Work Text:
Ochako Uraraka hates what she’s doing.
She sighs as she sneaks down the hallway, careful to tiptoe past the living room, where Kaminari and Kirishima lay on the couch, the latter snoring like a bear. Normally, she’d find such a sight cute, but the growl that passes through her from her stomach pretty much makes it hard to focus on anything but her current objective.
Moonlight streams into the hall through wide windows, illuminating the path. Saliva forms on her tongue at the emergence of the scent of baked bread and other goods. Sure enough, the light to the kitchen is on, and she can hear the shuffling of feet and pounding of something hard against wood. Ochako rubs her eye, yawning. Her watch tells her it’s past midnight. It was a gift from Ashido for her eighteenth birthday. Sato is cooking this late? Guilt lances down her chest at that realization. When she enters the kitchen, eyes bouncing from the trays of food, she spots a lone young man leaning over the counter, his hands covered with mittens.
“Oh, Uraraka!” Sato says, looking up from the tray of goods spread out across from him.
“Hi, Sato. Did you make what I asked you to?”
Sato scratches his cheek with a finger. “Uh, yep. Still don’t get what the point of this is.”
Ochako glances to the side awkwardly. “Just...don’t question it, all right? I have my reasons…”
“All right, then. No questioning of it from me. Say… is this about Midoriya? You know, I get that it’s not my place, but the word on the vine is that he’s a little hurt about you and Ashido...uh, dating.”
The brunette cringes at the way Sato says the word dating, like he’s whispering some kind of secret. Would Midoriya really be that worked up over she and Ashido dating? She isn’t sure. Deku was the type of guy who was everything she, when younger, thought she wanted in a partner. Kind, shy, cute- Midoriya was a complete package. Ochako holds her face. Until several months ago, she was certain that Midoriya was the one. Just looking into his emerald-colored eyes set her heart aflutter, and she always found herself striving to be like him.
“Um,” Ochako whispers. “Deku is...mad about us dating?”
Sato’s eyes go wide, crimson staining his cheeks. He really doesn’t seem to want to be here.
“Well, uh…” Sato mumbles quickly. “That’s just what I’ve heard. Could be true, could not be true. But you didn’t really answer my question, Uraraka….”
“I don’t...I...no, it’s not about Deku.”
Sato’s lips flatten- an impressive sight- and he shifts awkwardly. “Fine. I’m, uh...sorry for being too pushy. Anyway, as you can tell, I made your treats. No sugar, low in carbs. Say… this isn’t for what I think it is, right?”
Ochako just smiles. “Thanks, Sato. You’re real sweet. These are fully cooked and everything, right?”
“Anytime. Hey, um… when you see Ashido again, do you mind asking her to give me back my cookbook? Been having to look up recipes on my phone, and that’s...hard. Kaminari isn’t willing to charge our phones all the time, you know. Here, let me help you put the treats in some baggies.”
Ochako giggles. “I’ll tell Mina. And does Kaminari really act so stingy when it comes to charging you and the other boys’ phones? You’d think after he started dating Jiro that he would have loosened up about that…”
Ochako eyes the tray. The treats are star-shaped and a sweet aroma wafts off their center, causing her stomach to growl again. She cringes, hoping that Sato is too wrapped up in the awkwardness of the situation to not bother saying anything about what he just heard. Once the treats are fully packaged, she nods to Sato, about to step out of the kitchen-
“What is it?” Ochako manages. Uh oh.
Sato eyes his forearm before his gaze jumps back to her eyes. “I just...I think you’re beautiful as is, Uraraka. I don’t know what you’re starving yourself for, but… if there’s anything I can do to help, please tell me. I just...I’m sick of being useless. Compared to Midoriya, Todoroki, and Bakugou, I’m nothing. Everyone just sees me as a baker of sweets…. I want to help you out as much as I can."
Ochako’s heart nearly breaks at the way his voice wavers, how he cannot meet her eyes once he’s done speaking. She hovers in the doorway, turning to face him. She’d told him what she was doing when she first approached him for help. Sato had bombarded her with questions, so she had no choice but to open up about the truth. Ochako finally sighs, pressing her hand against her heart.
“You’re not useless,” she says. “You’re great! Thanks again, Sato.”
With that, she leaves him and the kitchen behind, stepping down the hall, ending up passing the living room. Almost to her room, she’s so busy concentrating on not wolfing down all the treats at once that she doesn’t catch a set of dark eyes on her own. A pink figure steps in front of her, arm pushed against her chest. Ochako’s throat bobs as she looks into the eyes of Ashido, who’s brows are drawn inward, lips puffed out in a way that Ochako knows can only mean one thing. She’s concerned.
“We need to talk, ‘Chako,” Ashido says. “Let’s go to my room!”
****
Mina’s room is full of pink things. Stuffed animals, drawers, curtains- pretty much anything one could name. Ochako sits beside her girlfriend, the bag of treats laying beside her leg. She isn’t quite sure how things ended up like this, but she wishes she could just end her existence right then and there. Ashido’s glare is like that of a tiger’s- paralyzing and intense, unwilling to stop.
“When were you gonna tell me?” Ashido asks, eyes wet with tears.
Oh, god. She’s about to cry.
“I didn’t know how to,” Ochako blurts out. Oops.
“Ochako.” Ashido grabs a bag of the treats. “We’re not gonna do this. Be honest with me!”
“I just...how did you know what I was doing?”
“Couldn’t sleep, so I decided to get up and get some water! Happened to see you head to see that weirdo who cooks close to midnight. So I listened in, okay? I couldn’t help it! You’re my girlfriend, ‘Chako. I love you more than anything! So I thought that Sato was trying to seduce you or-”
Ochako can’t contain her gasp. “What? Sato is just a friend. He-”
“A friend who bakes you things. Who says the kinda stuff he said to you before you left. Honestly? Tooru calls me dumb, but even I know when someone has the hots for someone. Sato likes you. And that’s why I’m gonna talk to his ass. ‘Cus I don’t like where this is going. You’re too vulnerable, ‘Chako. This world is all fucked up. You saved my life. I don’t cut anymore because of you. So, even if I gotta go to the end of the earth and back, I’ll do anything for ya.”
Ochako doesn’t realize she’s crying until she notices the moisture against her neck. She recalls all those years ago, when she was doing karaoke to earn money to help herself get into U.A. Back then, she had only been concerned with creating a great future for herself, so wrapped up in what that meant that she hadn’t noticed what was truly around her. It had been some grace of God that she managed to find Mina when she did. If she hadn’t, she knew she wouldn’t be sitting beside her right now.
“I’m just not like you,” Ochako whispers. “I can’t be happy about everything. I don’t have your looks or personality. I’m just...boring, old me.”
Ashido’s hand is soft against her own. “Look at me. Do you remember what I told you when we were in middle school? Those were fake smiles. I put on a show for the people who tried to use me. I didn’t know what true happiness was until you came into my life. You aren’t boring. So what if you have some chub? I think you’re perfect the way you are, ‘Chako. I wouldn’t be dating you if I wasn’t happy with how you were. Kirishima tried to ask me out, like...a gazillion times in the past, but I didn’t want to date him.”
The truth pours out of Ochako, and she can’t stop herself. When she does, she’s against Mina’s chest, the latter’s fingers soft against her scalp as she fingers her brown locks.
“Babe,” Ashido says. “Don’t be afraid of eating sweet things. You won’t get fat. And even if you do, who cares? Look at me, ‘Chako.”
Ochako does, and she sees all the years of pain and misery inside those golden eyes of her girlfriend. Ashido’s lips are soft as velvet. She pulls away, leaving Ochako blinking. Ashido pulls out a chocolate bar from beneath her pillow, splitting open the wrapper, holding it out in front of her mouth before chewing some.
“We’re gonna take this one step at a time,” Ashido says softly. “You’re gonna kiss me to start off. That way, you can taste the chocolate and see that it isn’t so bad.”
“You don’t have to do this for me…”
“Stop. I used to cut. Not the same as having an eating disorder, but… I know what it’s like to feel alone. But you’re not alone, my sweet Ochako. You have me! And I’m never gonna let you go. Ever.”
Ochako shifts herself so that her mouth is aligned with the bar of chocolate, the end of which is clamped between Ashido’s lips. She begins to chew. It tastes like lead, and the urge to vomit is strong, but Ochako manages to fight on. Ashido’s words light a fire within her, and she can’t help but try for the sake of her girlfriend. Eventually, the chocolate is gone, leaving Ashido’s brown-stained lips, which inch ever so closer to her own.
“We don’t have to do this,” Ashido says softly. “I’m just trying to help.”
“I’ll try it. For you.”
Ochako knows that she’s probably going to purge later on, but she keeps that to herself, instead focusing on the way Ashido’s hands rove up her body, feeling for her bra clasp, how her lips attack her own, leaving hardly any time for her to think properly. She realizes that she isn’t alone. While she may not be like her girlfriend, she is not useless. Ochako knows she’ll still purge. It’s too ingrained in her now. But she, for the first time, knows that she has something to look forward to.
Fake smiles. When Ashido is with her, Ochako notes, her smiles are as breathtaking as a shooting star, and she can’t help but smile herself.
Ochako Uraraka allows herself to let go. Just this once.