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Losing someone dear to you was never easy.
Depending on who they were and your relationship with them, it could feel like the world was being crushed all around you.
That was how Ochako was feeling in this moment.
Her grandfather, one of the biggest inspirations in her life and one of her biggest supporters, had just recently passed of a heart attack. It had been sudden, and though they rushed him to the hospital as fast as they could, he didn’t make it.
Ochako looked up to her grandfather like the hero he was, wanting to help others no matter the circumstance, and tried to emulate that in her everyday life.
But now it felt like part of the world was crumbling around her and there was nothing she could do to stop it.
The funeral service wouldn’t be for another couple of days, and though her parents had suggested she take the rest of the week off from school, she just couldn’t bring herself to wallow at home. She needed a distraction and to get out of the place where her grandfather would frequent with his too loud laugh and big smiles.
Besides, it was only two days. She could do two days just fine.
“Uraraka-san? Uraraka-san?”
“Huh? What?” Ochako shook her head as she brought herself back from her thoughts to find the source of the voice was Deku sitting across from her at the lunch table. He had a worried expression, and when she glanced over to Iida who sat next to him, he mirrored the same look.
“I’m sorry,” she said with a soft chuckle, trying to shake the last remnants of her memory away. “I was daydreaming. What’s up?”
Iida and Deku glanced at each other before Deku quietly said, “Uraraka-san, are you sure you’re okay? I mean,” he fiddled with the chopsticks in his hand nervously. “You just lost your grandfather, and I know he was important to you—“
“I’m fine!” Ochako quickly interjected. She put on the best smile she could, knowing full well it didn’t reach her eyes. She could feel the pressure of tears pressing against the back of her eyes, threatening to come out. “Don’t worry about me, okay?”
Deku and Iida was quiet a moment before Iida piped up, “We’re here if you ever need to talk, Uraraka-san.” He smiled softly.
Ochako nodded, muttering a soft noise of acknowledgement before going back to her food. The rest of the lunch hour was quiet before the students returned to their classes.
Ochako concentrates on her classes for the rest of the day, trying hard to keep her mind off of her grandfather. It was easier to do so when there were others around her engaging in the classroom discussions, and she found herself easing a bit more from the sadness that tried desperately to cling onto her.
By the time the final bell rang, Ochako could feel that sadness trying to claw its way up her throat once more, and she tried to tamp it down. She shook her head. She needed another distraction or she was going to lose it. She couldn’t bring herself to cry in front of her classmates, not this time. She’d cried before during missions and other such times, but those seemed more warranted to be able to cry in front of them because of their shared experience. This? This was much more personal.
But how could she distract herself? What could... She glanced at the door as Bakugou and Kirishima were almost out of it, talking about hitting up the gym before dinner. Before Deku and Iida had even made it to her desk, Ochako shot up, grabbed her bag, and rushed toward the door.
“Bakugou-kun! Kirishima-kun!” The two stopped just as they passed the threshold.
Kirishima turned around first before Bakugou glanced at her. Kirishima grinned brightly at her. “Hey, Uraraka, what’s up?”
She smiled at him in return. “Are you two going to the gym right now?”
“Yeah! We wanted to kill a few hours before dinner, so what better way than pumping the iron, right?” Kirishima laughed, flexing his arm a bit as he said it.
She gave a small laugh and nodded. “Totally. Hey, mind if I join you guys?”
Kirishima looked over at Bakugou, who was just glancing at Uraraka. Bakugou didn’t say away, but Kirishima shrugged and said, “I don’t see why not!”
Ochako followed the two boys to the gym, separating when they got to the locker rooms before rejoining them out in the training area. Ochako normally enjoyed going to the gym, especially on days where she couldn’t go for her runs like usual, whether it be due to weather or some other factor. One of the things she liked most about the UA gym, in particular, was that not only did it have an indoor track and an area with various machines and area for stretching and an area for weights, but beyond that was a training area designed for heroes to test out their quirks and really hone their skills. She would train there on occasion, practicing her ability to float objects of varying weights and sizes to see how well she could temp down the nausea. It had been proving useful, lately, especially since her work studies at Ryukyu’s office had been picking up.
“Hey, Uraraka,” Kirishima greeted her while Bakugou was already walking toward the bigger hero training area. “We’re going to go work on a few things in there. Want to join?”
“Sure,” she said, the distraction proving useful already. Her heart still felt heavy, but at least she was keeping herself preoccupied.
The three headed into the training area, proceeding to do some stretches before they did they actual workout. Kirishima used his quirk to harden himself while Bakugou blasted him with his explosions. The two worked together as they came to blows. Bakugou would swing at him while releasing an explosion, and Kirishima would hardened that part of his body during the block. Usually Ochako loved to watch her classmates train together, but she just couldn’t stop her thoughts from drifting to the night her grandfather passed.
She had to distract herself. Looking across the gym area, she took in the sight of the large rock wall that loomed over most of the gym, its many pockmarks and ledges providing plenty of areas to train on. There were a few other students from different classes training there now, but she spotted one area that was more climbable and had a good ledge to stand on.
Ochako raced toward it before jumping up onto the wall and grabbing two handholds, her feet also finding purchase. Once she knew she was sturdy, she continued to climb, finding each handhold and foothold that she could. Sure, she could’ve just used her quirk to reach the top, but she always found that the act of physical interaction to be beneficial in more ways than one.
Luckily the wall wasn’t too high, but she made it to the top much faster than she expected. Once up top, she looked back down. She was probably only fifteen feet up, but she wanted to go higher. She looked back to where she had just climbed and saw the next rock wall before her was much more jagged and ridged and climbed at a steeper incline. It went much higher, but she couldn’t justify herself climbing the wall unsafely.
She sighed as she tapped her fingers together, causing herself to go weightless. She pushed off the ground and floated in the air a good thirty or so feet up before she reached the top and directed herself to the ledge where there was plenty of stable ground for her to land on. Her stomach didn’t churn, which was good. Her training was proving useful, then.
Ochako could hear the explosions of Bakugou going off while he yelled at Kirishima, and Kirishima encouraged him and just continued to block. She took a few steadying breaths as she looked around her. She was the only one on the level of the stone. There were a few other people higher up and below her, but she was otherwise alone. The dull throb of sadness brushed against her heart again as a memory of her grandfather, who had a similar quirk of levitation and not quite on the same scale as Ochako, sprung into her mind. He had been the first one to see her quirk manifest as he was the one she had caused to float. He had been shocked, to say the least, and laughed, cheering her on, but because she was so young and had never used her quirk until that moment, she became sick right away and cried. A lot.
But her grandfather - still floating - had went to her and helped figure out how to deactivate her quirk, and he had quickly scooped her up, cleaned the mess, and gave her the biggest hug. Though she can’t remember exactly what he said, he had told her the story many times growing up, and he had told her how proud he was of his little star.
The tears welled up in Ochako’s eyes then. She couldn’t stop them, and though she wiped them away, they didn’t seem to want to stop.
“Oy, did you come here to train or not?”
She spun around to face Bakugou as he walked over toward her, but stopped short as he saw her tear-filled eyes and red cheeks. She quickly turned away. “I-I am training,” she said through a choked whisper. Her voice didn’t seem strong enough in that moment, wanting to give out on her. The pressure in her throat was growing and she knew that she wanted to cry in earnest, but how could she do that in front of Bakugou?
He didn’t say anything for a moment, but she heard him step a bit closer to her. “You’re not going to get much done by yourself all the time. C’mon and spar with me.”
She wiped a few more tears away, trying to regain her composure, before turning to see him a few feet away, legs spread wide and arms and hands ready. He had a serious look on his face like he usually did when training, but somehow it felt... different.
She took a steadying breath and nodded, and turned to face him fully. A few tears still managed to escape, but she ignored them as he lunged himself at her, bringing his fist back and went in for a swing. Ochako’s reflexes had been improving for a while since her training with Gunhead, and now at Ryukyu’s office. She ducked low and swung out her leg to try to trip him, but he used the momentum to push off of her shoulder and grip onto her black tank top. He lifted her up as he continued his motion — she was always amazed at how fluid he made his motions whenever he sparred with anyone — and attempted to lift her over his shoulder to throw her, but she reached up and touched his arm with all five of her pads and activated her quirk on him.
Bakugou began to float and he instantly chastised her, “Hey! That’s cheating!” He looked furious that she had done the move, but it didn’t have the same bite to it like it usually did.
Ochako smiled as she took hold of his arm. “You never said we couldn’t use quirks.” And then she tossed him toward the steep wall as hard as she could.
He only made it a few feet away before he used his own quirk to reorient himself and bolt right toward her. “Two can play at that game!”
Ochako’s eyes widened as she quickly released him from her quirk, but he was still soaring towards her fast. Too fast. She quickly activated her quirk again on herself and jumped as hard as she could from the ground, her weightless self lifting up quickly as Bakugou rushed right beneath her. He reached out to grab her foot as she lifted, but she managed to tuck herself into a ball just in time for him to miss.
She floated upward, continuing toward the top of the ledge. Bakugou growled his frustration before using his quirk to blast himself towards her. Ochako made it to the top just as Bakugou rushed her. She didn’t have much time to react before his arms were around her and he tackled her toward the ground of the rock’s ledge. His momentum carried them easily over, but she still had her quirk activated, so though they sailed towards the ground, they bounced off of it and floated upward slightly. Ochako went to drive her elbow onto Bakugou’s shoulder since he had her around the waist, but he pushed her down, using his own body as a weight to keep her down as best he could. He grabbed her arm, forcing it away.
Ochako gritted her teeth and reached for him with her other hand. If she could just get him to float again—But he was too fast. He grabbed her wrist as pinned her arm off to the side. She could still feel her own weightlessness in her stomach, but it wasn’t churning like it once would have a year and a half ago when they had first started at UA. Back then, she couldn’t keep her quirk’s side effects down for longer than five minutes. Now she could last much, much longer with no side effects. It felt odd now, though, with Bakugou’s weight on top of her and her floating slightly, but she wasn’t off the ground much.
Except Bakugou had effectively pinned her to the ground in some places, his own body pressing against hers while she floated against his.
The sudden realization sent her cheeks aflame and she struggled against him, but he just held fast to her wrist and arm. He grinned down at her, triumphant. “Ha! Got you, Uraraka.”
She tried to push away, but he wasn’t letting her get away. “Bakugou, let go! At least let me deactivate my quirk.”
“Not until you admit defeat,” he said, his voice gravelly as usual, but she could’ve sworn she heard a teasing tone there.
Her cheeks were on fire. “Okay, okay, you win!” Once she said the word, he released her wrists and pushed himself off of her. She brought her hands together and released her quirk, landing with a soft thud as she was a couple inches off of the ground.
“You need to work on releasing your quirk in other ways,” Bakugou said, his arms crossed while he watched her get up from the ground and dusted herself off. “You’ve been training for how long and you still can’t do it?”
She pouted and glared at him. “It’s not as easy as it looks, Bakugou-kun.”
He shrugged. “Doesn’t mean you can’t learn.”
She heaved a sigh, then looked down at the ground towards where they he and Kirishima had been sparring earlier, but she didn’t see the spiky red-head in the area. “Where’d Kirishima-kun go?”
Bakugou shrugged again. “What do I care where shitty-hair goes?”
Ochako rolled her eyes. Bakugou had always been abrasive ever since she’d known him, and it didn’t seem like that was going to be changing any time soon. “Well, did you want to go again?” She gestured toward the larger platform they were standing on. It was higher up than the one she had been on, but it was much larger and so it gave them much more room to spar.
Bakugou grinned at her, and without warning, charged at her. She quickly ducked around him, narrowly avoiding him landing at punch, before she got her own hit against his shoulder blade. He barely reacted to the hit before he whirled and was on her again, this time with a bit more fervor than before.
Ochako didn’t train with Bakugou nearly as much as Kirishima, or even Kaminari or Sero, so whenever the opportunity presented itself, she took it. She knew Bakugou would always go hard and would always push her to her limits. It was a great feeling, one that she looked forward to. She wondered if maybe they could do this more often, but as soon as her thoughts briefly wandered from her spar partner in front of her, Bakugou seized the opportunity and grabbed her arms, pushing his lower half into her side, and threw her over him and onto the ground.
“Oof!” She impacted and gritted her teeth. It was a harder landing than before, given she wasn’t floating this time, but it didn’t hurt as much as she was expecting. She tried to pull him down and away from her, wedging her foot in between them to push him away. He rolled away from her and got up to his feet quickly. She pushed herself up, as well, and the two squared off before Bakugou used his quirk and flew at her fast, closing the short gap between them in the blink of an eye.
Ochako gasped as he grabbed her around the waist once more and hoisted her up. She flailed, slapping at his back instinctually, before he swung her around and used his body to twist and land on top of her again. She groaned with the impact. Luckily her head didn’t hit or it would have bounced. She went to grab him, but his hands quickly grabbed onto her wrists and he pinned her yet again.
He smirked mirthlessly at her. “You’re off your game, Uraraka.” She strained against his grip, but it was like an iron vice around her. Then he said, quieter this time, “Looks like it worked.”
She stopped struggling against him and looked up at him with a frown. “What worked?”
He released her and pushed away and sat across from her, not saying anything. She sat up, too, still frowning at him. He looked away, his signature scowl very apparent now as he grumbled, “You’ve been out of it since this morning, and you were crying when I first came to spar with you. It looked like you needed a distraction, so…”
Ochako stared wide eyed at him. Even Bakugou had noticed that she was feeling off? That she wasn’t being herself? There was a slight beat of emotion in her chest from the thought that Bakugou had actually showed care for her in his own way. Her cheeks still felt flush from the sparring, but now they felt even warmer with something different.
It was true, though. The sparring had distracted her from her grandfather’s death. He had only passed the day before, and though she had taken the day off and her mother had insisted in her taking the rest of the week, Ochako had still pushed herself to continue as though everything was normal when she knew it clearly wasn’t.
Fresh tears sprang to her eyes then and flowed down her cheeks. Bakugou glanced at her, his eyes widened for a moment before he said quietly, “You’re crying again.”
She wiped the tears, but this time they wouldn’t stop, and, frankly, she didn’t want them to. She had been bundled up with emotions for two days, trying to be strong for her parents and for her friends, but she couldn’t keep being strong anymore. She needed to cry, needed the release. She missed her grandfather terribly. He had been one of her closest friends, had been her biggest supporter, had helped her with her quirk growing up, and with so many other things that she couldn’t even count them. He had been a wonderful man and it hurt so much that he was gone.
Ochako curled up a little, burying her face in her hands as she leaned into her lap. She didn’t care that Bakugou was right there and that he might think less of her for showing so much emotion right after sparring. She didn’t care if any of the other students training in the gym saw her. She just needed to cry and she couldn’t bring herself to lift herself up right now.
A rough hand landed on her back hesitantly. She glanced up and saw Bakugou had moved to sit directly beside her and had his hand on her back, even though he was looking away from her. More tears sprang to her eyes, her face crumbling as she turned back into her arms and sobbed. The simple, kind gesture was enough – more than enough – coming from him, and it brought her a lot of comfort.
The two sat for a while as she cried before she managed to calm herself down enough to lift her head and wipe the tears from her face. She knew she looked like a mess, but she turned to Bakugou, who was still sitting beside her, but had since removed his hand from her back, and said, “Thank you, Bakugou-kun.”
Bakugou looked at her, his red eyes taking in her face, before he looked away and nodded.
The two soon found their way back down to the ground and found Kirishima in the weight room. Ochako’s face was still red and Kirishima had asked what had happened, so she told them about her grandfather’s passing and how she was just crying because she missed him so much. Kirishima offered her a hug, which she gladly took, before they split into the locker rooms once more to shower and change, then headed back toward their dorm.
Their classmates were either off studying or getting ready for dinner when they arrived, and Ochako felt so much lighter than she had for the last two days. She still felt like part of her was missing, and she definitely still felt the sadness looming over her, but she knew that she would be fine. During dinner, she glanced over at Bakugou, who was doing his best to ignore Kaminari, who was talking his ear off, before he glanced up and caught her eye. She smiled softly and nodded at him, but he just looked back down toward his food and then yelled at Kaminari for bothering him.
Ochako chuckled at the sight. Yeah, she would be okay. Her heart felt a little bandaged up as she looked at the red-eyed, spiky blond boy across the way from her. She turned her attention back to her food and friends, and knew that if her grandfather had been there, he would have been so proud.