Something Like a Star (B. Katsuki)

Eight: Sports Festival Part 1

     The next few weeks leading up to the beginning of the Sports Festival were riddled with Kirishima and Bakugou, so much so that Nadoka almost wanted a break from them. But that was a strong almost; mostly she just soaked up every bit of attention she got. Bakugou walked with her to school in the mornings as well as home in the afternoons, listening to her rant about this and that with an ever-growing fondness that at this point he didn't care to try and push away. Sometimes Nadoka wondered how he managed to spare her so much time, but then she remembered that normal high school teens usually had a lot more free time than she did. They even had a few more sleepovers that thankfully ended a lot more successfully than the first.

     Kirishima joined them when they arrived to school everyday and walked Nadoka to every single class, regardless of whether or not he was in the class too. At first Nadoka had protested, trying to assure him that there was no way an attacker would come for her in the middle of a largely populated school in broad daylight, but he didn't care; told her that he just wanted to walk with his best friend— no underlying reasons for that.

     And so her days were slowly filled to the brim with red and blond hair, and by the time the sports festival arrived, the Three Musketeers were somehow even closer than before.

     This increased time spent in their company especially didn't help the conflicting and at times overwhelming emotions that had begun to flood Nadoka's chest damn near every time she saw Bakugou. As time went on and their friendship grew, she was able to see through the cracks in his walls more and more and caught glimpses of the Bakugou Katsuki that was sweet and cared for his friends; the side that brought her lozenges when she was sick and walked with her to and from school and helped her with her homework if she needed. The side that offered to accompany her to after-school training so she wouldn't have to train alone and provided her tips on how she could better her Quirk, for once without yelling or accompanying them with an insult.

      Because Bakugou wasn't the rigid, icy asshole that many people painted him as. Sure, he was definitely loud and his filter was all but nonexistent, but if anything Nadoka could appreciate the fact that this meant he was also honest and true. And his determination and dedication to become a hero was, although executed rather poorly, plenty respectable nonetheless.

    She wasn't stupid, she knew what a majority of these feelings were and what they meant in terms of how she felt about him, but what she lacked in stupidity she made up for in stubbornness, and had yet to relent and accept these feelings, much less act upon them. Mostly she just tried to push them away, play off every bit of attention she got from him as him fearing for her safety and nothing more.

     The Three Musketeers began to know and do things that could only be known and done by people who were very close. Bakugou unconsciously began to get extra rice with his lunch because Nadoka had developed a habit of stealing his. Nadoka bought a pencil sharpener just so Kirishima would stop getting up in the middle of math everyday to sharpen his broken pencil. Kirishima took an extra set of notes in English every day, because Bakugou had the habit of accidentally exploding his when he got frustrated.

     They did little things for each other and didn't even truly realize they had, but it felt natural to do them. The casualty behind their intimacy was easy.

     Weeks passed and suddenly the UA Sports Festival had arrived. Nadoka had dreamed of this festival for weeks, and she had thought hard about strategies and fighting styles in the hopes that she may impress all the potential hero agencies that would be observing the games. She had also begun to pay very close attention to her classmates, examining their fighting styles and combat abilities, searching for tips and tricks that could give her an upperhand should she ever have to battle against them.