"Man, that training exercise was brutal!"

"Hm."

Bakugo and Kirishima took their usual seats at the cafeteria.

"You think the practical exam's gonna be that tough?"

"Yeah."

Kirishima took a large gulp of iced tea.

"You handed in that essay to Mr Aizawa yet?"

"Mm."

He started cutting up his pork cutlets.

"Which chapter are you on for chemistry?"

"Maybe."

Bakugo was only half-listening to him. He was mostly preoccupied with staring across the cafeteria at Shiozaki, who had just walked in with her classmate Jurota Shishida and was chatting with him rather enthusiastically.

Kirishima followed his gaze and grinned evilly.

"Someone's jealous."

"Wha-? Hell no!" Bakugo snapped, his eyes darting back to him. "I was just wondering when I should next kick her ass!"

"Yeah, her ass aside - you said you were gonna help me study for the exams today, where are we going?"

"Haven't decided yet." Bakugo said simply as he picked up his chopsticks. "I'll let you know after English."

They spent the next few minutes eating and talking. Suddenly, a new text message popped up on Bakugo's cell phone beside them.

He glanced at the notification, but Kirishima was the first to read it as he leaned across the table and scanned his screen upside-down.

"Who's Angel?"

"Damn it, Shitty Hair!" Bakugo roared, snatching his phone out of Kirishima's sight. He had totally forgotten that he had exchanged numbers with Shiozaki just before leaving her house on Saturday.

Lifting up his phone to eye level to make sure Kirishima couldn't see his screen, he read the message.

"It's Vines." he said. "She wants to know if I can help her with revision again-"

"Again? Damn, you really are kind on the inside-"

"That's not why I - oh, forget it." Bakugo said as he scrolled down. "She says she wants to go to that new cafe near the school."

"The one with the kickass coffee?" Kirishima said eagerly.

"Yeah, and the really cheap food that Raccoon Eyes keeps telling us to try..."

He looked over at Kirishima and their eyes locked.

"You want in?"

"Do you even need to ask?" Kirishima said eagerly. "Give me a time!"

"Today, right after class ends." Bakugo replied, texting the same thing to Shiozaki. "Bring all your physics crap. You said you were failing, right?"

After school, Shiozaki made her way to the cafe and stepped inside. The moment she entered, the sweet scent of cocoa and pine swept over her like a gust of heavenly wind. She made a mental note to come back and buy a drink on her own some time.

She spotted Bakugo and Kirishima sitting together at a table next to a window. Bakugo was running his fingers through his hair exasperatedly, reading Kirishima's solutions with a vexed expression.

"No, no...why the hell did you divide it? Take 'V1' minus 'V2'-"

"Hi, Bakugo." Shiozaki said as she walked up to them.

The second he heard her voice, Bakugo leaned back in his seat and exhaled audibly, clearly relieved.

"Hey, Angel." he said. "I'll deal with you in a minute, I've got to finish helping this idiot first." He sat back upright. "Go do your own work or whatever."

Shiozaki responded with a small nod, then sat down beside Kirishima and took her school things out of her bag. As she opened up her textbook, her eyes drifted off to the large drinks menu on display above the counter.

A few minutes passed before Bakugo finally finished teaching Kirishima, and he turned his attention to Shiozaki.

"Alright, show me what you've done."

Having barely written anything in the past ten minutes, she could only stare at him and mutter, "Um..."

She was saved from having to answer as Bakugo's phone chose to ring loudly at that exact second.

However, the moment Bakugo picked up the device and looked at the screen, she felt like she would rather have faced the consequences of answering him.

"Deku?! The hell is he calling me for?!" he yelled, glaring daggers at his phone like it had just burned down his house. Shiozaki was positively alarmed at the expression on his face, and she moved aside slightly to sit closer to Kirishima.

"Who's Deku?" she asked quietly.

"Midoriya." Kirishima said with his eyes fixed on his calculator. "Don't say anything."

Still staring murderously at his screen, Bakugo aggressively swiped his finger across the green call button and lifted up his phone.

"Deku, you little shit! What the fuck do you want from me?!"

"K-Kacchan?" Shiozaki heard a timid, surprised voice reply from the other end of the line. "Sorry! I think I called you by accident! I - I was trying to call Kaminari! I have your name saved right under his on my device, so..."

"I don't want to hear it, you useless fucking nerd!" Bakugo roared, now attracting several perturbed stares from around the cafe. "If you're not looking for me, then hang the hell up already!"

"R-right!"

There was a beep, and Midoriya ended the call. Bakugo slammed his phone back down on the table, breathing like he had just run a mile.

"That bastard drives me up the fucking wall!"

As the onlooking stares started to disperse, Kirishima eyed Bakugo with a discomfited expression.

"Geez, why don't you give the guy a break?" he said. "It was an honest mistake-"

"I don't care if it was a mistake, I can't stand the damn nerd!" Bakugo yelled. "And don't tell me I can't talk to him like that, it's nobody's business how I-"

"Really? Because I'm quite concerned."

Kirishima did not say those words. Bakugo looked to the side, and saw Shiozaki staring sharply at him with a steeled yet slightly intimidated expression, her knuckles white as she clenched her fists on the table.

"Damn it, Vines, not you too!"

"I'm sorry, but if we're going to continue with our...sparring arrangements, I want to know how you treat people when it's not just the two of us - for my own good. I don't know if you noticed, but Midoriya sounded really scared of you."

"Oh, so it's my job to know how his stupid nerd brain works now?" Bakugo spat. "So what if he's afraid of me?"

"That call wasn't normal."

"I missed the part where I care."

"I noticed he called you by a nickname? How long have you known each oth-"

"Shut up."

"Bakugo, I-"

"Shut your mouth already, bitch!"

Bakugo was on his feet, though he didn't remember standing up. His chest was heaving and his fists were clenched tightly enough to crush apples. He glared down at Shiozaki, his eyes like pinpoints and his lips barely more than a thin line.

He couldn't recall ever calling Shiozaki anything worse than an idiot before this point, yet he felt no remorse for his words. Shiozaki actually inched backwards in her seat a little, though her expression remained unchanged.

"Look." he snarled, his lips curling unnervingly like a wolf baring its fangs. "You can think whatever the hell you want about me. You believe I burned Deku's pet rabbit alive when we were kids or something? Go ahead. Just don't fucking pry. Stay. Out. Of this."

Shiozaki looked like she was on the verge of shying away from his gaze. However, she stood her ground, and said, "Fine, how about this? Unless you tell me why you despise Midoriya so much, I'll stop showing up to our sparring matches. I can get what I want out of Midoriya anyway."

A murderous look flashed across Bakugo's eyes at her gall, and the veins in his fists rose up. He actually looked quite scary. Whatever mad surge of courage had allowed Shiozaki to say those things to him was quickly fading away, and she felt like she was shrinking. She remembered once when Shishida told her she was the type to get too carried away when she felt strongly about things. Perhaps she had crossed a line...

Suddenly, Bakugo sat back down, though he still looked terribly furious and was breathing heavily. He fixed his gaze onto the wall at the other end of the shop, away from both Shiozaki and Kirishima.

"Kirishima, get out of here." he demanded.

"Uh...hey man, calm down. We're still in school uniform-"

"Relax, I'm not going to do anything stupid." he said. "Just - leave for five minutes. Please."

"Oooookay, but just because you're being exceptionally polite right now and it's kind of freaking me out." Kirishima said as he slowly got up. "See you in five."

He left the table.

Shiozaki chanced a glance at Bakugo. He was still looking away from her, and he took a long draught of coffee before slamming his cup back down on the table.

"You want to know why I hate that fucker?"

Bakugo then launched into a ten-minute long rant about everything that made him detest Midoriya, throughout which Shiozaki said nothing but listened to him carefully. At the end of the ten minutes, Bakugo leaned back in his seat and looked away from Shiozaki again, his face red and scowling. He grabbed his coffee and took another long draught from it.

After a short silence, Shiozaki opened her mouth to speak, deciding to start with the most perplexing part.

"So...let me get this straight. Midoriya never manifested a Quirk until recently."

"Yeah. I still don't know how he pulled super-strength out of his ass."

"But before that, he still wanted to be a hero."

"That's what I said."

"He wanted to be like you."

"Yeah."

"He looked up to you."

"Mm."

"And you treated him like trash."

"He is trash."

"Even though he risked his life to save you."

"I could've gotten out of that myself."

"And now that he's stronger than you, you think he should shrivel up and die because it's not fair to you."

"I-"

Bakugo didn't have a response to her statement. He turned to stare out of the window with his hand over his mouth.

"Okay, yeah, so I've been a dick to him." he grumbled. "But hey, news flash, I've never cared about being nice to anyone. So if you think I'll stop thinking about beating his ass because - what, I've realised the error of my ways, then you're living in your own damn world-"

"It's not right."

"You expect me to just watch him leap leagues above me in a blink of an eye and let that slide?!" he roared, rapidly turning to glare at her.

"Bakugo, I really don't think you get to be mad at Midoriya for having a power greater than yours. In fact, I could call it divine justice-"

"Are you trying to piss me off?"

"My point is, I find it unfair for you to go on treating him like you do now. If you can't change that about yourself, then...I'm sorry, but I can't associate myself with you any longer."

Bakugo let out a short, cruel laugh. "And you think I need you around? For what?"

"I know you prefer it."

A subdued frown replaced the smile on his face.

Shiozaki leaned forward, clasping her hands together on the tabletop. "Bakugo, listen. The sin of wrath is a very powerful poison to the mind. Combined with that of envy, it can destroy everything good that someone can be, leaving them evil, depraved."

"Vines, I didn't ask for a fucking sermon-"

"I told you to listen." she said, shooting him a warning glare. "Look, I - I know how much being a hero means to you. You wouldn't have saved me against that man with the shadow Quirk otherwise, nor would you have been so adamant on doing something useful during your time with Best Jeanist. Just...just start acting more like one, okay?"

Bakugo scowled. "If you expect me to go up to that annoying nerd and say sorry for everything in the past ten years then become his buddy again, you can forget it."

"Of course. Some things can't be fixed overnight, and...well, you clearly don't feel that way yet, so forcing you won't help in the slightest."

She swallowed.

"But I'd like you to stop yelling at him at every waking moment you share. He doesn't deserve to be treated that way and I think it's time that changed."

Bakugo glared at her defiantly. He still didn't see why the fuck he should treat Midoriya better. Trash that was below him should stay below him. Including that stupid, worthless nerd, with his stupid, worthless power that he couldn't even use without breaking his bones once every two weeks...

...like he did to himself barely a week ago.

Over and over, week after week.

"Okay, fine!" he finally said, throwing his hands into the air. "I'll get off his ass if that'll make you shut up!"

He looked away again and took a very prolonged drink of coffee, his face burning red.

"God, I hate that part of you." he said softly.

Shiozaki raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"How you keep convincing me to do shit." he grumbled. "Are you sure your Quirk isn't mind control?"

"If it were, I would've made you not say at least seven different things in the past month I've known you." Shiozaki said with a humoured grin.

Bakugo let out a short, sharp sound that could have been either a laugh or a growl as he rolled his eyes.

Shiozaki spoke again. "Just promise me you'll do as I asked-"

"Yeah, yeah, got it." Bakugo cut her off, still staring at the wall.

He bit down on his lower lip.

"Sorry I got mad at you...or whatever." he said, almost inaudibly.

Shiozaki looked at him with a sliver of a smile.

"What was that?"

"Oh, come on, I know you heard me." he snapped.

He drained the last few cold dregs of coffee.

"Where the hell is Shitty Hair...?" he muttered. "Get on with your work, I'm going to look for him."

He quickly stood up and left the table, walking at a very brisk pace.

God, he couldn't believe that had just happened. Even if he had different reasons for concurring to her request, he still found it mortifying that Shiozaki had successfully talked him into that decision.

He placed a hand over his eyes and groaned. He felt like she was driving him crazy.

Manga spoilers below.

Something that bugs me about a few fanfictions is that when someone convinces Bakugo to stop being a complete ass to Midoriya, it happens solely because he has a soft spot for that person. I made sure to add something on top of that, and I hope it worked.

Though considering how much camaraderie Bakugo's showing in the manga right now, writing about him treating Midoriya better might be beating a dead horse - but I've been playing around with this idea for about a year, so I hope y'all don't hold that against me, haha.

Thanks for reading, love y'all.