Chapter Text
“Uraraka-san, may I ask you a favor?”
Ochako looked up from her homework, glancing a little ways down the table at the common room’s only other occupant—Momo, who, seconds before, had been just as engrossed in her Japanese lettering worksheet as Ochako had. Ochako’s ink pen dropped slightly onto the page, creating a line that definitely wasn’t supposed to be there—she’d just turned green into veranda and Aizawa-sensei would not be amused given who her closest friend was. “Sure, Momo, what’s up?”
“Well…”
Her voice tapered off, prompting Ochako to look again at her. Immediately, her hands froze in place where she’d reached to get a fresh sheet of paper. The sight she’d seen had caught her off-guard.
Because, to Ochako’s surprise, Momo was blushing.
Her face was light pink, all across her cheeks and nose, with her arms pressed tightly to the chair’s seat and if Ochako didn’t know any better, she’d say that someone had just embarrassed her. But they were alone down here for the night, most of the boys having gone to participate in some dumb game Kaminari had proposed, and the other girls had gone to referee. It was just the two of them, modern kanji, and Ochako’s raspberry tea.
Finally, Ochako remembered that staring probably wasn’t helping, so she frowned and set her pen down. “Is something the matter?”
“Not really,” she said, “although I do have a bit of a… dilemma.”
“’Kay…?”
She was hoping that she would prompt her uncharacteristically bashful friend to elaborate—no such luck. So, grateful for a diversion, Ochako closed her notebook and scooted down three chairs to sit across from Momo. She sat with her hands folded, eyes never leaving Momo, giving her undivided, nonjudgmental attention. It was one of her specialties as a hero, Ochako thought, and one she prided herself on.
And Momo crumbled.
“Do you remember last week when Mina asked us all if we had crushes?” she murmured, so low and fast that Ochako could barely hear it.
Ochako immediately felt her own blush heat up. Play it cool, Uravity. “Uh, yeah? What about it?”
“And how I didn’t say anything until we got caught in the elevator, just the two of us?”
“Yeah?” She raised an eyebrow. “Where are you going with this?”
“Remember how I said I wanted… well, that I wanted to get to know Todoroki a little better?”
“Yeah…”
“Well, I kind of did something really stupid.”
Ochako straightened, tilting her head. Momo? Stupid? No way. Although she did understand that sometimes, the body just did strange things around sweet, soft-spoken boys with well-hidden fierceness and quiet determination and beautiful twinkly eyes—nope!
She almost slapped her cheeks, willing the aching in her heart away. What was she thinking? That road led nowhere good! Momo didn’t even know. She was the only one who’d confessed in the elevator that night.
“I’m sure it wasn’t stupid, Momo,” Ochako said, fanning her blush away. “You’re, like, the most elegant person I know! Does this have to do with Todoroki? Whatever happened, I’m sure he doesn’t think less of you.”
Momo shook her head. “He doesn’t. That’s the problem.”
Ochako blinked a few times., wondering if she misheard. “Uh, I don’t follow.”
“That’s not really… hm.”
She sighed then, defeated, and with tired eyes looked at Ochako like she’d finally surrendered in the most important battle in her life. Her black eyes were dull, her grimace was potent, and even her ponytail seemed to droop. Ochako was startled by this sudden change her demeanor, but didn’t say anything. Instead, Momo looked up at her from behind her bangs. “I asked Todoroki to accompany me on a date this weekend. He said yes.”
Ochako slammed her hands onto the table.
For some reason, she began shaking. She didn’t really know why—but it was as if she’d used her Quirk on herself. Every bit of oxygen left her body, left with nothing but the feeling, the realization, the reality-altering epiphany that had just been laid out before her.
Momo had asked Todoroki on a date.
And he had said yes.
“Momo, that’s—”
She winced, shielding her face with one hand. “Oh, I know…”
Ochako remembered. She remembered the chilly recluse who’d started the year alongside them. She remembered the disinterest, the seriousness, the awkwardness—the trouble behind his eyes that only a few of them seemed to notice. She remembered the Sports Festival, when one of them who had noticed burned through this ice encasing his heart. She remembered, and she saw. Saw how he gradually became closer to them, to everyone in class, to her and Iida and the one who’d saved him.
Todoroki was so smart and heroic, just like the best of her friends. He fit in so perfectly. No one deserved to be alone. He and Momo were alike in so many ways, and they were becoming closer and closer as friends. He was opening his heart to them.
“You better give me your best, Todoroki!”
He had. Ever since.
“Oh, Momo!” Ochako cried. She clapped her hands together. “That’s… that’s amazing. I’m so happy for you. For both of you!”
Momo drew back, eyes wide. “Really?”
Ochako nodded. “Really!”
“Oh, well—” She smiled softly. Her blush was back, but it didn’t seem embarrassed this time, not at all. In fact, she seemed… happy. “That’s very kind of you. We both agreed that this is a very low-stakes engagement, and his comfort is my top priority—since I know that he has not had the best interpersonal relationships in his lifetime.” Her voice was sad on that note, and Ochako agreed with a low hum. “A-Actually—that’s where my favor comes in.”
“All right,” Ochako said, her voice suddenly low and very serious—a mission for Uravity! She could do this! “I’m ready, Momo! Anything you need me to do, I'm on it!”
“Since it’s our first date, and both of us are fairly— well, new to all of this,” she said with another faint blush, “we thought that our first outing might be better spent with friends we are comfortable with. Ultimately we decided to make it a small, intimate group, that way we can get used to being close to one another without the scrutiny of the crowd.”
“Okay,” Ochako said. That made sense. It was a completely fair decision, one she admired! But—“So what does that have to do with me?”
“W-Well. I wanted you to be the one who accompanies me.”
Apprehension glimmered in Ochako’s eyes then—Momo wanted her to come on their date? It wasn’t like she had any experience, either, and Momo knew that. So, why…? “Momo, are you sure you’d want me to come with you guys?”
“I can’t very well ask Mina or Hagakure,” she said. “They would make poor Todoroki heinously uncomfortable—”Ochako nodded, dimly imagining Todoroki and everything around him catching on fire at some charged comment Mina had made. “That leaves you, Tsuyu, and Jiro. I could easily ask one of them, but I didn’t.”
A sick feeling pooled in Ochako’s midsection. She didn’t like where this was going. “And I’m guessing you had a reason for that?”
“Well, two actually,” She heaved a deep sigh. “Firstly, Todoroki-san isn’t particularly close with either of them, so I feel he still may be uncomfortable. You, however, are in his friend group. Secondly…”
This was where Momo dropped her gaze again, her fingers nervously folding over her blouse. She didn’t meet Ochako’s eyes at all, biting at the inside of her cheek in an effort to figure out what she was going to say. The sick feeling never left Ochako’s midsection. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Momo cleared her throat. “I think I have a pretty good idea of who Todoroki-san will ask.”
Ochako blinked. Oh. Oh.
“Deku-kun,” she said automatically. And as soon as she did, she ran stark-scarlet from her hairline to her shoulders. “You want me to what?”
Momo! She wanted! No way!
The implications!
“I know it’s asking a lot!” Momo cried, holding her hand out to try and wave away Ochako’s utter mortification. “But I thought it would be all right! Todoroki really thinks highly of you! Plus you and Midoriya are—” She fumbled around, looking for a word to describe it. “Something?”
“Friends!” Nothing. “Really, really close, good buddies—” We’re nothing. “And partners and teammates sometimes—” She’s tried so hard to keep it that way. “B-B-But we’re not—it’s not—” For both their sakes. “It’s not like that!”
Ochako was afloat by this point, turning flips in the air involuntarily, hands covering both her cheeks. Momo was blushing, too, mortified by her insinuation. “Yes! Yes! I apologize for the assumption, but the sentiment behind it stands! You and Midoriya would be the perfect pair to keep us company this evening, since you are so close! Even if it’s not romantically!”
“You want D-D-Deku-kun and me… to d-double date with you and Todoroki-kun?” She couldn’t even wrap her head around it. A date. With Deku!
“Well!” She balled her fists in her skirt. “You could come as my date? And perhaps Midoriya could come as Todoroki’s? Or we could all just be together as one?”
“It’s not that kind of story, Yaomomo!”
Vaguely she wondered if Todoroki had set her on fire.
If it was possible, they both turned even redder. “I’m not—that’s not! I’m so sorry! I just—I can’t seem to—” She wrung her hands out, frustration evident on her face. It was so palpable that Ochako paused in her fit, turning to examine her friend. She looked so… distraught. “I just can’t seem to think straight when I’m so flustered like this. My thoughts get all scrambled and I just—” She sighed heavily. “I turn into a version of myself I rather dislike. I’m hoping that I get through this— phase soon enough.”
Wow… did that sound familiar.
Her embarrassment receding, Ochako released herself and fell deftly to the ground. She looked empathetically to her friend, wishing to find something to say, but really, who was she to even try? She was no better off than Momo.
However, the older girl continued. She grew wistful. Something sparkled in her eye, and it made Ochako feel warm and happy. “It’s hard for me to contend with that, admittedly,” she whispered, more than herself than to Ochako. “But at the same time he—he just-- inspires me to be better than I am. He has made me a better person and a better hero. I care deeply for him, Uraraka-san.” Her hands relaxed, and finally, she met Ochako’s gaze again. “The nervousness is frustrating, but— the amazing moments I have with him are more than worth it. I can overcome this barrier. I am determined to!”
“Momo…”
The look on Momo’s face right then was something that Ochako had only seen on her rarely—well, at first, but it was becoming more and more frequent as time passed and Momo grew into the style she wished to pursue as a hero. Ochako had seen that growth, and was immensely excited to see what Momo’s future held. But not only that—Momo, though she had lost her confidence in the past, never seemed to struggle with finding both herself and the hero she wanted to be. The two were inseparable.
Ochako’s mind flashed back to the promise she had made. Both to herself, and to him.
He doesn’t need any distractions.
But there was a friend in need, here. And she was a hero.
Heroes helped those in need, right?
“… Okay, I’ll do it,” she said, mustering up a smile. It was small, but it was there. “You can count on me, Momo. We’ll make sure that you and Todoroki have such a great time that you’ll never forget it!”
Relief crossed Momo’s face, and she visibly relaxed. Ochako was happy for that, at least—making her friend feel better. She could deal with all the rest later. This was for Momo. And Todoroki, too. She couldn’t be selfish and be concerned with her own stupid feelings.
Momo returned her smile, just as bright. “Thank you, Uraraka-san, I—”
Crash!
Ochako and Momo whirled around, on their feet in an instant, crouching down into battle-ready stances. Momo summoned one of her lead pipes and Ochako raised her hands in Gunhead’s specialized martial art form.
Only to find a short-circuited Kaminari lying in the shredded remains of the sofa.
“What?” Momo demanded.
Ochako looked up, to the newly formed hole in the dorm’s front window. And there stood one petrified Izuku Midoriya, pale as a ghost looking like he’d just witnessed a murder.
He raised his flashing green eyes to meet hers. “Kacchan,” he said, and she understood.
Momo peeled Kaminari’s drooling body from the rubble, grimacing as she picked glass out of his skin—hero mode activated. Ochako balled her hands into fists.
Deku…
It’s for Momo, she reminded herself. I can do this.
She was a hero. Heroes helped those in need. And heroes overcame any obstacles—
Even if that obstacle was their best friend.