Work Text:
Crunch crunch crunch crunch
The pieces of glass were crushed under the weight of each heavy boot that stepped on it, while the remaining parts of the broken window pane were still attached to the frame, reflecting the silhouettes of the two wanderers that walked by it.
As they continued on, more and more of the wreckage became visible, revealing the decimated state that the commercial district was in.
No structural integrity, no preserved items, no signs of life whatsoever; only the disarray that resulted from panic and fear. The once crowded shops became vacant and covered in the vegetation that has reclaimed its rightful territory inside and outside.
The two roamers continued on their path. The one behind, a woman, lowers her violet scarf, her brown hair flowing free and her auburn eyes taking in the sight around her, her gaze oozing with curiosity. The one in front, a man, doesn’t touch his own yellow scarf, instead has his eyes analyzing every inch of the district as his hands reach into his pockets.
The woman steps closer to one of the former shops, a big worn-down sign saying “Pâtisserie Délicieux”. As she peeked through the cracks of the window, it seemed that it was a bakery of some kind, if the counter and display cases are anything to consider.
Stepping back from the glass, she walked to the door and gave it a little push.
“Ngh!...yeah that ain’t openin’ easily.”
She stared at the door as if it would magically open with her gaze.
“Should I just…yeah let’s do that!”
She stepped back a bit and started jumping in place, getting ready.
“What are you doing?”
The man tore his gaze from where he was focusing, stopping whatever he had been writing in the journal in his hands.
“Don’t worry about it!”
The woman continued jumping up and down, quick breaths in and out.
Thus, with a determined gaze, she stepped 1, 2, KICK!
“Hayaa!”
The door flew open hitting the wall.
“There!”
The woman cheered with a very satisfied smirk on her face.
“Was that really necessary?”
The man followed behind her, stopping to see what damage the door had done to the wall.
…would you look at that! A dent.
“Well, how else was I supposed to get in?”
“You could’ve thrown a rock at the glass from a distance.”
“Gasp! But that would be vandalizing!”
“You kicked the door open, and you’re worried about breaking an already broken window?”
“It would’ve gotten broken glass everywhere!”
“We walked on broken glass when we got here!”
“Shush! Come on! We gotta investigate this place. In-vestiga-tion! Investiga-tion! In-vestiga-tion!”
She pumped her arms in the air while chanting to herself.
The man chuckled and shook his head at her silliness and proceeded to follow her. Looking at the old menu chart hung up on the wall, he saw a picture of a cake.
Definitely a bakery.
The whole place was illuminated thanks to the open door frame, with bits of sun rays coming through the cracks of the window. Everything was covered in a thick layer of dust. It wasn’t that big of a bakery, just a counter with a barricaded door behind it, some display cases, and a couple of tables with chairs.
If it weren’t for the desolate state it was in, he’d say this place made him feel…comfortable, a lovely small shop that feels like home to anyone who enters here. He really wished he could’ve seen this place in its glory, must’ve felt so cozy being in here.
His mother told him about these kinds of places, Toshinori too. They used to tell him about these small shops and cafes that had this cozy atmosphere that made customers feel at home, encouraging them to drop by again. And what would really stand out was the fact that these owners would remember the faces and names of the customers, making them feel welcomed as if it were their parents welcoming them home.
He’d love to spend time with Uraraka and his friends in a place similar to this one. Maybe when this whole thing will be over and they’ll be able to live ‘normal’ lives, he and his mom can open a bakery just like this, she’d love to have people try her baking, and have him spend time with her like this.
Then all of his friends would drop by and maybe even help out if they wanted to. Uraraka would definitely want to help his mom, though she’d probably eat a bunch of the stuff they make because they would look so delicious to her.
She’d look cute in an apron.
“Hey Deku! Come look!”
“Ah! Wha?” Clears throat “What is it?”
“Check this out.”
She held up an old piece of paper she found in a cabinet next to the register.
“Looks like a letter for Mr…De-lee-cio? I don’t know french but that’s definitely the owner”
“Yeah it’s hard to pronounce, but it means ‘Delicious’.”
“You know french?”
“Kacchan taught me a bit”
She raised her eyebrow in disbelief.
“Bakugou taught you something? You?”
“Not much. Just enough so that he’d rub it in my face whenever he gets the chance.”
“Pfffft! Yep, that sounds like him”
“So, what does it say?”
Uraraka raised the note and started reading.
“October 4th 2XX2,
Dear Mr De-leee-ciooo,
It pains me to inform you that our business will no longer be able to provide you with the items you requested.
As the situation has become direr and direr, we are now unable to reach a number of our clients due to the quarantine of many districts and the limitations of delivery.
Please forgive us for we will not be able to provide you with any more services from now on.
To attempt to compensate for that matter, we have provided our delivery man with a package containing items that would be of use to you. Forgive us if this doesn’t seem like a lot, for he definitely had to sneak past many checkpoints and took many off-road detours to get to you.
News says that the crisis has been making its way towards your district. I personally advise that you take shelter, or take your loved ones and move out as fast as you can.
Let us all hope for a brighter future,
Godspeed to you,
- ”
“The name is smudged but there’s this weird symbol on the paper, look.”
He took the letter from her, and just like she said, the name was illegible but next to it was a stamp: a drawing of a cat with stars on its fur.
“That seems pretty important.”
He took out his journal and pen again, laid them on the counter, and started copying the symbol on a page with tiny notes:
Mysterious symbol:
cult?
organization?
Normal company?
He also started recreating a simplified drawing of the bakery:
Sector 455, District 3
“Oh. My. God!”
Deku looked up from his notes when he heard Uraraka’s exclamation.
“What is it? What did you find”
Uraraka said nothing as she picked up whatever was in the cabinet and stood up, her back still towards him. She then turned slowly and revealed in her arms…a FREAKIN’ PUMP-ACTION SHOTGUN?!
“What the fu-“
“I know right?! This was just there in the cabinet!”
“Well be careful it could be loaded!”
“It’s not! It’s empty, but look!”
She then bent back down and reached into it, and started taking out a bunch of boxes of ammunition and putting them on the counter.
“There’s a bunch of shotgun ammo here! Even a bunch for an assault rifle! He must’ve had one in here too! Maybe it’s still lying around somewhere! And-”
“And what?”
She turned to him with…GRENADES?! OH MY FUCKIN GOD! MR DELICIEUX WTF?!
Overall there were 6 boxes on the counter now, 4 grenades, and a shotgun in Uraraka’s arms. Both of them were just stupefied by what they found in a goddamn bakery.
“Looks like Mr. Delicious was getting ready for an attack”
“Well, this letter is from the early 2XXXs right? That’s when stuff started to escalate.”
“Yeah, and this guy wasn’t gonna go down without a fight….take all this with you, we’ll definitely need it”
“Yeah”
Uraraka started putting all the ammunition in her backpack, while Deku continued scribbling some additional doodles and notes:
SHOTGUN?
RIFLE?
GRENADES?!
Why was Mr. Délicieux providing himself with ammunition?
Why didn’t he just run?
He folded the letter and put it between the pages as he closed his journal. When he turned back to Uraraka, she had just finished securing the shotgun on her shoulder.
“Good to go, chief!”
She mock-saluted him, making him chuckle.
“Let’s keep going then.”
They both went around the counter and made their way to the door when Uraraka put a hand on his shoulder making him halt.
“Wait!”
“What?”
Without a word, she pulled him away from the door and made her way towards the chairs in the middle of the bakery.
With no hesitation, she picked one of the chairs up and yeeted it at the window, shattering it to pieces, and creating another opening to the place, the pieces of glass covering the ground outside.
“What was that for?!”
“You said I should’ve broken the window!”
“When you wanted to get in! There wasn’t an open door then!”
“Ahhh whatever! It’s more fun!”
Without a care, she started skipping through the opening, humming to herself. Deku shook his head but still followed her back outside.
Figuring out where to go next, he started looking around, when his sights were back on Uraraka’s shotgun. He just couldn’t believe a baker had a shotgun right under the counter.
Then, something on the gun caught his eye.
“Wait a minute”
He carefully approached the gun, not being too reckless considering this was still a loaded gun.
“What? What is it?”
“There’s something carved on it.”
Too focused to realize what he was doing, he got close to the side and started muttering…right next to Uraraka’s ear.
She started blushing, feeling his breath on her ear, she knew he didn’t notice how close he got and wasn’t doing it on purpose but still. She was doing her damn bestest to not combust right then and there.
“Isn’t that…?”
He kept muttering to himself. Uraraka was still confused about what took his interest, she knew once he got his mind on something he’d focus 100% on it. That still didn’t mean she understood what he was talking about though.
But what really surprised her was when-
“What is i-eek!”
-Deku grabbed her by the hips, and moved her a bit towards the sunlight, his hands still firmly on her hips!
Uraraka thinks this is her best impression of Kirby yet! Hell! She might even exceed it if he keeps this up.
“That’s it!”
“W-w-what?! W-What’s goin’ on with ya?”
“That’s the same symbol from the letter! The star cat!”
“Huh?”
Taken by surprise, she totally pushed down the whole situation she was in, and carefully grabbed the gun to get a better look.
As Deku said, there it was, the same cat that was on the letter. Now stuff was starting to make sense…a bit.
“So…these guys were like…a private army?”
“Or gun traffickers”
“And the baker was one of their clients”
“Yep”
“Wow. Crazy huh?”
She turned to him only to bump their noses together.
.
.
Silence.
.
.
More Silence.
“AH SORRY!”
“I'M SO SORRY”
“IT'S OKAY IT’S MY FAULT!”
“CAREFUL YOU’RE HOLDING A LOADED SHOTGUN URARAKA!”
Aaaaaand there it is.
They had jumped away from each other at that, wide-eyed, staring into each other with heavy breaths.
.
.
A chuckle got out of her.
Then one out of him.
Then more chuckles from her.
Then more from him.
They were basically laughing at this point. It was all just so silly.
After a bit, they’ve calmed and regained some composure, their eyes still staring into each other’s, with fond smiles on their faces.
Uraraka cleared her throat.
“Well I guess the only thing we can do about this now is research about this Cat Cult when we get back”
“Yeah, you’re right. I doubt we’ll find anything else about it here. Though there’s no harm in trying.”
***
They didn’t really find anything in the other stores, so they kept walking until they reached a barricade covering the path they were on.
“Well, that’s odd.”
Uraraka tilted her head and looked to the side. Her eye caught a small hole on the bottom.
“Hey there’s a small passage through there, someone must’ve crawled through.”
“The real question is: is this an obstacle in our way…or in the way of whatever’s on the other side?”
They looked at each other, a silent conversation between them, they both nodded, knowing what the other was thinking.
Stay on guard.
Uraraka grabbed her newly acquired shotgun, ready for shooting, while Deku took out his pistol from his holster.
Since she carried the most firepower, Uraraka took the lead on this, laying on the ground and started slowly crawling through the passage, scanning for any disturbances. Deku looked back at the district one last time to make sure nothing was behind them and started crawling behind her.
This barricade was very large, it covered the whole wide path and it was pretty long, made of a bunch of furniture, trash cans, benches, etc. A lot of work was put in to block the path.
But why was there a passage?
When Uraraka reached the end, she was able to crawl out and slowly stood up, her eyes widening at the sight before her.
“Woooooow!”
Deku also got out and stood, his body stilling.
It wasn’t a horrifying sight, quite the contrary.
In front of them, was a park square, that took the role of a base of operations. In the corners you could see a bunch of crates, a lot of chairs remains of tents, and a lot of other things that the two couldn’t be bothered to notice.
Why? Because what got them so fixated was the big fountain in the middle.
Through the chaos that pushed whatever was present here to the corners, the fountain stood tall in the middle, illuminated by the sunlight while everything was plunged into shadows. The fountain was dried up, and some plants were going around it, but the sight of it was still so beautiful, to the point that the two had to take a second to take it all in.
Uraraka started approaching the fountain, while Deku took out his journal and started sketching.
Uraraka turned her head to the side, and she noticed something.
“Uhhh Deku?”
“Mmm?”
“I think we found our missing rifle”
Deku raised his head from his notebook, seeing her pointing to the left. Following the direction of her finger, he turned his head only to see an old dead body, wearing an apron, and holding an assault rifle.
“Mr. Delicious”
“Poor guy didn’t make it out of here”
“Yeah. At least he went out fighting it seems.”
“...We should take the rifle.”
“...yeahh.”
They slowly approached the old corpse and kneeled next to it. Traces of bullet wounds can be seen on his shoulder, arms, and legs.
He was shot but still fought. Deku was sure that they were gonna find other bodies on the other side of the park.
With his gloves, Deku slowly removed the gun from his hands, as if he was just sleeping and was afraid to wake him up. When he had it in his hands, he noticed the familiar cat symbol on the side.
“Yep. That’s definitely him.”
He turned to Uraraka, she had her eyes closed, and her hands clasped together, sending a prayer so that the fighting baker may find peace.
With a sigh, she opened her eyes again and stood up, rummaging through her bag.
As Deku stood up too, she handed him the assault rifle ammo they found before. He gratefully took them with a smile, loaded his new gun, and put the rest in his own bag.
He also took out his journal again, writing a note as a memory to the fallen baker:
Rest in Peace Mr. Délicieux
You fought a good fight. You earned your rest.
When he finished, he looked back down at the corpse and noticed something in his left chest pocket. His curiosity getting the better of him, he reached for it and took out an old photo.
The photo was of the baker, very much alive, with what seemed to be his wife and his two daughters. They were in front of the still-intact Eiffel Tower, they were smiling so much, they were happy.
With a sigh, Izuku returned the photo to its place, even patting the chest.
“This is very precious to you, right? I won’t take it away.”
Getting up, he turned around to see Uraraka, sitting on the bench, facing the fountain.
He carefully made his way over and stood next to where she was sitting, awkwardly fidgeting.
Ochako noticed and chuckled a bit.
“Izuku”
That got his attention quickly as he spun his head towards her. The only response she provided was her patting the spot next to her.
Getting her message, Izuku sighed, slung the gun off the floor, and sat right next to her, their shoulders basically touching, but neither of them moved away.
Silence.
Comfortable silence.
“You think they walked dogs here?”
Deku chuckled.
“That’s what you’re concerned about?”
She shrugged him off.
“We’ll get to the serious stuff in a bit. Right now I just wanna focus on this moment.”
She put her head on his shoulder, making him jump a bit from surprise, his eyes widening as they landed on her own. Again, neither of them did anything, so they both turned their heads back to the fountain, cherishing this peaceful moment, away from the crisis that was their lives.
More silence.
.
.
.
“Hey Deku.”
“Yeah”
“Do you think…we’ll be able to live a normal life”
“...”
“This whole thing has been goin’ on for so long now. Even before we were even born.”
“...”
“So a lot of times, I wonder to myself: is this how it’s always gonna be? Will we never get the chance to experience what the people before us could?”
“Sure we will.”
“Huh?”
She turned her gaze back to him, he was still staring at the fountain, but his gaze had steeled itself with determination, and Ochako couldn’t look away.
“I’ll make sure of it. I don’t know how I’ll do it, or even when I’ll do it, but I will. I’ll find a way, I have people believing in me, putting their hopes in me. Even All Might, the famous keeper of humanity, said that I had what it takes, to save everyone. He trusted me with his base, he trusted me with his life, and I’m not gonna disappoint him nor everyone else.”
He then turned his head to her.
“I’ll save us all, and you’ll have the normal life you desire!”
He then gave her what she thought to be the brightest smile she had ever seen on his face. Her heart skipped multiple beats, she thought it was about to stop altogether.
Yep.
I remember.
That’s why I…
She smiled, closing her eyes with a sigh.
Izuku then felt a touch on his hand. Looking down, he saw that she had grasped his hand, and to go even further, she moved her hand so that their fingers were now intertwined.
His face was really red now. Does he have color-changing powers?
“Well, that was a nice speech, buuuut, I have some complaints.”
“O-oh-oh? W-what are they? I-I’d love the feedback”
She chuckled.
“Let’s see:
1-Don’t ever think that there is even a chance for you to disappoint us. Ever since I first met you, you have done nothing but help and inspire all of us to keep pushing forward. We all admire you, you know?”
“O-Oh is that right? Well-“
“I’m not finished.”
“Oh ok sorry”
“2-you used a lot of ‘I’s, don’t ya think I’m gonna let ya carry the burden of the whole world on your shoulders alone! Nu-uhh! We’re gonna help ya, all of us. So don’t ever think that it’s your responsibility alone and that you have to accomplish everything yourself.”
“O-okay. And…3”
“3…”
She nuzzled her face more into his neck, his scarf being the only thing preventing direct contact, causing his whole body to just shiver from nerves.
“I told you that I thought a lot about this, and even if we manage to solve this whole thing, I doubt we’re ever gonna live a ‘normal’ life.”
She then raised her head and stared directly into his eyes.
“I know for a fact that I’m never gonna have a normal life when you’re so closely involved in it”
“Ahh really? Ah shucks”
He started scratching his chin with his hand, the other was starting to get pretty sweaty.
Good thing he had a glove on.
“That’s not necessarily a compliment you know.”
“Ah right. As brutal as ever! Haha! Haaa!”
He started making it awkward. Quick! Quick! Say something!
“So…what…exactly is…your opinion on this fact?”
Real smooth. Kacchan would be laughing his ass off right now.
“Mhmmmm”
She tapped her chin with her finger, really thinking deeply about this.
“I don’t say I really mind, I don’t think I can imagine a life without you in it.”
.
.
.
Wha?
Does she realize what she just said?!
Izuku expected her to combust right then and there, after a declaration like that!
But…she didn’t. She was 100% serious about this, what she said just came from her heart and she wasn’t even trying to hide it.
Well…now it’s his turn.
“I…I can’t imagine one without you either honestly. If it weren’t for you, I don’t think I’d even be here. I’d probably still be cooking ravioli for everyone back at base.”
He was scratching the back of his head now. God, he is so fidgety!
That made Ochako laugh pretty hard.
“Hahahaha! You’re saying you would’ve been the cook? HA! You’d be the new Mr. Delicious. DEKULICIOUS! OH MY GOD! The others would have a field day about this!”
They both went into laughing fits, the mood becoming much lighter.
Ochako tends to do that sometimes, making him feel almost weightless whenever he’s with her.
He still remembers the first time she caught him after he tripped, he knew he was screwed the moment he saw her.
“Deku, no matter what happens, I believe that everything will be okay. So don’t worry!”
“Yeah…you’re right.”
They exchanged smiles one more time.
.
.
“Welp!”
She exclaimed as she stood back up, letting go of his hand.
He already missed the warmth, and she did too. However, they still had a job to do.
“Shall we continue our adventure, Mr. Dekulicious? Pfft”
He chuckled.
“Yeah. Just give me a second.”
For the final time today, he took out his journal and doodled one final thing inside.
When he was done, he closed it and put it back in his pocket. He picked up his newly acquired gun and looked on at her with determination.
“Let’s do this!”
“Woohoo! Adventure Time!”
Thus they continued on their journey, to finish their objective and get one step closer to achieving their dreams.
.
.
.
“Hey Uraraka, have you ever thought about visiting the Eiffel Tower?”
“Didn’t that thing blow up?”
~END(?)
