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The room is dark, barely lit by the lone light above the oven. Ochako stumbles and trips over her own feet, arms waving wildly in front of her as if warding off an invisible threat. Her personal refusal to turn on the kitchen light, to refrain from waking any fellow classmates almost seems futile, seeing as the racket she’s causing trying to get into the room alone seems enough to wake up even the heaviest of sleepers.
Finally, her hands take hold of the cold counter, and Ochako is able to gain her bearings in the dark kitchen. She forces sleep-clouded eyes to focus onto the clock on the oven, checking the time despite having looked before coming all the way downstairs. 3:25am. Ochako sighs, rubbing her eyes with her palms and leaning back against the counter.
It isn’t often that Ochako finds herself downstairs so early in the morning. It’s rare to even be awake before any of her classmates, considering how early the early-rising Iida, Deku, and Bakugou get up. However, this time is different for her than many others.
Typically, Ochako would find herself unable to fall back to sleep after a particularly bad nightmare, perhaps about USJ or the Training Camp. After those she would head downstairs, grab a glass of water, maybe get a snack. Hell, sometimes she’d stay down there long enough to make everyone breakfast.
This time, though, Ochako was unable to fall asleep at all. She had been laying awake for hours, tossing, turning. Every little sound she could hear, from the faint footsteps above her until 11pm, the quiet music below her until 1am, or the wind from the window the entire time. Finally, Ochako had enough of doing nothing. Sure, she was exhausted, but she sure as hell wasn’t going to sleep any time soon, so why not go be exhausted somewhere else?
And that’s how Ochako finally wound up downstairs in the dark kitchen at 3am, alone on a Saturday night-or, Sunday night. It was almost baffling to her that no other classmates were awake, from the night owl Jirou, to the seemingly permanently exhausted Shinsou.
Even though she didn’t expect to find anyone awake, the loneliness of the moment presses down on her heavily. She jumps up onto the counter, sitting there in silence, hands gripping the counter besides her swinging legs with white knuckles. She stares at her knees for a while.
Ochako could practically feel the bags under her eyes. It makes her feel like their purple-haired, mind-controlling classmate and something he said once, about how “these eyebags don’t make themselves” as a joke. The thought makes her giggle quietly. With that, it makes her think of how creepy it would be for one of her classmates to walk downstairs and see her giggling alone in the dark. That thought makes her giggle some more. Ochako covers her mouth with her hand, her shoulders shaking slightly as she laughs, muffling it the best she can.
Finally, the laughter dies down. Ochako finds herself in a ridiculous situation. The exhaustion must be making her laugh more than usual. She sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose with two fingers and rubbing, trying to keep herself from falling asleep in the kitchen.
Typically, Ochako would just go back up to her room if she were ready to go back to sleep. However, she’s aware that by the time she walked back into her room, she’d be wide awake once more. She groans at this, hopping off the counter. May as well get some water. Opening a cabinet, and grabbing a glass, lightly clinking against the surrounding glasses as she does so.
“The sounds seem loud in the otherwise quiet room, yet are really quiet in actuality,” Ochako reminds herself, muttering under her breath. Despite the fact that the sounds really weren’t that loud, they perfectly masked the sounds of approaching footsteps.
Ochako fills up the glass with water, and nearly chokes on it when she hears a groggy voice behind her.
“Ochako?” She coughs for a second, setting the glass down before turning around. She is surprised to see Tsuyu standing, hunched forward ever-so slightly, and rubbing her eyes. “What are you doing awake so early, kero?”
Ochako opens her mouth, and splutters for a moment.
“I should really ask the same for you.” Ochako shoots, raising an eye brow. Tsuyu’s typically wide eyes are half lidded. It’s clear, even in Ochako’s sleep deprived state, that Tsuyu had just woken up.
“I asked you, first.” Tsuyu shoots back, and Ochako just sighs, leaning back against the counter once again. It seems that even half awake, Tsuyu could still beat her in conversation.
“Couldn’t sleep.” She finally answers after staring at the tiled floor for a few moments. Tsuyu lets out a hum in acknowledgement. “What about you?”
Tsuyu momentarily glances away from Ochako, to the corner of her vision, before making their way back to their original point. She sighs, lazily shrugging.
“Bad dream.” Is all she says, and Ochako nods in understanding. She certainly knew personally how much it sucked to wake up from a bad dream with no one there to support her.
“You wanna talk about it?” Ochako offers. Tsuyu hesitates before shrugging.
“Maybe not now, no, kero.” She adds. Ochako makes an “mhm” quietly, before picking up her glass of water.
“Want some water? Always helps me.” Ochako offers. Tsuyu nods, a small smile tugs at her mouth in appreciation.
“Thanks.” Tsuyu says before taking a sip. “You said it always helps.” She starts. Ochako tilts her head, puzzled. “The water. You said it always helps you. Do you often wake up from bad dreams, or can’t sleep?” Ochako hesitates, unsure of whether or not she should answer honestly.
“Truthfully... Yeah.” Ochako decides to go with the honest route. She knows that Tsuyu would find out if she lied, anyways, in some way or another. She always does. Ochako internally shivers at the thought.
Tsuyu simply nods, looking back down at the glass she has gripped in both hands, and then back up at Ochako, eyelids still heavy. She holds the glass out for Ochako, and she takes it, smiling softly.
“If you’d like, whenever you can’t sleep, you can come to my room, kero.” At this, Ochako’s eyes widen. That was... unexpected. Yet, it was expected all the same. Tsuyu was the type of person to help others needlessly, and that was something admirable. One of her many hero-like qualities.
“Thanks.” She smiles softly, looking back down into the glass, similar to how Tsuyu had done previously.
“Would you like to come up now?” Tsuyu asks, eyes suddenly wide. Almost as if she surprised herself with the question, as it most certainly surprised Ochako. Ochako’s cheeks flush red and she nods furiously.
“Yes! I would love to.” She says, hopping off the counter and leaving the glass beside the sink. She knew that doing so would result in Bakugou probably calling her a mannerless heathen, but hey, who was she to stop him from doing what he did best?
The two carefully walked across the long room towards the elevators, where Tsuyu pressed the button to the fifth floor. The two stood in a comfortable silence until the elevator made a soft ding, and the doors slid open. The two remained silent, no sound on that whole floor aside from their own foot steps. It made sense that the floor was quiet, as the loudest person on it, Sero, was known to be a rather early sleeper. Ochako smiles softly once more at this thought.
For some reason, thinking about her classmates made Ochako smile fondly. That reason was probably due to the strong bonds that the whole class had built up from the continuous villain attacks, the seemingly endless classes together, and now, same living arrangements.
Tsuyu opens her door, allowing Ochako to enter before she softly shuts it with a barely audible click. Tsuyu steps around the bleary eyed Ochako, and toward the bed, patting the mattress beside her.
Tsuyu climbs under the covers, followed by Ochako, their bodies so close that Ochako could hear the smaller girl’s breathing. Within seconds, Ochako is ready to fall asleep. She finds herself blinking rapidly to try and stop it, yet finds herself unable to. She feels Tsuyu adjust, wrap her arm around her, and quiet words.
“Goodnight, Ochako.”
When Ochako wakes up, she finds that she and Tsuyu are holding each other in their arms. She smiles softly, softly exhales, and simply falls back into a calm, peaceful rest.