NOTE — someone take college quirkless smau away from me

applause filled the hall, a few cheers erupting from the crowd as any previous thoughts and conversations vanished. you joined in lightly, hands settling on your lap once the sound began to fade. the energy in the room shifted, silence blanketing the spectators as a new air of anticipation and nervousness settled in.

every hero was at the edge of their seat, waiting and listening.

“this year has brought about many feats of dedication and bravery,” the host continued, voice steady and practiced. “we have said goodbye to many long – standing heroes who have decided to step down from their duties, but we have also seen the rise of many new faces. the faces of the future who will continue to give it their all to keep our country peaceful and strong.”

“and tonight, we recognize those, whose efforts have shaped society, inspiring the public and upholding the true spirit of heroism.”

a large screen illuminated on top of the stage, the ranking interface coming to life in a wash of light. your gaze lifted from your twisted fingers, heartbeat erratic — with anxiety or excitement, you didn’t know.

“we will now begin with rank number ten.”

the first name was announced, applause followed, respectful and measured, as the hero rose, offering the cameras a polite smile and wave as they made their way to the stage. the cycle continued, each name being met with recognition and proud nods from fellow heroes. 

each step they took was a testament to a year’s worth of hard work: the sleepless nights, the grueling battles, the skills they had honed over the time. 

watching them ascend the stage brought you back to your childhood, when you’d be huddled up with your parents on the couch, your snacks forgotten as you stared in awe at the heroes standing under the same lights you see in front of you right now.

the image of them standing proud with their heads held high, sparked something deep within your chest, something that only grew stronger as the years passed. it paved the way for your biggest desire to come to light.

that one day, you’d be among those top ten. 

and it would be your younger self, wide – eyed and wonderstruck, finally standing on that stage.

fingers snapped in front of your face, pulling you out of your trip down memory lane. you followed the fingers to its’ owner, katsuki bakugo, who seemed pleased to have broken your chain of thought.

“what was that for?” you whisper yelled, your brows furrowed in irritation. bakugo’s grin widened at your annoyance, a teasing coat around his voice. “y’know it’s rude to not pay attention when someone is speaking.”

he gestured towards the host who was calling out rank number seven. 

“what about you? it sounds like you were paying attention to me instead of the host. y’know that’s rude, right?” you replied, a satisfied smile landing on your face when you noticed his faltered smirk.

“yeah well it’s fuckin’ hard to concentrate when you’re going through 10 different emotions at once beside me!” he quipped back, earning a jab to his side as you signaled him to keep his voice down.

“i was not going through so many emotions!” “don’t lie to yourself dumbass, you’re getting paler and paler.”

“i’m not —” 

“shush l/n,” he cut in, mocking you under his breath. “you’re being rude to the host.”

you huffed, tearing your gaze away from him and back to the front. he’s so infuriating. seriously, can’t he mind his own business? so what if you feel like throwing up and laughing because of nerves at the same time, what’s it to him?

onstage, the host shuffled their cue cards, preparing to announce the next name. the screen behind them flickered once more as the room settled down. 

“and now,” their voice rang clearly down the hall. “we move onto the next position, rank number six.”

you straightened slightly in your seat before you could help yourself, an action that went unnoticed to the living bomb beside you who shook his head at your jitters. if everyone’s eyes weren’t on the two of you, you would’ve punched him in the face.

“making a spectacular leap through the charts, this hero has shown remarkable performance this year!” the host continued, building the anticipation more.

“rank number six —”

a beat.

“the phantom hero, mirage!”

for a fraction of a second, everything was still.

the sound reached you before your world started spinning again. everything coming crashing down upon you at once — the cameras turning towards you to blind you with flashes, the reporters smashing down on their keyboards in a hurry, the cheer of fans emerging from the crowd, the host’s encouraging smile as they waited for you.

through the chaos, one voice pulled you back to reality.

“this is the part where you get your ass to the stage.” bakugo murmured, his scarlet eyes glinting with something you didn’t recognize. 

he didn’t seem surprised. at all. like this was something he completely expected.

you finally rose, cursing your knees for wobbling ever so slightly as you made your way up to the raised platform. the smile that broke out on your face was something not even years of practice could achieve. a childish smile. 

you joined the lineup, letting out a soft breath at the sight of the crowd. the flurry of lights, the whistles you heard from your friends, your beloved fans screaming in joy, a pair of red eyes staring at you from the crowd.

it was everything you had ever dreamed of.

you were so lost in your world that you didn’t even realize when the pair of red eyes joined you on the stage, standing on the fifth position. 

the room pulsed with warmth — laughter tumbling and overlapping with each other, glasses clinking, voices rising and mixing until it all blurred into something soft and familiar. your former classmates filled every inch of the room, slouching in their chairs, leaning against one another, loud and unfiltered.

it reminded you of your highschool days.

back when your only concern was passing a test or surviving one of aizawa’s brutal training sessions. back when things were simpler.

you should’ve been enjoying yourself.

enjoying a nice break from your hectic routine, and for the most part, you were. the buzz of alcohol flowed comfortably in your veins, your shoulders loose, smiling easily as you laughed along to whatever outrageous story denki was jabbering about. 

right now, your only worries should’ve been the bitchy headache you’d wake up to the next morning or the inevitable punishment you’d have to face after losing a drinking game.

but your thoughts refused to stay there. they refused to stop circling back to the ugly part of your brain.

just a few hours ago, you had stood on that stage — the stage you had dreamed about for years — light blinding your retinas, applause ringing in your ears, smile as big as ever.

number six.

it was good. more than good. it was something to be proud of. you’d been repeating it to yourself for the past hour, trying hard to convince yourself.

it was something that should’ve made your chest swell with pride. which it did … until it didn’t.

but the thoughts always crawled back in, rooting itself in your head until all you wanted was to weed it out with your bare hands.

however, the reminder was always there, sitting across the room. somewhere in your line of sight no matter where you looked, like your mind was deliberately shooting him into your brain.

number five.

just one rank above you. yet enough to make your high school insecurities come crashing down all at once.

it was pathetic. you had long since grown past your sixteen – year – old self. the one who trained until their body gave out, the one who crammed study material like their life depended on it, the one who’d stare at the ranking board with a disgusting feeling wrapping itself around their heart.

you blamed it on the alcohol. because you knew that would hurt less. it was easier. safer.

because admitting anything else would mean admitting that even after so long, you’re straggling behind him. still weaker, still not enough, still the teenager who’d see their name under his every time.

nothing you did was ever enough. the way he made all the things you went through look so effortless, so easy even when you knew damn well it wasn’t. but his perseverance never faltered, he never gave up, and all you wished was for you to one day stand with your head held high and not have to stare at his back —

“earth to y/n!” 

mina’s voice cut through your thoughts like a spark, her manicured nails tapping on the table in front of you. 

you blinked, the world coming into view once more.

“you okay?” sero leaned forward slightly, already sliding a glass of water towards you, brows drawn together in concern. “you’ve been zoning out for the past 10 minutes.”

you let out a small laugh, shaking your head and forcing a smile. “yeah, yeah. i’m good! just a bit.. tired. it’s been a long night, you know?”

“liar.” mina shot in. it took everything in you to not let your expression waver. “you only make that face when you’re overthinking or about to cry —”

“i’m not about to cry.” you huffed, grabbing your cup and finishing the remnants of booze in it. you chose to look past the cup of water sero had planted in front of you, obviously you weren’t planning on sobering up anytime soon. 

“sure babe,” she hummed, completely unconvinced. “we’ll circle back to that later.”

before you could interject with another lie, a loud scoff cut through your conversation.

“oi, shitty hair, you’re telling the story wrong again.”

you didn’t need to look up to know who’s voice that was. 

bakugo was only a few feet away from the table, at his side, a cheery kirishima who was holding way too many bottles. the blonde’s expression was the same as always — sharp and unimpressed — but there was something more relaxed in his demeanor tonight. 

kirishima laughed, setting the bottles down on your table and slinging his arm around an annoyed bakugo who looked seconds away from flipping the whole tank of a man over. “bro, who cares about the accuracy of details? it’s way funnier this way!”

“it’s way stupider this way!” bakugo barked back, shoving kirishima’s arm off of him and settling down across from you to pour himself a glass of water. 

denki, who was attracted to sound, slivered his way onto your table. “are you guys talking about kats blowing up that machine back in highschool? dude that was funny as hell!” he chimed in, ignoring the glare bakugo was shooting his way.

“it was malfunctioning.” he said through gritted teeth, giving a warning look to the pierced man who gave no heed to his words.

“i’m pretty sure it was just waving to you!” the whole table erupted into laughter, while poor denki had his arms in the air as bakugo gripped his collar tightly.

“and don’t forget when aunt mitsuki came in for compensation and yelled at bakubro!” kirishima added, wiping tears from his eyes.

adding fuel to the fire, huh?

you should’ve been laughing too, giggling over the memories flashing in your head. 

but your chest felt tight again. you tried your best to ignore it, bringing your glass up to your lips. hopefully this alcohol would turn your brain into mush so you wouldn’t have to —

“and what about you?” bakugo’s annoying voice cut in again, his stare directed towards you.

your hand paused mid – air, your heart flipping uncomfortably. talking to him was the last thing you wanted to do tonight.

“what?” you asked, trying to keep your tone neutral. 

he tilted his head, narrowing his eyes by just a fraction. “you’ve been sitting there in the corner quiet, all fuckin’ night.” 

ochaco perked up, noticing your expression. “guys hold on —”

“something wrong?” he continued, leaning closer whilst completely ignoring ochaco’s panicked words, “or have you just been sulking?”

a feeling of dread wrapped itself around your heart, slowly making its way up to your throat. you knew where the conversation was going and god did you wish that something would just strike you down.

“i’m not sulking,” you said quickly.

“damn looks like it,” he shrugged, taking a sip from his glass but his eyes remained on you. “you’ve been this way since the rankings.”

the table quieted a little. not completely silent, but enough to make your ears ring.

“i said i’m fine,” you repeated, jaw clenching ever so slightly — but that didn’t go unnoticed by him.

“if you’re pissy about placing sixth then atleast don’t bring the fuckin’ mood down.” 

his words landed heavy. you felt everyone’s eyes either on you or on the man in front of you. it felt like he had just stripped your feelings naked for everyone to see. 

why did he have to do this? especially tonight? couldn’t he have just minded his business and listened to the others’ stories. did he enjoy tormenting you like this? always catching you when you were in the depths of your emotions. 

so he better not blame you for what you did next.

your hands moved before he could finish his sentence, emptying out the rest of your cup onto him, your chest heaving heavily.

“watch your mouth bakugo, you wouldn’t want the news outlets’ flooding with articles about how you look down upon the top ten, having just climbed back up.” you hissed, not bothering to coat your words with sweetness befitting the atmosphere. 

bakugo’s eyes hadn’t left yours, his fist clenched tightly on top of the table as he opened his mouth to shoot another bullet at you, but mina interjected.

she slammed her hands in between the two of you, shooting a look towards izuku who nodded and made his way over to pull bakugo away from the scene.

“alright guys, break it up! i think we’ve all had a little too much to drink,” ochaco chimed in, gently taking your, now – empty, glass from your hands. you slowly returned back to reality, the post pouring – your – drink – all – over – bakugo clarity hitting hard. you groaned, sinking back into your seat and hoping it would open up and swallow you whole.

“..i’m sorry.” you mumbled under your breath, not really sure who it was directed towards, considering the fact that bakugo had been ushered towards the other end of the room. 

“uh well, these bottles aren’t gonna finish themselves!” yelled denki, who had finally picked his jaw back up after the whole spectacle, “a drinking game! i nominate mina and y/n, no buts.”

you didn’t refuse, not wanting to dampen the mood any further. 

perhaps everyone will forget about this whole show after tonight. or was that just wishful thinking? you couldn’t be bothered, because all you wanted to focus on now was the competition you and mina were in.

☆⌒(ゝ。∂)

the table erupted into cheers as the game finally came to an end. a tipsy mina stood with her head held high, basking in all her glory. 

“haha! i win!” she said, looking down at your body which was slumped over the table. 

you shook your head, raising your glass up. “no… i’ve still got more in me..” 

“more alcohol.. mmyeah! more capacity not really.” she poked your cheek, laughing at the way your brows furrowed in annoyance.

“you wish..! i’m not even.. drunk.. yet..” 

“are you sure..? you just tried to drink out of an empty glass… hehe..”

“i think both of you are drunk,” chimed hanta as he watched the two of you act like drunkards. 

“but she’s more drunk right..?” you slurred, pointing an accusatory finger towards your opponent.

“hard no bro.”

“fuck you sero.” you said, contorting your fingers to what was supposed to be a triple middle – finger, but it just ended up cracking one of your knuckles. 

and at that moment, a lightbulb appeared on top of mina’s head. this could be one of the worst ideas she’s ever had, but then again, the alcohol in her system hindered her from thinking this through.

ᯓ★» LOVE ALLIANCE ! < previous | masterlist | next >

ᯓ★» ALLIANCE SECRETS ! ୨ৎ : bakugo isn't a huge drinker since he's always the automatic driver. ୨ৎ : mina, denki and ochaco the diffuser trio.

ᯓ★» AUTHOR'S NOTE :: a little insight on why y/n 'hates' bakugo!!! hopefully y'all enjoyed this chapter!!! 🫪 and omg im running out of stan accounts i keep reusing the same ones 😓

ᯓ★» TAGLIST :: @chsvok @ch3rryjampi3 @emmab3mma @pikachuzhc @cholios @zaiban2989 @hd19e @ikissfade @themultifandomgirl @god-hangry-otter @sunlix143 @rikislove @fackeraccount @chaoslibra @4rmins @harryzcherry @luvvvamy @pinxeajin @liluvtojineteyam @nanaanation @rinasblogg @kunikame @kmachii @ghostie-dude @katthekat1234 @d4wnyjlk @peachesvault @sasorbet @27-awesome-ham-sandwiches @luvvvivi @coward-kitty @elenaoxd-blog @nemonemoz @luv-luv-lover @nanaminnns @mjustag1rl @sourspxrks @akinorisushi

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