𝔰𝔦𝔵

word count: 1489

three long chapters in one day?  author-chan is bored and has nothing better to do. also i love the picture above

A few days later...

Everything has changed since I realised how I felt about Kacchan. Both for better and worse, but mostly worse. For one thing, I spent the entire weekend after Friday's sleepover overthinking every little moment with him. Now, come Monday, I'm wondering if there will be anything different between us, anything at all?

I sit down at my desk and fiddle with my pencil, watching the back of Kacchan's head. Should I say something to him? Argh. Why does everything have to become so complicated when you catch feelings?

Aizawa-sensei drags himself into the classroom, carrying a gigantic pot of coffee. He takes a long sip from it, and addresses the class in a bored tone.

"Class, the much awaited event of the year is coming up, and that is," he takes another sip, "U.A's sports festival. It's a chance to show pro heroes your skills — if you have any — so they might take you on as sidekicks, which would be a horrible decision on their part. Either way, I can't reveal to you the events, so you have to train yourselves in every way possible for the next few weeks."

He zips himself back into his sleeping bag. "Go outside and practice your physical strength and quirks. Think of it as an independent study. I trust Iida to keep you from doing anything wrong, but I don't really care. Now go. I'm tired."

"Can we use the pool, sensei, kero?" Tsuyu asks, presumably because she likes to train her frog-quirk in water.

"Mmf. Fine."

"Yess, girl's swimsuits!" Mineta cheers. Jiro slaps him across the face with her earphone jacks. "Oww!"

"Alright, class! Change into your gym uniforms or swimsuits and proceed to the gymnasium in an orderly fashion!" Iida commands, getting ignored as most of us run in a non-orderly fashion to the changing rooms.

In the changing room, I figure that I won't be swimming, so I change into the navy-blue gym uniform. I can't help but glance at Kacchan's toned back while he's changing, and his slim waist. Stop it, I order myself.

We make our way to the gymnasium, most of the training equipment is right next to the pool.

I decide to start with lifting weights. I pick up one of the medium-sized ones and flex my arm, lifting it and lowering it repetitively.

Next to me, Kirishima pummels a punching bag, using his hardening quirk. "Excited for the sport's festival, Midoriya?" he asks between punches.

I lower the weight and pick up a heavier one. "Yep! Are you?"

"I'm so pumped! I wanna do my best and impress the pros!"

"Well, good luck!" I say cheerfully, before moving over to the tall metal bar and begin some difficult chin-ups — I need to build my upper body strength so my arms can take my quirk's smash-punches.

On the bar across from me, Kacchan is doing the same exercise.

"Mmf... hhi Kacchan," I manage to say between exhausting chin-ups.

"Deku. I can do better chin-ups than you," he challenges instead of greeting me like a normal person.

I lift myself higher. "You... sure?" I pant.

"... watch me... damn," he struggles to lift himself above me.

I am watching, watching the way his muscles ripple so attractively. I lift myself again, but lose my grip and bang my chin on the bar before hitting the floor. I groan. My backside is sure to be bruised.

Kacchan lets go of the bar and lands agilely on the floor, on both feet. "I win," he smirks.

Still on the floor, I manage to catch my breath. "Okay, you win."

"Get up," he snaps, and walks over to the pool's edge.

I obey, struggling to my feet. I follow him over to the water, where he finishes saying something to Kaminari, who is goofing off in the water.

"Hey, Mido!" the electric blond calls.

"Hi Kaminari."

"Can you pass me my towel? It's just there."

"Sure." I grab the towel and crouch my the edge of the pool, handing the towel to him. He goes to take it, but instead he grabs my arm and tugs me in before I know what's happening.

"Agh!" I shout as I plummet into the water with a splash. Resurfacing, I push my soaked hair out of my eyes; my gym uniform is sopping wet.

Kaminari is cracking up laughing. "Oh, man, you should've seen your face."

"Hilarious," I respond drily, but I smile.

I unzip my drenched gym shirt and fling it onto the side of the pool, then paddle over to the edge, where Kacchan is sitting, suppressing laughter.

"Was this your idea?" I question.

"No idea what you're talking about," he says, but after knowing him my whole life, I can see he's blatantly lying.

"Okay, then," I pretend to let it go. "Can you help me out?" I reach out my arm for him to grab. He takes it, and I pull hard, dragging him in.

"Oi! How dare you, DAMN NERD!" he yells, coughing on water. His explosive blond hair is wet and lying flat on his head like a drowned cat. He too unzips his gym shirt.

I tread water to keep afloat, flicking my hair out of my eyes with a toss of my head, "Oops, sorry, Kacchan," I blink in fake-innocence.

He smirks. "I'm coming for you, Deku." He begins swimming towards me in long, able strokes.

"Eek," I squeak and paddle as fast as I can, kicking my feet to splash water in his face.

Tsuyu sees me coming over to her side of the pool. "Oh, hey, Midori—" she stops when she sees Kacchan on my heels. "I'll help, kero!" Sticking out her tongue, she wraps it around me and swings me over three lanes of the pool, giving me an excellent head start.

"Thanks, Asui!" I shout as I keep swimming.

"Call me Tsuyu!" she calls to remind me.

I keep going, splashing through the water as fast as I can. It's become a race to the other side of the school's gigantic pool. I can tell Kacchan is just playing, but he always gets competitive, even with meaningless games. And I want to win this one.

With Tsuyu's help, I'm at an advantage, and Kacchan's quirk isn't able to give him a boost in the water without doing serious harm. But then again, he might not care about the damage.

I duck under another one of the lane dividers; I am so close to the other side. Then, I feel a hand clamp around my ankle and pull me back. "Gah!"

Kacchan laughs deeply and menacingly. "Try and catch me, nerd," he yells as he passes me in a quick stroke. He's almost at the other side of the pool, and he reaches out a hand to touch the wall.

"Not today!" I scream. With swift kicks, I grab him by the shoulder, wrench him away from the pool's tiled wall, and propel myself in front of him, banging the wall with my fist. I made it.

My back touches the wall, my feet barely grazing the bottom of the pool, as I spin around to look at Kacchan.

I don't get to relish in my victory for long.

Kacchan swims up close to me, eyes glinting. I'm trapped between him and the pool's wall.

"That was a dirty move, getting Froggy to help you out," he murmurs.

I lower my head slightly and stay silent — I don't know what to say — and hope my face remains neutral, even though inside I'm screaming. A rush of cool wind passes through the air.

"I beat you, though, didn't I?" is what I manage to come up with.

I'm acutely aware of how there are mere centimetres of water between our bodies.

"You won by cheating," he says, his voice soft but laced with threats. He puts a slender finger under my chin and tilts my head up to him. His gaze searches my face.

"I'm sorry," I manage to breathe.

"Not good enough... Deku." His forehead is almost touching mine. "What're you going to do?" he purrs.

Before I can stop myself, I rest a hand on his bare, angular chest. "Kacchan," I whisper. My face must be flaming as red as my favourite shoes.

"Deku," he whispers back. He lowers his face, our noses about to touch, and then...

He flicks water at me.

"Huh?" I sputter. That's not what I expected; it wasn't supposed to go like that.

"Don't be an idiot, Deku," Kacchan says, his voice hard. "What did you think was happening?" Now, he floats about a foot away from me.

"I- I-"

"You're ridiculous," he scorns. "I'm getting out of here." He pulls himself out of the pool and stomps back into the changing rooms.

And I'm left wondering what happened just then.