Chapter Text
💥
Alright, so Katsuki hadn't planned on going to some stupid Halloween party at some random sorority house on a sacred Saturday, but he'd overheard Ochako talking about being invited and planning to go, so when Eijirou had snagged an invitation through his boyfriend, he hadn't been able to say no. Eijirou had looked surprised at his easy agreement, to put it mildly, but he hadn't been stupid enough to question it. Which is good, because Katsuki doesn't know what his explanation would have been. He can't just tell him that he wants to spend time with Ochako outside of physics and that he has tried to come up with any sort of situation where such an encounter might occur, but with little luck. It's not like he can just ask her to spend time with him. Why the hell would she want to do that? He also can't ask her to study with him, because they're both too smart to need it from each other, so what other choice does he have? Well, as it so happens, the party presents an opportunity that he can't force himself to turn down.
Still, he should have fought a bit harder against the stupid costume. He feels like an idiot, wearing at least thirty nametags on his shirt, and people don't even get it. Not that he cares. All that he cares about at this party is currently in the middle of playing a game of beer pong with her roommate and Katsuki’s friends while Katsuki himself stares at them from the nearest corner in the room.
“What are you supposed to be dressed as?” some girl asks, leaning against the wall beside him as she looks him up and down, fluttering her long lashes.
“Piss off.”
The girl gasps, affronted, but leaves him alone.
She looks… really good, in her deep blue shirt and black pants. It’s such a simple outfit, something he usually wouldn’t bat an eye at, but the change from her usual aesthetic is magnetic. Not that he doesn’t like her in her thick, pastel sweaters, looking cozy and huggable as fuck, or the multiple summer dresses he’s seen her wearing over the summer, but something about tonight’s outfit makes her seem more… mature. Unfortunately, it also makes her seem absolutely unapproachable. To Katsuki, at least; as he watches from the corner, four other guys takes the time to chat her up, and they each receive a bright, carefree smile, and Katsuki’s blood boils silently on the sidelines.
The bunny ears look silly, flopping around her head, but he’d damn near combusted on the spot when she’d turned and he’d caught sight of the little fluffball tail over her tailbone. That little detail had made him go and grab a glass of vodka and coke, because the beer suddenly wasn’t cutting it anymore.
“Hey man, come play with us!” Eijirou calls from the beer pong table, waving his arms high over his head.
“Yeah!” Denki adds, voice loud over the music. “Stop looking like you’re at a funeral and come have fun!”
Katsuki’s eyes slide over to the other side of the table, to Ochako and the girl in pink. They’re talking and laughing, but, like she can feel his eyes on her, she turns her head. A jolt runs through Katsuki’s whole body as their eyes meet, her drunken smile still stretched wide on her face from her previous conversation. As her gaze focuses on Katsuki, however, the smile softens, and she inclines her head vaguely towards the table. And then she turns back to talk to the other girl, like they hadn’t just been having their own little moment. Yuck. He’s disgusted with himself. That wasn't a moment, it was barely a second of unplanned eye contact.
Emptying his glass, Katsuki crushes the plastic in his hand and tosses it onto a coffee table in passing as he joins the group at the table. “Who wants to have their ass kicked?”
Ochako’s jingling laugh fills the air, and it’s all he can hear for the longest moment, until she speaks. “Did you not just see me wipe the floor with these guys? Please.”
Swallowing roughly and praying his heartbeat can’t be heard over the pounding music, Katsuki forces out an affronted huff. “That sounds like a challenge, Cheeks.”
And then, because apparently Ochako is the actual girl of his dreams – if ever he were to have such a thing – she places her hand on her side, juts out her hip and fucking smirks. “What are you gonna do about it?”
Somewhat confident the alcohol will be blamed for his flush, Katsuki shoves against Denki to take his place at the table. Then, on second thought, he pushes Eijirou away from the table as well before he turns back to Ochako with a raised brow. “Think you can beat me on your own, or do you need Pinky there to help you out?”
Ochako laughs and turns to the other girl, who immediately raises her hands in surrender and backs away to stand beside Denki and Eijirou. “A thousand yen on Chako winning,” she offers, holding out a hand towards the guys. Eijirou laughs and accepts.
It’s a close game, and Katsuki is admittedly a little distracted with all of Ochako’s excited bouncing on the other side of the table, but he does eventually scrape up a win. Ochako’s disappointed whine is almost as loud as her roommate’s, but they’re both drowned out by Denki’s and Eijirou’s cheers.
Ochako picks out the pingpong ball from her last cup and drinks the alcohol, before she moves over to Katsuki’s side of the table. She reaches for his remaining cup, but stumbles over her own feet. Katsuki instinctively reaches out before she can slam into the side of the table, hands on her hips. She looks back at him over her shoulder with a puzzled look, eyes hazy.
“You should probably take it easy,” Katsuki finds himself saying, voice quiet and barely audible over the music, but they’re close enough that he’s confident she can hear him.
“But I lost,” she argues vaguely, blinking her big, brown eyes up at him, and fucking hell, who gave her permission?
Katsuki lets go of her hips – probably very belatedly, if he were to think about it, so he doesn’t – and moves to stand beside her with a grunt. He grabs the drink and pours it down his throat in one swift movement before she can protest further. “You need some air.”
Ochako tilts her head as she watches him intently. And then she looks down and shakes her head lightly. “Yeah, probably.”
“Me too,” he announces, and starts walking off towards the nearest exit, which turns out to be one leading to a back porch. There’s a lot of room and seating, it being a sorority house and all, and yet he chooses to stand by a wooden column a little off to the side.
Ochako stumbles out not long after, looking around the porch quickly, but when her eyes find Katsuki amongst the other occupants, she walks towards him with drunken resolution. She sits down in a chair beside him and leans back with a sigh. “You could have waited for me.” She doesn’t sound upset, though, just a little tired. Katsuki doesn’t answer. He looks off in the distance, over a dark garden spanning out behind the house. He wonders how many people live here. It’s a big place. He would definitely go crazy if it were him. “Katsuki.”
He whips around a little too fast at the sound of his name, and Ochako is smiling softly up at him. She’s definitely drunk; otherwise, she wouldn’t smile so easily around him. She’s been smiling at you for weeks in physics, his mind reminds him gently, making his pulse quicken. She really has, hasn’t she? “Hm?”
“I was really surprised to see you here,” she admits with a little laugh. “It doesn’t really seem like your scene.”
He grunts. “That’s ‘cause it isn't.” Truthfully, he should be asleep right now. He should have been asleep for a while. He would have been, if only he hadn’t overheard that she was going to be here. And right now, he’s not even that mad about it. Crazy.
“Your costume is a little silly.” She says it like she’s sorry about it, like she’d do something about it if she could.
“Yeah, well, yours isn’t even really a costume, is it?” he shoots back unthinkingly, deciding not to add that she doesn’t need a costume anyway, or that the little tail is almost one step too far.
Ochako sighs and slumps further into the chair. “I know. I borrowed it from Mina because she said I couldn’t go without a costume. But I don’t have a costume! Do I look like I have the money to spend on silly costumes?” She looks Katsuki up and down slowly, and he feels warm all over. “But I guess costumes don’t have to cost much after all.”
“Hey, I was forced into this shit.” He moves before he can think about it, taking the seat beside her. “But you’re right. Spending money on a costume for a stupid party is a waste.”
She sighs dreamily. “I think it could be fun. Like dressing up as Tinkerbell or something, you know?” Katsuki tries not to imagine it, but what can he say? He has a very vivid imagination. “But I can barely afford to go to college as it is, so here we are…”
“Your parents don’t pay for this shit?” are the very clever words that leave his mouth before he can second guess it, and he regrets them immediately.
Luckily, Ochako doesn’t go off about how her parents have cut her off, or are dead or some other traumatic shit like that. Instead, she shakes her head and smiles fondly. “They pay what they can. They’re barely scraping by to get me through college, so I’m trying to pick up some of the slack with my job. It’s not a lot, but it’s enough that I can eat and have a little to spare for myself.”
Katsuki lets that information sink in. He might’ve guessed from seeing her ratty backpack, but he’d honestly suspected it held some sort of sentimental value for her. Apparently not. “We always have too much food.”
Ochako looks at him like he’s grown a second head. “Um. Okay.”
“Fuck, that’s not–” Katsuki growls and takes a deep breath. Is it hot out here? Probably not, because he notices that Ochako has her arms wrapped around herself. Fuck, it’s the middle of the night in the end of October, he shouldn’t be keeping her out in the cold. “I mean, I always make plenty, so you could come over, or whatever. So you don’t have to spend so much on food. It’s whatever.” Who the fuck ever allowed him to be out in public? This is actual torture.
“Do you mean it, or are you just drunk?”
Katsuki supposes he is a little drunk, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t mean it. It just means that he probably wouldn’t have had the guts to offer it if he was sober. But now that the words are out there, it seems a little easier, even if his cheeks are red hot. “Can’t it be both?”
A cold hand wraps around his forearm, and he stares at it for a long moment before his eyes follow the arm up to Ochako’s face. She’s turned fully towards him in the chair now, eyes wide and lips parted. “I really don’t want to be a bother, though. You don’t have to make anything for me, really.”
“I cook twice a week for the idiots, anyway,” he says with a shrug, light enough that he doesn’t throw her off his arm. “What’s one more mouth to feed?” He’ll have to buy a little extra, of course. Maybe he can make enough that she can take leftovers back home. Does she have a fridge in the dorms? Wait, do they have a kitchen? They must have, right? He’ll have to ask Denki. He also could technically ask Ochako, but she’s already talking again.
“I… If you really mean it, then…” She removes her hand from his arm to pat around her pockets, then huffs and turns back to Katsuki. “Do you have a pen?”
He’s about to tell her that of course he doesn’t, why would he have a pen on him? But then he remembers that Eijirou had stuffed a pen into his pocket for his costume, in case anyone actually wanted to add their name to the tags. He rustles around until he’s able to fish it out, and he’s slightly embarrassed about the warmth of it as he places it in her cold fingers.
Before he can register what is happening, she leans closer to him, placing one hand on the top of his chest, while the other presses the pen into a spot a little further down, a little off the side of his heart. He stares blankly over the top of her head, and she’s so close, until she soon draws back. “Just… When you’re sober, if you still mean it, you can let me know.” Her smile is strained and nervous as she hands the pen back to him and stands. “It’s really cold out here. I think I’ll go back inside. Come join us when you’re ready, okay?”
He breathes out a “Yeah,” as she leaves, watching the little fluffball tail swish from left to right as she walks away. Only once she’s out of his field of vision does he look down at the tag over his heart. It’d been blank before, but now it’s filled out, not with letters making up a name, but with numbers. His heart quickly picks up speed until it’s jackhammering in his chest. Did she just… Holy shit, she just gave him her number? For free food, not for you, he needs to remind himself. It doesn’t matter. He’s not offering it for any nefarious reasons, he just… kind of can’t stand the thought of her barely affording to eat. She might not even eat properly, if she has to be so careful about her money. He realises it’s none of his business, but.
His thumb brushes over the tag gently once. He’s just gonna stay out here for a little while, at least until he cools down.
He runs into Eijirou when he returns to the kitchen for another drink, and the guy bumps his fist into his shoulder as a greeting. And then his eyes seem to catch onto the newly filled-out tag right below his fist. With a toothy grin, Eijirou’s eyes flick back up to Katsuki’s. “Bro. Someone gave you their number? Nice!”
Katsuki swats his arm away and shoves past him to pour his drink. “Fuck off. Ochako just needed me to have it for… reasons.” He expects some sort of reply, any kind of reply, really, but when he gets to pour his drink and even take a few sips in silence, he grows suspicious and turns around to face Eijirou. But instead of wearing a carefree grin or having become occupied by something else while Katsuki’s back was turned, Eijirou is staring at him, slackjawed and wide eyed, his hand still dangling in the air like he’s frozen in time. “Wait–”
“‘Ochako’?” Eijirou echoes, slowly letting his hand drop. “Since when do you…” And then his eyes widen even further, mouth dropping fully open. “Bro! Do you have a–”
“Don’t,” Katsuki starts, voice a deep warning, “say a fucking word. I fucking mean it, Shitty Hair.”
Eijirou doesn’t. He just stares as Katsuki shoulders his way out of the room.
🌸
“Wait, wait, wait!” Izuku calls with a laugh, waving a hand in front of his face. “She offered you a knife?”
Ochako laughs as well, because now that she’s drunk, the situation with her coworker seems even more ridiculous than it was while sober. “I guess it was kind of sweet of her,” she admits as she shakes her head. “Apparently a bunch of creepy guys like to stop by now and then.” When she notices Izuku’s sudden worry in his eyes, she waves him off. “Oh, don’t worry! She works the evening shifts, mostly, so that’s probably why she runs into them more often.”
Izuku’s worry doesn't ease up. “Still, if she really feels unsafe enough that she has to walk around with a knife… You’re working there in solo shifts, after all.”
“Maybe she’s just paranoid, though?” Ochako tries to argue, but she wonders if Izuku is right, if it’s unsafe for them to be working in single shifts, especially Himiko, who works them late into the night. She should talk to Himiko about it, and hear if it’s something they have any security measures for, like a silent alarm or a trapdoor or something. She shelves the thought for now. “The worst I’ve experienced was probably Katsuki staring at me silently for a full minute before he threw a pack of condoms at me.”
Izuku splutters on his drink, coughing wildly as he bends forward in surprise. “Kacchan did what?” When all Ochako does is laugh at Izuku’s reaction, he dries off the alcohol he’s spilled over his chin and straightens himself back up. His cheeks look a little red. “I-I didn’t know Kacchan had a…”
Ochako reaches out to swipe one of his green bunny ears out of his face and back into place at the side of his head. “He said they were for Kirishima, but he got really mad about it. It’s nothing to be so shocked about, though. He’s nineteen, right?”
“Yeah, but…” Izuku pauses, considering. “I don’t know. We’ve been friends since we were kids, and he’s never really shown any interest in anyone. I nearly had a heart attack when I saw a girl walk out of his room after that party at our place, but then I noticed it was just you.”
Ochako snorts. “Just me? What’s that supposed to mean?”
Izuku’s eyes widen comically in panic. “Not like that! Not that you’re not–! That’s not what I was trying to–! I just mean, even if he was interested in doing… that… with you–”
“You can say sex, I won’t cry,” Ochako cuts in cheekily, raising her brow at the way Izuku’s blush deepens.
“Even if he wanted to,” he barrels on, like she hadn’t interrupted him, “I just didn’t think you would want to with him, is what I was trying to say.”
Ochako tilts her head. “Huh.”
“N-Not that he’s not a great guy or anything,” Izuku hurriedly adds to defend his friend whom he might have just sort of trash-talked, “it’s just, with the way you’ve been arguing and stuff since you met, I guess I just thought you sort of disliked each other.” Squinting his eyes, Izuku seems to be examining her closely. “Or… do you?”
Ochako shrugs one shoulder. “It’s not something I’ve thought about,” she tells him honestly. Now she is, though, just a little bit. Katsuki is attractive, after all, anyone with eyes can see that. And he’s also turning out to be a really nice guy, who’s willing to let her spend hours in his room on a night where he’d been dead set on avoiding everyone, just because she felt a little uncomfortable. “But I don’t dislike him. We sit together in physics, and I think we’re kind of friends now.” She decides not to bring up the offer to have her over for food; if Katsuki changes his mind once he sobers up, she doesn’t want to have put him on the spot, and if he doesn’t, well, Izuku will find out eventually.
“Did you see me!?” Kaminari’s voice suddenly bursts out from behind them, and both Ochako and Izuku turn towards him as he bounces towards them with Kirishima and Sero right in his heels. “Did you see me do a flip off the table?”
Izuku groans and shakes his head, but Ochako laughs. “Pics, or it didn’t happen.”
“One step ahead of you!” Kaminari yells proudly. “Hanta, show her the video!”
Sero is fishing his phone out of his pocket – made much harder because of all the mummy bandages – when fingers wrap around Ochako’s bicep and Mina’s pink hair invades her vision. “Chako! There you are!”
“And there you are!” She smiles at her friend, who looks a bit more contemplative than just plain out drunk, but there’s a smile on her face. “What have you been up to? I haven’t seen you around for at least an hour.”
Mina grins and shrugs. “Well, that’s kind of what I wanted to talk to you about, actually. Do you see that guy back there?” She points over her shoulder, and although there are a lot of people all clustered together, only one of them is looking over, giving an awkward smile as Ochako catches his eyes. “So, I kinda want to take him home, because his roommate is at his place, so we can’t go there, and I would hate to let a cutie like that go that easily, right?”
Ochako frowns and lets out a sigh. “Mina… That’s… great and all. You know, fun. But where am I supposed to go?”
Mina lets her go, only to jump over and latch herself onto Izuku’s arm. He squeaks a bit at the contact, but doesn’t push her off. “Well, you and Midoriya here are super tight, right? Can’t you stay with him? You did it after the last party, too! Please, Chako, you’d be doing me a solid.”
Ochako offers Izuku an apologetic smile, and then glances back at Mina. “I’m not sure they want me to bother them–”
“No big deal!” Kirishima cuts in, patting Ochako’s back with a warm, solid hand. “She can stay at our place, easy. Go get it, girl!” He pauses and hums. “Well, if that’s okay with you, though, Uraraka?”
Ochako glances over the guy’s face, trying to see if any of them are against it, but they seem to be okay with the idea – well, she can’t really see much of Sero’s face, but he doesn’t object, so… She nods. “Alright. Fine.” She gives Mina a stern look. “But you owe me one.”
Mina squeals excitedly and jumps back at her to hug her close. “Of course! Any time you want to have a boy over for some alone time, just let me know, and I’ll get right out of your hair!”
That’s not really what she’d meant, but she’ll take it – who knows, maybe she’ll need the favour at some point. “Right. But don’t touch my bed!” she calls after her friend as she dances her way across the room, straight into the guy’s arms and right into a deep, sloppy kiss. Alright then. She turns to the four guys with an apologetic smile. “Sorry about this. I guess I owe you one as well.”
Sero waves her off lazily. “Nah, don’t worry about it. Happy to be of assistance.”
“Shit, I should probably go let Katsuki know,” Kirishima mumbles.
Ochako immediately worries over his tone. “Do you think he’ll be mad about it?”
Kirishima laughs then, so loud and sudden that she jolts. “No way. But you should all probably start thinking about wrapping things up here. Don’t think he’ll see much point in staying longer than necessary.” He walks off, ignoring Kaminari’s whine of “But it’s only three am!”
Izuku gives Ochako an encouraging smile. “You can take my bed. I’ll sleep on the couch.”
“Oh, no, I really don’t mind. I’ve slept on your couch before, remember? It’s comfortable enough.”
“Wait, when was this?” asks Sero, and Ochako laughs and explains.
Katsuki has them all rounded up and out the door within the next half hour, and the walk back to their place feels much shorter than it probably is, filled with jokes and laughter and some questionable singing. Ochako might regret that last bit in the morning, but that’s a problem for her future self. They stumble into the apartment together, all five of them – Kaminari having gone back to his own dorm room – flattening out on the couch. It’s a large couch with more than enough room for all of them, but with the way they’re spread out, they’re all tangling together, Ochako leaning against Izuku’s side with her legs thrown over Kirishima’s thighs. They lie there in silence for a long moment, until Ochako thinks she might drift off if she stays still one more second.
“Alright, get out of my bed before we all fall asleep here.”
Sero groans, his eyes closed. “Mm. But it’s so comfy.”
Ochako shows her agreement with her own deep sigh. “I’m gonna at the very least have to take these pants off before I go to sleep, you know that, right?” They’re squeezing the life out of her, which is not a nice feeling when she just wants to relax and get comfortable. Preferably she’d like to ditch the bra as well, but if they’re all gonna insist on staying there–
She doesn’t have to worry, though, because Sero is out of the couch before she can finish the thought, and she slumps backwards as her backrest, in the form of Izuku, is ripped away from her as well as he follows Sero up. Turning her head further, she sees Katsuki getting up as well with a scowl. He gets so offended at the smallest things – what a silly guy.
“Where are you all going?” Kirishima asks tiredly, blinking heavy eyelids up towards the guys. Upon seeing their flushed faces, Kirishima chuckles. “What, you scared of a pair of legs?”
“Dude, that’s not fair,” Sero says as he kicks Kirishima’s shin hanging out over the couch. “You’re gay.”
“Get off the couch, Shitty Hair, and go to your own fucking bed.” Katsuki doesn’t wait for his friend to follow his command before he grabs his bicep and hauls him up, ripping him out from under Ochako’s legs.
Now left alone on the couch, she spreads out properly over the cushions and yawns. “Can I have my blanket?”
“It’s not your fucking blanket,” Katsuki grumbles, but she can hear him stomp away to his room, and returning shortly after. He throws a soft, orange bundle onto her stomach. “There. Now stop bothering me.”
She doesn’t see how she’s been bothering him up until now, but she just nods and sends him a tired smile, which he returns by scoffing and storming back off to his room, keeping the door closed behind him this time.
“Good night, Ochako,” Izuku calls from somewhere near the door to his own room, and with a click, he turns off the lights. Kirishima mumbles something about barely being able to find his own room like this as he and Sero walk off, but it sounds like they manage it in the end. “Let me know if you need anything.”
“Good night, Izu-kun! Thank you, I will.” She gives him a little wave, belatedly realising that he probably can’t see her in the dim lighting. Once Izuku has left for his own room and Ochako is alone in the living area, she fishes her phone out of her bag and turns on the flashlight enough for her to see what she’s doing. She pulls off the bunny ears first, placing them on the coffee table gently. Next, she unclips the fluffy tail and places it beside the ears. Pulling off her pants is a struggle, especially as she is drunk and also still lying down, but she manages. She waits a little while, making sure none of the guys are planning to get out of their room for something, before she pulls off the shirt and her bra. She’s just about to pull the shirt back on when she notices something under the blanket that she’s shoved to the side; something black and soft. Pulling at it, she reveals the tombstone hoodie she’d borrowed before staring back at her, and a smile slips onto her face. She pulls it over her head and slides it down her body, waving her arms above her just to see the long sleeves flap freely. She giggles.
Now more comfortable than she had dared to hope, Ochako wraps the orange blanket around her and turns off the light on her phone. She breathes in the comforting smell of the blanket that’s tickling her nose, and before she knows it, she’s asleep.
She wakes up with a headache, which is to be expected, she supposes, remembering how much she drank. She had a lot of fun, but now, waking up late on a Sunday with no will to get through Monday, she’s wondering if she maybe had a little too much fun. Nah, there’s no such thing as too much fun, a voice that sounds suspiciously like Mina’s echo in her head. She wonders if her friend had a good night, and reminds herself to ask her about it when she gets back.
There’s something she needs to do before she makes that walk across campus, though; she could really use a shower. She could also stand to brush her teeth, but that one will have to wait. It seems she’s the first one up; the apartment is silent, aside from faint snoring, so she pulls herself up and tiptoes her way to one of the bathrooms – the one Izuku had warned her from the start would be her safest option.
She tries not to take too long in the shower, but she can’t help but just stand under the spray for a long time, every drop washing away her exhaustion and aches. There are a handful of products on the right side of the shower, fancy-looking and definitely more high-end than the one bottle on the left, a 3-in-1. She uses 3-in-1 products from time to time, because they’re cheap, and they work on anything, right? But she can’t help but let her eyes catch on the bottles on the right. Where the one on the left just smells like regular soap (yes, she opens it to check it out, so what?) the ones on the right somehow manage to make her feel a wash of comfort as she smells them. If she just uses a little of a few of the fancier ones, it’s less noticeable than using a lot of the 3-in-1 stuff, right? That’s at least the reasoning she goes with, and she’s very happy with the way it turns out, because her hair and skin feels amazing, and she keeps turning her head to smell the skin of her shoulders and smile.
She pulls the hoodie back on and wraps her hair up in a towel before she exits the bathroom, and then pauses when she runs into Katsuki right outside the door. “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were waiting out here. Did I take too long?”
Katsuki opens his mouth, but pauses, squinting his eyes at her suspiciously. “Did you use my products?”
Oh. She… might have done that. She knew she should have used the 3-in-1 stuff, but! But… the others smell so nice… “Um. Sorry about that.”
Instead of doing something predictable like snapping at her for stealing or scoffing at her that it’s ‘whatever’, Katsuki swallows audibly and rushes past her to lock himself into the bathroom. Alright, then. He probably really needs to go, and she’s been occupying the room long enough, to be fair.
She’s just managed to settle back into the couch when another door opens, and Kirishima walks out in nothing more than his boxers. His red hair hangs loosely over his shoulders, and now that it’s down, she’s realising how long it actually is. He’s barely grown eyes yet, however, so she decides to pipe out a gentle, “Good morning,” just to let him know she’s there.
“Morning,” he replies, voice thick with sleep, and then he blinks his eyes open to locate her. Once he does, his eyes quickly run down her front before they land back on her face. A grin spreads on his lips. “Huh.”
“What?” she asks, looking down at herself to see if she’s spilled something – she hasn’t even had anything to spill, but something about that once over throws her off. Nothing seems out of place on the tombstone hoodie, though, so she sends Kirishima a questioning look. “Why are you smiling like that?”
Kirishima shakes his head as he turns and continues walking towards his own bathroom, but the grin remains.
Izuku offers to have Ochako stay for breakfast when he wakes up, but she declines as she really would like to go home and get herself ready for her classes the following day – maybe by grabbing a few more hours of nap-time, the jury is still out on that – and from Mina’s texts from earlier in the morning, it seems the coast is clear. She gives him a hug goodbye, promises Katsuki that she’ll return his shirt as clean as last time – to which he only responds with a little “Hmph,” and she waves at Kirishima over her shoulder. Sero must still be asleep, because she doesn’t see him before she leaves, so she tells the other to say hi from her when he eventually emerges.
She spends the rest of Sunday studying, napping and listening to Mina’s dramatic and explicit retelling of last night, before she eventually gets up to throw the hoodie in the wash along with a few other articles of clothing. She watches the black cloth whirl around inside the machine with exhausted eyes, kind of wishing she never had to take it off.