyna is unconscious. Katsuki Bakugo is the winner of the U.A Sports Festival!"
I am?
Yes, I was.
-
I sat at a small, wooden table fiddling with the beaded bracelet that was on my wrist. It was adorned with four different colors: yellow, orange, green, and purple, all tied together with one white stone perched in the center.
"Pretty colors." I hummed, smiling as the sun peeked through the window.
I felt someone stroke my cheek lovingly, I leaned into the touch.
"You're so lucky, having so many people smitten by you, angel." Hm?
"Choose wisely."
Waking from my sleep, I peeked from my eyelids, observing the way Recovery Girl was finishing wrapping bandages around my stomach. I stared at the caramel skin covered with bright red as burns were already developing.
"Recovery Girl, will they heal properly?" I whispered, startling her.
"Oh, yes child don't worry about that at all!" She smiled gently, laying me back down on the bed.
"Hey, you ugly ass crybaby! Let me see you!" Bakugo's voice could be heard instantly as I frowned, lower lip sticking out as I took in his figure that moved past my curtain and sat in the seat beside my bed. He had small bandages here and there, but nothing too heavy.
I sat up, shaking off the light-headed feeling that attempted to overwhelm me. I found myself at a loss for words, now that I had stability in my mind, defeat was beginning to worm its way to my heart. I was uncomfortable with the feeling that scratched at me.
"If you repeat this to anyone, I'll kill you." I looked up at Bakugo's words, yelping when his face was only inches away from my burning red one.
"You're the only person that deserved to go up against me. Don't feel bad for getting second place, if it were anyone but me, you would've won." He finished in amusement, pulling my cheek lightly the way he did back in the bus.
For someone so brash and rough, he's always gentle when he's not fighting.
Wait, is he trying to-
"You're not disgusting or worthless, either. So stop making that stupid face." His voice dropped to a serious tone, before he stepped away and made himself comfortable in the seat.
I felt my stomach tighten, the way it does when you're about to laugh loudly.
Don't do it, Florence. He looked like a stupid chihuahua just now, but don't do it.
I giggled, before slapping a palm over my mouth. My laugh is the ugliest, please don't let him hear it, he'll only tell me to never laugh again.
Still, the giggles continued to slip out, my face turning pink as I grinned, an open-toothed cheesy smile that made my eyes get smaller.
He stared, stunned. His eyes were widened as he took in my expression, slowly, one side of his mouth lifted upwards.
"Come on, ugly, we gotta go to the awards ceremony."
We were standing on three differently-leveled for platforms, Bakugo was in the center while I stood off to his right; Todoroki and Tokoyami were on his left.
Midnight began introducing our guest speaker, as All Might made a poorly planned entrance, both pro-heroes speaking over each other.
I mentally face-palmed and looked at Bakugo, wrinkling my nose. He only rolled his eyes and smirked, turning to admire the number one hero.
All Might gave the bronze medals to the two boys next to Bakugo first, hugging them both and speaking to them.
He walked to me, and the already rowdy crowd of the stadium increased the volume of their voices to cheer as I watched All Might mouth my name.
He slipped the silver medal over my head, and I stared at the way it dangled on my chest. Second place, not bad.
"Congratulations, Young Reyna!" He stooped to my height, wrapping his arms around me as he whispered, "Join lunch with Young Midoriya and I soon, we need to talk."
He pulled away, and I nodded, eyes widening slightly before regaining my composure and looking away. Was this about their secret?
All Might then spoke to Bakugo, who had the typical scowl while accepting the medal. Hugging him, he muttered something in his ear, causing Bakugo's mouth to open slightly.
We were hounded to take multiple pictures, I handed Midnight my phone as Tokoyami and Todoroki stood behind me, ready to take the picture. "I'm not taking a shitty pic with you, crybaby!" Bakugo huffed, but I threw an arm around his neck, yanking him down to my height. "Smile, you ugly chihuahua!" I teased, while he stayed dumbfounded and I smiled lightly. The camera flashed before Bakugo realized what I said and began attempting to strangle me.
I changed into my school uniform, heading back to the classroom to get my school bag and see Shota. Wow, today was so slow and so fast, I miss my old grumpy mummy, I thought, chuckling slightly at the nickname I dubbed for my teacher.
My phone rang, and I saw my mother's nickname on the screen. Swiping to answer, I pressed the phone to my ear. "Hello?" I asked, quietly.
"I'm proud of you, more than you know. We watched you the whole time, even though we lost sleep for it. The girls told me to tell you congratulations, they're just as proud as I am. You're so strong, Florence." Her voice wedged a crack into my chest, the words I've been dying to hear. I paused, leaning on the tree just before entering the campus.
Breathing slowly, a genuine smile made its way onto my features. "I did it for you and for myself," was all I said, letting the wind breeze through my hair, making it flutter softly as the setting sun casted the loving warmth it always did.
For the first time in years, I didn't feel unsettled, I didn't feel rage or sadness or hurt or loss or grief. The emotions that had poked at the threads that were clinging for dear life, gnawing at it. It finally ceased, the voice in my head, the one that told me unwanted things finally drifted to sleep.
I basked in the glow of acceptance, my mother remained silent but I knew she was comfortable because of her slowed breathing. "I love you." My words were simple, but true to its core.
"I love you more," she replied instinctively with happiness. I knew she needed to go rest, it was nighttime for her. I told her goodnight and she hung up, bringing me back to my walk.
I turned to step on the pavement before my eyes met a golden sunset that had content laced through them. "Denki." My greeting was warm.
"Beautiful."
Huh? "Pardon?" I squeaked out, peering at his tall figure shyly.
"You look so happy right now, you're even prettier than the moon." He had a crooked grin, but it wasn't the smile he typically had when he saw a pretty girl pass or when he made jokes with Sero and Kirishima, it was brighter than that.
"Practicing pick-up lines on me again, are you?" I teased, swatting his forehead.
"Only to use them on you, angel." He responded instantly, wriggling his brows.
"I don't believe you, flea!" I joked, jabbing his ribs.
Kirishima, Izuku, Mina, Jirou, Uraraka, and Tsu were all heading towards us. They waved, each carrying their own smiles as they all enveloped me in hugs, congratulating me for placing.
"Where was all this energy when I was with Recovery Girl?" I questioned playfully, tugging on Izuku's curls as he whined and pulled strands from my bangs.
Kirishima looked apologetic as he wrapped his arms around my left one, crying out, "Bakugo didn't let us enter the room at all! Midoriya and I tried going in but he said if we didn't let you sleep he'd roast us alive!"
I patted his spiky hair, "It's okay, Kiri. Bakugo only wanted me to rest because he strangled me right after I woke up."
"He did?" Izuku asked, panic in his features. "No." I deadpanned, before Mina bursted into laughter following along with Jirou, Tsu, and Uraraka.
Everyone headed home with the exception of Jirou. She smiled, handing an earphone to me. Giving me my book bag and a note from Aizawa, we headed to our own homes.
She dropped me off, promising to wrap up a playlist she made for me.
I entered the house, taking off my shoes as I stretched my arms, exhaustion setting in. Before I could take another step into the kitchen, Midnight, Present Mic and Aizawa were at the table with a small cake in the center, a large two written on it.
Midnight engulfed me in her embrace, and so did Present Mic. "We're so proud of you!" They squealed, and I thanked them as they begin retelling their perspectives on today's events.
Shota stood, motioning for me to go to him. I did, raising my eyebrow to ask a silent question. "You impressed me today, Florence, you pushed yourself and came out at the top, only slightly below Bakugo. I'm very proud." The words bestowed the same joy I felt under the tree.
He brought me to his side, squeezing me while yelling at Kayama and Yamada for fighting each other with forks.
When the cake was finished and our bellies full, I bid goodnight to them all, making my way upstairs to take a shower and rest.
Settling in bed, I got one text from Bakugo.
Bakugo:
Send me that stupid picture we took so I can make sure no one ever sees it.
Me:
*One Attachment*
When we're pro-heroes someday, I'll upload this to the internet for a million yen.
Bakugo:
I'll sue you for defamation.
I giggled, shutting my eyes.
I slept peacefully for the first time in three years.