Chapter Text
“Everyone, we’re running out of milk and eggs. We don’t have enough for breakfast tomorrow,” Iida announced from the dorm kitchen to the rest of the class, who were studying in the common area. “Someone must get Aizawa’s permission to leave and go grocery shopping.”
“Oh, I’ll do it!” Mina jumped up from the couch, her hand raised high and a mischievous smile across her face, “I wanna go shopping!”
“As grateful for your willingness as I am, I’m afraid you can’t go,” Iida brought his hand up to adjust his glasses, “the last time you went shopping you bought yourself clothes and brought back a whole roast chicken and three packs of rainbow sprinkles and called it 'improv dinner.’”
Mina cheekily slumped back into her seat, pouting, “I needed new clothes and besides, it was enough to feed everyone, so..”
“Only because Bakugou jumped in and actually prepared something edible from the previous leftovers,” Sero reminded.
“In that case,” Uraraka rose from her seat before Iida’s and Mina’s bickering got out of hand, “I’ll go!”
The both of them looked at her, surprised at her suggestion. Iida nodded in agreement and gave Mina a stern look, to which she stuck out her tongue in response.
“Are you sure you’re gonna be okay by yourself?” Izuku looked up from his notebook, where he was trying to solve a difficult maths problem Bakugou had miraculously agreed to help him with, “It is getting kinda dark outside.”
“Don’t worry,” she flexed her arm and smiled, “I’m strong so I’ll be fine! I’ll be back before you notice I'm gone.”
Izuku smiled at her response and turned back to his notebook to continue working. As he turned back, he was met with Bakugou’s wrath, “Oi, I didn’t agree to help you just for you to slack off! I’m not going to explain this since you apparently don’t need my expertise anymore.”
“No, Kacchan, wait! I’m sorry please help me out I really need to know how to solve this for the test on Monday!”
Not batting an eye at the chaos she left behind, Uraraka went up to her room. She got ready for the trip and put on a pink sweater and black sweatpants, smiling to herself once she realized it resembled her hero costume. She put her hair up and grabbed her favorite tote bag, heading out of her room.
By the time she reached downstairs, the commotion had been resolved. Well, if you can call Aizawa’s capture scarf wrapped around a third of the class as ‘resolved.’
“Hello, Aizawa-sensei!” Uraraka went up to him in the middle of him scolding Bakugou and Midoriya for breaking out into another fight, “I was wondering if you could grant me permission to leave the dorms so I could go grocery shopping for tomorrow’s breakfast?”
“Yeah, go ahead,” he briefly averted his attention from the troublesome duo, “but be back by nine or I’m heading out to drag you back myself.”
She quickly checked the time, seeing that it was 8 pm, which meant she had roughly an hour for her outing. “Yes, sir!” she saluted and put on her sneakers, and waved to her restrained classmates before heading out the front door into the pleasant evening air.
Her walk to the store was ordinary, just like she liked them to be. There weren’t many people out at this hour, except for the last wave of workers rushing home to their families and those who were enjoying the evening drinking at bars. It was peaceful, all things considered.
The League of Villains had been laying low recently too, so there was basically no threat of them coming after her. Even if they dared to mess with her, the Gunhead Martial Arts she had been practicing would be enough to take a member out.
She greeted the shop clerk, an elderly woman, and went to the fridges to grab the ingredients for tomorrow’s omelets. She scanned the price tags, reaching for the cheapest products on the shelf out of instinct. At the cash register, the old lady rang her up and wished her a pleasant evening, for which Uraraka thanked her as she put her purchase in the bag and politely bowed before heading out. On her way back, she started humming a tune. This Saturday had been full of fun, so her mood was as good as it could get. It felt like nothing could ruin it.
She was enjoying her stroll back when rustling from a nearby alley caught her attention. Something in her gut urged her to check the source of the sound. It sounded like something heavy being thrown on the ground, which put her on edge. She slid the tote bag off her shoulder and slumped it against a wall away from the main street. She crouched down and quietly made her way deeper into the alleyway, the sound of cars on the road growing fainter. The bright city lights disappeared behind the tall buildings surrounding her, leaving only a streak of light coming from behind her to illuminate her path.
She proceeded with caution, ready to counterstrike anyone coming her way. She peered around a corner and jumped out, hands held out in preparation for combat. No one was there, except for a street rat scavenging for food in a knocked-over trash can.
“Phew, it's nothing serious.”
“What's nothing serious?”
Uraraka got startled by the voice behind her and jumped forward without thinking. She turned around and raised her fists in front of her face in a defensive stance. Standing in front of her was a familiar girl. Her blonde hair was thrown up into two messy buns and she had a school uniform on that was stained in some parts with a weird brownish collar, which Uraraka could only guess was dried blood. Around her neck was her blood-sucking device, while a belt with knives rested on her hips.
“Sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you like that!” Toga exclaimed and raised her hands to show she wasn’t armed.
“What do you want from me?” Uraraka asked, scared out of her mind. She had left her phone in her tote bag that was slumped against a dirty wall back the way she came, together with anything she could make into a weapon, like her keys. She had gone up against Toga once before, but she had Tsu back then to help her out. If it’s just her versus Toga it would certainly be tough but she could manage, after all, she’s done this before.
Between panicking and trying not to show it on her face, Uraraka noticed that Toga had gone silent and skittish. In Uraraka’s mind, this could only mean Toga was excited about getting blood.
“Well,” Toga began, but couldn’t hold eye contact with Uraraka so occasionally glanced down to the floor while her cheeks grew pink, “I was wondering how you were doing since the whole camp incident! So-”
“Are you out for more of my blood?” Uraraka asked, angry and tightening her fists, which Toga took note of.
“No! Nothing like that. Okay, I wouldn’t be lying if I said yes but I have a different goal in mind, actually.” Toga responded slyly and took a step towards Uraraka.
Uraraka took the step forward as a declaration of war and decided that she wasn’t going down easy. She ran at Toga to be the first to strike, her fingers stretched out and quirk activated. Toga didn’t dodge to the side, but instead caught Uraraka’s hand in hers, their fingers intertwined. Toga was squeezing Uraraka’s hand, not tight enough to hurt, but tight enough to prevent Uraraka’s fingertips from bending down and all five of their touchpads brushing against her skin. Toga stared at Uraraka with something akin to glee, a wide smile spreading across her face, “I didn’t know you were so eager to hold hands with me! We’re moving a bit fast, don'tcha think?”
“...What?”
Uraraka stood in place, unsure how to go about a situation like this. No one had ever countered her attack in such a way before, much less toyed with her emotions in such an embarrassingly vulnerable way. Toga was right there holding her hand, and yet the distance from her fingertips to her hand felt like miles.
Uraraka was about to charge her other hand at Toga, when she swiftly moved without warning, slamming Uraraka’s back against the wall of a dirty abandoned building. She exclaimed as the air in her lungs had been knocked out of her, the pain in her lower back erupting all at once.
“Ochako-chan, you’re so pretty,” Toga looked at Uraraka with those bloodthirsty eyes of hers. Except this time, they seemed more tamed, more under control. They looked almost genuine, but Uraraka shoved that thought out of the way real fast. She regained her composure and inspected the situation.
She was pinned to the wall by both of her wrists, her legs immobilized by Toga’s knee filling the space between them, her body pressed closer to hers than she would ever allow. Toga’s eyes were focused on her neck, her fangs showing slightly as she licked her lips.
“You really are so pretty, Ochako-chan,” Toga repeated, her voice serious this time, her eyes looking up to meet Uraraka’s, whose movement from Toga’s lips to her eyes Uraraka hoped went unnoticed. Even if Toga saw it, she said nothing about it, staring at the speechless hero-in-training pinned to the wall.
“Don’t call me by my name.” Uraraka managed to get out between her muddled thoughts and Toga’s proximity.
“Only my friends get to call me that. Not some villain ,” the last word from her lips was tinted in venom, her brows furrowing and lips forming into a growl as it rolled off her tongue. Toga continued looking at Uraraka and her shoulders slumped, her eyes glossing over. Uraraka noticed how the word had made her expression shift for a split second as if that label had been forced upon her. Before Uraraka could speak again, Toga broke the brief silence between them, “Aww if the issue is that you don’t know me well enough we can easily solve it! Why don’t we go on a date?”
Toga said that with such a bright smile and cheerful attitude that Uraraka had forgotten about the sad expression moments before and instead was left baffled. Why would Toga ever want to go on a date with her? Especially knowing that it’s a hero student? When she herself is a villain?? Uraraka’s cheeks flushed and before she could even begin to comprehend the last sentence that escaped Toga’s lips, she striked again.
“Y’know, my place is free tomorrow. Well, not a place of my own. Or my parents. Since I’m kind of a fugitive right now. It’s an abandoned bar not too far from UA! It’s pretty cozy once you get used to the smell and awfully dim lights. Electricity bills around this time are so expensive! We can’t afford to have all the lights on, Kurogiri says, otherwise, our budget will be blown through in, like, five seconds. Granted, Shiggy and the others will be there as they are homeless and members of The League! But don’t mind them and if they dare to interfere, I will make sure to cut them up real nice!”
Uraraka barely retained any information from Toga’s excited outburst. She knows she just said some useful info and that she should be listening right now, but her thoughts were traveling faster than the speed of sound, and her heart was about to burst out of her chest. She had never been asked out on a date before. But being asked out on a date by a blood-sucking serial killer was a bit much for the first time. Well, it was memorable at least, as she had hoped her first confession to be.
“...I’ll have Kurogiri make us some ramen. His ramen is literally the best in the whole wide world, you have to try it! So, how does it sound? Wanna go on a date with me, Ochako-chan?” Toga continued, her enthusiasm seeping out of her into the surrounding atmosphere and latching on to Uraraka.
“Um, sure, I- I’d love to.” She managed to get out before her face was engulfed in a blush that was so bright red that it made the permanent pink on her cheeks disappear. She wouldn’t mind getting quality ramen actually, it’s been a while since she’s been to a restaurant. Hold on - this is not the right time to be thinking about this! That is a whole villain base that she’s been invited to! Is she really going to go in there all by herself? Having Toga by her side will be reassuring because she would probably fend off the rest from laying hands on her since she holds favor towards her. And did she just call Shigaraki “Shiggy”? Uraraka was caught very off guard and her mind blanked.
“It’s settled then!” Toga exclaimed and gave Uraraka a soft kiss on the cheek and pressed a piece of paper into her hand, while Uraraka stood pressed against the wall speechless. After the small peck on the cheek, Toga happily bounced off into a dark alleyway, waving her last goodbyes, “See you at the bar tomorrow at 6 pm for dinner!”
Uraraka watched as Toga disappeared into the shadows, the sound of her knives jingling by her hip getting fainter.
After a moment of confusion, Uraraka snapped out of her daze, baffled about what had just happened. She was afraid, yet strangely intrigued. She just agreed to have dinner in a villain base with a girl, who also happens to be a villain. It was too late to back out now and she might as well go through with it, maybe get some intel on The League and aid in their arrest. She sighed and brought her hand to rest on the cheek Toga had just kissed, careful to not press all five fingers down, but still feeling the full warmth of her lips as if they were still present. Or was it the warmth of her blush?
She couldn’t quite tell.
“How did things come to this?” she murmured to herself, clenching her sweatshirt right above her heart, which felt like it was about to beat right out of her chest.
She picked herself off the wall and let her head fall back, looking at the setting colors of the sky, which were painted in shades of orange, pink, and dark blue. Hold on - dark blue?
Shit. She thought to herself before she quickly ran to pick up her bag, which luckily enough had managed not to get stolen, and continued running back to the dorms. It was starting to get dark, and if she didn’t get back before the sun had set, Aizawa was going to ban her from leaving the UA premises for possibly forever. And what would she even say when asked why she was late?
“Oh yeah I picked up the groceries but then when I was coming home I heard a sound from a very sketchy alley and of course, I decided to investigate it and only found a rat eating trash, but then Toga, one of the villains with the League, pinned me to a wall, asked me out to dinner at their villain hideout, and then gave me a kiss on the cheek before running away and cheering from happiness, and most of all, I wasn’t able to do anything because I was too flustered to even formulate a word, yet still somehow managed to agree to it, and that maybe just a little bit I found the kiss cute.”
She shook her head, knowing she most absolutely cannot tell this to Aizawa, because who in their right mind wouldn’t flip out if they heard their student wanting to go on one of the most dangerous dates possible? Uraraka also decided to keep that last part about thinking the kiss was cute tucked away into a corner of her mind she won’t be visiting for a while.
She slammed the dorm door open and flopped on the hardwood floors, gasping for air and undeniably causing a scene, but she was far too emotionally exhausted and out of breath to lift her forehead off the floor.
“Uraraka!” Shoji’s worried voice echoed through the building, “what happened? Why were you running? Is someone after you?” With the last question, he got up and extended a few eyes and ears to see if anyone was approaching.
“What’s going on?” Aizawa asked and more students turned in her direction.
Uraraka finally picked herself off the floor and stood up, facing everyone, unaware of the red mark on her forehead left from laying down, “I’m fine! I just wanted to see if I could make it to the further store in time for curfew because they have a sale going on this weekend, but halfway I realized I won’t make it and rushed to the one closer by.” She explained. It’s not like she was lying. She had read online that there was a sale happening at the shop further from the dorms and she was grateful that information made it back to her mind just when she needed it.
“Seriously,” Aizawa sighed, “you don’t have to worry about the expenses. UA will cover them.”
“Wait, even my clothes shopping?” Mina chimed in.
Aizawa turned towards Mina, “No, only food-related ones that apply to the well-being of the whole class. It’s not like UA’s budget is infinite. And Uraraka,” he sternly turned back to Uraraka quietly making her escape to the kitchen to put away the produce, “you were exactly 1.28 seconds late but I’ll forgive you just this once since it’s the first time your late.”
“What?!” Denki exclaimed, “You punished me immediately when I was late!”
“You’re a different case.”
“What is that supposed to mean? Don’t tell me she is one of your favorites.”
“No comment.”
“Wha- hey!”
Uraraka let the noise spread out as she closed the refrigerator door with a sigh. She glanced back and everything went back to how it usually was. She took the elevator up to her floor and unlocked her door, slumping against it once it had closed behind her.
“What am I going to do…”
She rested her arms on her knees and tucked her face in them, her heart still racing with something that wasn’t quite excitement, but not adrenaline exactly. When she thought back to how close Toga’s face had been to hers and how her lips had looked so pretty, her face flushed a bright red again.
If she had told her past self from one hour ago that she has a date scheduled with Toga of all people, she’s sure she’d have laughed and called her a lunatic. Which she probably is, now that she thinks about it. Because why the hell had she agreed to it? And why did she keep it a secret from everyone? It’s not even that bad of a thing, the heroes can use this to their advantage to get information on the villains. But the way Toga’s eyebrows fell when she had been called a villain told Uraraka that she couldn’t possibly ask heroes to intervene. Who knows how they would treat her?
Toga is a villain, for sure, with horrible motives, and it’s not even guaranteed that Uraraka will make it back from the date, heck, even through it. She’ll be right at the heart of The League. The idea is just blasphemous. Despite every functioning cell in her body telling her not to go, she felt like she had to. Almost like she had an obligation to. She had to figure out what Toga was scheming because she had said she is reaching for a different goal this time around than just sucking blood.
Uraraka pulled her chair back and sat down at her desk, getting a pen, a notepad and the crumpled paper Toga had shoved into her palm, ready to make a plan. She wants to know what the League is up to. Toga has an unknown goal she’s striving to achieve.
Uraraka was going to figure out what Toga is planning before Toga figures out what she is.