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HEY! DID YOU READ THE OTHER PARTS? THIS IS PART 6! GO BACK IF YOU DIDN'T!! <3
“You’re okay. You’re okay.”
They were probably going to die.
“We’re fine,” Ochako whimpered as she struggled to lift Katsuki’s massive frame. He groaned as her hand strayed too close to the arrow. “You’re okay,” she repeated, voice cracking as tears started to blur her vision.
“Get out of here,” he rasped, eyes fluttering open for a second before rolling back down.
She couldn’t.
“There,” Katsuki started with a groan as he reached for the arrow in his shoulder.
“No, no,” she told him gently, pulling his hand away as he dropped back into her legs, “you never remove the thing impaling you. It's probably keeping you from bleeding out.”
“Tch.” His hand dropped back into the grass as his eyes opened again. “I was fucking shot at, not impaled.”
“I apologize for my mistake.” Ochako wrapped her arms around his chest as she pressed her chest into his back for leverage. “But if you can snark off, then you can walk.” There was no way she could carry him.
“We gotta- gotta-” He hissed as his shoulder flexed, agitating the injury.
“We need to take care of you.” Ochako wasn’t sure what the hell they were going to do. Anyone who could help her properly remove the arrow from him had already gone ahead. She wasn’t sure if Mina and Eijirou were still waiting for her at the edge of camp or if they had started their journey to the next camp. “Then we will worry about whatever else.”
Katsuki turned his head and upper body to look behind them, throwing Ochako off balance. “The-”
“I took care of him,” Ochako informed him eyes floating up to the archer floating up toward the tops of the trees.
“Drop the shitbag.”
Right. “Oh.” She quickly pressed her fingers together before adjusting her hold on Katsuki. “Okay, let’s go.” Ochako decided it was best to ignore the sound of a body smacking into the ground. She definitely wasn’t going to acknowledge that she’d heard a garbled last gasp of air.
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Ochako could only thank whatever gods were listening that she’d not only been able to find a cave but somehow managed to get Katsuki there. “Okay, alright, um,” she huffed as Katsuki dropped down, slumping against one of the rocks, “first, we are going to get that arrow out of you, and then-”
She was going to scream.
Cry.
And then she’d scream at the top of her lungs again because she was in over her head.
“Find some food, and then we will get out here. You-” She wiped her hands on her skirt and smoothed her hair back. “-don’t move.”
“Where the fuck am I gonna go?” he slurred, head lolling back.
“Just don’t run off and do something stupid again,” she challenged as she walked toward the cave entrance.
“This isn’t my first time being fucking shot.”
Ochako didn’t know what she was supposed to say to that, so she decided to settle for getting water and medicinal plants to tend to his wounds. “Tell me you understand me,” she spoke, looking at the little red bird that had just landed on the tree above the river.
The bird ruffled its feathers before chirping.
“Excellent.” She was talking to a bird. “I am talking to a bird.”
The bird squawked.
“No offense.” Ochako wasn’t sure if the animal in question was offended or just doing what birds did. “I’m sorry,” she apologized, holding her hands up in apology. She quickly pocketed a handful of plants to disinfect and help with the pain before she placed her skirt in her teeth. Ochako ripped a few strips, wetting them in the river before returning to the cave. “You better not be dead.”
“Fuck you.”
Ochako had to physically bite her tongue to keep herself from begging him to follow through once he healed. “You were shot with an arrow,” she reminded him.
Katsuki huffed, looking at the arrow sticking out of his skin. “No shit.” He reached an arm up, grasping the arrow.
“Don-”
“Fuck!” Katsuki hissed, yanking the arrow from his shoulder.
“Are you kidding me!?” Ochako shouted, rushing over to him as she covered the wound with one of the ripped pieces of her skirt. “What did I tell you? You don’t remove the object you’re being impaled with. Especially arrows!” She pushed down on his shoulder, adding more pressure when he winced. “You probably injured yourself more.”
“Tch.”
“Shut up!” she snapped. “I swear to the gods if you bleed out and die, I will resurrect you and kill you myself!”
Katsuki snorted, looking at the wound. “How many times do I have to tell you I’ve been fucking shot before?”
“Until it makes sense,” she huffed, slowly peeling back the pieces of fabric to inspect the wound.
It was still bleeding, but it wasn’t gushing.
He’d live. “If you have experience being impaled-”
“Shot.”
Ochako closed her eyes and tried to summon some shred of patience before she choked him. “And-” She pressed a little harder on the wound, feeling satisfied with his grimace. “-somehow you haven’t killed yourself removing arrows.”
“I’m not fucking dying.”
She narrowed her eyes as she focused on his injury.
Katsuki watched her for a moment.
Ochako struggled to focus under the weight of his gaze.
“Especially now that you finally fucking remember me,” he murmured.
She lifted her head. Her hands fumbled with the rags as she met his eyes. “Why didn’t you tell me?” she whispered, scooting closer to him.
Katsuki shrugged, “Would you have believed me?”
No. “I thought it was some weird nightmare.” Her parents told her that it was nothing. Some fairy tale that had gotten in her head. That the burns had always been because she’d accidentally touched a hot pot, but Ochako would have remembered doing that. She’d been helping her mother in the kitchen since she could walk. She knew not to touch a hot pot with her bare hands.
“I tried to come back for you,” he whispered, reaching up to stroke the side of her face. “You wou-”
“I wouldn’t let you,” she finished as she leaned into the weight of his hand. “It was real.”
He hummed, letting his eyes drift closed. “I thought about you every day.” His thumb stroked the apple of her cheeks as he pulled her close so her forehead was flush against his. “Wondered if you were okay.”
“You protected me.”
His face pinched into a disbelieving scowl. “You protected me.” Katsuki blindly reached for one of her hands, rubbing the glossy skin of her held burns.
Ochako let her eyes close, enjoying the quiet of the forest mixing with his steady breaths.
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“Where the hell have you been?”
Ochako stuck out her tongue as she made her way back into the cave.
“And what the fuck happened to your clothes?”
She looked down at the light pink dress that was clearly too busy for her. “I stole them,” Ochako informed him casually as she dropped a sack in front of him.
Katsuki raised his eyebrows.
“This isn’t the first thing I’ve stolen!”
His lips wobbled as he fought against the laughter bubbling in his chest. His shoulder was still tender and laughter wouldn’t be the best medicine right now.
“We needed things, and there was a village some ways down the river, so I got some supplies.” She learned early that there wasn’t always food at home, so if a piece of fruit or a slice of bread accidentally fell into her hand at the market, Ochako wouldn’t deny the blessing. “I got you some clothes too.” She thew the pants and shirt at him. “They might be a little too big but-”
“Ain’t nothing wrong with my clothes.” He never wore a shirt, and his cloak hadn’t been hit when he’d been attacked.
“Except for the fact they make us stick out like a sore thumb.” Her eyes went to his necklaces and the marking on his shoulder specifically. “Look, I know you can fight, but if we get ambushed again, then we are outnumbered.” They were good as dead. “We need to blend in until we get to the next campsite.”
“Who died and made you in charge?”
Ochako narrowed her eyes as she pulled out some food and medicine from the bag. “You almost did.”
“I did no-”
“You did,” she interrupted him as she shoved a medicine bottle in his hand. “You lost a lot of blood, you’ve been sleeping for almost the last day, you spiked a fever-”
“I run hot-”
“Katsuki, I swear-”
He cackled.
“Drink the medicine!” she hissed, moving the bottle to his lips. “I told Mina and Eijirou we would catch up with them soon, so do as I say!”
Katsuki smirked, smug and satisfied. “Okay then.” He pulled the cork from the bottle with a wince before draining the contents.
“Good.”
“We should probably leave tonight, though,” he commented, looking out at the fading sunlight. “Less likely to run into someone.”
Ochako sighed.
He wasn’t wrong.
“Or we should just hide in plain sight. Travel on the roads during the day?” She was almost people were looking for them. They’d killed three people. Even though they had been acting in self-defense, Ochako knew that their actions wouldn’t be without consequences. “Whatever we do,” she plopped down next to him, “we need a cover story. I’m your wife.”
He raised an eyebrow. “No shit.”
“You know what I mean?” Ochako didn’t know what she meant. The only thing she could focus on was how hot it was in that stupid dress she stole. “And you haven’t even kissed me.”
“Do you want me to kiss you?”
At the moment, Ochako sort of wished that he had just put her out of her misery when they’d first met because she could not handle that knowing tone in his voice. “No.”
His grin widened.
“But we should practice in case no one believes us.” Ochako couldn’t remember the last time she wanted something so much. She spent a lifetime wanting so many things.
Money.
Food.
Sweets.
Rich, heavy fabrics for fine clothes and bedding.
A real mattress stuffed with feathers and not straw.
But her desire for Katsuki burned in the pit of her stomach, creating a sense of hunger she’d yet to experience.
“And what the fuck do we need a cover story for?” Katsuki bit out, ruining the moment.
Ochako huffed.
To be Continued…