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This is the the story of how I became the greatest hero...
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Late December,

Following a calm and peaceful night, snow covered the the trees along the sidewalk. With dark clouds still above, tiny snowflakes continued to fall with tranquil silence. The only noise that disturbed the calm city to which the sun had just set a few minutes ago was the frequent passing by of cars and the chilly breeze rustling past the streets.

It had been... Quiet for a while now. A good kind of quiet that the society hadn't been able to get for some time now. The peaceful atmosphere felt quite warm in the cold weather. It was nice. They wouldn't trade it for anything.

The same went for UA High. The campus now covered in white snow had finally seemed to have calmed down as well. There hadn't been any villain attacks, broken bones, kidnappings, new quirks, destroyed gyms or burning kitchens in the past two months and that was practically a blessing straight from whatever being was up there for the teachers.

And seeing as Aizawa's well-known problem children were graduating in the upcoming summer with their third year at the school coming to an end, the teachers felt an unexplainable pride for the growth of these teenagers despite the grey hairs they had given them.

And today as well, was a quiet and peaceful day at UA. The staff sitting around the lounge of the teacher's dormitory, enjoyed warm beverages without a care in the world.

For all the chaos was taking place in some very unfortunate grocery store...

"FUCKING DUNCE FACE, WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!"

"APPLES, IF YOU CANT SEE, CHEF KATSUKI!!"

"I ASKED FOR BAKING APPLES! CAN'T YOU TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BAKING APPLES AND THESE APPLES?!"

"THEY'RE BOTH APPLES, WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?!"

See, it was late December... And Eri's ninth birthday was only like... Six and a half hours away.

Consequently, Class-3-A had decided to make her a French Apple Cake - thanks to Aoyama's insight. Turning from that point, a certain ash blonde had taken charge of the situation.

They had divided the tasks into two teams like completely responsible soon-to-be heroes,

Cooking team; which solely consisted of Bakugou.

Shopping team; which solely also consisted of Bakugou.

Every other person seen in these two teams was not asked for help by the ash blonde. Nope. They were on their own. He didn't ask anybody because he didn't trust anybody in that class to make a cake without burning down the Embassy - he's speaking from experience, guys.

Anyhow... Midoriya, Kaminari, Todoroki, Uraraka, Ashido and Kirishima joined the shopping team. Which led us to this very moment,

"HOW DARE YOU NOT KNOW SUCH A BASIC THING?! DEKU, YOU GET THE BAKING APPLES!"

"Aye, Chef!"

The green head popped out from behind an aisle, saluted Bakugou and immediately dashed out of their sight.
To the baking apples, the ash blonde hoped.

"Tsu!! Secure the vanilla extract and whatever dark rum is!! I repeat, secure the vanilla extract and dark ruuuuum!!"

"Oh shit!! Incoming!! Watch out-!"

Or not... The store was already in chaos anyways. Bakugou was sure the employees were all probably crying.

"No, Ei! Your love isn't warm enough to help these eggs hatch!" Ashido's voice came over from probably where the eggs were.

The reply came after a few sobs, "B-But... Th-That's not manly at all, Mina! Why-y isn't my love warm e-enough? This is cruel... So cruel..."

And the sobbing continued.

Bakugou sighed and turned around only find Kaminari gone with the list of things they needed. He could only pray that a third year high school student could read what was written on it. He would definitely explode if Kaminari came to him asking, 'why the fuck do you want the floor?'

With a string of swear words flying out of the ash blonde's mouth, he made his way over to get some whipped cream... Only to find the missing Shoto Todoroki sitting in a fetal position, hugging a tub of strawberry ice cream on his way. He had magically disappeared the moment they entered the store and everybody collectively accepted the fact that they had lost him and he was never coming back in like five seconds.

Bakugou's only regret was that he found him.

"... The fuck are you doing, Icyhot?"

"Physically or spiritually?"

If this wasn't Bakugou's everyday life, he might have murdered someone. If.

In this situation, however, "Fuck it." Was his way of dealing with things.

And his classmates had learnt what Bakugou's swear words meant over the time. Like a whole new language, every swear word held a different meaning according to time and place - Midoriya taught them.

And so, Todoroki began explaining what he was doing spiritually, "Contemplating our relationship."

"We're not in a relationship. No one is in a fucking relationship. Love is a lie."

"Contemplating our friendship, then."

"Who the fuck gave you the idea of us being friends?"

Todoroki didn't miss the sight of a knife in the ash blonde's hand. He would've wondered where he got that from but Bakugou was very well a part of this hellhole of a class. There were no questions to be asked.

"You did." Todoroki replied with a stoic face, "You even got me this friendship card. It had cat stickers on it. I got it framed-!"

"Hold the fuck up. That was your card, you tried giving it to me and I shoved it back in your face."

"You only returned my feelings. Literally and aggressively."

"... Who is teaching you these things?"

"Joe."

"I'm not falling for that."

Todoroki only shrugged before going back at putting his soul into hugging that tub of strawberry ice cream. Bakugou just wanted to leave him there, forget he existed and get that whipped cream.

That's exactly what he did.

Once he finally, finally got one item that wasn't even necessary for the cake, Bakugou started making his way over to the cashier. He had learnt that if his classmates are together on a shopping trip with a limited time at hand, they will reach the epitome of chaos and get all the required things half an hour before curfew. Alive.

The ash blonde, however held great pride in the fact that he had never done something troublesome like the rest of his classmates - that's a lie, but don't tell him.

So, here he was. Standing next to the cashier, tapping his foot to the beat of the soft music being played in the store as he ignored the screams of the dammed.

Until...

"Kacchan! I got the apples!! And the last bag of spicy cheetos!"

No wonder it took Midoriya of all people to get some apples. Seeing the last bag of his favourite snack in his rival's hand who was giving him the most smug look he had ever seen? Katsuki Bakugou was naturally agitated and ready to fight with his life.

"Fuck... Those are mine, asshole!"

"Uh-huh! I saw them first! They're mine!"

"I will fight you for them... I will do it."

"Mhm. Sure, you will."

And he blasted up to catch the green haired boy who just dodged the not-so-dangerous attack and hopped on to one of the shelves, apples and the snack in each hand. The ash blonde followed him up and Midoriya hopped on to the next shelf. They went back and forth like that for a while until Bakugou finally managed to tackle him to the floor.

And with most amused of his smirks, Bakugou threatened, "Surrender now or face the consequences, nerd."

"I'd rather die. Thanks."

That left Bakugou no choice but to pull his strongest card yet. Behold, people, the future Symbol of Peace's biggest weakness,

"I'll tickle you."

"Kacchan, look I found your favorite snacks for you! Here you go! Enjoy them, 'kay?" Midoriya didn't waste another second in thrusting the bag into the ash blonde's hands with a smile that outshined the sun, "Oh, would you look at the time. I'm sure we should head back before All Might starts thinking there's a hitman after me again."

"And forget about how your biggest weakne-?"

The green haired boy cut him off, "Everybody, please gather around! We're leaving!"

Bakugou almost snorted but kept a very smug grin as a sign of his victory for the battle of cheetos as Midoriya started collecting the rest of the teenagers. Afterwards, Asui checked the list again and seeing that they had everything they needed - with an extra tub of strawberry ice cream and a bag of spicy cheetos - she took all the stuff to the cashier because no one else was trusted enough with the task.

On their way back to the dorms, nothing out of the ordinary happened. It was mostly quiet with the often comments on the snow and the cold. At the back of the group of teenagers however, Midoriya spoke up, his voice was almost a whisper,

"You know, Kacchan..."

"Hm?"

"You should open up more often."

The huff that came back as a reply told the green head that he might need to explain his statement to his childhood friend.

"Come on. Don't give me the that-makes-me-look-weak expression. I'm sure nobody's looking down on you."

"You are nobody." Bakugou replied with a smirk.

That earned him a playful punch to the shoulder.

"No, you idiot. What I mean is... We're all friends, the whole class. And everyone is so open with one another... You know our relation was complicated before. But now... We're friends," Midoriya held up a finger, immediately knowing what was the other going to say, "And you won't be denying that or else I will steal your cheetos."

"Dammit, fine."

Midoriya nodded as they entered a train station, "Thank you. Now, what I'm saying is that you should laugh and smile more often with us... It doesn't hurt your ego nor does it make you weak. If anything, it'll help you become stronger."

"Hah? How so?"

"You'll find out." Midoriya said, "You'll find out when you see both ways for yourself. Being closed - too strong, is a weakness. Being open for even a few events - adds the soft to the strong, making you emotionally flexible..."

There was only a hum of acknowledgement from the ash blonde. It wasn't like he could outright deny that. But at the same time he didn't understand.

Anyhow, when Bakugou was busy thinking over Midoriya's words, the green head very slyly stole the cheetos.

~O~

Katsuki wished he understood that sooner though.

He really did. He wished for just some way to go back to that day and understand what his rival had so sincerely said to him.

But it was impossible. He didn't understood it then and now he was facing what the green head had tried to save him from.

In the end, what could have made him invincible remained as just a memory with his friends on a December night.

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This is the the story of how he became the greatest hero...
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~O~

1. This was a request by The_FanfictionReader Here ya go~

2. Did you notice the unusual event??

3. Bkdk friendship bkdk friendship bkdk friendship-