Chapter Text
Otherwordly: suggesting a world that is different from the world we know : seeming to belong to or come from another world
When Ochako first started partnering with Bakugou in the middle of their second year, it was only for practice. But even back then, her friends and peers were a predictable mixture of concerned, questioning and disbelieving.
Momo asked because she cared—Todoroki, because he was skeptical.
Iida, ever the mom friend, interrogated her only because he was worried for her safety.
Tsu’s reason was simple curiosity. She knew Ochako could handle herself just fine.
And Mina asked because...well this is Mina —it’d be more strange if she hadn’t.
Deku didn’t ask—didn’t need to. Because more than anyone, he understood. Ochako remembers being the focus of Izuku’s dissecting gaze and squirming under the heavy weight of his eyes on her scraped knuckles, bruised shins, and scarred shoulders. That day, it was like he saw her for the first time.
And whatever her dear friend saw, he approved of—or at least that’s what it seemed like when he gave her the smile that he saved for Eri...or Todoroki. That kinda smile that made you want to save the world, if only to make it more worthy of someone like him.
But even Deku cannot fully comprehend how it feels to partner with Katsuki her way. The way their quirks ricochet and weave around each other create a deadly matrix. This rhythm they know so well now as they enter the second half of their third year—this dance-like, trance-like cyclone of sharp knives and fire— makes her feel like a goddess awakened.
And where Izuku’s proud smile is like a blessing, Katsuki’s blazing grins and triumphant smirks ignite a ruthless power in her that could cinder the earth to ash.
“Oi! Space cadet! Howitzer Rising!”
Ochako realizes she’s been zoning out when she feels the scratch and pull of calloused palms across her forearms. She grips back and squeezes for no reason other than to reassure him she’s focused once more, and with a quick nod, Bakugou vaults her into the air like a shot-put throw.
Her fingers are humming already as she activates her quirk on herself, turning Bakugou’s launch into jet propulsion.
She isn’t in the air long before he propels himself forward with two sharp blasts of his quirk and meets her there in the split-second freefall between maneuvers—she always borrows this moment just to catch his eyes.
Rubies on fire.
They’re her mark every time. She uses those piercing red flashes in the sky to orient herself as she activates her quirk on him as well and moves to spin over him.
He follows her lead with small explosive bursts until they are folding over each other in the air, spiraling ever faster and spinning again and again. Arm over leg over shoulder over head. Repeat. Faster! Higher! More!
There was a reason they picked Tandem for their team name, after all. Their quirk chemistry was on another level—All Might himself swooned at their combinations. And the rush they felt from pulling off these aerial somersaults was indescribable.
Katsuki’s eyes keep her level, never leaving as they build a terrifying speed in low gravity. The hunger she sees in them is contagious and Ochako knows their grins are a matching pair. The duo is so high up now, surrounded by clouds and smoke from the battle below. It took a year to get this high together. To trust him. To trust herself. Small touches. Grabs. Flips and holds. They’d perfected them all into poetic choreography. Practical and calculated, but to the general eye, so very intimate—a frenetic embrace.
She loves it. She loves them together, like this.
Up here, in the silent second between the clouds, she drops her quirk, and there is a moment. A single sliver of time in free-fall where he looks at her like she’s holding up the sky. Like she commands galaxies and turns the world.
Up there, in the space between two breaths, she believes it. Believes in his eyes that seem to burn for her alone.
Like rubies on fire.
And then the setting sun flashes right behind him and she nearly cries because she wants to stay in this pocket of time so badly.
And she wants to say a million things in this single heartbeat of time. About how she likes the way his jaw jumps when he’s embarrassed, or that it means a lot to her when he cooks her favorite dish on bad days, and that he has a chip in his front incisor that she thinks is so cute and-!
And mostly that she’s scared she’ll do something stupid and impulsive if he keeps looking at her like that.
But instead she just says. “Let’s demolish this thing.”
His grin is absolutely feral and it does things to her every time.
“Give ‘em hell, Uravity,” he grunts, instantly switching gears (and handholds) as he reverses their momentum in mid-air, breaking the inertia from her quirk to throw them into a counterclockwise death-spin powered by his.
Her arms and legs are tightly coiled around his torso as they make their blazing decent. Kinetic energy rolling off of her shoulders as Katsuki redirects their generated power toward their target on the ground. Her eyes roll and her fingers itch and she feels more than a little sick but...
Ochako reactivates her quirk like the snap of a finger, causing Bakugou to grunt underneath her as she becomes a deadly focal point of gravitational energy. Head lolling back, she calls hundreds of chunks of rubble up, up , up to meet them. They surround and orbit Ochako like planets, and Bakugou by extension.
When she can see the unchanging stare of the Nomu monstrosity clear enough, she lets go.
“HOWITZER…..!” Ground Zero is a roaring dragon of heat as he makes contact.
“...RISING!” Uravity shrieks, releasing her quirk in a burst of forward motion, soaring upward and funneling the collected chunks of rock and stone through the spiraling pattern of air they’d created, and further still through tornado of fire Katsuki has left in his wake.
The victory exhilarates her as always—she knows she’s high from the adrenaline rush. She also knows the Nomu is dust, they’ve done it so many times now she doesn’t even check to see. Besides, her partner already has eyes on the next enemy. She is already reflexively reaching for him when he grabs her again, and they’re off to do what heroes do.
“Oi. Let’s one-hit this ugly mistake and hit up that new ramen bar—they have some serious spicy ramen...wanna try ‘em all,” he grunts.
Ochako rolls her eyes fondly. “Uh who says you get to pick our victory meal? It’s my turn—you picked last time!”
“They also have an entire mochi menu , Cheeks-for-Brains.”
“.......Ok yeah let’s crush this asshole fast.”
“That’s more fuckin’ like it! Alright let’s run it again!” he cackles, clearly thriving off of her choice of words. And they do. Again and again and again.
Already anticipating that secret place in between the clouds that’s just for them. A world all their own.
And maybe Ochako can’t say what she wants to say just yet—that’s a lot to fit into a single moment.
But for now, catching his eyes in the sky, laughing with him in-between bites of mochi….
Yeah, that’s enough.