PLASTIC FLOWERS ( k. bakugou )

chapter 18

' prince of thorns '

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They sat on a wooden bench at the park that day, the dog propped on the girl's lap, still and eyes looking ahead.

"That was exhausting," Yuko commented, wiping droplets of sweat from her forehead with the sleeves of her shirt- a baggy white thing that had a picture of a black triangle halved by a line and a circle at the very middle.

"Your stamina is just shitty," Katsuki commented as he drank from the water bottle Yuko had given him earlier.

"You have the stamina of twenty thousand soldiers, Katsuki," Yuko retorted still panting for air. "You can't blame me for being less than you."

"That's what training is for, dumbass," he answered, looking at the same direction as the dog, the rim of the water bottle leaning on his lower lip.

Yuko shrugged in a typical Yuko fashion and crossed one leg over the other. "I have to do jobs," she said.

"Then do it in school," was his grumpy reply, tilting the bottle higher so it's contents fell on his mouth.

A sheepish smile captured Yuko's lips at that. She could. But she knew what she did with her free time in school or rather, what happened to it. "I have detention."

"That's your fault for being a dumbass," he said and put the empty bottle of water on his forehead.

Releasing another sigh, Yuko replied, "But it's my nature. To be a dumbass."

Katsuki snorted, a mocking short snort. "Look at how that's turning up fucking fine for you, you shitty excuse for a human being."

"Says the person who has to add a curse word to every sentence that he mutters just to prove he's superior," Yuko muttered underneath her breath. She would usually let this things slide, but she felt weak, inside and out from all these matters. She hadn't eaten lunch and breakfast, only having water and a coffee Fuyumi had given her earlier.

"What a bitch," he said.

"It takes one to know one, yeah?" Yuko stated and emptied the contents of the water bottle on her mouth.

"Shut up," he grunted and Yuko chucked the water bottle at him, laughing as she did so. She closed her eyes and let the cool breeze do its duty and cool her down. To her right, she could hear Katsuki sputtering curses and the evident sounds of explosions crackling on his finger tips.

Maybe she shouldn't have thrown the water bottle at him, but she knew that he had deserved it and it was so seldom that she could bare her anger for the world to see so damn the stupid repercussions, she thought and caressed Roki's fur on her lap.

In the end, Katsuki didn't do anything to her and overcame with fatigue, she fell asleep on his broad shoulders, Roki nuzzling her stomach all the while.

She slept soundly that time and even the boy, the ticking time bomb with blonde hair and crimson eyes, didn't do anything to harm her, just tuck an errant strand of her hair that fell over her face.

And as if on cue, Yuko woke up to an uncomfortable Katsuki glaring at her and Roki on his arms. She blinked at him, trying to fathom why he looked that way (or one could argue that the expression was his default mode).

A yawn escaped her lips and she tried to muffle it with her palms. "What time is it?" she asked.

"It's time for you to find a goddamned watch and use it to tell the time instead of fucking asking me," he answered and she merely chuckled at him.