Chapter Text
Bakugou walked with tentative steps. He wanted to comfort and reassure Uraraka but was unsure how to go about it.
“I’m kind of shooting in the dark here, but…can you tell me what happened? I really don’t like how I can see you’re upset…but I can’t fix it.”
Uraraka was touched by the direct attempt. She watched his tensed frame step and move alongside her despite his effort to soften his eyes towards hers. Uraraka didn’t answer bringing her mouth into a line as she walked on holding her arms against her body. This shouldn’t have been so difficult, she liked Bakugou and he’d done nothing but show her he cared about her.
Releasing a breath she’d been holding in she stopped mid step and turned to Bakugou. He stopped with arched brows surprised she’d turned direct towards him.
“Camie’s hot and I don’t see myself that way. It’s so, so stupid. You haven’t done anything for me to…you know. Bakugou, I’m sorry.” She looked down as she spoke feeling embarrassed. Camie really was physically beautiful and Uraraka didn’t think she looked bad per se, but she never saw herself the way Camie projected herself.
Bakugou took the silence and slipped his hands into hers.
“Hey, look at me.”
Uraraka didn’t meet his gaze and continued to look down. Bakugou took a hand and tilted her chin slowly so she had to look at him.
“I’m gonna say this, and I really want you to believe me. Please believe me. I do not fuck with Camie. It’s something I don’t like looking back on. No one regrets it more than I do. She’s attractive, but so are you. I’m around you and I…yeah.” He gripped her chin a little firmer and with a slight nudge. “I…I don’t know how to reassure you that you’re hot. But I don’t want her. At all.” He paused again hoping he was headed in the right direction. “I know we just met, but I really like you Uraraka. I want to get to know you. I like who I am when I’m with you. Who I was with Camie, I didn’t like that in the end. Is any of that landing?”
Fuck, please let these be the right words.
Uraraka looked up and searched for any sign of insincerity. Ardent and stoic Bakugou didn’t budge as he spoke. His body language was direct and while he struggled with the words he didn’t waver standing firm. She believed him even if her memories of her own past reared their heads and whispered to discredit Bakugou.
“I haven’t had a ton of experience with guys, not good ones anyway.” She looked up finally of her own volition. “But I want to get to know you too. I feel the same. I’m different, in a good way, around you.” The small glimmer of hope that peaked over the mountain of doubt she held brightened as she spoke. Maybe Bakugou was the real deal.
Bakugou heaved an enormous sigh at the admission from Uraraka.
“Can I hug you?”
“Hah, yeah, you can hug me.”
As he picked her up into his arms he lifted her and brought her close to his comparably hulking frame. “You dummy, how could you think I didn’t want you,” kissing her firmly on the cheek as he held her. She swatted at him playfully.
“The girls…they just…I dunno. It sounded like a big deal when they said it.”
“Well fuck them, they’re wrong.” He gripped onto her tighter. Bakugou wanted to transfer whatever hot headed confidence he’d cultivated and transfer it to Uraraka. He held on sighing, it probably wasn’t convincing enough. “Ice cream?”
“Yes, please.”
Bakugou brightened, he hadn’t expected her to say yes. Uraraka squeezed his hand as they turned to walk towards the shop.
“Oh wow, hello, coming in after clocking out Bakugou? So dedicated.” Ojisan was elated to see the pair walking in. “Come to do some overtime?”
“S’okay if Uraraka comes to the back with me?”
Ojisan looked over at Uraraka and back at Bakugou. He smiled as he lifted the bar gate to the counter. Uraraka and Bakugou walked through Uraraka bowing a little to ojisan. “Just make sure you guys clean your hands. 25 seconds each way!”
“I’ll be careful, won’t touch anything important.”
“Oh by all means please, my place is yours Uraraka-san. Think you’re in good hands with Bakugou, too.”
Bakugou pulled Uraraka to the back room full of mixers and machinery, jars and containers full of ingredients nestled behind a clear glass refrigerator door. It looked like Bakugou had organized the entirety of the room. Everything had a place and it looked well cared for. It was impressive to see as Uraraka looked into the mixer to see how deep the standing height mixer went. Not missing a chance to saddle up behind her Bakugou slipped his hands around her waist as she bent over to look into the big bowl.
“Hey.”
“Yes?”
“So…what kinda ice cream you wanna make?”
“I get to choose?”
Bakugou nodded and led her to the ingredients and started pointing out some of the more common things he normally used to make the store’s ice cream. He knew so much about ice cream and it was so odd because Bakugou was such a rough person and yet here he knew the intricacies of ice cream while explaining it’s potential to be complex as well as sweet. It felt soft and unlikely, the complete opposite of his persona, at least his outer persona. Uraraka had always liked desserts and now she had someone who basically considered himself a maker of all things ice cream. It was pleasant and unexpected.
“What’s this?” She picked up a canister marked with a “C”.
“Cardamom, you wanna use it?” Bakugou opened the silver jar and waved the lid over the top wafting the scent to Uraraka.
“Oh wow…that smells amazing. So spicy.”
“Hah, just barely, but you’re sensitive to spice huh?”
Uraraka pursed her lips nodding, she was in fact sensitive to it, not something she naturally gravitated towards. “I mean, I’m open to it. Spicy things. I could get into it.”
Bakugou’s eyes zeroed in on her. Even after what was essentially their ‘first fight’ he still wanted to be around her, still wanted to show he was just as interested as before. He breathed in the spicy aroma that started to fill the space between them. “So..if not spicy..what do you normally go for?”
“I guess I like mostly sweet things, they’re easy on me. Make me feel at home. I don’t normally buy a lot of stuff for myself and when I was a kid I begged for sugar and things like that all the time. Hah, maybe that’s why I’m so short huh? No nutrients and stuff.” She smiled brightly at the blonde boy.
“Are spices kind of overwhelming for you?”
He looked so reverent when he asked. Uraraka closed a hand over the jar grasping his hand holding the base. She sensed he wasn’t talking about the cardamom.
Looking over at the other containers Uraraka saw how beautiful they were all on their own. Bakugou was neat like a military man and even though he was entirely unexpected and jarring at times he definitely had a softness to him.
“No…just because I don’t usually go for spice doesn’t mean it can’t go well with things I usually like, right? I mean. What’s a little adventure? Cardamom’s suppose to go with things like orange or vanilla…I can only imagine what mixing something spicy and sweet makes.”
Bakugou was sweating. The droplets of nitroglycerin started to bead on his forehead. Uraraka took a hand and swiped it across his cheek. “You have really soft skin, how do you do it?” Bakugou put down the cardamom and wrapped his hand around the hand on his face and snaked an arm around Uraraka’s waist.
“S’the glycerin in my sweat. I’m always…moisturized.”
Uraraka laughed, did he just say he was…moist? She tried to suppress her laugh and Bakugou caught onto what he’d just said. “You nerd. C’mere.” He latched his lips onto hers and they kissed in the small cloud of cardamom.
“So…mmmph…what kind of…uhnnn… what other fla--”
“Lemon. You wanna…hahh…try that?”
“Yeah.”
They kept making out as Bakugou led them to the walk in refrigerator still locked onto Uraraka. She really did taste sweet. Kind of like a floral note if Bakugou had to decide. He quickly started thinking of what spice went with that. Did he have hibiscus?
He closed the walk in and flipped on the lights.
“Isn’t…ahh…isn’t your uncle gonna?”
“It’s a risk. Yeah. But I mean…I don’t mind if you don’t.”
She didn’t mind and plunged her tongue into his throat. They continued as Bakugou tried to multi-task, pulling lemons and citrus down from the shelves. It was kind of funny the way he held the fruits to her not willing to let go of the produce as well as Uraraka. The cold press of the orange and yellow orbs chilled her back and she giggled with the growing amount of fruit being held against her.
“I think…we have enough.” She smiled wide and placed one last kiss onto his lips.
Open mouthed and a little lost in himself Bakugou looked at her clad in citrus. He loved the visual, it was so silly.
“C’mon, you’re mauling me. Let’s make ice cream.”
As the afternoon drew on Bakugou and Uraraka made several batches of ice cream. Fruits, spices, and even some bitters made their way into the mini concoctions. It was tender and thoughtful the way Bakugou showed her the small little world of flavor he seemed so well versed in.
He asked about her life in town, how much she’d been a part of it despite not living there full time and she asked about his hero work, how his parents had managed to make so much money that they’d started to buy the town on top of him becoming a hero.
“Yeah, it’s dumb, but my hag of a mom kind of knows what she’s doing, like with the town and what not. I still don’t really want to be a part of it, but..”
“But what?”
“I could see myself liking it.”
“Really? What changed your mind?”
Bakugou leaned over and kissed her tapping her cheek as he pulled away.
“So, you two making money for me or what?”
“We sure are ojisan!” Uraraka beamed up at the old man as he pushed the double doors out in front of him. “You wanna try some of the flavors?”
“Oh yes of course. And, if I’m not mistakened, your being here has helped Bakugou come up with new things, huh? It looks like his dry spell is over.”
“Dry spell?”
Bakugou looked over at his uncle, “Yeah, I didn’t come up with anything for a couple weeks. Wasn’t feeling it.”
“He’s always been a bit emotional, made him kind of moody, but cooking and things like that tended to help.”
“Hey, watch it old man.”
“Now, now, you spent a lot of time in my kitchen as a kid. You definitely are emotional. Bakugou just hides that part of him beneath all of that.” The old man gestured at the entirety of Bakugou.
Bakugou wasn’t up for being analyzed. “Here, just friggen, try this shit.” Shoving a spoon into ojisan’s hand the old man laughed as he twirled the spoon like a baton.
“This better be good,” he winked at Uraraka. It seemed so natural to be around the two of them, Bakugou and his uncle really did have what seemed like a good partnership and while it was still terribly new for Uraraka, she started to consider ojisan a friend.
“Thank you for letting me hang out back here ojisan.”
“Ah it’s nothing. And this ice cream is good. I dunno what you did to Bakugou, but this is…quite delectable. Hey Bakugou, you ready to make some of this in larger batches?”
“Let’s test it out first. Just because you like it doesn’t mean the town will.”
“Doubting my taste buds? You kidder you. Nope. I want the large batches, get ready to make a bunch of this Bakugou!”
The heat was truly becoming unbearable as more and more people flocked to the ice cream shop. The small reprieve from the heat was welcomed and Bakugou worked longer and longer hours preparing for the large influx of customers.
Uraraka would sometimes help out and scoop ice cream while ojisan worked the register talking with customers and explaining how his new dynamic duo was the genius behind the new roll of flavors and menu. It was fun. It felt like a family business if she could really call herself family unofficially.
The summer heat rolled through mercilessly. Bakugou was always smelling like nitroglycerin even without the added heat but now Uraraka started to smell like him too because he sweated so much. They had spent almost every day together and it was hard to separate her fragrance from his. The slight whiskey note of his sweat mixed with the floral of her own scent made for something new. It was unique and different something Uraraka grew to love.
July turned into August and soon Uraraka would be needed back at school. She’d been selected to be a school administrator, something she was super grateful for but also something that would keep her far from her family. Bakugou also didn’t like the idea of her being far.
They sat by the river, the one Bakugou had fished her out of months ago. “So, you’re heading back huh?” Uraraka nodded.
“It’s a really good job. I know you’re probably tired of hearing it, but it really will help my family financially.” She felt a tug at her heart as she spoke. Did helping her family mean she had to leave Bakugou?
“I mean, good thing you’re my girlfriend, otherwise what other excuse would I have to come visit you?”
“Hah?”
Bakugou looked back at her retort, “What?”
“You…you called me your girlfriend.”
“Yeah, so?”
“So, it’s not like you’ve been referring to me that way. I didn’t know you wanted to ask me to officially…”
“You dummy. Of course you’re my frickin’ girlfriend. I’ve already made sure everyone knows.” He did in fact let everyone know, anyone within a five mile radius, that Uraraka wasn’t available. But that didn’t mean Uraraka knew, he just assumed she did.
“Well, this is a first for me. I didn’t know I was taken.”
Bakugou scrunched his face and scooped her up into his arms. “Really? You didn’t know I was claiming you all this time?”
She wiggled out of his grasp and laughed. Bakugou only caught her back up into his arms and braced himself not letting go.
“You’re gonna be so far, babe. I don’t like that.”
“Yeah…”
“I wanna make us official though.” He kissed her. “Be mine?”
“I can’t believe you thought I knew this whole time.”
“Yeah, well, you’re kind of dense.”
“Hey…”
“Only a little,” he doved back to kiss her again pressing his full face into hers, “So, whaddya say Cheeks? Wanna be my girlfriend?”
“Mmm…I dunno.”
“WHAT?”
“Just kidding. You are so ridiculous sometimes, Bakugou. Of course I’ll be your girlfriend.”
“Thank god, now…about this whole moving away thing…”