I've Got You Under My Skin

8 - The Proposal

Izuku found her once she got into class.

"I heard you and Kacchan were fighting outside the gates again today," Izuku said, looking at her worriedly.

"We didn't fight." he gave her a look as if to say I don't believe you. "Really. He did lose his temper and started shouting at me, but what else is new."

Izuku frowned at her.

"Midoriya-kun. Was Bakugou always like this? You said you're childhood friends, right"

Izuku frowned again, "...no, he wasn't. When we were younger, he wasn't as volatile. He became like this after he got his quirk."

"Ah, I thought so," (Y/N) said to herself.

"What do you mean?" Izuku asked her, but she shook her head and smiled at him.

"Never mind, Midoriya-kun."

Bakugou, despite his words, did not completely ignore her. He bumped and shoved her every time he could, and glared at her every time their eyes met, but at least he wasn't actively trying to pick a fight, which was a relief.

Izuku and (Y/N) became friends after that. They ate all their meals together and bonded over their hero inspirations, such as their love for All Might. Izuku often talked about heroes and his notes on them, and even though (Y/N) herself was a hero fanatic, she found herself learning about heroes she hadn't heard of before, some of the smallest details about different quirks, and she couldn't be happier about the fact that she was able to talk to a guy like Izuku about it.

But even both they both loved and wanted to be heroes, (Y/N) couldn't help being worried and scared for her friend, even though he was quirkless he still wanted to be a hero. She was scared he might get hurt, but understood that it was his decision to make. (Y/N) saw how much this dream meant to him, and encouraged him despite her fear.

(Y/N) went to Aldera High for about a year, during which nothing changed. She and Izuku had become close, enough to call each other by their given names. It didn't take long for (Y/N) to grow close to the soft boy, despite being afraid of trusting another boy with friendship again, but there was just something about Izuku that made her feel warm and safe. The fact that he was quirkless didn't bother, what did bother her was that everyone else seemed to have a problem with it. They had no qualms with insulting Izuku and hurting him, which made (Y/N) want to fiercely protect him even more.

And then there was Bakugou. One of the aforementioned bigots who took advantage of Izuku. Her relationship with him had (obviously) not improved since the day she punched him, but it had luckily not gotten worse. Izuku had told her it was probably because if Bakugou wanted to be a hero he couldn't afford to have a fight on his record, and since her family had 'connections' he was in fact weary of her. Not that he really had to be, considering the whole school was practically up his ass, she thought.

Her interactions with Bakugou were limited to shoulder shoves and (admittedly petty) insults thrown from both sides. A day didn't go by where (Y/N) and Bakugou didn't have a fight, or a shouting match, though it never escalated as the first one, and they were careful not to do it around teachers.

(Y/N), surprisingly, didn't mind. Since she had come into the picture, Bakugou had been nothing but irritating and fucking infuriating, but since she kept him occupied he picked on Izuku less now. She made sure to always be by Izuku's side and defend him from Bakugou, which made him dislike her even more but hey, not like she particularly cared about his perception of her. He found it more troublesome to seek out Izuku to torture, saying her "annoying ass" wasn't worth the effort, so she was satisfied she had at least a small part to play in keeping him away from Izuku as much as she could.