Work Text:
Katsuki thinks he’s subtle. He’s pretty sure that he’s doing well at hiding this horrific development. He’d assumed that if he were to ever develop a stupid little crush, it would be on his stupid loud best friend or his stupid nerd best friend. He’s not prepared for the truck that is Uraraka Ochako.
He finds that he’s physically incapable of not doing nice things for her, but he thinks he’s doing a pretty good job of pretending not to feel any different.
He discovers this disgusting little emotion on a random Tuesday in his third year. Katsuki trains a little every day, but Thursdays are reserved for training with Izuku and Sunday’s are reserved for training with Kirishima. He doesn’t realise that Tuesdays are also reserved until he finally notices that every Tuesday without fail, Ochako is there to spar with him.
Ironically, he comes to discover this due to her absence. She shoots him a text, apologising that she won’t be able to make it for training because she’s sick. He didn’t even know that they had a schedule. He wonders if he would’ve noticed if she hadn’t messaged him.
Katsuki makes chicken soup for dinner for entirely normal reasons and not because that’s what his father used to cook whenever he was sick. He watches Tsu fill an extra bowl and leave the dining table with it on a tray that also carries two slices of toast and a glass of Ochako’s favourite juice — apple.
As hard as he tries, he can’t ignore the slight swell of pride when he hears Tsu reveal to Hagakure that the soup is the first thing Ochako’s managed to keep down all day.
For the next three days, Katsuki cooks light dinners, sticking to things he knows are easy to keep down and not quite as painful to throw back up if it gets to that. No one asks him if he’s doing it for Ochako and he doesn’t acknowledge the very obvious fact that he is.
On the fourth day, she braves leaving her dorm and wanders into the kitchen. He watches her drag her feet to the fridge and poke around for a moment. Then she spies leftover popcorn on the counter.
Katsuki is quick to snatch it out of her grasp.
“Popcorn will make you cough more.”
“But I want it,” she whines, half-heartedly reaching for the bowl he holds high above her head.
“You can have popcorn when you’re better.”
She pouts and every inch of Katsuki screams to let her have the popcorn, but he knows she won’t make it two handfuls before she’s coughing up a storm.
“Fine,” she grumbles, snatching a juice box off the counter and leaving.
Katsuki makes her favourite food for dinner that night and does not acknowledge the fact that he did.
If it’s hell trying to stop himself from randomly doing things for Ochako, he doesn’t know what to call being unable to say no to her.
She’ll say, “Can we train early today? I haven’t studied enough for the ethics test tomorrow.”
And Katsuki will readily shift his schedule around to accommodate her and instead of bantering like usual, he’ll quiz her on the material they’ll be tested on.
Or she’ll ask if Katsuki can get blueberries when he’s out after Denki asks him to bring back cheese puffs and Katsuki will return with blueberries but no cheese puffs.
Or she’ll ask if they can watch some stupid movie they’ve seen before during movie night and even though he was kind of looking forward to Momo’s old war movie choice, he’s suddenly overcome with the desire to see Ochako’s stupid favourite movie.
It’s disgusting how much he’s willing to do for her and how easy it is to say yes to her. It’s unbelievable how easy it is to say yes to her when he so desperately wants to say no.
“Yui from Class B asked me out,” Ochako confesses in the kitchen one evening.
He doesn’t know why she’s telling him instead of her stupid friends, but she has been spending a lot of time in the kitchen while he cooks, talking in aimless circles.
“Oh?”
She hums. “Not like officially or anything. More of a test-the-waters kind of date. Y’know, to see if I’d like a second one.”
“So go,” Katsuki says even though he’s pretty sure he wants to tell her not to. “Hope it’s fun.”
Ochako sighs. “You think so?”
He nods at the food. “Go have fun, Cheeks.”
But it doesn’t stop there, because on Saturday as he’s making something for lunch for himself and a few of his classmates, Ochako appears in the archway to the dining table.
“Is this okay for a first date?”
Katsuki wants to tell her it’s not. Because the strawberry-print dress makes her look so sweet and soft and perfect that he’s afraid Yui will be smitten and sweep Ochako off her feet. But he nods. “Yeah, it’s nice.”
“Thank you!”
And she’s off to have fun on the date Katsuki told her to go for.
Katsuki has been quiet since Ochako left yesterday. He was quiet when she returned to the dorms late and spent a few minutes in whispered conversation at the door before she closed it and caught sight of him with his book lowered in curiosity.
He was quiet as she told him that she had a nice time and bid him goodnight before leaving.
He was quiet as he made breakfast for himself then lunch for his friends and he’s still quiet as he prepares dinner for his class and Ochako wanders into the kitchen.
“It was nice,” she starts slowly, hoisting her up onto the counter, “but not enough to agree to a second date.”
Katsuki pauses. “What happened?”
“Nothing interesting. She took me out for lunch and we talked and we visited a park and it was nice but it was just . . . too friendly.”
Katsuki scoffs. “That just because she doesn’t know you very well.”
“Oh, like you could’ve done any better,” Ochako teases. “You’d probably take me to dinner and it’ll be equally platonic-feeling.”
Katsuki takes the pot off the stove and turns the dial until the blue flames go out before facing Ochako. “I’m insulted that you think I’d be a boring date.”
Ochako rolls her eyes. “Just to me, I mean. You’re all . . . you, y’know? And I didn’t say boring, I said platonic. It would feel the same as the time Deku treated me to lunch for kicking your ass in the midterms.”
“I beg to differ,” Katsuki says, slightly actually offended now. “I know you better than that B moron.”
“Her name is Yui and she’s really nice. Don’t be mean to her. It’s not her fault I’m not into her.”
Katsuki folds his arms. “I cannot believe you compared me to Deku. I’d be a much better date than him.”
“Again, it’s just that I know you and I know what kind of dates you’d plan and I know I wouldn’t feel any different than if I had to accompany any of our friends to a meal. But if you’re so sure you’re better than anyone else, by all means, prove it .”
“I am better than anyone else,” Katsuki snaps.
“Then prove it,” Ochako says, tiling her head. “Take me out on one date and if it’s even remotely more romantic than Yui’s, I’ll concede defeat.”
“I will take you on the exact same date she did and you will have a swarm of butterflies coming out of your nose by the time I’m done with you.”
Instead of laughing at the frankly absurd statement, Ochako raises her eyebrows. “Bold words from the guy who got flustered when Deku confessed that he used to have a crush on you.”
“Shut up, that was two years ago.”
“I’m just saying,” she says as he hops off the counter. “You better impress me, pretty boy.”
Katsuki doesn’t have a clue what he got himself into, but damn if he isn’t going to show Ochako what a good date feels like.
He’s probably going to hurt himself in the end because all she sees when she looks at him is a classmate and maybe a friend on a good day.
When Saturday comes again, Ochako stands in the common room in her strawberry dress. He doesn’t regret telling her that it’s a good outfit for a first date anymore because now she’s wearing it for him.
He takes her to the same restaurant that Yui took her to and he spends the entire wait for their food listening to her stories. He was there for most of them, but he likes the way she tells them. The funny ones are funnier, the sweet ones are sweeter and the sad ones are sadder.
“Tell me about you,” she says softly when he orders dessert for them — he knows she’d never do it and she probably hadn’t with Yui, so he’s not going to give her the chance to say no.
“You know me,” Katsuki says.
“I know what I know. Tell me something new.”
Katsuki sighs. “Okay. Let me think.”
There’s a spark in her eyes that makes him wonder if Yui entertained her questions. He gives her a grin. “I have an Uravity doll in my room.”
She laughs. “Tell me something true,” she nearly whines.
“It’s true! I stole it from Deku. His mom handmade dolls for all of us when we made it through our first year alive. He’s been looking for it for almost a year now. I think he knows I have it but he’s not bold enough to ask for it back. I’ll deny it if he does and you better not tell him.”
Ochako leans forward. “Who else did you take?”
Katsuki shrugs. “Just yours.”
“Oh.” A light dusting of pink colours her cheeks. “Tell me something else. Something else that I don’t know.”
Katsuki leans back as their brownie sundaes arrive. “I’m the reason we had to evacuate the dorms in the last month of first year.”
Ochako grins. “Who’d you try to fight in the dorms?”
“Ah, actually, I, uh . . . burnt some toast.”
She wrinkles her nose. “Just toast?”
“And muffins. And pancakes. And I may have set the eggs on fire by mistake. And maybe I tried to put out the fire with water but someone left a glass of cleaning spirits next to the kettle. Fucking Discount Pikachu.”
Ochako stares at him wide-eyed.
“What?”
“Nothing! I just never thought that you of all people would cause a kitchen disaster like that.”
Katsuki scowls at her. “Fuck off.”
“Aw, tired of me already? Yui took me to the park too, y’know.”
He glares at her when it registers that she’s teasing him.
“Tell me more,” Ochako says softly.
“I only started eating spicy food to spite Deku and now he likes that shit too.”
“Really?”
“Mhm.”
“Tell me more,” she says again.
And Katsuki would happily tell her everything there is to tell. Except for the tiny little detail that he really likes her.
The park is fun, but Katsuki figured that Yui simply took her on a walk. He pushes her on the swings, he spins the merry-go-round for her, he catches her at the bottom of the slide. She laughs and giggles and shrieks with childlike joy the entire time.
She’s exhausted and leaning on him for support by the time they return to the dorms at sunset, but she’s still smiling when they get to the doors.
“I had a really nice time today,” she murmurs through a yawn. “Thank you.”
He scoffs. “Next time you go on a date, make sure you have this much fun.”
“I doubt I’d have this much fun with anyone else,” she says. She lifts herself on tiptoes and kisses his cheek. “Good night, Katsuki.”
She heads inside and Katsuki sits out on the steps until Kirishima finds him there and drags him inside for a surprise dinner the class prepared while he was out.
“I ran into Shindo during my work study this week,” Ochako says as Katsuki deep fries karaage for her. Well, she doesn’t know it’s just for her. He’s making for the entire class, but it’s because he heard her mentioning to Shoto that she was craving it.
“Who’s that again?”
“Tall, loud, competitive from the provisional license exam. He goes to Ketsubutsu.”
“Oh, yeah. What about him?”
“Asked me out to dinner tonight.”
Katsuki tries not to react and to her credit, Ochako doesn’t say anything if she notices.
“I’m not sure if I should say yes, though.”
“Why not?” Katsuki asks. “Do you want to?”
“Kind of, but what if it’s a letdown? He’s cute and funny but he’s not. . .”
Katsuki wants to hear her say ‘he’s not you’ but he figures that’s wishful thinking. “It’s just one date, Cheeks. You can’t stay holed up in this kitchen forever.”
“Hey, I like the kitchen.”
“You don’t even cook.”
“Doesn’t mean I can’t like the kitchen.”
“Whatever, Cheeks.”
The kitchen is silent, save for the sizzle of the oil, for a moment.
“Do you think I should go?” Ochako asks.
Katsuki pretends to seem nonchalant as he shrugs before lowering the basket. The oil screams for a moment and Katsuki feels like screaming with it. When it settles and quiets, he glances at her waiting gaze. “Yeah. Tell me all about it after.”
It’s a joke, but Katsuki kind of wants to know how it goes. He wants to know if she enjoys the date or if he did it better. He hopes it’s nice, but that it’s nice in the way Yui was nice. He wants her to compare it to the date he took her on and wish she were with him instead of Shindo, as nice as he hoped Shindo is to her. It’s selfish and he should probably tell her not to go, but he’s afraid of what comes after that.
He stays up late after the class dinner, waiting for Ochako to come back. He studies a bit, does some homework, works on the incident report from his own work study. He’s scrolling through his phone when the door opens.
Ochako looks sad. There is no better word to describe it. Her bright eyes are dull and her smiling lips are small and expressionless. Her shoulders sag and the pretty black dress Mina put her in suddenly looks out of place on her.
“What did he do?”
Ochako looks up and glances at his books before she puts a smile on her face. “Did you wait up for me?”
Katsuki locks his phone and drops it on his first aid textbook. “What happened?”
“Nothing happened.” She shakes her head. “It was kind of disappointing, if I'm honest.”
Katsuki watches her walk over and he tosses his paperwork on the small table next to him. She sits almost immediately.
“He was so nice and he did all the right things. He offered me his arm and he pulled my chair out for me and he ordered good food and he listened to me talk for an hour at least but . . . nothing happened.”
Katsuki glances at Ochako’s dress and wrinkles his nose. It’s undeniably hot on her but it doesn’t suit her like it did before she left the dorms. Ochako is soft and gentle. She’s her strawberry dress with ruffles. She’s that slim fit carmine dress she wore to the third years’ hero ceremony in their first year that may not have had one of those sexy slits but was decorated with tiny little roses on her collarbones. She’s not Mina’s cute little short skirts and crop tops. She’s not Mina’s lucky black dress.
Katsuki throws his hoodie at her. “You look cold,” he lies.
She smiles and disappears into the pale pink fabric, her head popping out of the neckline as she gives him a gleeful smile. “Are you collecting Uravity merch? Who did you steal this handmade item from?”
“Shut up, my mom is expanding into hero merch and she decided we’re perfect prey. She made the test batch in my size.”
“I like it,” Ochako says, slapping her sweater paws around. The sleeves fly off her hands and she looks like an excited toddler drowning in the hoodie. She tucks her legs up, her feet disappearing into the hoodie as well. Katsuki thinks she looks like the cuddliest teddy bear he’s ever seen. “Maybe we can model our own things. Yaomomo and Kendo say that some heroes do a lot of modelling to boost their rankings.”
“I’m not modelling shit,” Katsuki says.
“Then we’ll have to model your stuff on your behalf. I bet Denki will rock your look.”
Katsuki doesn’t care much for what Denki will look like but he is curious about what Ochako will look like in a hoodie her size that has his costume icons on it.
“It’s because he’s blond too, isn’t it?”
“Maybe,” Ochako says with a grin. “How much is your mom gonna charge for these? I want a Dynamight hoodie. Maybe a Deku hoodie too. And Froppy.”
“I’ll ask,” Katsuki lies, because he’s going to call his mother the moment he goes to his room and tell her that he’s sending her a hoodie and he wants one of his designs in that size.
Ochako sighs and leans into the cushions behind her.
“Was it that bad?”
“No, I had a nice time. Good food and good company, but I could’ve just as well stayed for dinner with the class and gotten that. I accidentally said that out loud to him.”
“What’d he say?”
She shrugs, half her face briefly disappearing into the hoodie as her shoulders lift. “That he’s a little upset about it but maybe time can change my mind. I told him I wanted to go home after that.”
“His loss. You’re amazing.”
Katsuki picks up his phone again when Ochako distracts herself by playing with the strings of his hoodie.
“Katsuki.”
“Hm?”
“Show me what a real dinner date is like.”
His fingers freeze around his phone for a moment before he nods. “Okay.”
Katsuki waits for her outside the dorms, just to add to the atmosphere. She wears Mina’s dress again and this time, she wears it well. He tells himself that this is just a little joke and pick-me-up for her, something she can compare future dates to.
He takes her to the same restaurant Shindo took her to and orders for her. She’s surprised by his choices and he gets the feeling that as nice as the food that Shindo ordered was, it wasn’t something she was crazy about. This is.
He listens to her stories again, even the ones he’s part of. He doesn’t realise that he’s leaning his head into his hand until she copies him and smiles.
“Are you even listening to me?” she teases.
“I’m hanging on your every word, Cheeks. So, you threw Monoma into the stands and then what?”
Ochako relaunches into the tale of the fight he’d watched and he’s content to watch her shining eyes widen and narrow and sparkle as she talks.
They take a slow walk from the gate to the dorms and he pauses outside the doors again.
“Thank you for tonight,” she says. “I had a wonderful time.”
He nods. “Yeah. It was nice.”
“Good night, Katsuki.”
She kisses his cheek again and she’s gone. He thinks that the dress still looks like it belongs on her by the end of the night and she doesn’t look sad at all. There’s a slight bounce in her step and he allows himself a bit of pride in knowing that he’s the reason.
“Move,” Katsuki tells her.
Ochako stubbornly shakes her head. “You can cook around me.”
“Cheeks, I’m going to hit you with that cupboard door if you don’t move.”
It’s not a threat. If he opens that door, it will hit her on the head.
She shrugs. “Figure something out.”
Annoyed, Katsuki steps up to her and yanks her forward by her shirt. She would have fallen off the counter if he didn’t stand in front of her. He holds her steady as he opens the cupboard and grabs the spices he wants before closing the door and gently pushing her back.
He refuses to turn back and look at her because his face burns and he’s afraid he’s as red as he feels.
Ochako doesn’t say anything and he cooks the rest of dinner in silence.
Ochako doesn’t go on any other dates, but whenever she looks like she’s feeling down, Katsuki asks her if she wants to go out for the day. He reasons with himself that if one of her friends had noticed, they would’ve offered to help cheer her up too. He’s not being pushy or anything and he knows that if he ever is, Ochako will tell him exactly where to get off.
He gets her the Dynamight hoodie and makes her swear not to show it to anyone outside the class just yet. His mother will kill him if her launch on their graduation day doesn’t go as surprising as she plans. He also gets her a Froppy, Deku and Shoto hoodie for herself. She calls them her Dekusquad hoodies. Which leads to Mina and Denki hounding him for their own hoodies so they can show her their Bakusquad hoodies. He thinks it’s stupid but his mother apparently doesn’t, because the day after Mina calls her, an entire shipment arrives for Class 1-A filled with hoodies for all of them. Mitsuki warns them all to keep it a secret or she’ll make sure they never graduate. No one wants to test her.
Katsuki’s favourite hoodie is his pale pink Uravity hoodie. It smells like blueberries. That’s what he says, because if he admits to himself that he likes it because it smells like Ochako, that’s gonna open up a whole can of worms that he doesn’t think he’s ready for.
He doesn’t answer the knock at his door because Kirishima announces himself as he knocks, Deku never knocks, Ochako doesn’t come to his room and he’s not interested in anyone else’s company.
Of course, it’s Jiro. She pushes the door open and leans against it. “You need a talk.”
“I need you to get out of my room.”
“About Ochako,” Jiro clarifies. “The rest of our class may be dumb as a doorknob but I sure as hell am not.”
Katsuki glares at Jiro as she sits at his desk and spins the chair around to face him. “There’s nothing to talk about.”
“Kats, sweetheart, you literally made heart eyes at her over dinner today.”
“I did not!”
“And you keep doing boyfriend things for her.”
Katsuki’s mouth falls open. “Name one!”
To his horror, Jiro starts counting off on her fingers. “You buy her blueberries whenever she so much as mentions that we’re out, you cook whatever she wants for dinner, you let her sleep in your clothes, you gave her limited edition items your mom hasn’t even released yet, you let her into the kitchen when you’re cooking even though no one is allowed in the kitchen when you’re cooking, you take her out every time she’s down, you actually put your hoodie on her yourself whenever Mineta walks into the room, you never hold back when you spar with her, you once climbed a tree because she got a kite stuck in it, you —”
“Jesus, okay, I said one.”
Jiro tilts her head. “Katsuki, you’re only going to hurt yourself or both of you at this rate.”
“Well, what am I supposed to do?” Katsuki asks, frowning. “She went on shitty dates and she was upset that they weren’t as fun as she hoped because she went on shitty dates with people who don’t know what she likes.”
“Yeah, and then you took her out on the perfect date as friends, right?”
Katsuki scowls. “Your sarcasm is not appreciated here.”
“You really like her, sweetheart,” Jiro says softly. “Whatever you’re doing, it’s only gonna hurt in the end. Tell her you love her before someone else does.”
“Yeah, like who? No one outside this class even knows her well enough to get the chance to say it.”
“Kats . . . you’re not the only person in this building that loves Ochako. You’re just the only one she responds to. Don’t lose her because you’re afraid of losing her.”
And Jiro leaves him with that.
Well, fuck, he didn’t know he had competition.
He doesn’t do anything about Ochako for at least a week after Jiro visits him in his room. Honestly, if Ochako didn’t pop into the kitchen, he probably could’ve made it at least one week and one day.
As usual, she hops onto the counter after greeting him.
“Whatcha making?”
“Katsudon,” he tells her, glancing back as she hops up. “Deku asked.”
“Mm, sounds good. How was your work study week?”
Katsuki shrugs. “Same as always. Go on patrols, catch a petty thief, get attacked with paperwork. Yours?”
“Much of the same. I ran into Shindo again. He, uh, he wants to go out for lunch — maybe a picnic. Try again, y’know?”
Katsuki thinks of the way she got all dressed up for Shindo but spent the night sleeping in Katsuki’s hoodie, smiling brightly for the first time that entire day. He thinks about Jiro’s words, that he’s not the only person who loves her.
“Don’t go.”
Katsuki turns the stove off and leaves the pot to cook down before he puts the food into the fancy serving dishes Momo bought for the dorm. He turns around to face Ochako. “Don’t go out with him.”
Ochako tilts her head. “Why?”
“Because as nice as he makes it sound, he’s still the same person you went to dinner with. It’ll be the same as going out for lunch with Yui. You’ll have fun but it won’t be anything special.”
“What do you suggest I tell him?”
Katsuki shrugs. “Tell him you have plans.”
“I don’t like lying, Katsuki.”
“You won’t be. You have plans with me now.”
“He wants to go out on Saturday.”
“Then you have plans with me on Saturday.”
Ochako sighs. “Katsuki, I love the way you take me out to make me feel better but it’s not enough. I want to go on dates and hold someone’s hand and wear their clothes and kiss them whenever I feel like it and hear them tell me that they love me.”
Katsuki crosses the kitchen and stands in front of her. “Okay, so we have two out of five. I can do the other three too.”
Ochako stares at him for a moment. “What?”
Katsuki nods at the large orange and black t-shirt she’s wearing that he knows she nicked from his basket before he could iron it. “You’re wearing my clothes right now, Cheeks.”
“No, I mean . . . are you sure? You’re not just trying to prove that you can be a decent friend or — or you’re not just saying that to make me feel better?”
“Ochako,” he says her name carefully so she’ll pay attention to him, “I’ve had a crush on you since you threw me out of bounds in the second-year sports festival.”
“Oh.”
“And I have been in love with you for one year, two months and seventeen days. I love you so much that I’m afraid I’m going to fuck it up and lose any chance I might’ve had.”
“Oh.”
“See, that’s three out of five. I’m already better than everyone else.”
She giggles. “You’re an idiot.”
Katsuki holds his hands out in front of him and waits for Ochako to place hers in his. He gives her a grin. “That’s four.”
Ochako leans forward slightly.
“Nuh-uh, you can have the last one after you call that moron and tell him you have plans this Saturday and every day before and after.”
“Oh, do I? And what are those plans?”
Katsuki scoffs. “Not dating him, that’s for sure.”
Ochako smiles. “Oh, really? I had no idea.”
“I’ll show you a proper picnic date.”
“You better.” Ochako sniffs. “I thought you turned the stove off.”
“I did,” Katsuki says, frowning. He sniffs too. “Oven!”
“What about it?”
“I put a vegetable roast in there for Koda!”
Katsuki yanks the oven door open but before he can reach for the casserole dish, Ochako is pulling him away and shoving oven mitts into his hands. Oh, right. He needs those.
The smoke from the oven wafts upwards and Katsuki has just enough time to slam lids on all the pots and containers before the sprinklers turn on.
All through the building, he can hear complaints from his class but when he glances behind him, Ochako is giggling and jumping into the shallow water on the kitchen floor. She finds the sprinkler and stands directly in the stream of water, shaking her head and spraying water everywhere that the sprinklers don’t already hit.
Katsuki watches with a dazed smile. No wonder Yui and Shindo could never impress Ochako. He doubts anyone else could either, because while they’re all complaining about the sprinklers, Katsuki is letting Ochako drag him into the middle of the kitchen to get drenched and make an even bigger mess.
He might not be the only one in love with her, but he’s the only one that can make her laugh like this.
He catches her wrist and tugs her close before giving her a very quick, very chaste kiss.
“What was that for?” she asks, pushing her hair back and blinking under the water. “I thought I had to cancel with Shindo first.”
“He can wait,” Katsuki says.
“And that’s five out of five, I suppose. Congratulations, Katsuki, you’re boyfriend material.”
Katsuki scoffs. “Fuck off, Cheeks. I’m gonna marry you one day.”
“Oh, yeah?”
The sprinklers stop, but everything is still dripping water and it sounds like it’s a light drizzle outside.
“Oh, yeah. I have to warn you in advance, though. My monster of a mother is going to make you a custom wedding dress. Good luck with that.”
“Tell me more,” Ochako says, looping her arms over Katsuki’s shoulders.
“Obviously, Deku’s going to be your maid of honour. I can’t have him being my best man. He’ll embarrass me in front of everyone.”
“Bold of you to assume he won’t do that just because he’s known you since you were both in diapers.”
“That’s true.”
“Tell me more,” she says softly.
“Our dog gets to be the ring bearer.”
“We have a dog, now?”
“Yeah, he’s a real sweetheart and I’ll forever be bitter that he likes you more than he likes me.”
“What a pity,” she says with a laugh. “Tell me more.”
“Our kids are gonna kick Deku’s kids’ asses.”
“You mean you think you can handle more than one person with your genes?”
“Eh, your genes will balance them out. I’ll survive. Besides, there’s only gonna be two of them. I have two arms to hold two miscreants captive.”
“You’ve really put a lot of thought into this, haven’t you?”
“Mm, I’ve had a year and three months to think about this.”
“And seventeen days.”
Katsuki nods. “And seventeen days.”
“Tell me more,” Ochako whispers.
And Katsuki would happily tell her all about this household he plans to build with her if not for the unholy shriek Izuku lets out as he slips on the water and lands on his ass.
“You!” Izuku screeches, pointing at Katsuki. “You ruined my notebooks!”
Katsuki opens his mouth to argue, but then Izuku is pointing at Ochako.
“And you! It’s your fault!”
Izuku picks himself up and storms off, shouting as he slips again.
Ochako giggles and Katsuki kisses her forehead. She wraps her arms around him and sighs happily.
“I’m going to be so sick tomorrow.”
“That’s fine, I’ll just make soup for you again.”
“Sweet.”
(Katsuki ends up getting sick and promptly forbids Ochako from ever setting foot into the kitchen again when she tries to make soup for him. Kirishima asks him what he plans to do for dinner if Ochako isn’t allowed to cook. He says he will gladly be a househusband as long as Ochako never tries to feed him again.)