Uraraka absentmindedly twiddled her thumbs as she stared at the TV. The reporter's voice flowed faintly from the dim screen, keeping the silence at bay, just loud enough that only she could hear.
It was still early; the sky remained a dusty blue outside as the sun had yet to rise enough to illuminate the ground.
The common room was empty save for herself.
Her eyes rested on the moving screen, half focused as the nicely-dressed woman spoke her scripted words from behind a large white desk. After a moment, the screen changed to show an interview outside an office building. The man had a look of worry on his clean-shaven face; wrinkles marred his brow as he spoke into the microphone held up to him by another pretty reporter.
There had been many sightings of the League of Villains ever since the incident in Kamino Ward, coming in constantly from all across the country. This must have been the fifth one she had seen just today.
"Yes, I saw them right over there by the crosswalk. There were two of them, both with red hair, and I saw them pretty clearly too. I thought they looked like two of those Sacrosanct kids I've been seeing on the news, so I called it in. I hid inside my office until the police got here, you know, since they say not to approach if you see any of them, so I didn't see where they went off to or anything."
Sacrosanct.
Uraraka frowned reflexively. Just the word was enough to leave a bitter taste in her mouth. It was impossible to get away from it: plastered everywhere on the news, uttered by strangers passing by, whispered faintly between her friends. She didn't like it at all. The TV shifted back to the newsroom as the first reporter began speaking again. Five images appeared on screen, and Naoko was among them. She didn't like that either. She didn't like that they used her school picture as they talked about the horrible acts they say she committed, she didn't like that they called her "Unknown" and placed her face next to those criminals from the League of Villains, she didn't like that her cheerful, sweet friend wasn't here with her like she was supposed to be, and most of all, she didn't like that no one in the class would talk about any of it. There was a deafening silence around it all, almost like a taboo, as if it were some immoral subject. Her chest tightened as footage from that night in Kamino Ward played on the screen. How many times had she seen that footage?
"Ochako?" a soft voice called from behind her.
She turned to see Yaoyorozu standing by the doorway, still wearing her nightclothes, as her worried gaze shifted between herself and the TV. The girl approached steadily and took a seat next to her on the plush sofa.
"Good morning," Uraraka greeted with a small smile.
"How long have you been up? It's still so early."
"Oh, just a few hours. I just... wanted to..." Her eyes briefly shifted back to the screen.
Yaoyorozu followed her gaze.
"You've been watching a lot of this lately."
She only nodded.
"Are you... ok?"
"I... I don't know."
Yaoyorozu's lips curved into a worried frown as she moved closer, wrapping an arm around her friend whose eyes, she noticed, were rimmed with dark circles. "There's no way we could have known, Ochako. Please don't blame yourself," she coaxed quietly, rubbing comforting circles into her back. "She was-" she hesitated for a moment, "...we... didn't see it."
Uraraka's unfocused gaze lingered on the floor, bitter conflict evident in her tired frown. She rubbed her forehead gently before looking up at her friend.
"So what are you doing up so early?" she asked with a faint smile.
She didn't miss the way Yaoyorozu's lips pressed into a thin line, nor the way her eyes flicked to the news report playing quietly in the background.
Uraraka knew she had come to see it too.
"They don't want to talk about it," Yaoyorozu uttered, her weariness finally seeping into her tone.
"It's just... hard, I think."
"Yea..." she nodded absentmindedly. "I think they feel guilty too."
The same guilt they both felt. Guilt for liking her, guilt for not noticing, guilt for not being able to stop it.
Uraraka's eyes lowered. She understood. They were among those closest to her, after all. She didn't know what to say, if she could say anything, to make it better.
"We can talk about it if you want," she offered after a moment.
The taller girl smiled slightly before it was replaced by the same conflicted frown everyone seemed to wear these days. She rubbed her arm absentmindedly, hesitating before opening her mouth.
"It's what Midoriya said a few days ago," she admitted finally, her voice quieter than usual. "Do you think it was all just an act?"
Uraraka's lips pressed together as she turned the question over in her mind. "I've been thinking about that too. I... I'd like to think maybe she really did like us, and maybe she really did want to be our friend, but I'm not sure. I... I just know it felt real at the time."
Yaoyorozu nodded, staring at the small table in front of them with a faraway look in her eyes. Her voice remained small as she spoke once again, "I guess it doesn't really matter in the end. Either way, she's still..."
"Yea..."
The two sat in silence for another long moment, only the quiet voices from the TV flowing between them. They were no different from the rest of their classmates after all. They had plenty they wanted to say, but everything was trapped at the base of their throat. The hurt was still too present; they didn't know if they could bear letting their thoughts free, so for now, they wouldn't.
"The provisional license test is coming up," Yaoyorozu smiled softly as she deliberately moved to a lighter subject, "we'll have to train hard for it."
Uraraka smiled gratefully. "Yea, I'm excited. The passing rate isn't very high, but I know we can all make it!"
All 20 of them.
"We might be able to get a work-study afterward: that'll be exciting, huh?"
"I hope I can go back to Gunhead Agency. It was really nice there."
"I think I'll go for a different agency this time. Uwabami was great, but I think I want something a little more hands-on."
The two laughed lightheartedly upon recalling Yaoyorozu's unusual internship a few months ago.
Suddenly, the smile drained from the taller girl's face as her eyes landed on a figure entering the room. She hurriedly jolted forward and snatched the remote from the table, quickly flicking off the TV.
Uraraka blinked at her friend's suddenly wary expression. She followed her gaze, turning around halfway, and quickly stiffened when her eyes met with a furious Bakugo.
He stood in the doorway with a deep, twisting scowl. His knuckles were ghostly white, the muscles in his arm flexing as he gripped the handle of the trash bag like he was trying to crush it. She could see his jaw clench and unclench as he glared daggers their way. His attention, however, wasn't on them: instead his dark scowl shot right past the two and burned holes into the now dark television screen.
His glare snapped to Uraraka for a moment before she flinched, averting her gaze and instinctively shrinking into her seat. Yaoyorozu quickly looked away as well, her lips pressing into a taut line as she gripped the material of her pants nervously. They heard him sneer, followed by harsh footsteps and the sound of something being forcefully dumped into a trash can.
More footsteps followed, rapidly growing further away until, soon, they couldn't hear them anymore.
An uncomfortable silence fell over the room.
No one had taken Naoko's betrayal as poorly as Bakugo. On the night he was rescued from Kamino Ward, he refused to speak to anyone about what had happened, despite the barrage of questions from family and authorities alike; instead he chose to lock himself away in his room the moment he returned.
No one had seen much of him in the few days since, only catching brief glimpses when he moved into Heights Alliance with the rest of the class. Sometimes, Uraraka could hear distinct screaming coming from the boys' hall, despite being on the other side of the building. She heard some of the others had tried getting him out of his room, though to no avail. Not even Kirishima could get two words in before the door slammed in his face.
Everyone was concerned. It was rare for him to come out even during meals, and when he did, he never said a word to anyone and was always the first to leave. Two days ago, Kaminari, in an honest effort to cheer him up, accidentally mentioned Naoko's name during dinner, and it ended in a dozen broken dishes and Kirishima and Sero having to physically tear Bakugo off of him.
They all gave him a wide berth after that.
Bakugo and Naoko were close: everyone knew it; they had lived under the same roof for months after all, but Uraraka could see that wasn't the end of it. She had seen the way they interacted as if they had known each other for years, the way Naoko would joke and prod at him and the way he would yell at her for it. But regardless of what insults he spewed on any particular day, his words never held any real aggression to them, not like they did when directed at everyone else. Naoko knew this well, it seemed, because she never spoke a single negative word about him, or anyone for that matter, instead simply grinning and laughing off anything he might throw at her.
Uraraka remembered how they never failed to come to class together in the mornings. Naoko would come in chattering happily about one thing or another while he listened, frowning, next to her. She would always bid him goodbye as they split towards their own desks, patting him on the arm or nudging his side and receiving a low grunt in response.
He was never as annoyed as he liked to appear.
During lunch, when she wasn't sitting with Uraraka and her friends, Naoko could always be found with Bakugo and his friends. With his adamant refusal to sit anywhere near Midoriya, she chose to alternate between the groups often. Once, when Naoko had sat next to Uraraka for the fifth day in a row, the pair complaining idly about how much homework Midnight had assigned earlier, Bakugo came stomping over, snatched her out of her seat, and dragged the startled girl over to his table instead. He claimed, rather loudly, that Kaminari and Kirishima were being "shitty dumbasses" and he would blow something up if their table didn't "get at least a few more brain cells." Uraraka thought it might, in part, have been because Midoriya was sitting on her other side that day.
Bakugo always waited for her in the afternoon when class was dismissed. He would stand by the door, scowling and demanding she hurry up as she leisurely put away her books, chatting with Yaoyorozu and Todoroki for a minute or two before waving them goodbye. She would always smile as they left the classroom together, never minding his halfhearted insults and threats of leaving her behind. He never did, after all.
Naoko was not a particularly skilled fighter- in terms of power, she ranked close to the bottom of the class- and that never seemed to sit well with Bakugo. He would shout at her for slacking during training even if she wasn't paired with him that day, often hollering across the field loud enough for class 1-B to hear as well. He would most frequently berate her for not taking her training seriously, saying she would never become a half-decent hero that way, but every once in a while, he would accidentally let his real concern slip: the fact that she wouldn't be able to protect herself. She always swore up and down that she would be fine, that he didn't need to worry, but of course that didn't stop him. She would sometimes joke that no villain could hurt her because he would always be there to keep her safe. He was strong enough for the both of them, she once said. Bakugo had always been a hard worker, but it seemed he now had a reason beyond himself to become the best.
Uraraka saw the influence her friend had over the loud, brash boy. He was just a bit more docile when she was around, just a bit kinder, just a bit warmer. Naoko probably didn't notice the way his eyes would trail after her, absentmindedly staring at her from across the room, moments before he caught himself and quickly turned away, muttering something under his breath. She probably didn't catch the way he glared at other people when she laughed at something they said, especially when it was Midoriya or Todoroki. She probably never heard the way he talked about her when she wasn't around, the softness in his eyes not matching the scowl and the complaints spewing from his mouth. How could she? After all, she was always just out of sight, just out of earshot, just distracted enough to miss it.
From the sidelines, Uraraka could see what neither of them could, but that all seemed so far away now.
Naoko- Unknown- whoever she was- she couldn't have faked it, could she? She couldn't have been so cruel as to... to lure him in just to crush him like this, right?
Her friend would absolutely never have done something so heartless.
But that girl wasn't her friend. Her friend was never real.
"I'm... going to head upstairs," Uraraka broke the silence hesitantly. Standing from her seat, she slowly smoothed over her clothes as the unease continued to stir in her chest.
"Yea, me too," Yaoyorozu agreed quietly, rising to her feet.
Silently, the two girls shuffled towards the elevator on the other side of the floor. A soft chime sounded as they stepped inside and pressed the buttons for their respective levels, the gleaming metal doors closing just as the sun fully rose beyond the window.