A/N: So my first non-Naruto fanfic in a long while. I'm excited that the bnha fandom has grown a lot more, especially since the anime started airing. Like a lot of people I got into bnha when Naruto ended and that comic strip showing Naruto kinda passing on the torch to Midoriya was going around. I love it so far (especially the arc that just ended, like, man, that was amazing!) and I can't wait to see where Horikoshi-sensei takes us. In the meantime, I'm still me, shipping the asshole character with the adorable cupcake main heroine so, uh, here's some kacchako (or bakuraka? Or katsucha? I still don't know the official ship name).

Summary: Ochako can't help but notice Bakugou's change in character since his rescue from the villain alliance. When the two of them are left alone after school, she tries to understand him and he tries to accept her. "They were two teens, swimming in sinking twilight, with only the metronome of their anxious, racing hearts keeping them anchored to reality…And for today, she would help to cast away his demons." [kacchako][Spoilers for up to chapter 95][one-shot]

Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia, Horikoshi Kohei does. The lyrics at the beginning and end of the fanfic are from "Beneath Your Beautiful" by Labrinth feat. Emeli Sande.

~x~

Would you let me

See beneath your beautiful?

Would you let me

See beneath your perfect?

~x~

There is a thick prevailing silence as Ochako and Bakugou work on their respective cleaning duties in opposite sides of the classroom. He stands in front of the blackboard with one hand stuffed in his pocket and the other halfheartedly erasing the contents of the day, while she weaves through rows of desks and chairs and sweeps the floor.

She purses her lips anxiously at the deafening silence, broken only by the sound of classmates hurriedly filing through the hallway and heading outside, a mark of the end to another tiresome school day. Soon, the hallways clear and all of the students are gone and it's just her and the self-proclaimed "king of explodo-kills" who, after his first day back from being rescued from the villain alliance, was still being surprisingly un-explodo-kill-like.

She sets the broom aside and continues onto her next task as she goes about arranging the classroom desks and chairs. Every now and then, she throws a troubled glance to her silent partner and sees the weary slack in his usually tense shoulders. As she works her way down the rows of desks and closer towards him, she notices the way he erases the blackboard in slow and languid strokes that screech to a stop every few seconds before he crashes back to reality and hastily continues his work before once again getting pulled back into the oblivion of his thoughts. This pattern continues as she goes from one respective task to the next and when finally finishes her duties, he's still standing at the same spot with the same glazed look in his golden eyes.

"Bakugou-kun…?" She calls out to him hesitantly and for the first time that evening he seems to realize her presence as he jumps at her voice and looks to her in wide-eyed wonder. Startled, he backs away from the blackboard and glances at the eraser in his hand, as if trying to piece together where he was and what he was doing. He looks to the window and curses at the faint sunset in the horizon, realizing just how fucking late it was.

"What is it?" His reply is curt and he doesn't bother to turn to look at her but somehow his response lacks his usual explosive nature and that, strangely enough, worries her more.

"I wanted to let you know I was leaving," she answers and he huffs impatiently before telling her to, "just get fucking lost, then", and rushing to finish his own duties.

A cloud of chalk rises and surrounds him as he works and Ochako smiles wryly as she hefts her backpack onto her shoulders, briefly wondering why she had even bothered to let him know she was leaving when it was obvious he hadn't even realized she was there to begin with.

She makes her way toward the door but offers him one last glance. He's frozen in a standstill again and the gaze in his eyes is distant and far-off, absorbed in thoughts that she can't hope to discern. But the sight of him, surrounded in the thin haze of chalk dust and his spiky blonde locks bathed in a halo of golden sunlight, sends her heart racing and skipping to a beat unfamiliar to her.

Deku and the others had managed to pull off the rescue mission and Bakugou had come back to them. He'd finally come back to them but when she saw his eyes swim with that distant, glassy look, she felt that perhaps not all of him had returned. She could sense him drifting further and further away and while Bakugou was rude, mean, mannerless, short-tempered, arrogant, and egotistical, he was still…well, she couldn't think of any good qualities…but he was still their fellow classmate. He was still their comrade in arms and it pained her to see him hurt like this.

"Bakugou-kun!" She suddenly calls out to him and he is startled back into reality at the sound of her voice. His mouth twists into a snarl as he whirls around to glare at her but before he could lash at her with his acid tongue, she suddenly closes the distance between them and stands right in front of him.

"W-what the fu—!"

"I'm glad you're okay!" She blurts out, the pink of her cheeks brightening as her heart thrums and hums to a melody she can't recognize. He's shocked silent, both by the closeness between them and the bluntness of her words, but the floodgates were opened and Ochako realizes that the words stuck in her throat had gained a life of their own and were demanding to be heard.

"I'm glad you came back safely!" She continues, her grip tightening on the straps of her backpack. "I'm glad you weren't hurt! We…all of us…we…"

She pauses breathlessly, her chest heaving as the weight of what she wanted to say next pressed against her ribcage.

"I," she corrects herself quietly, "I-I was worried for you…"

He stares and gapes at her in wide-eyed perplexity, his golden eyes scanning her flushed face for some sort of reasoning behind her outburst. The seconds bleed into minutes and she draws back at the awkwardness, her gaze shifting to the side to avoid his piercing gaze.

"I just wanted to let you know that," she hastily adds, edging her way towards the door as she continues to avoid his gaze. She couldn't understand why she had said those words or where those words had even come from but the pounding in her chest and in her head told her that the best course of action now was to get out. Fast.

"Uraraka!" He calls out to her just as she's making her way into the hallway and she freezes in place, faintly surprised he managed to remember her name. Slowly, she turns to look back at him and he's trembling with raw emotion; hands balled into shaking fists and teeth clenched tightly in an angry snarl.

She should've run when she had the chance.

"Bakugou-ku…?"

"I didn't need anybody's worry!" He declares harshly. "I was doing fine by myself!"

He lifts his hands to clasp his face as his voice is flooded with emotion and he abruptly turns his back to her to hide his shame and for the first time she can see just how heavy the burden of guilt weighed on his slumped shoulders.

"I know." She quietly offers him understanding but his tantrum was far from over.

"No, you don't know! I was going to escape on my own!" He rages with his back still turned to her. "I didn't need anyone's fucking help, especially that…that fucking nerd with his…fucking useless-ass quirk! Fuck! Fuck him a-a-and…Fuck—!" He takes in a sharp breath as he doubles over and hastily wipes at his face. "I didn't need fucking Kirishima, I didn't need that fucking class president, or fucking," he stops again to catch his breath and Ochako can hear him struggle to dislodge the words stuck in his throat.

"I didn't need fucking All Might," his voice drops from hysterical rage to a whisper strained with guilt, "to go through fucking hell to save me. I didn't need them. I didn't fucking need anybody."

"I know." She finds herself walking back towards him as she is pulled by a nagging sensation to comfort him, to tell him that she understands. She knows that the many casualties in Kamino Ward, the countless heroes and police task force hurt for the sake of the rescue mission, his classmates that had risked life and limb for him, his role model, All Might, who had lost his place as the symbol of peace and the fact that all this stemmed back to him filled Bakugou with more shame and disgrace than his ego could bear. She places a reassuring hand on his trembling shoulders and is pleasantly surprised when he doesn't shake her off. Her hands slide down the plane of his back before gripping the hem of his blazer as if to keep him anchored to her.

"I don't," he finally stresses, lifting his head up as if to convince himself, "I don't need anybody."

"Don't say that," she quickly chastises him, her clenched fists gathering more of his blazer as she struggles to contain her rising emotions. She looks up at him and his squared shoulders are washed gold with the dying rays of sunlight and again the burden that he carries stood out clearly to her. He was so much more like All Might than he or anyone else could imagine, but she – she could see it. The overwhelming and often blinding desire to be something more, to stand for something more; paired with a reckless ambition that hinged on being stronger, on being the strongest.

"Don't say that you don't need anybody. I told you, we-," she stops again, burying her face against his back in embarrassment as she whispers, "I…care about you."

He's silent, his stubborn gaze still turned toward the dying sunset and she realizes he doesn't – or doesn't want to – understand what she means. She can hardly blame him. Even she barely understands what she means. But she decides that for today, it doesn't matter. She decides that today, she would show him that he could rely on others – that he could rely on her.

Growing bold with her own resolve, she drops the material of his blazer in favor of pressing herself closer to him. She thinks to herself that he's invitingly warm as she hugs him from behind. She jumps as a crackle of static electricity sends a rush of something red-hot and foreign racing through her veins and she briefly wonders if he can feel the rising timpani of her heartbeat against his back. She feels the quickening rise and fall of his chest and figures that he can.

Her fingers grapple at his, their fingertips brushing clumsily and awkwardly, before finally their fingers interlock. She takes in a sharp, shaky breath, surprised as his grip tightens on hers, and she feels the rising heat of his palms, slick with nitroglycerin sweat, wash over hers.

They stand in their silent embrace, with Ochako supporting him from behind as his shoulders shake with dry, quiet sobs. Guilt, shame, disgrace, or wounded pride; she still didn't know which of these tormented him more but no matter which it was, for today she would help carry his burden. For today, she would help to cast away his demons.

There was no telling what would become of them tomorrow, or the next day, or the day after that, but for today, it didn't matter.

For today, they were two teens, swimming in sinking twilight, with only the metronome of their anxious, racing hearts keeping them anchored to reality.

For today, they were two galaxies at the mercy of the unknown universe, hurtling towards each other at light speed through the pitch-black void of nothingness.

For today, she held the ethers of the cosmos in her hands and he held the embers of wispy nebula in his and in their embrace, age-old constellations were crashing and melting and newborn stars were bursting to fiery life and it didn't make any sense and they couldn't understand what it meant but for today it didn't matter.

For today, he leans into her.

He leans into her, and she is his strength.

~x~

Take it off now boy

Cause I want to see inside

Would you let me

See beneath your beautiful tonight?

~x~

A/N: This was REALLY hard to write, like, wow, that ending was so bad. Anyway, even though I ship kacchako and I really appreciate Bakugou's potential for future character development, I try to remember that for most of the series so far he's been a pretty terrible human being. So it was hard to try to convincingly understand/convey why Ochako would feel so much affection for him and why he would be willing to accept her comfort at this point of the series. With that regard, I tried to keep them in character and frame it in a way that made sense with the current events of the series but I think no matter how I spin it, it's still very OOC…Anyway, please read and review, I love to her constructive feedback! It gives me life! I'll try to churn out more kacchako fics in the future even though it's, like…really hard to write…