Chapter Text
Ochako was ecstatic, The costume Izuku designed for her was absolutely perfect, The main colors were a dark marine blue, and pale pink. The suit below all the accessories was puffy like a space suit, but hugged her figure enough to be noticeable. She also had a head piece with a visor doubling as a head’s up display, and a retractable mouthguard like Izuku’s! It also offered some protection for the back of her head in case of falls.
For protection of her front and back was a chestplate; and on her arms she had prototype gauntlets with grappling hooks, they should help her with mobility a ton. Lastly on her leg she had what Mei called “The LongFall Boots” apparently in their current version, they could negate twice the Impact from falls, which given her quirk would come in handy. Sadly beyond some pressure point stuff, there was not much to be done for her nausea, except some medicine. ‘Maybe Mei could look into it.’
“Oh, here come the boys, wow looking good!!”
She turned to the entrance after Mina's words, finding the boys walking towards them, and Izuku’s costume came out amazing. ‘ He was so happy when he finished the mouthguard.’
and well, if she stared more than necessary... that’s for her to know.
The exercise was simple enough. Two versus two, touch the bomb or capture the villains, five minutes of planning and fithteen minutes to finish. Nothing complicated, the problem was their opponents. Iida... and Bakugou.
Knowing Iida he would take the exercise seriously, maybe too seriously. ‘Izuku is my partner, YES.’ Bakugou on the other hand, is an Issue. He’s been vicious in their basic training so far, almost to the point of cruelty, and clearly has something against Izuku but she has confidence in whatever plan he cooks up.
Okay, so the plan was a lot simpler than his usual ones, but she agreed that beyond Bakugou's right hook, he was a powerful wildcard. So even though she didn't like it, he would go after him alone while she went looking for the bomb, and surely find Iida as well...
Looking for the bomb room wasn’t a difficult thing to do, after all thanks to Bakugou, she had all the noise cover she could need. And while she was worried for Izuku after the last big explosion shook the building, Iida’s cries at his communicator brought her to the bomb room easily enough. Tenya monologuing was hilarious, and she could thankfully laugh all she wanted with the mouth guard deployed.
“Ochako, I’m on my way.”
She knew something was wrong. Just from the tone of his voice, he was out of breath and in slight pain, which gave her the Idea that his fight with Bakugo went more saideways than what was already planned. When he arrived at where she was, the usually bright, if awkward grin, was a little more fake around the edges, but he did lose some tension once he got next to her. He took one moment to inspect the situation, before addressing her.
“Okay, here is what we are gonna do...”
Corralling Tenya was concerningly easy, if she had to guess he was having tunnel vision. So focused on her, he never saw Izuku waiting by the entrance to the room. Once Tenya went past the door, Izuku pounced, grabbing him by the mufflers while simultaneously leaving the bomb on the floor, as he threw him at a wall with enough force to crack it.
While Tenya was busy getting his breath back, and Izuku was guarding her, she went for the bomb. And lightly touching it's paper mache surface signaled their win.
“HERO TEAM WINS!”
Once the match ended, the remaining tension seemed to have left Izuku, leaving them with a tired smile.
“Once again bested by you Midoriya, I need to step up my efforts to catch up to you!”
While getting decapitated by flailing arms wasn't the plan, she did agree with his sentiments. Izuku was clearly the MVP and even though she did her part well, she also needed to step up her game.
“Nah, don't worry too much about it. The way you prepared the room for ochako’s quirk was smart, but maybe try not to focus too much on one target? And the mufflers… do they serve a function?”
She suspected them to be cosmetic, and if the slight blush on Tenya’s face meant anything they were.
“Ah, no. They are cosmetic, but today's exercise has shown me that they can be used against me.”
“Go see Mei, later maybe she can make them more flush with your back, if you want to keep the aesthetic.”
While they were heading to the viewing room, she tried not to be too smug about the robots carrying an unconscious Bakugou to Recovery Girl’s office
It was later after class, where most were already in their rooms, that she went to get some water. There sitting at the couch, she found him alone scribbling in one of his notebooks.
“Hey.”
She couldn't quite mufle the giggle that came when he jumped from her greeting. When he realised it was her he relaxed immediately, and turned to give her a smile that did weird things to her insides.
“Hey, to you.”
She placed her glass of water on the table, and sat next to him with a content sigh, UA didn't skimp on furniture.
“Whatcha doing?”
He looked at the notebook, on the table seemingly thinking about something.
“Just some notes. Maybe something to test about your quirk, but you’ll find out later.”
Oh, so that's how he wanted to play. ‘Well...’ she mused, ‘Laying the groundwork can't hurt.’
“Well since you seem to be done with those, how about we watch a movie?”
She watched with rapt attention, as he looked to the side trying to hide his burning face visible in the low light of the common room. He surprised her, however, when he turned back to her and looked her straight to her eyes.
“Sure, What do you want to watch?”
They ended up watching some Sherlock Holmes movies after some browsing. She thought he would like them, and she was right.
Besides if she noticed his arm move around her slowly, almost afraid… he didn't need to know.