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The moment Ochaco’s consciousness returned, pain washed over her. Ochaco wondered when she had been hit by a truck; it was the only possible explanation for the head-to-toe ache that gripped her. Sleep might have offered an escape, but it was also a terrible idea; she had no idea where she was, after all. If that was not enough reason to wake, there was also a very annoying beeping coming from her left, perhaps her alarm clock? On top of that, her mouth was bone dry; that needed to be fixed. Steeling herself, she forced her eyes open.
The smell of antiseptic, the plain white walls, the way the air was simultaneously too hot and too cold and too dry to boot, all seemed calculated to cause as much anxiety and petty discomfort as possible. The groggy haze enveloping her dissipated as she put the pieces together. She looked around in a near panic, breathing deeply in a bid to calm herself. The beeping turned out to be a heart monitor, with the matching electrode clamped over her finger. Her attempt at speaking was halted by the intense dryness of her mouth; instead, she coughed violently. As she tried to cover her mouth, she found unexpected resistance. She looked down, and her pale cheeks quickly developed a significant red tinge.
She could not move her arm because another hand was clasped around hers. A very warm, scarred, calloused hand that was simultaneously firm and soft. If she had not been forced to contort the other way to cough into her elbow, it would have been extremely comforting. As it was, though, the noise had roused the person connected to that hand; she saw Izuku begin to rise. After a moment, his eyes snapped open, traveled downward, and widened before he began blushing wildly. To her disappointment, Ochaco felt his hand slowly release hers. She tried to speak again, but all she managed was to croak indistinctly before the coughing returned. When her coughs subsided, she looked back to see Izuku smiling reassuringly, green eyes shining with relief, and holding up a plastic cup of water (Oh thank goodness!). She took it and emptied it into her mouth. She swished the water around before swallowing. It was nowhere near enough, but it brought some small relief to her parched throat. She smiled weakly, and her friend answered it with another wobbly smile of his own.
She tried to speak again. This time, words came from her lips, albeit hoarse, quiet ones. “‘S-- there more?” she asked, indicating the cup. Izuku leaned in, visibly straining to hear. So she repeated herself, and her words came out a little more clearly this time. He nodded, leaned down, pulled a water bottle up from his bag and offered it to her. Relief flooded over her, and she eagerly took the bottle. She was about to begin gulping water, when Izuku spoke.
“Uraraka, please make sure to drink slowly. Small gulps. It’s better for you.” He looked worried, so she did her best to visibly heed his advice. After a long moment of drinking, she coughed again, this time more gently, simply to clear her throat. Her voice was closer to normal when she spoke next.
“Oh wow, thank you, Deku. How long was I out for?” Izuku looked at the clock.
“Fourteen hours,” he said after a moment. “Umm, how much do you remember? You were kind of in-and-out a few times in the past few hours, but you weren’t all there,” he explained.
“Umm…” she thought about what had been happening before she woke up in the hospital. “I remember the call we got. It was a sinkhole, right?” Izuku nodded back. “And there was… there was a building that was starting to come down, and we had to evacuate it?” Another nod. “And the--” her eyes widened as she was stabbed by an icy shock of fear. “Oh my God, Izuku, was that family okay? I remember we’d been there for a while, and then that building started coming down, and I went to get them, and--and I don’t really remember anything after that. Someone called my name… and then I woke up here.”
He smiled brightly, and warmth bloomed in her chest. “Yeah, yes, they were fine. The father, Mr. Hosoda, had a broken arm when everything was said and done, but the doctors got him patched up. All three of them will be fine.” She let out a relieved sigh she had not realized she had been holding. “The doctors said when you were brought in that you were suffering from dehydration and exhaustion, so you passed out.”
“Exhaustion? We had been working for a long time before that, but I don’t remember being that worn out before…” Izuku blinked. He looked shocked. “What?”
“Do you not remember what you did?” She shook her head, confused.
“No, should I?”
“Ochaco, you floated the whole building .” She could see awe and worry on his face. “I didn’t know you had increased your weight limit so much,” he said, his voice picking up speed. “It was so cool, I mean, it wasn’t a huge building, butitwasstillsomuchweightIdidn’trealizethatyou hadworkedyourlimitupthatfar, Imeanitwassuchahugeleapupfromlasttimeyoutoldmeyou’dincreased yourlimitandyou’resocool andI’msorryifI’vebeenunderestimatingyou--” Ochaco giggled as the muttering picked up steam. “And sorry… you must be exhausted, and here I am rambling at you. It’s just… you’re so amazing , and I’m just… I’m so glad that you’re okay. When I saw you collapse, I thought… I was afraid you’d been hit in the head by debris or something...” he finished, seemingly in a daze. Somewhere in the midst of his tangent, he had pulled out his (apparently new) notebook, and he started writing, updating his notes on Uraraka’s capabilities.
“Umm, well, Deku, I… I actually didn’t know I could float something that big just yet… but I couldn’t just let them…” she trailed off, realizing how differently things could have played out if she had been wrong. “...I mean, what kind of hero doesn’t run toward that, regardless?” There was a click on the floor. She looked up at him and froze. His face was ashen.
“Y-y-you…” She noticed that his jaw had sagged a bit, as well. “You didn’t know?! ” She shook her head.
“Haven’t you ever done something out in the field without knowing if you could?”
“Yeah, but never something like that. At least not until I was already backed into a corner…” The distress returned. “Uraraka, you could have been crushed . Why did you--?”
“What do you mean ‘why did I’? The same reason you throw yourself into danger constantly, Deku,” she replied, confused. “Because that’s what we have to do to help people. That’s what we signed up for. Why do you need to ask that?”
Izuku shook his head, picking his pen back up. “I don’t know. It was a stupid question, wasn’t it?” He let out a strained laugh, but Ochaco didn’t let it fool her. They had known each other too long to not pick up on when the other was holding something back. She looked hard at him.
“Not if you had a reason to ask it. We promised we wouldn’t hide things from each other,” she reminded him. “I don’t think you have any trouble understanding why I went after that family without being sure I could save them.”
He looked down, unable to make eye contact with her. “You’re right.”
“Then why?”
Silence.
“Why, Deku?”
He was still looking down, but she felt his hand find hers once again, giving her a gentle squeeze.
“Because you were right and got hurt anyway. And if you had been wrong? Then you could have been...it could have been so much worse. What if you’d
died
?!” He had looked up, tears now in his eyes. “What if that had been it? Just… in a sinkhole. A routine rescue: that could have been the end.”
“We signed up for this, Deku. That’s what we got into when we decided to be heroes.”
“But what if? What if your parents lost their daughter? What if we all lost Uravity? You brighten the world so much, and we could have lost you. Just like that? What if? What if--” His rant was broken by a sob. She squeezed his hand while he fought to regain his composure. Finally, much quieter:
“What if I’d lost you?
Pity and sympathy washed over Ochaco. That was not a surprise.
But her anger was. It rose, unbidden at his words. Maybe it was the stress. Maybe it was because she could have died. Maybe it was just the fact that she was hungry, and thirsty, and had woken up in a strange place. Maybe it was because this… this boy had no earthly idea--
“What if you’d lost me?!” she exclaimed. “Izuku, do you have any idea what you put me through every time you throw yourself into some hopeless fight because someone needs help? You never stop to think because the fact that someone is in danger is enough for you to put your life on the line, and I love that about you but... but you-- you’ve nearly died so many times since we met. You nearly died the first day we met! If I hadn’t been there to catch you, you could have--”
“That’s different!” Izuku shot back.
“No, it isn’t!”
“Yes, it is! Ochaco, you’re… you’re so bright, and kind, and you... you make the world better just by being around. How could it possibly be better without you? There’s so many more lives you can touch, so many more people you can help, so many days you can improve… even whenever you have to stop being a hero, you’ll still be a hero to so many. I’m only useful as long as I’m able to save people. And I’ll do that as long as I can, but that’s all I’m good for.”
He had closed his eyes somewhere in his rant, and now reopening them, he was able to see the look on Uraraka’s face, one that somehow combined sadness, horror, and rage. Silence hung over the room for a long minute as she processed what he had just said.
If her eyes had not been swimming with tears, she would have been seeing red at that moment. She felt her jaw quivering before she finally found her words.
“Fuck you,” she half-sobbed. “ Fuck you . How can you still think like that? You think you’re only valuable as long as you’re a hero? What about everyone who’s ever looked up to you? Everyone you’ve already saved? Your mother? Your friends? You don’t think they’d notice or care if you were gone, just because you couldn’t save any more people?” She had firmly clasped his hand. “Andandand… even if they didn’t... What about me?! ”
“What about…?”
“Yes, what about me?! Izuku, you’re my best friend! You mean everything! How could you possibly think that that’s all you’re good for? How could you think I’d be okay with the idea of a world without you in it? Even if you could save everyone, all by yourself, who’s there for you ? Because you’ll need saving one day. One day, you’ll fall because everyone does.” The sobs gave way to hiccups for a moment before she caught her breath. “And if I’m not running into danger on that day… who catches you if I don’t?”
“I...I don’t…”
“Of course you don’t, Izuku, because you’re too busy worrying about keeping everyone else safe to worry about yourself, and you never stop to ask if you need saving yourself. But you do. And I need to be there with you because if that day comes when you do need someone to catch you and I’m not there… I don’t want to think about what life without you looks like.”
Izuku’s brain had finally restarted. “But then what if I come home at the end of that day and you’re not there with me? What’s the point, then?”
Still sitting there, she clapped her other hand over Izuku’s, holding it snugly. “Then make sure you’re there when I need you.”
“Wha--that’s not good enough to just say--”
“It won’t be a hard promise to keep, Iz--” she realized then that they had been using each other’s first names the entire time that they were arguing. They both blushed at the realization; although, it was hard to tell given how red their faces already were. “--uh, Deku. Because I’m going to be by your side. Which, good news, means you’ll be by mine.” He nodded.
“Umm, I’m going to go wipe my face off,” Izuku said. Ochaco nodded, releasing his hand and allowing him to rise. “I’ll be back in a couple minutes or so,” he added, walking towards the door. Perhaps a minute after he left, one of the nurses, who couldn’t have been more than a few years older than they, entered the room.
“Hey, glad to see you’re finally awake!” the nurse said cheerfully. It sounded a little forced. Hopefully she had not heard the entire exchange up to that point. Ochaco picked up the bottle of water and began drinking again, trying to replace the water she had cried out. “Is everything okay with your boyfriend? I made sure to leave you for the end of my rounds; it sounded like you two needed some space.”
In earlier days, Izuku being referred to as her boyfriend might have caused a spit take from Ochaco. These days, it was old hat for the two of them, and she didn’t miss a beat.
“We’re not dating. But yeah, I think we’re going to be fine.” The nurse paused in her tasks in the room to give Ochaco a deeply skeptical look. “No, seriously, I think we’re going to be okay. We just needed to get some things off our chests.”
“Oh no, that I believe. A good cry can be very therapeutic,” the nurse said as she approached the bed and began taking Ochaco’s temperature. “But in my experience, boys who stay at your bedside for fourteen hours are not ‘just friends.’” Ochaco choked on her water. He did what? The nurse gently rubbed her back to help ease her coughing while chuckling. “Well, if you say so, maybe I’ll give him my number. They don’t make many like that .”
The gravity hero glared daggers at the nurse, who thankfully laughed it off. Moments later, Ochaco joined her. “Oops, point taken. He’s all yours. Now, how would you rate your pain…” Thankfully from there the conversation took a more comfortable turn. The nurse asked about how Uraraka was feeling, and then explained what the rest of her treatment would be like. As it happened, they would be keeping her through the afternoon for observation and to make sure she had some food in her stomach and was adequately hydrated.
A few minutes after the nurse left, Izuku returned. He sat back down, putting his hand back on Ochaco’s arm, taking a deep breath.
“Sorry I yelled at you,” Ochaco said. “I freaked out, and you didn’t deserve it,” she was cutting him off before he could speak, so that she could not forget to apologize to him.
“Och-Uraraka, you don’t need to apologize; I was being inconsiderate of your feelings, and I’m sorr-”
“Hey, hey!” she cut him off with a laugh. “You don’t get to wiggle out of my apology with an apology! That is so you , Deku. Let me apologize to you!” He giggled back.
“No! Never! I will never let you apologize to me!” he declared. “Because I haven’t told you how sorry I am for--” he couldn’t finish because Ochaco put a pillow in his face.
“I’m sorry, Deku, but I refuse to accept your apology because I think too highly of you, and you cannot do wrong! And anyway, I’m more sorry than you are!”
“That’s impossible! Nobody’s able to be sorrier than I am!”
“Oh that’s where you’re wrong…”
Now that they were back on the same page, Ochaco could banter freely with him, knowing that the next time they walked out together, she would be at his side, and he would be at hers.