Work Text:
"Hot summer days, rock and roll,
the way you'd play for me at your show,
and all the ways I got to know,
your pretty face and electric soul…Shit!"
Uraraka dropped her needle and immediately put her sore finger in her mouth, frowning as she did.
"Ochako!"
"Sorry, mom!"
Her mother entered the room and took the needle off her record player. She leaned against the doorframe and watched the record turn without noise. Uraraka looked up at her with a childish grin of which she knew couldn't fix her mother's attitude.
It was extremely early in the morning, she had been blasting music before her mother woke up and she had managed to turn her room into a mess before she even got dressed.
Her mother furrowed her brow and kicked against a roll of tape she noticed next to the cabinet on which the record player was stationed. The pink roll made its way across the dark wooden floorboard and hit one of the many obstacles Uraraka had laid out.
"Honey, don't you think you should get ready yourself now? You don't want to be late on your first day back right?" Uraraka's mother sighed as she started picking up ribbons from the floor.
She put a hand on her daughter's shoulder as she passed her by whilst cleaning up, chuckling softly.
"I don't think you can do that to Katsuki."
"Mom!" Uraraka yelled.
Her mother picked a few other things off the floor before making her way out of the room. Satisfied with the reaction she got out of her daughter she closed the door behind her.
Uraraka put her hands on her face and fell backward into the mess she made. In her back, she felt more rolls of thread, scissors and she didn't dare to shift because she was pretty sure there was also a needle trying to poke in her shoulder blade. The girl slid her hands off her face, laid them out next to her and looked at the ceiling.
Who would've thought, that when she was finally allowed to be at the bar again she couldn't even get herself up and get ready?
She loathed her past self for claiming a studio at Yuuei this early, there were still some techniques she wanted to try out this morning.
Uraraka rolled over and looked at her nightstand. The stand and the floor surrounding it was filled with pointe shoes. Every single one of them altered in numerous ways. She counted twenty-two pairs. Some of them with burned ends of a ribbon, some with thick elastic bands going across the arch of the foot, some with threading on the pointe, some with the points burned, stained pairs but also clean. The graveyard of pointe shoes was the road of the trial of error of Uraraka.
Since the injury, she had been set on making the perfect pair of pointe shoes to accompany her newly formed feet and to prevent bunions and blisters but more importantly to avoid future injuries. Though she had really been going on a rampage that rehearsal she got injured, it was also the shoe that put her out for almost a month. She had not correctly anticipated what kind of shoe fitted the particular way she would perform the choreography and thus they failed her.
Uraraka had gone from doing the simplest of altercations to her pointe shoes to quite literally obsessing over every possible detail you could alter to the shoe. When she was unable to dance she would still attend most classes and rehearsals, just to see how the other girls altered their shoes for different choreographies. The girls also kindly cared to explain to her why they did certain things and at that moment Uraraka felt so stupid for underestimating the importance of the shoes and focusing too much on the performance itself.
She had even gone to Hatsume Mei, a girl who practically lived in the pointe shoe basement and she had shown Uraraka the best glue brands and boxcutters there were for preparing a pointe shoe. She was also the person who gave Uraraka all those shoes to practice with, excited that there was finally someone who was really passionate about the build of the shoe.
After a lot of burning, threading, taping, gluing and bleeding Uraraka had found a shoe that could withstand the training for her audition. And it was right in front of her. Still, she wanted to try a few more things, but Uraraka knew deep down it couldn't get better than this. The last three pairs she altered came out practically the same. She had definitely reached her peak.
The ballerina sat up and picked up the pair by their ribbons and watched them spin.
"It's going to be you and me," Uraraka spoke to them.
They continued turning and said nothing in response.
She let out a deep breath, threw the pair next to her training bag, and stood up.
After a cold shower, she put on her white pair of tights, a black leotard and dance skirt. It had been a long time since Uraraka wore actual dance clothes and she wanted to see her skirt twirl again. Still nervous about her ankle she ended up standing with both feet on the ground and twirled her hips around in front of the mirror. Whilst she did that she tried to put her hair in a ballerina bun. It had also been a long time since she had done that. Frustrated she kept on twirling and chewed on her bobby pins trying to make the best of the bun that kept falling apart.
Eventually, she settled for a half done hairdo and went downstairs to meet her mother sitting at a decorated dining table. At one of her chairs, her mother had tied three pink balloons. The table was filled with stacks of fluffy pancakes and bowls of different kinds of fruit.
Uraraka rubbed her forehead and tried to hide her smile. "Oh mom, Miss Kayama wouldn't let me hear the end of it if she knew about this!"
Her mother ushered her to come sit down at the table by pulling out the decorated chair.
"Is now really the time to think about calories Ochako? It's your first time back and dancing at Yuuei! I think that's oughta little celebration."
It was a bit over the top but Uraraka couldn't complain. She was honestly over the moon with how supportive her mother was of her. It wasn't easy for her, seeing her daughter move out of the house at the age of sixteen, struggle to get by as she worked herself to the brim of exhaustion. But she knew how much Uraraka dreamed of dancing at one of the elite ballet schools in the country and living where most of the action was and so she rooted for Uraraka every single step of her journey.
Uraraka was convinced that if her mother hadn't driven over to stay with her when she was injured, she would have completely lost it. She most likely wouldn't even have danced today despite having been given the green light by the doctors and her physiotherapist. Without that good cry, she had on her mother's lap the day they told her how long she couldn't dance for she would've been so incredibly lost.
The girl took a single pancake, but on a drop of fresh whipped cream and decorated it with strawberries. Her mother sat opposite her and leaned in.
"I still think you should've danced in a class first before going straight into rehearsal. I bet your classmates are excited to dance with you again as well."
She picked a blueberry from one of the bowls and popped it into her mouth.
Uraraka shrugged. "You have a point but the more I wait to perform this choreography again, the more scared I will get, and you know I'm already pretty scared as it is."
She took a bite of her pancake and hummed at how the cream melted on her tongue. She was definitely going to miss all the decent breakfasts when her mom leaves in a couple of days.
"I'm sure Katsuki is happy about that." Her mother said under her breath.
"Mom, please! Stop mentioning him so much!"
Uraraka huffed and blew her bangs upwards as her mother let out a wholehearted laugh.
"I'm sorry, Sprinkle, but I really like the guy! I felt challenged when he showed so much concern for you, I was starting to question who the real parent was here! Either way, it was so nice of him to stop by so often."
"He was just making sure he wasn't wasting his time," The ballerina scrunched her nose and slapped on more whipped cream on her second pancake.
Though all the time he spent with her should be considered a waste of time, really. The guy had a jam-packed schedule but still managed to find the time to stop by her apartment. It seemed like he had no one else to tease in class because that was all he did when he came over. Cracking jokes about the size of her swollen ankle and questioning what kind of shoes she wore with ‘two left feet'.
"Also," the mother continued to ramble on as if she hadn't heard a word of what her daughter said. "Are all the boys so toned at that school? If so, I can understand why you wanted to attend so badly!"
Bakugou had also talked to her mother a few times. Uraraka tried her best to keep them interacting with each other but her mother couldn't help but fall into conversation with that supposed talented dancer her daughter always danced with. The two would mostly talk about the Academy and if Uraraka really had been sticking to the exercises her physiotherapist prescribed. He was surprisingly polite and weirdly charming almost and it made her mother grow fond of him.
Too fond.
Uraraka dropped her fork and her mother winked at her.
"Only teasing of course. That aside, I am really happy that you're going to dance again, Sprinkle, and I hope you have a fantastic day."
She could sense her mother was trying hard not to get too emotional. It was so sweet, Uraraka almost kind of wished she could stay with her mother for the day. But she knew if she even suggested it her mother would shove her out the door anyway.
Uraraka finished her pancake and talked to her mother about the Sunday morning commute and looking into more winter appropriate dancing clothes. After several hugs and kisses on the head, the ballet student picked up her training bag and walked out of her apartment. Excitement and nerves danced around her body like a full class and she had to take in a big heap of morning air to bring some order to her feelings.
For the first time in a while, Uraraka felt like a Yuuei student again. People on the Metro were turning heads again and stared at her white tights and school-issued bag. Whispered when they noticed the school emblem and smiled at her. Usually, she felt a bit awkward when people were gawking at her, but she had gone to the school in her normal attire for so long she barely felt like she was attending her dream school.
Uraraka was glad she had to walk a bit to the school after getting out of the Metro. She needed more fresh air to calm the emotions raging through her. They were starting to get wilder and wilder. Like a class of Uraraka's right before the injury. Eager and almost aggressively tiptoeing around.
She checked her phone to distract herself from the looming building of Yuuei that was only going to make her emotions weigh heavier.
Katsuki Bakugou, 7:42 AM: Don't you dare let me wait on your first day back
Katsuki Bakugou, 7:42 AM: Not when it's fucking freezing
Uraraka rolled her eyes, opened the text conversation with him and replied.
Ochako Uraraka, 7:50 AM: I'm almost there, don't worry
The ballerina looked up and saw she almost passed the school gates. She took a few steps back and walked onto the school grounds.
All she had to do was not think about it for now. She had all the time to think about going back for the first time and now it was time to stop. Focus on what was happening right in front of her. To cope Uraraka focussed on Bakugou, who was looking up and breathing hot clouds of air into the sky.
How could the guy possibly feel a hint of the cold, he had packed himself like a mother would dress her child for the winter. Beanie only letting out a few of his gold locks, a gigantic scarf wrapped around his neck multiple times and a coat barely reaching his ankles, buttoned all the way up.
"Let's go inside," Uraraka laughed at him.
"Fuck yes, hurry," Bakugou sounded muffled as he had sunk himself into his scarf.
Uraraka scanned her keycard. Bakugou pushed the door open and let her enter first before entering himself and brushing past her. He rushed only for him to wait on her in front of the stairs.
The calm and quiet of an early weekend rehearsal that was favored by most dancers were now not helping at all. Uraraka squeezed her nails in the palm of her hand and reminded herself where she had to be with her thoughts.
She walked over to the stairs.
"We have studio 5E."
"Shit, 5E? Look at that, post-injury perks coming through already," Bakugou crossed his arms and started ascending the stairs.
"Very funny," Uraraka said sarcastically.
He didn't waste any time with cracking one huh?
If it was anyone else she would've probably got upset over the crudeness of the comment but with Bakugou she knew. She knew that all his jokes were his way of supporting her by joking about the injury, making the subject weigh less heavy. The only reason why Uraraka was sure of that was that he did the same thing when he got rejected for a big audition. He kept joking and standing tall. His self-deprecating jokes were definitely light-hearted than what he fired at her every time they were together, but it was nothing too hurtful.
An unusual way of support, yes, but expected from Bakugou.
When they walked into the studio and turned the lights on, Bakugou barely unpacked himself before taking place behind the grand piano. He cracked his fingers and started playing a tune. It wasn't a song in particular, but for something he just whipped up, it sounded damn good.
Also to be expected from Bakugou.
"I'm guessing you haven't been behind the piano for a while?" Uraraka breathed as she stretched her limbs to the tunes of the song.
Bakugou fingers continued to carelessly dance across the keys as he spoke. "Don't even start. All the teacher's I'm playing for are fine tuning their choreography and can't use me for now. I barely have time to play outside of that because of those stupid fucking rehearsals that go on for longer than planned."
It was a miracle the dancer hadn't had a burn-out yet. The guy was ridiculously skilled and put them to use whenever he could. Not only was he a very disciplined dancer but he was also an experienced pianist. Yuuei was very fond of students with experience in multiple art disciplines and liked to utilize since there weren't that many of them. Teachers and older students often asked Bakugou to play in classes and he had even caught the eye of foreign guest teachers and they have invited him to several rehearsals of big shows. Besides that, he was also given the privilege to teach classes to young aspiring dancers attending the school, also a privilege not handed to many.
A busy schedule, where she somehow fitted in.
"Let's start warming up," Bakugou decided after finishing his self-made tune.
Uraraka had already put on her soft ballet shoes and was putting her feet in the first position at the bar. Which was one of the only things she dared to do when she was recovering from her injury; putting her feet in the starting positions. The thought of going on her toes scared her and still did now.
Her hand was already clammy and it felt like it could slip off the bar at any moment. Annoyed with herself Uraraka replaced her hand and put her chin in the air.
"We're going to make this a long one before you dance yourself in another month-long break."
Bakugou cracked his knuckles and started playing one of his well-known warm-up tunes. As he played he instructed Uraraka how to move. Heavily she tried to focus on keeping his voice from fading into the background because every single time she rose on her toes her focus went to her ankle. Hoping she couldn't feel a sudden shot of pain.
The shot of pain didn't come but she could feel her limbs trembling very early on into the warming up. She focused her breathing and tried to ignore the unusual limitations her body had set up for her.
"What's with that stiff face, this is only a rehearsal! And…Tack! Steady…Plié and back!" Bakugou yelled, poking his head out from behind the piano.
Uraraka shot a deadly look at him then directed her face forward again.
"Position four…And…Steady! Uraraka, come on, you haven't been out for that long have you?!"
She had the urge to direct the anger to Bakugou instead of herself but it she chose to stay put. She had learned the hard way that when she got aggressive things didn't turn out well.
When they went over into stretching, Uraraka felt like she was working with her ‘old' body again. With ease, she could raise her leg next to her ear and the splits she could still do too. Bakugou stayed mostly silent for this exercise, which she was thankful for. After that last comment, she was starting to get seriously irked by his voice.
The warm-up at the bar lasted a good forty-five minutes instead of the usual twenty or so. Bakugou ended it with a new exercise, where she had to rise sixteen times on each foot. After she finished that he closed the piano. "That should do you good," He mumbled.
Uraraka wiped her hands off her skirt and walked over to her training bag. All of her limbs were heavily trembling already and she felt tired. She couldn't afford that, not when it was time for the most energy consuming part of the day.
Even when she had done this a dozen of times before, she still had to think everything through. The taping of her arch, the plasters around her toes, putting her foot in the shoe, the tying of her ribbons. Everything she gave more thought than necessary, knowing that she couldn't have done it any different. This was as good as it was going to get.
"Damn, you spent a lot of time on that huh?" Bakugou noticed as he put on his soft ballet shoes.
"Mhm."
She tried delaying the preparation for as long as possible but eventually, she pulled herself up and stood in front of the mirror. Whilst Bakugou connected his phone to the sound installation she eyed at her pointe shoes. It made her feel nauseous looking at them.
Never had she felt fear to the point of wanting to throw up.
Not before her first ever show with Yuuei Ballet Academy, not when she performed her first self-made choreography for her guest teacher, not when she wrote herself in to audition for the master production of ‘The Great Gatsby' and choose to audition for one of the leads.
But right there, on a Sunday morning, seconds before dancing the routine she had danced so many times;
She felt horrible.
When the song started, she jolted.
‘I've seen the world, done it all, had my cake now…'
The song she had listened to for a million times she couldn't sing along to for the first time.
All she could tell herself was to rise, to rise on her stupid points and dance. But she stayed in the first position and watched herself in the mirror, even well after she missed the queue.
The ballerina could sense that Bakugou was trying to make eye contact with her through the mirror but she couldn't possibly look him in the eye now. It was embarrassing, how scared she actually was. Where the hell was her dancer's spirit that she hoped would kick in a beat the fear as soon as she stood in this position? Where was that determination that had kept her going, even after she got injured?
"Dance, damn it, dance!" She thought to herself.
But her body kept refusing.
Halfway through the song Bakugou sighed and pressed pause.
He walked over the bar opposite Uraraka and leaned against it.
"Harder than you thought?"
Uraraka dropped her chin and cast her eyes low. She got overwhelmed and couldn't do anything to stop it. Her hands went to her face as the first sob came out. It was the first time she cried about this whole situation since she heard how long she was going to be out for. And it happened to be in front of Bakugou.
It was far from pretty too.
The ballerina continued to hide her flustered face behind her hands as she started sobbing louder. Between breaths, she gnashed, frustrated that the tears wouldn't stop flowing.
There was no time for crying.
She couldn't afford to stand there and fall apart. Bakugou couldn't afford to watch her do that.
She had to try again.
When she wiped her hands along her cheeks and opened her eyes she saw Bakugou standing inches in front of her. To her surprise, he looked rather, upset with her.
He shook his head. "You know what your problem is? You know why you got yourself in this shitty mess, to begin with?"
Between hiccups, Uraraka immediately wanted to defend herself but Bakugou immediately silenced her.
"You keep thinking that you have to do this all on your own!"
Uraraka tilted her head at him in confusion.
His eyes became more narrow and his voice sterner. "This choreography is a fucking duet, you moron. Why the fuck do you think I'm here in the first place? To support you. And I know it's going to be just you during the audition, but if you don't learn to lean on a partner, you can kiss the role of ‘Daisy' goodbye. You can kiss most of your future roles goodbye."
Bakugou took a hold of both of her wrists. "So, for the sake of my efforts, your career, and most importantly your health- let me support you, damn it."
Uraraka looked down at his gentle fingers wrapping around her wrists. He scolded her like they weren't equals, like a teacher scolded a beginner but he was right. She had been too focused on herself, pushing herself to perfect every single one of her movements, making sure she would stand out during the audition. It was shameful that Uraraka couldn't even remember when or if she ever really acknowledged Bakugou's touch during rehearsal.
She was incredibly selfish and hyper-focused on reaching her goal. If Miss Kayama knew about this Uraraka didn't doubt she would think twice about her place here in Yuuei.
She had forgotten to let go and have fun. Which she definitely knew she could have dancing with Bakugou.
Uraraka put her chin back up and held onto Bakugou's wrist.
"I'll let you support me," She nodded.
Bakugou softened his face and grinned at her.
"Atta girl."
He pushed her to rise to her toes. At first, she felt that the break was still on, but then he tightened his grip on her and it helped her push through the blockade and stand on her toes.
There was no pain.
It felt natural, actually.
Bakugou turned around her and laid their hands on her hip and stretched her other hand out. He urged Uraraka to trickle along with him, stood close to her as she did, ready to catch her if she stumbled. But that also went greater than expected.
Uraraka breathed out a laugh as it was now quite laughable how scared she was, considering how well things were going at the moment.
They continued trickling around the room. The soft thuds of Uraraka pointe shoes, the sharp brushes from Bakugou's soft shoes and concentrated breaths from the two being the only noises in the room.
Bakugou's hands continued to guide her and she sensed his full support through every move they did together. This was by far the most intimate moment Uraraka had shared with him. Now she acknowledged every touch and every stroke and it kept her wondering how much of these moments she missed out on.
After he noticed she had gotten used to being on points again, he steadied her at the hips.
"We're going to do the choreography now. I'm not going to put any music on and we're going to take out time doing every single move. You need support, I'll lend it to you. Got it?"
"Yes."
Bakugou let her get in the first position. After a few deep breaths, she rose to her toes again and started dancing. Uraraka's lips slowly separated and she mouthed the lyrics along in her head.
‘Will you still love me when I'm no longer young and beautiful?'
‘Will you still love me when I'm got nothing but my aching soul?'
Uraraka felt Bakugou's hands on her waist again and for the first time ever when performing this choreography, she was reminded that she had a partner who she could lean on. She heard him huff behind her and it caused her to smile. Together they continued to dance around the room, Uraraka now paying more attention to Bakugou than herself. When they reached the most technical part she almost wanted to shy away from it. Incredibly enough Bakugou sensed her hesitation again and leaned in right next to her ear.
"Come on, ‘Daisy'," He told her.
He dug his fingers into her waist, lifted her up carried her to another part of the room. There she started hopping, encouraged by his three words. The more she realized that the pain wasn't coming back, the more fun she started to have. Her face that had been all tensed up was relaxing and she was smiling like a ballerina should. She trickled, hopped and spun around Bakugou.
She never felt more like Daisy as she did then.
Playful and fun-loving.
Completely immersed in her role she treated Bakugou like her Gatsby. Took the time to lend him her hand, took the time to make contact whenever she touched him. Couldn't help but giggle as she pretended to play games with him as he guided her from one area of the room to another.
In her head, Uraraka heard the final tunes of the song and Bakugou lifted her up for the final time. Filled with ecstasy her hands traveled from the back of his neck to his face as she made herself small and he spun her around.
‘All that grace, all that body,
All that face makes me wanna party,
He's my sun, he makes me shine like diamonds'
They hadn't reached the end of the routine yet but none of them chose to continue to dance. The two dancers simply stared at each other, bodies close and breaths heavy. Uraraka kept repeating the bridge of the song in her head, those exact four last lines of it were all she could think of when she looked into Bakugou's eyes.
She was so lucky to have him as a partner.
Bakugou leaned his forehead against hers and smiled.
"You did well ‘Daisy'."
"Thanks to you, ‘Gatsby'."