Chapter Text
Yaoyorozu had been having an amazing week. She had spent the weekend studying for the Chemistry test they had on Monday, and she felt very confident that she had gotten a good grade on it. Mina had spent that same weekend out buying clothes and filling the group chat with photos of different (very expensive) outfits. During hero-training, she had managed to pin down Kaminari, Sero, and Iida which had garnered a loud cheer from all the girls and surprisingly Bakugou.
Another great thing was that Mineta had been out all week on a family vacation, so she had been able to relax in the common room more and she and the other girls were planning a girls’ night to celebrate their last day of peace before he returned.
The girls' night was what she was worried about though.
When Mina got back to the dorms on Sunday, she had walked in with a full face of runway-worthy makeup. She wouldn’t say who did it, but this morning she had texted the group chat with the promise of bringing the fabled makeup artist to their girls’ night.
Creating a mental list of who it could be, Yaoyorozu started to cross people off:
- Kirishima had been training in the gym
- Sero was playing video games in the common room
- Kaminari knew less about makeup than he did maths
- Bakugou would never willingly go shopping with Mina
With the whole Baku-squad eliminated, Yaoyorozu was stumped. Everyone else in class 1-A had been busy training, studying or visiting family, meaning Mina’s makeup artist friend must be from another class. She started to wonder if it was someone they knew. Kendo? Or maybe Hatsume?
She didn’t know. God Yaoyorozu hated it when she couldn’t figure something out. Why wasn’t she smart enough to figure this out?
So, standing in front of Ochaco’s door, Yaoyorozu waited for the worst. As the door opened, Yaoyorozu noticed that she had been the first to arrive (minus Ochaco), she would have to wait to meet their mystery member a little longer it seemed.
Over the next 10 minutes, Tsuyu, Kyoka and Toru arrived. All carrying some combination of makeup bags, pillows, blankets, and snacks. Mina seemed to be wanting to make a dramatic entrance as she usually did, or she was still convincing her mystery guest to come.
True to expectations, a few more minutes went by before there was a knock at the door. Standing to open it Yaoyorozu watched as Mina walked into the room backwards, waddling in awkwardly with both hands carrying a bag big enough for her to sleep in, and seemingly heavy enough to use as a battering ram. The logo on the side was one Yaoyorozu was from a company that even she rarely bought from. It was a bag from a highly expensive makeup brand, one that only models and photographers ever bought products from.
Twisting her head over her shoulder to look into the room Mina addressed the group, “Why are you all staring at me?”
Giving the other girl a look of disbelief, Yaoyorozu spoke up, “Mina, that’s a make-up bag from one of the most expensive brands in Japan!”
“Yaoyorozu, chill! It’s not mine and no Ochaco, I didn’t steal it.”
Waddling further into the room, Mina attempted to lift the bag high enough to put it onto the bed. Failing, she let it drop onto the floor.
“If it’s not yours then who’\s is it, kero?” Tsuyu asked, leaning over the side of the bed to look into the overflowing makeup bag.
“It’s our new member's! Remember the make-up he did for me on Sunday? That wasn’t even done with this professional stuff that he kept hidden from me! You will never guess-'' Mina was all but vibrating in place, which should have been concerning but before anyone could worry about it, a shout was heard through the slightly ajar door.
“Pinky I swear to every god in this world and the next that if you broke ANY of that your head will be on a spike before you can even start to beg for mercy.”
No. Way.
“Bakugou?” Watching him all but kick in the door, Yaoyorozu realised that this might have been the most confused she has ever felt. How had Mina gotten Bakugou to go shopping with her AND do her makeup? How does he know HOW to do makeup? None of this was making logical sense.
Speaking up, Bakugou seemed to answer the unspoken question, “My parents deal with models for a living, I’ve been working with make-up longer than you have been alive.”
“What the fuck, what the fuck, what th-”
“Pink Cheeks if you don’t stop talking I will shove an eyeshadow palette down your throat so far your shit turns blue.” It seemed as though their shocked and confused appearances did nothing to quell Bakugou’s natural temper.
After the major revelation, and subsequent freak-out, they started to return to their usual girls night routine while watching Bakugou carefully as he went through proper skin care with Mina off to the side.
After another hour or so Bakugou opened up a bit more, rotating between all six of them to curl, straighten or style their hair in unique ways. Helping them with hair masks and face masks. At one point there was even an hour-long lecture about proper skin care that had Yaoyorozu wanting to take down notes as if it were a class.
She wasn’t sure when, but at some point, the conversation turned to Mineta, which in turn led to them all listing off the things both he and other students had done that year to make them all uncomfortable.
Bakugou seemed to be getting progressively more irritated as they kept talking. By the end of their spiel, he had gotten so angry that he had become calm, which was terrifying.
Finally, after a few bated breaths, he spoke in a hushed, angry tone, "All of you are strong enough to knock those fuckers out. Do it."
Turning towards the others, Yaoyorozu saw Ochaco and Mina consider the idea while Kyoka was looking blankly off at the wall as if the secrets of the universe were given to her. Tsuyu didn't look to keen on the idea of fighting someone and Toru, well, Yaoyorozu couldn't exactly see her face, but she didn't seem to be moving so either she was dead, or couldn't find the words to tell Bakugou why beating up fellow students was a bad idea.
“How would that help Kero?”
“They’re scared of me because I'm strong, so if you all show them what you're capable of, show them why you're in the top hero course in the country they'll stop harassing you.”
“Really?”
“Really Pink cheeks. Creeps deserve to be sucker punched in the face and all of you are capable of much more than one of their weak ass punches.”
If you asked Yaoyorozu why she didn’t believe Bakugou at that moment, she wouldn’t be able to give you a reason. He said it so confidently, and he never lied, ever. It was arguably one of his few good traits.
Maybe she didn’t believe him because so many people have offered help or ignored her.
Maybe she didn't believe him because whenever she got help before, nothing changed.
Yaoyorozu was still stewing over the conversation walking to class the following Monday, Bakugou’s words ringing in the back of her mind. Could she really bring herself to injure a fellow student?
“Hey babe,” Trance broken Yaoyorozu looked up to find one of the management students in front of her. Leaning against the wall, his eyes were partially covered by his pale orange hair that fell in front of his face but even that didn’t hide the glisten in his eyes. “You’re looking nice today, gonna go out with me later?”
“I’d rather not, thank you.” She tried to walk away by side stepping him, wanting to get around the corner he was blocking as fast as she could. Unfortunately, she found herself stuck as he grabbed her arm with a little too much pressure to be considered friendly.
“Come on baby, it won’t be that bad.” Stepping off the wall, he tried getting closer to her, forcing her to back up into the opposite wall. Glancing down at her still trapped arm
“Let go of me, please.” She tried to pull her arm out of his grip, but his hand stayed in its place.
“Why,” His tone was getting dangerous, he was mad,” Don’t want someone else to snatch up your beautiful face now do I, princess?”
“Please leave me alone”
“Come on babe,” His smirk had transformed, no longer confident, it had become predatory, “ don’t be like that!”
Risking a glance and looking over his shoulder, Yaoyorozu saw Bakugou walking down the hallway. Making eye-contact, Yaoyorozu hoped her classmate would move on, walk past and not give her the humiliation of someone else seeing her turn down another boy. Her mother had told her hundreds of times how many other girls would die to have so many boys throwing themselves at her.
Something else happened though, as the boy in front of her traced his hand over her arm and up towards her cheek (that thought made her squirm), Bakugou vanished from her view.
“Let go of me, please.” She held her calm tone, raising one hand to grip his wrist and try to remove his hand.
“Now why would I do that hot stuff?”
“Back off Effie Trinket, she said to let go. I would recommend getting to class before I blow your pastry looking hair off your big ass forehead”
Yaoyorozu hadn’t even heard him move, yet here he was, hand yanking the other student off of her and pulling him close.
Acting as if he had already been hit with the visibly building explosion, the management student flinched out of Bakugou’s grasp, waving his arms in surrender as he started to back down the hallway “O-oh, Uh. Bakugou, I-I didn’t see you there-”
“Scram. Now.” The calmness of his voice was scarier than when he was loud and screaming. Yaoyorozu found herself thankful she wasn’t on his bad side at the moment, she didn’t think she’d survive that tone directed at her.
Watching the business student run (and oh how he ran), she brought herself back to reality.
Suddenly she realised that Bakugou was still next to her, glare fixed on the end of the hallway as a figure slipped around the corner, “Thank you Bakugou.”
“Whatever Ponytail, next time stand up for yourself. I know you're strong, show them what you’re capable of.” Turning on his heel, he stalked down the hallway before she could reply.
Forcing herself to walk towards the classroom, she started to think that maybe Bakugou was right, people were scared of him, and maybe, if she showed them what she could do, they would leave her alone.
It was the next day that someone came up to her. The difference this time was that they seemed to have more confidence than the business student, cornering her in a crowded hallway.
The second-year support student had noticed her lack of friends nearby and seemed to take it as an open invitation to try and make a move.
“Hey-” He started, a smirk already falling into place and an overconfident tone dripping off of his tongue. Ignoring the looks the students around him were giving, he leant against the wall using his shoulder to keep himself upright.
“Fuck off,” She cut him off, normally she wouldn’t have, she would have listened to her mother’s advice about being polite, but she had been polite and that had forced her into any number of uncomfortable situations.
“Woah, babe, no need to be so rude.-” Raising his arms, he continued to watch her, inching his face closer while he stayed against the wall.
“I am not your babe and frankly I think you are rather unattractive, leave me alone or learn how to use soap you didn’t find in the dumpster.” She knew she was getting loud; she knew she needed to calm down and act professional, but wait, that wasn’t right, was it? That’s what her parents said to do, but this guy wasn’t leaving her alone. Time to let out her inner Bakugou.
Against every fibre in her, she let him get closer. The closer your target is, the easier it is to hit them after all.
“Come on baby, I know you want to go out with me, you’re lucky I’m asking you instead of going out with the girls who are throwing themselves at me” He was in front of her, having stopped leaning against the wall and taking a step forward. The bag that was resting slightly in front of her hip was the only thing stopping him from taking a second step.
Loosening her shoulders and relaxing her face, Yaoyorozu let her voice become calm, and relaxed, as if she were talking to someone from her class.
“Alright,” She was going to regret this, but any consequences would be well worth the satisfaction. Pushing past the churning in her stomach she raised up her arms and rested them on his shoulders. He smirked at her, he must have said something but there was water in her ears, if this didn’t work she would be spending the next week hiding in her dorm room.
Crunch
Having brought her hands together in a tight fist behind his neck, she yanked down, pulling her knee up as she did so.
Smiles gone from both their faces, Yaoyorozu watched as he dropped to his knees and onto the floor, letting out a loud whimper. His face, void of all the previous confidence, stretched into a grimace that reached his tear-filled eyes.
Bending down to meet his eyes, Yaoyorozu let all her pent up rage manifest itself as she spoke, disgust dripping off her in waves.
“What’s the matter babe ?” She should feel upset that she hurt someone, but as she stood and watched the regret start to spread across his pain-filled face, she felt nothing but proud of herself for finally standing up for herself.
Someone let out a whistle. Their little interaction must have caught a lot of attention because looking up, she was surrounded by other students, most of which were either laughing, filming or shouting at her to kick him again.
“He’s had that coming all year!”
“Good job, he was annoying as hell!”
“Thank you for putting him in his place!”
In the back of the crowd, she saw Katsuki, his expression was one she didn’t recognize but as he nodded towards her, she knew they had both come to an understanding (It would be later that night that she would realise that he had been smiling at her).
Looking around, Momo felt proud, she didn’t need to be polite and quiet to be respected like her parents had told her.
Distantly in her mind, she acknowledged that her mother would be furious when the school called them about this, but she found that, for once, she didn’t seem to care. She had proved she was strong, not only to the other students but to herself.