Work Text:
The only thing Ochako could think as she sat on the cushioned seat in the bathroom (she had never been to a restaurant where the bathrooms had a waiting area, let alone one with chairs that could swallow her whole as she sobbed like a child- ruining Mina’s meticulous work) was how good the night had been going. She had also never been to a restaurant that was practically on the water.
So. Fancy.
And she just- wasn’t.
Fancy... that is.
She had looked so pretty too; she wasn’t necessarily vain, but she could be honest, and between Momo’s dress and accessories, and Mina’s makeup, she had looked good enough to stand beside Katsuki… in a place like this.
It was an early obstacle in their year-long relationship. Ochako knew it- felt it internally- her dizzying shifts between feeling like a confident queen or a lumpy potato. Some days she was seized with certainty, and felt deep in her soul that Katsuki was lucky she hadn’t spurned his weird, and fumbling request that she go on a date with him a year ago; other days she watched him wipe the sweat from his face with his shirt, revealing the tantalizing cut of his torso, and she wondered what the hell he was doing with her?
And trying to explain it to Katsuki that it was normal, that he was the weird one with his unshakeable belief and confidence, was frustrating.
And sweet.
And empowering.
And overwhelming.
Because he didn’t understand it, because he looked at her and couldn’t conceive for a minute any world in which she didn’t see herself the way he did. Powerful, beautiful, the fucking best- as if he would waste his time with anyone who didn’t deserve it.
And while it still reared its head- that inkling that she wasn’t good enough (sometimes while he laid beside her, face soft and pretty as he slept, she watched him, eyes screwed up in suspicion, holding back the urge to poke his face until he woke up just to pay him back for the cruel joke of pretending to be into her when he was who he was, and he looked like that)- she had a handle on it (and it was hard to feel anything less than worthy when Katsuki was always looking at her the same way she looked at mochi before she took a bite).
But once again it came creeping into her subconscious when when he asked her to come with him to this “stupid dinner” to celebrate one of his “dumbass friends” from childhood. It wasn’t the meeting the friends part- she was actually really curious about his friends- friends she didn’t even know he had until a few months prior when he sent her a text saying “Playing video games with my friends” as an answer to her question of what he was doing one day over Christmas break.
What friends? Eijiro was home for Christmas, and well- she honestly didn’t think he had any other friends. But apparently that had been a mistake.
She was intrigued, but when he told her where it was- the name of the restaurant- she was reminded again what different worlds they came from; how different their lives had been, maybe still were. He said it casually like it was nothing.
When she mentioned it to Momo, her face had lit up with recognition, which only meant one thing-
“It’s not that expensive, Cheeks,” he said, as she toyed with his collar, cuddled up close to his side after a long day. “Besides it’s not like you’re paying.”
She had slapped his chest, eliciting a dramatic groan from him. “Not the point, Katsuki.”
“You don’t want to go?”
“No, I-.”
“I don’t want to go either! But they are family friends and the old hag is calling in her once a year civility token.”
She rolled her eyes but a smile tugged at her lips. “It’s not that I don’t want to go I just…I…I don’t have anything to wear.”
He raised an eyebrow, unconvinced. It wasn’t a total lie. But still… “Why are you being weird?” he asked.
“I’m not being weird,” she pouted, defensively. “I just looked a the restaurant website and their font was fancier than anything I own and I think…” her sentence was cut off by a squeal as he tightened his grip around her and tugged her onto him so she was laying flat on his chest, her face inches from his. He lifted his head up to catch her bottom lip with his teeth.
Trying to distract her.
And succeeding.
Wily bastard.
She knew he didn’t care what she wore. And it wasn’t like he was at Momo or Tenya’s level of wealth, but he was well off. He didn’t weigh how much he spent on lunch, he never had to skip meals, he didn’t wear his shoes down to their soles. It wasn’t bad or good- it was just different.
And it brought its own set of anxieties that Katsuki didn’t understand.
So it wasn’t for Katsuki or for anyone else’s sake that she borrowed a dress from Momo (a beautiful, chiffon evening dress that made Ochako feel like a damn princess), that she asked Mina to do her makeup (a subtle, smoky eye that made her want to hold her head a little higher, that made her still look like herself but also made Katsuki do a double take), and that she asked Tsu to do her hair (straightening out her chestnut tresses, giving them a soft curl at the end, and spritzing them with shine spray that also smelled delightful). She rarely pampered herself, for both time and money reasons so by the time she was ready for the dinner, she was feeling pretty damn good.
And it was for her sake- so she could actually enjoy the time instead of wondering if she even belonged there, in a place where she couldn’t even pronounce half the items on the menu. It was so she could feel good about herself.
And it had been going so well.
She had been laughing and chatting over appetizers (not even bothering to look at how much they cost because she knew it would make her sick to even consider it), and Katsuki, usually stingy with PDA, had his arm draped around the back of her chair, tugging her close to him, being outside of U.A. and around different people bringing out a different side of him. Everyone at U.A. knew who she belonged to (and vice versa) these people didn’t.
And she wasn’t going to sniff at an opportunity to be close to him.
Everything had been going so well.
And now she was just proving what she was afraid of this whole time.
That she didn’t belong in his world, that she didn’t understand it, that she would embarrass him in settings likes this.
Plus she had ruined Mina’s hard work, her eye makeup was unsalvageable.
All because of that stupid fucking lobster.
She hadn’t even wanted the lobster. She had never had lobster before, but one of his friends insisted, vigorously, that it was what they were famous for- and she didn’t want to reveal herself as a country bumpkin by asking the waiter, “what is the closest thing on this menu to chicken fingers?”
So she went with lobster, which had been a mistake, and now she was crying in the bathroom like a child.
“OI!”
She looked up and jumped in her seat as Katsuki barreled in.
“Katsuki, this is the girl’s room!”
“I know,” he said storming over to her, a hard scowl on his face. “You weren’t answering your texts, are you…” his face softened slightly at seeing her state, and then his jaw clenched as he dropped to his knees in front of her. “What the hell is wrong? What fucking happened? Are you..”
She grasped his forearm and dropped her head, trying in vain to hide her tears.
“I’m fine,” she choked out. “I’m fine.”
“Really?” he said, annoyance nipping into his voice. “Because one minute we were at the lobster tank, picking out what lobster you wanted and next thing I know you’re hiding out in the fucking bathroom…”
She burst into a fresh wave of tears at the memory of the lobsters, of what her baba used to tell her about lobsters, and Katsuki was absolutely dumbfounded and confused, wanting desperately to stop the crying, to make it better, but he was at a total loss about what could possibly have happened to his girlfriend to make her cry right now.
“Ochako,” he said, worry laced in his voice. “Please tell me what’s wrong.”
She sniffed. She couldn’t. It was too embarrassing. He would think it was stupid, that she was stupid, and that bringing her too this fancy place with his fancy friends was a mistake.
“Ochako…” he urged, rubbing his thumbs over the top of her hands. “Please tell me…”
“I…I…the lobster,” she managed between soft cries, and the motion of his thumbs on her wrist stopped. He was even more confused.
“What about the lobster?” he asked, slowly. “You want lobster?’
“NO!”
“You don’t have to have the lobster,” he said. “I’m sure they have chicken nuggets, we just can’t call them that…”
“No,” she protested. “I…I…my baba.”
Now her grandfather was in the mix, and Katsuki was utterly and completely lost, but all he knew was that she was crying and he had no idea why. No idea how to stop it, and when Ochako was crying that was all he wanted to do.
“What about him?”
He raised a hand to wipe the gathering tears away from her cheeks, and was relieved when she instinctively nuzzled into his palm. That at least was normal.
“Baba used to tell me that lobsters…when they meet their lobster love, they mate for life…”
“…oh-okay,” he said slowly. He was pretty sure that wasn’t scientific, on many levels, but thought better of correcting her.
“He said th-tha-that…” she hiccuped as she stumbled over her words, “they would see each other across the ocean floor and their eyes would meet, and then that was their lobster forever.”
“Uh huh…” it was all he could manage without bursting into an unhelpful fit of laughter.
“And then…I…I didn’t know they had an actual lobster tank! All crowded and sad with rubber bands around their little lobster claws!” She gestured wildly at the door as it opened, and a woman stepped in. She froze at the sight of Katsuki and his crying girlfriend before she continued her path to the stalls.
“Well, babe,” he continued, trying to keep his tone neutral. “Where did you think they kept the lobster?”
“I don’t know,” she wailed, throwing her head dramatically into her hands. “I never have had lobster before, Katsuki!”
He would never understand. He was going to laugh at her, she could already see it. Which was fine- she guessed. Except she had never had lobster before, and surely that said something about her.
“And then…what? I’m supposed to pick out the lobster I want them to kill for me?!”
He bit his lip. She was so fucking cute it made his head spin. And he really wanted to kiss her so she’d stop being so stupid and adorable. But it seemed she was having a legit crisis.
“Ochako, you grew up on a farm. Do you think your chicken nuggets are born that way?!”
“I KNOW!” He jumped back slightly at her yelp. “I realize I’m a hypocrite, but it seemed so…so personal. I had to look at them in their little lobster eyes, each one hoping I didn’t pick them!”
“I don’t think they can…”
“And for the record,” she said. “We didn’t have animals on our farm!”
“Okay, but…”
“And what if what baba said is true, and that lobster’s love is out there in the ocean still and I just signed the death sentence for their soul mate!? What kind of hero would I be then, huh Katsuki?”
“That…that feels like an unanswerable question, Cheeks.”
She glared at him. “You’re laughing at me.”
“Only a little,” he said, making a short space between his thumb and forefinger.
“And now you’re embarrassed of me, and know what an unfancy person I am!” She dropped her head again and started crying. Katsuki, for the first time in his illustrious career, had no idea what to do. It was a ball of adorable insanity that he had no idea how to untangle.
Was this about the lobster?
Was this about her weird insecurities and hang-ups about money (he was well behind Icy Hot, Ponytail, and Four-Eyes, but still he knew it was a trigger point of hers)?
About her grandfather?
About seeing the lobsters before they die?
About soul mates?
He hadn’t told her he loved her yet, maybe this was her way of telling him that he needed too? Was he the lobster about to be boiled to death in this scenario? Or was he the lobster in the ocean? Were they the lobsters together?
Fuck.
He pinched the bridge of his nose.
God, he was so fucking weak for her.
He stood up, and Ochako looked up at him, confused.
“Wait here…” he said. Goddammit, he was never going to hear the end of this from his friends. “But…check your damn phone and meet me outside when I text you, okay?”
She nodded dumbly and watched him leave. Well, it had been fun while it lasted. But she was sure he was about to go tell his friends that he needed to break up with his crazy girlfriend. Not that she grudged him that decision at this point.
Even she had been surprised by the overwhelming tidal wave of feelings as she looked into their little lobstery eyes.
Katsuki made brief excuses to his friends about not feeling well before heading in the direction of the kitchen, his face already bright red from embarrassment.
Fucking Ground Zero.
Fucking future number one hero.
Making an idiot of himself for that little airhead.
How did she make him so damn soft?
He explained to the waiter what he wanted, and the man looked rightfully confused.
“So you want the…”
“Yes,” he said, with a nod.
“But you don’t want it to…”
“That’s right…”
He tipped very well that night.
###
Ochako waited for Katsuki down by the warm water, as per the instructions of his straightforward text. She tried not to read into it. He wasn’t an exclamation points kind of person- and she had never known him to use a single emoji. Her toes dug into the sand, discarded of the shoes hanging from her right hand. She didn’t want to ruin them. They were her only nice pair. Her dress only went to mid-calf but she was also paranoid about ruining something so nice, so she used her free hand to hold it up a couple of extra inches, not wanting a speck of sand to touch the delicate material
It was a scenic enough place for him to break up with her, she supposed. But then there was the ride back to U.A. and then there was the explaining WHY, and then she had to tell them it was because lobster may or may not fall in love and mate for life.
Which would certainly leave Katsuki looking like the reasonable one in this situation...
She heard him grumbling and swearing behind her. She didn’t want to look at him. Not yet. She closed her eyes and let the warm, salty breeze hit her salty face. He stumbled through the sand toward her, a big, white to-go box in his hand.
“Katsuki,” she sighed, kicking lightly at the dirt. “I didn’t mean too…”
He ignored her and continued grumbling toward the shoreline, kicking dirt along the way, and she was sure she heard “idiot” “mochi-brained” and “hot dummy” under his breathe. Well, he hadn’t dumped her yet.
“I didn’t mean to ruin the night, Katsuki. I don’t…”
“Get your ass over here,” he groused over his shoulder as he set the box down, along with shoes, then attempted to roll his pant legs up further sand already gathering in the cuffs.
She covered her eyes and shook her head. She was the worst girlfriend in the world
THE WORST!
“Oi,” he called, this time with more insistence and annoyance. She let out a squeak and hurried toward him as fast as she could in the sand.
Her heart hammered in her chest, anxiety broiling in her stomach. She wanted to get it over with now if that was what was going to happen.
“Are you breaking up with me?!” It came out in some odd tone of voice, an attempt to mask neediness that just came out shrill and weird.
His face twisted angrily. “What the fuck, Ochako? Why would you ask that?”
“Because I ruined the night,” she said. “I embarrassed you in front of your friends? I don’t know…I just assumed…”
His brows dipped inward, forming that familiar scowl, but there was something else masked behind it that she wasn’t used to seeing; like she had maybe hurt his feelings…not that he would ever say it. But still… “Well, stop that shit!” He snapped. “I’m not gonna break up with you, stupid. And it kinda makes me feel like shit that you think that I would.”
Oh. He didn’t tell her how he felt often. Well, he did (she found when she learned how to read him, that he was very communicative in fact) but never using the words “this makes me feel.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, her fingers tracing the cuff of his sleeve. “I just know…sometimes I’m a little…”
“A little what?” he snapped, turning to look at her- it didn’t help that he looked so damn pretty in the moonlight. Though she kept that to herself. “You gotta get over this whole- underdog thing. No one who knows you sees you that way, Ochako. You’re smart, you work your ass off, you’re a badass hero, and you’re cute as hell.”
She wanted to look away, to bury her face in her hands. It was too much. All of it was too much. He had said many of things before, but never with so much sincerity and intensity. “Fuck.” He racked his hands through his hair, tugging slightly at the blonde locks, mussing them back up into their usual, unruly spikes. “You offered your own exam points when you thought that dumb nerd wasn’t going to get in. You sent your first work-study paycheck to your parents, Cheeks. You get weepy over sad, romantic lobsters, apparently.” She let out a small, watery laugh at that. He looked at her like maybe she was a little bit stupid- which, sometimes she was when it came to him. “Do you really think anyone is looking at us and thinking you’re the one with someone out of your league?! Because I promise you that you are literally the only person in the world who thinks that.” He flicked her head, lightly. “So knock it off.”
So simple, as far as he was concerned.
“And have a little more fucking faith in me, would ya? I’m not going to run away scared the once in a blue moon that you do make irrational demands of me.”
It was true. He didn’t tell her outright, but had done so in his own Katsuki way. But she knew what often masqueraded as “laid back” was a cover not to be seen as needy, not to ask for anything, to make sure everyone knew that they weren’t letting her down because she didn’t need anything from; the behavior had become almost compulsive. While she never went without anything she needed, she knew how much it hurt her parents that they couldn’t give her things that may want.
So she assured them, there was nothing she wanted.
A practice that was hard to shake off even now.
“I know,” she said, sliding her hand into his.
“Good,” he said. “Here!” He thrusted the forgotten box at her and then grumbled something else under his breath before looking out at the water. Even in the moonlight, she could see the bright red flush gathering on the back of his neck, reaching up towards his ears and his cheeks.
He didn’t blush often.
And then she felt something stir inside the box.
“GAH!” She dropped it roughly and Katsuki let out of a bark of objection.
“What the fuck, Cheeks?!” He quickly snatched up the box and held it away from her. “What are you trying to do?!”
“I-I don’t know!”
His scowl returned, but this time it was the same one he gave her when she insisted that mochi was a sufficient dinner. This one she was used to. He opened the box for her and held it out to her. She peered inside and didn’t know whether to shout, laugh, cry, or scream.
She blinked several times to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating. But when she opened them again, the picture didn’t change.
There it was, cramped and wiggling. A lobster (sans rubber bands).
“Katsuki, wh-what-are-what is…”
“What the fuck do you think it is?” he said, his voice rising to mask his embarrassment, she could already see the insecurity (that he swore up and down that he didn’t have) grasping at his confidence. “It’s a damn lobster.”
“Katsuki…I…I…” she had no idea how to respond; how to correctly respond. Was…was she supposed to pet it? Didn’t she just say she had never eaten lobster? What was happening right now? Was this some kind of rich people thing?
“Welll…” he said, shaking it at her.
“Well…” she said tentatively. “Wh-what?”
He let out a labored sigh, as though he were currently a martyr of the highest order- which, she supposed he was right now.
“Why do you think we’re down here by the water?”
Her eyes suddenly widened, realization dawning on her as she took the box.
“You…you bought me a lobster…” she said.
“Apparently,” he mumbled, motioning toward the ocean. “Now go set the little sea-monster free so it can go find it’s lobster love or whatever the fuck you were talking about.”
Her lip shook as she stared down at the absurdly creepy thing.
“It’s nice isn’t it,” she said, sniffling slightly. “Even creepy, crawlies deserve love.”
“Tch…” he shoved his hands into his pockets, and insisted on looking everywhere but at her.
“And you took his rubber bands off…” she said, still holding the box.
“Duh…” he said. “He can’t swim with those on.”
“Or hold claws with his lobster?” He rolled his eyes, but she could see the smile tugging at the corner of his lips.
Ochako turned and moved toward the shoreline, carefully, not wanting to jostle her little friend; filled with warm feelings. Sure there was tank filled with lobsters back at the restaurant, but she had a feeling Katsuki had picked a good one to save. And her chest tightened with…
“AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!’
She dropped the box hurriedly and scrambled backward, falling forward into the sand, catching herself, and then scurrying to her feet.
“What the fuck?” yelled Katsuki, hurrying to her side and helping her stand upright.
“He snapped his claws at me!!!”
“Did he get you!?”
He held her hands up between his own, checking them over.
“No,” she said, shakily, looking over her shoulder. “But he was close!”
Katsuki didn’t even bother holding back his laugh at this, but he did hold her hands tight between his before bringing them up and pressing a light kiss to the tips.
“Ungrateful little bastard,” he said, his laugh ghosting over her fingers.
Her lip jutted out in a pout as she looked over her shoulder, the overturned box was sitting on the shoreline while the lobster made its merry way back to the sea.
“He didn’t know we were heroes,” she sighed, laying her head against his chest wearily, her hands making their way around his waist, clasping together at his lower back. “He just wanted to get back to his soulmate.”
He scoffed, but there was no bite to it, as one hand fell heavily on top of her head. She sighed and let herself sink into the warmth of his body, the solid wall of his chest, and felt a wave of contentment.
“Thank you,” she murmured tiredly into his jacked. “For my lobster.”
He pulled away slightly, both of his hands cupped either side of her face, his long fingers combing through her hair in a way that made her head fall back instinctively, directing her gaze up toward his. He stared at her for a moment. And she wants to say more to him. To apologize for making him feel like a bad boyfriend, when he was enigmatically ridiculously unromantic, and so freaking romantic it made her head spin, all at once.
Like everything else about him, it was impressive.
“Katsuki I…”
“I don’t want you to think that I just put up with all the weird shit that makes you you,” he interrupted suddenly. “I don’t want you to think that…that I don’t…” He stuttered over the words, and her heart quickened in her chest. She had said them before. Once. Or maybe twice- but her first time was whispered tearfully into his cheek while he was in a hospital bed. When, what she had always known about the nature of their chosen careers, hit her with terrifying clarity. But he had been unconscious at the time. But he had yet to say them. Not for lack of feeling them-though- she knew that. In fact, she often wondered if it was the exact opposite of that.
“You know I love you, right?” It came out as a whispered declaration, and a tentative question, a hopeful, not quite certain vulnerability in his words, that she knew was so hard for him. She raised her own hands and gripped the wrists currently bracketing her head.
“I do,” she said, squeezing his wrists and shifting her head slightly so her lips met his palm and planted a small kiss there. When she looked back at him, he was looking at her like she was a page in a book and he was studying for an important exam- some mix of confusion and challenge.
And she wondered if maybe he knew a little bit more about insecurity than she had given him credit for.
“And I love you,” she said, her hands migrating form his wrists, up his arms, and to the front of his jacket, where they found his lapels and jerked him suddenly forward to her waiting mouth. Katsuki did everything thoroughly, always. He became an expert in anything he set out to do. And she was a blessed woman that one of those things he decided he wanted to do was kiss her.
On the regular.
And it wasn’t as easy as she would have guessed. Because- well- there were so many kinds of kisses, she found. And he wanted to be good at all of them. Slow and romantic; teasing and playful; passionate and toothy, not usually staying in one place on her body; angry, given when they were fighting but she still demanded some of his attention; demanding and eager; desperate and wanting and needy; and he really was good at all of them.
But so was she.
When she pulled away, breathless and giddy, from the kiss and the declaration, she settled back against his chest, feeling floaty and happy in a way that made it hard to stand still but also made her want to stay like this as long as she could.
But then, she was stirred by something else. Something else that Katsuki was intimately familiar with.
“Katsuki,” she said, running a hand up and down his arm, coaxingly.
“Hmm?”
She pulled away slightly to look up at him, pleased to find him no less flushed and effected by her. Not that he ever really hid that. It was something she loved about him- that he wasn’t shy about what kissing her, touching her, being with her did to him.
“I’m hungry,” she said.
His eyes narrowed. “I bought you a damn lobster dinner!”
She grinned up at him, not even bothering to participate in the farce, knowing full well he wasn’t going to let her go hungry.
He never did.
“Tch…fine,” he said, pulling away and going over to the now-empty box laying discarded on the sand. “Let’s go get some dinner.”
“Well we could…”
“Dinner,” he stressed, looking down at her pointedly. “Not dessert.”
She didn’t even pout. She knew she was going to get dessert.
“So fucking spoiled,” he muttered, holding tight to her hand as they traversed back across the sand.
She looked over her shoulder once more and hoped that her lobster hadn’t already gotten gobbled up by a sea predator. But she had a good feeling about it.
A really good feeling.