It was around 8:00 pm when Nozomi collapsed onto her large canopy bed, exhausted from her activities of the day. So much for a day off... she thought bitterly. Over the phone she was promised she was needed for a two hour shoot only and would be free no later than 3:00. What a joke that turned out to be! In reality, she had two back to back shoots before being whisked off to do an hour long magazine interview. To top off her day, she still had an hour of martial arts training with her father. When all was said and done, she was exhausted. Her body was stiff and sore, though her partners had been extremely careful not to leave a single bruise on her flawless skin.
It pissed her off. She didn't like when people went easy on her just because of who she was, but she understood that sporting a black eye for a photo shoot would not be ideal either. Ugh.
Nozomi rolled into her stomach and buried her face in her pillow, freshly showered and changed into a pair of baby blue silk shorts and a white tank top. She whined into her pillow. "Why couldn't I have been born with a cool quirk?"
Not that she minded her life the way it was - her life was great! But sometimes...she just wished for more. She wanted fun, adventure, competition! Her father's safeguards made sure she was limited in all regards. Perhaps that's why she found herself reaching for her phone. She tapped the screen and entered her contacts with a frown.
"I forgot to ask for his number..." she murmured, thinking of her new blond haired acquaintance. Bakugo Katsuki... a smile pulled on the corners of her lips as she replayed their encounter. Today counted as their first real interaction and to think she even got him to agree to breakfast with her! Sure, she quickly found out that he had a very colorful vocabulary and a cocky attitude, but she sort of liked that he was a bit rough around the edges. He couldn't be all bad, either. Despite his initial complaints, he still stuck around with her and indulged her in conversation until it was time for her to go. She had a feeling if he really didn't want anything to do with her, he wouldn't.
Filled with inspiration, Nozomi tossed her phone aside and reached into her bedside table. She pulled out a sketch pad and a set of drawing pencils. Laying on her belly, Nozomi hummed softly to herself as she began the outline of her new drawing. She drew until her eyes began to feel heavy and her fingers began to slip. Finally, her head came to rest on the crook of her arm. Her pencil fell from her fingertips that cradled the spine of her sketch pad where she had begun contouring the shape of a familiar face.
—
Sunday morning came in the sound of a loud, annoying beep beep beep echoing throughout her room. Nozomi groaned, whining incoherently for the device to shut up and how it wasn't fair. She ungracefully flung herself out of bed and stomped across the room, slamming her palm onto the top of her alarm clock. 5:30am.
"I hate mornings..." she grumbled to herself as she dragged her feet into the bathroom and began preparing herself for her morning wake up run.
It was 6:30 when she made it to the park. Slapping her cheeks, Nozomi perked up as soon as she saw a head of ash blond spikes at the top of the hill. Katsuki stood with his back to her, stretching his arms across his chest. His red eyes turned to her as she approached.
"Mornin'!" She grinned.
"You look like shit."
Wow. What a charmer.
"Thanks, sunshine. Not so bad looking yourself." Nozomi felt her lips twitch at his honesty. She really did look like shit. She was tired and just wanted to crawl back into bed until noon. She couldn't even remember the last time she slept in that late... shaking those thoughts from her head, Nozomi twisted her torso and did a few stretches herself. "Today is finally my real day of rest," she added with a content sigh.
Katsuki scoffed. "It's not 'rest' if you wake up at this hour to go for a fucking run."
True. He had a point. "I guess, but it's habit by now. I have no appointments today, though, so I'm finally free to do whatever I want! That's close enough to rest for me."
"Workaholic."
"Psh."
"Speaking of..." Katsuki narrowed his eyes at her. "You never mentioned you were the daughter of Best Jeanist."
Oh, she didn't? Oops. Nozomi's smile grew. "I wondered how long it was going to take you to figure it out. You don't strike me as the type to follow fashion magazines." Granted most the guys she saw carrying around her covers were usually not doing it for the fashion aspect of it. "Does it matter though?"
Katsuki was silent for a moment, then shrugged his shoulders. "Not really. You're still the same quirkless loser."
Quirkless loser?! Nozomi's eyes widened as a smirk tugged on his lips. "Oh yeah? Well, I bet this quirkless loser can beat your sorry ass in a foot race," she challenged him. Despite his offensive words, there was no malice in his tone, which lead her to believe he was just trying to get under her skin. Well, she would rise to that challenge!
Katsuki rose to her challenge, straightening his back and cracking his hands. "Ha! Yeah right. Let's see you try. I'm gonna roast your sorry ass." Nozomi noted the change in his voice; his tone became huskier the more riled he got.
She liked it, along with the fire burning in his eyes.
"Bring it!" She tossed her bag down next to his stuff and jogged over to stand beside him. "Our normal course, but whoever gets done first wins. Agreed?"
Katsuki lowered himself into his starting position. "Yeah, whatever. Let's just go already!"
Nozomi copied him. She took a deep breath to steady herself and cast a glance up at Katsuki. His eyes were set forward with victory screaming behind red irises. "Okay," she said. "Get set...go!"
They both took off at the same time. Their mild pace quickly escalated as they refused to give an inch on one another. As soon as Katsuki took the lead, Nozomi quickened her pace and pulled ahead, then Katsuki would speed up and slip ahead of her, and the process would repeat back and forth until finally on the last stretch of their race, Katsuki pulled ahead a further distance than Nozomi could cover.
She refused to give up though, hot on his heels until the last second. The cherry blossom tree came into view. Face flushed, lungs heaving, and stomach cramping, Nozomi finished mere seconds behind Katsuki. At the very least, she was pleased to see he was breathing nearly as hard as she was. Their typical morning jog turned into a morning sprint and they finished sooner than they normally would have.
"Aaaah man!" Nozomi choked out between breaths. She flopped down beneath the cherry blossom tree and threw her arms out beside her. "I was so close."
"Tch," Katsuki smirked down at her. "You didn't stand a chance."
Nozomi shook her head. She thought she still stood a pretty good chance. "I'll beat you next time!" She exclaimed. She wanted to blame it on how tired she was, but she knew that wasn't right. Katsuki was fast and she had a feeling he could be a lot faster if he had to be. She would like to see how her speed would compare to him under other circumstances...
"Whatever, loser. Keep dreaming." Katsuki knelt beside her and grabbed his water bottle, taking a long sip from it. His breathing had almost returned to normal already, Nozomi realized while her own heart was still thudding so loud she could hear it pounding in her head.
Nozomi pushed herself into a sitting position and grabbed a water from her bag along with a small handkerchief and began refreshing herself. "Are you going to train more?"
Katsuki's didn't turn his head, but his red irises darted toward her out of the corners of his eyes. "Ah? What's it to you?"
"Do you mind if I stay to watch?" She asked. Since his secret mini-demonstration yesterday in the cafe, she was curious to see his quirk in action. Explosion... She was curious about just how powerful he really was to be aiming for U.A.'s hero course.
"Tch. I don't give a shit what you do." Brash, but she'd take it for now. Katsuki stood back up, unzipping his track jacket. He tossed it on the ground to reveal a tight black tank top underneath. Without another word, Katsuki made his way down the hill a fair distance away to start working with his quirk.
Meanwhile, Nozomi found her eyes stuck to the blond's physique. His skin was slick with sweat from running in the summer heat, making the muscles on his arms and back more pronounced. Heat crawled up Nozomi's neck and she felt her heart skip a beat. Someone works out... She hadn't noticed it before beneath his jacket, but it was clear now that he trained his body every day and the results were evident. His broad back tapered into a 'v' at his waist and fuck those triceps. Nozomi felt her eyes drift a little lower. She bet he had a nice ass under those baggy sweat pants too...
What?
Nozomi's fingers twitched for the sketchpad she had been working in last night and pulled it from her back. With her cheeks dusted in pink, she forced herself to tear her eyes away from Katsuki and took a breath that she hadn't realized she had been holding. She opened up to her unfinished drawing and touched her pencil to the page. Emerald green eyes rose over the edge of the notebook to observe Katsuki rolling his shoulders down below. Her fingers began to move.
BOOM, KA-B-BOOOM, KABOOM!
Nozomi missed the first explosion Katsuki gave off, but the loud sound had started her so bad that she nearly screamed and threw her notebook in the air. Thankfully, she saved herself from such embarrassment by simply jumping almost a foot in the air; her startled squeak was drowned out by the loudness of his quirk. Several more explosions followed after the first, all ranging in different sizes.
Holy...fucking...shit...
From her distance on top of the hill, Nozomi could feel the earth tremble and the heat from his explosions brush past her face. The wind it caused brushed stray strands of hair into her face. Her jaw gradually slackened as she watched him shadow spar, setting off calibrated explosions in various spaces around him. He detonated smaller explosions to propel himself in the air, amazing her with his flexibility and how nimble he was.
His quirk is amaze...no. Nozomi watched further and amended her previous thought. "He's amazing." To be blessed with such a powerful quirk was one thing, but to transform it and expand it's uses was another. Some people would just be satisfied with setting bombs off in peoples faces, but Katsuki was smart enough to explore his quirks true capabilities. Big, intimidating explosions was definitely part of it, but he used the explosions to propel his own body, to stun, to distract... When he got to U.A., she wondered how his use of it would continue to evolve.
It wasn't a question of if anymore. Nozomi had grown up around Pros and Side Kicks her whole life and she knew on the spot that this kid had amazing potential. He was going places; no ifs, ands, or buts about it.
Watching him, Nozomi couldn't help feeling a smidge jealous of his abilities. A bitter smile tugged on the corners of her lips. "Stupid Bakugo..." She mumbled to herself, turning her eyes back to the sketch she was working on. Even on paper he looked so... she felt her face heat up. "You get to be so cool..."
—
Nozomi awoke to a sharp stabbing pain in her side. "Ow..." She muttered, blinking her bleary eyes open. She looked to her left to see Katsuki standing beside her with his foot jabbed in her side. Ah, to that's where the pain came from. When did he get done...? Her groggy brain caught up and realized her exhaustion must have caught up with her. Even through her amazement and the loudness of his quirk she managed to fall asleep with her head on her knees, sketchbook cradled to her chest. "Whoops," she laughed sheepishly. "I had a good nap though..."
Katsuki kicked her again.
"Ow!" Nozomi snapped, shooting a glare at him. "What was that for? I'm awake now." He did it again, causing her to lift an arm and swat his leg away. "Quit it, already!"
Katsuki finally stopped. He stood beside her with a bored look on his face. "You're an idiot," He commented.
Nozomi bit back her comeback of, Yeah, well you're an ass, and stuck her tongue out at him instead. He appeared to be done with training. His jacket was tied around his waist and his towel hung around his shoulders. His torso glistened with sweat.
"What are you doing?"
Nozomi blinked, snapping out of her very distracted thoughts. "Huh?"
Katsuki rolled his eyes. "Well, I'm done so I'm out of here. Later, loser."
Reality dropped on her like a ton of bricks. Nozomi scrambled to her feet. "Wait, already!?"
To her surprise, he paused and glanced over his shoulder at her. "What - you idiot, it's almost noon already!" He snapped at her. "I'm hungry, so I'm going to clean up and grab food."
Noon...? Oh crap, had it really been that long? Sure enough, Nozomi glanced down at her cell phone which confirmed it was 11:30 in the morning. She wasted all that time! Closing up her half finished drawing, Nozomi grabbed her bag and scrambled after him. "Wait!"
"What now?!" Katuski half yelled, stopping in his tracks again.
Nozomi came up beside him. She pulled her phone out and grinned. "Can I have your number? Lets meet up for brunch. Seeing as you beat me today, I'll pay." Seeing as how they saw each other every morning and were getting on talking terms, she supposed it couldn't hurt, right!? This could be a step toward friendship!
"No way."
Nozomi blinked, wondering if she heard that correctly. "Huh?" That wasn't the response she expected to hear.
Staring down at her, Katsuki had an expression of pure perplexity on his face. "You heard me. What in the hell makes you think I'd want your number?" There was almost a laugh in his voice. "Piss off. I got more important things to do."
With that, he turned on his heel and began walking. Nozomi stared after him, aggravated by his callous response. Oh, really!? Mr. High-and-mighty was too good for her? She felt her brow twitch in irritation. "Yeah, well fuck you too!" She shouted after him. So much for being friends.
Katsuki gave her the finger as he walked away and Nozomi huffed, watching him go.
What an asshole.
And yet, a smile tugged on the corners of her lips. Challenge accepted.