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Deep scarlet petals drifted onto creamed-colored table cloth. Clasping her hands together, Ochako listened to the echo of champagne glasses throughout the door. She eyed the rose printed on the small piece of parchment marking her place at the table.
A thousand needle pricks dug into Ochako’s side at the sight of red flowers. The sort of maroon so dark that blood could seep into the roses without the stains even showing. Clutching onto her glass, Ochako let the prickle of champagne bubbles distract her from the phantom twisting sensation in her throat.
Wearing her brightest smile, Ochako pretended like roots had not left permanent grooves into her ribcage. Like roses in the vase in front of her didn’t leave her feeling like vines were constricting around her ankles and dragging her into the dirt. She had to act like the memory of barbs wasn’t piercing through her mind and drawing blood.
After all, it was not her day. It was Shouto’s; it was Izuku’s.
Who was Ochako to dictate the decor simply because it reminded her of the sharp cinching in her chest that persisted for months? Izuku and Shouto had never even found out about her diagnosis anyhow – and Ochako preferred to keep it that way.
And Ochako suspected that her dress was not helping to limit her discomfort. The mermaid tail hung snuggly around her thighs, leaving her practically hobbling every time she took up. The corset style ribbons looping through the back of the cherry blossom pink gown bound Ochako’s curves into a sleek hourglass figure. The wiring of the bodice pierced her ribs though it paled in comparison to the ache from thorns that once looped around her lungs.
Though with how the dress had been on sale, Ochako could hardly resist purchasing it. Besides, the rosy color complimented the flush that returned to Ochako’s cheeks that had gone lifeless in the weeks she had struggled to keep even water down. Plus, vindication swelled in Ochako’s chest over how she could finally wear the sort of tight outfit that would have left her suffocating in the previous chapter of her life.
Across the table, Izuku leaned against Shouto’s shoulder. His emerald eyes glittered fondly as he craned his neck toward Shouto and smiled fondly. Fingernails etching crescents into the surface of Ochako’s palms, she wondered if she’d just to look at Izuku the way he looked as Shouto. Like he’d set the sun in the sky, leaving a thousand beds of roses basking in his sunlight.
Staring at the gold bands wrapped around Izuku and Shouto’s fingers, Ochako swallowed down the lump in her throat and slapped on a plastered smile. Come hell or highwater Izuku wouldn’t get the faintest hint of Ochako’s past condition.
He’d never forgive himself. Shoveling a forkful of cake into her mouth, Ochako shook her head bitterly. It hadn’t been his fault that his bright smiles and the way he moved without even thinking had left a garden blooming in her chest.
The batter and layers of icing tasted sour to Ochako, every sweet bite of cake overshadowed by the memory of the tartness of petals and blood. Still, at least the scalpels that had wedged their way into her ribcage and extracted the constant pressure building beneath her skin.
She no longer had tears staining the corners of her eyes as she longed to wrap her fingers around Izuku’s. Or to have his hand cup her cheek while he blushed and fumbled through telling her she was cute.
No, all those hopeless impossible wishes had withered away on the hospital floor, replacing bloodstained roses with an empty chest cavity.
Still, she found herself biting her lip bloody as Izuku planted a kiss on Shouto’s forehead. Because with the procedure behind her… Ochako knew that those sorts of feelings and small romantic gestures would never blossom between her and anyone.
A pink arm swung around Ochako’s shoulders. Ruffling Ochako’s hair, Mina giggled. “Ready for your speech, best woman?”
Setting down her champagne glass, Ochako scratched herself on the back of her head. “Are you sure that Bakugou shouldn’t be the one giving a speech? I mean he and Izuku go way back.”
“They do… but need I remind you of his Sports Festival speech?” Mina sighed.
“His speech wasn’t that bad,” Izuku said.
Shouto furrowed his brows. “What was wrong with his speech? It seemed fine to me. It was concise. And Bakugou was right – he did win.”
Mina shook her head. “I am not risking my wonderful wedding planning being set ablaze because Blasty decides to set the decorations on fire, got it?”
Izuku stuttered in the way Ochako used to swoon over. “Um… I think Kacchan might set the flower arrangements on fire over not getting to hold a speech.”
Mina raised her hands in the air in defeat. “Fine. Don’t come crying to me though if the wedding cake starts melting.”
“As if self-proclaimed chef Bakugou would harm perfectly good food,” Sero called out from the neighboring round table.
Waving Sero away, Mina rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah. But we are starting off with a speech from someone who’s not going to get us in hot water with the venue.”
As Mina gestured toward Ochako for her to get onto the stage, she wanted to ground to swallow whole. Holding her head high, Ochako made a beeline for the microphone. She could do this. Healing from a broken heart and giving one little speech wasn’t the end of the world. Besides, with her hanahaki cured it wasn’t like she had any right to make a big deal out of a speech.
“Hi, everyone! Uravity – I mean Uraraka Ochako here. Guess there’s no need for the hero formalities right now since we’re all friends and such. Time really flies, huh? Five years ago at graduation I wouldn’t have expected to be standing here giving a speech at Izuku and Shouto’s wedding.”
Because she had selfishly and silently hoped that Izuku would notice her blushes and stolen glances – and perhaps even feel the same. But love was a fickle thing; it was a wildflower taking root wherever it pleased.
“I thought they’d be pining after each other and dancing around in circles for ages.”
If only they had. Maybe the roses would have withered without surgeons’ intervention. No, Izuku and Shouto were good people; they deserved to be happy with each other. Ochako just wished she’d gotten to be happy too.
With a deep breath, sending the last stray petal fluttering in her esophagus, Ochako clutched the microphone tighter.
“But I suppose that anyone who’s seen their first sports festival knew that they were meant to be. Like how Izuku cheered Shouto on through every step of the fight even though they were opponents. Or all the little things throughout high school… like Shouto holding Izuku’s hand with his left when it was cold outside. I know it sounds cheesy but Izuku and Shouto are perfect for each other. In every way.”
Unlike Ochako and Izuku.
“So I hope you have many happy years together. Plus ultra!”
And thanks to having the flowers entangled in her lungs removed, she’d be around for all of it.
The hollowness in Ochako’s rib cage deepened as clapping erupted throughout the hall. At least Ochako could still watch love flourish from the sidelines. With a whirlwind romance out of the cards for her, maybe standing on a stage beneath a balloon arch and watching newlyweds wrapping their arms around each other was the next best thing.
Head pounding with a hangover, Ochako leaned against the plastic chair of her hero agency’s clinic. So what? Maybe she’d gone a little overboard with the alcohol – but who could say no to an open bar? Why was the universe trying to punish her for indulging in a little bit… okay fine, an above average amount of champagne? But was drowning her sorrows on top of the line alcohol at a wedding really so wrong?
Scrawling across the clipboard, Ochako massaged her forehead and decided it was on her to schedule an appointment the day after the wedding. But heaven knows that the doctor would chew her out for asking to push back a weekly check-up yet again.
A door creaked open followed by the sound of footsteps so soft Ochako probably wouldn’t have heard them if not for the years of hero work under her belt. A light voice called out fluorescent lights.
Standing up slowly, Ochako clutched the clipboard to her chest and flipped her head in the direction of the nurse standing in the doorway. Baby blue scrubs shone beneath fluorescent lights. Wisps of blonde hair escaped a set of buns that looked like they had been thrown together effortlessly. A bright smile framed by sharp canines flashed in Ochako’s direction, leaving her nerves buzzing with electricity.
As the nurse led Himiko down the hallway, her clogs clicked against the tiles. Swallowing hard, Ochako tried to fixate on points on the ceiling where the paint was starting to flake – anything to distract herself from how yet another person was in the know about her condition. That she was just as fragile as the civilians she would help pull out the rubble. How could anyone have faith that Ochako was a hero worth relying on knowing how many thorns had pierced the walls of her lungs.
A blood pressure cuff fastened around Ochako’s upper arm and the nurse let out an impressed whistle. “You’re pretty toned.”
Laughing nervously, Ochako scratched herself behind the ear with her free arm. “Yeah, I work out a lot.”
“I guess I wouldn't expect anything less from a pro.”
The nurse smiled but Ochako sensed her stomach sinking in on itself with the weight of expectations. Ochako’s gaze drifted toward the red stethoscope draped around the nurse’s neck and took note of a single Uravity charm buried beneath a sea of miscellaneous Hello Kitty accessories. Her eyes grazed over the nurse’s name tag. Himiko.
Trying to keep her breathing steady, Ochako stared down at the heels from the wedding she hadn’t gotten around to taking off yet. As Ochako attempted to ignore the way Himiko’s gold gaze lingered on her, she failed to chase away the thought that she’d disappointed yet another person by failing to be invulnerable.
As Himiko paged through Ochako’s forms on the clipboard, Ochako expected to see Himiko’s lip curl with pity. Instead her expression remained as warm as a summer sunrise. “110/68. That’s good.”
With the way Himiko’s bright gaze made Ochako’s chest feel lighter, Ochako put on a weak smile. Maybe it was okay to take off the mask she wore around her colleagues, her friends and especially in front of the camera. Because from the looks of it Himiko didn’t seem to see Ochako as less of a person for her condition. For one she hadn’t deemed Ochako unfit to go workout at the gym due to being “too weak” even though she’d recovered from surgery several weeks ago.
“Thanks for the context. I’d have no clue if the numbers were good or bad otherwise,” Ochako said.
“Yeah. That makes sense,” Himiko giggled. And God her laugh was pretty. It reminded Ochako of sparrows chirping at dawn. “Guess not everyone’s always been fixated on blood pressure since they’ve been a little kid.”
“You’ve always wanted to be a nurse?”
“Not exactly. I just think blood is really pretty.”
“Oh.” Ochako’s eyes widened with surprise as she eyed the syringes on the counter. Sure, the hippocratic oath was a thing… but with the way Himiko’s expression lit up at the idea of blood Ochako was more than a little wary.
Himiko waved her arms in front of herself in a panic. “Ah, sorry. That came off weird, right?”
“No! Not at all!”
Grinning slyly, Himiko plopped herself on a stool in the examination room. “Come on, you don’t need to lie to me, cutie.”
“Okay, fine it is a little… interesting.”
“Pfft, that’s one way to call it. Though honestly what about my quirk isn’t interesting?”
Lighting up with realization, Ochako kind of wanted to internally slap herself for being so inadvertently rude. “Ah, so it’s a quirk thing!”
“Yeah, I need blood to use it.” Himiko typed on the computer for a good minute, inputting Ochako’s blood pressure and other information before looking over her shoulder. “Don’t be shy asking about it. I know you’re curious.”
Heat rushed to Ochako’s face. “Is it that obvious?”
“Yeah. You read like an open book, cutie.” Taking a deep breath, Himiko gave jazz hands. “I can transform into other people if I drink their blood.”
“That’s really cool!” Ochako couldn’t help but think how having a sidekick at her agency with that kind of quirk would give her agency a leg up on stealth missions.
“More like really creepy.”
“But it is really cool! It’d be so useful for stealth missions. And if you transform do you also take on the person’s blood type? That would be so useful for blood transfusions.” Ochako fiddled with her thumbs. “I’m sure there are more applications, but I’m no Izuku. He probably could write several notebook pages about your quirk.”
Himiko blinked back at her. “Who’s Izuku?”
“A friend,” Ochako choked out.
“Just a friend?” As Ochako slowly nodded her head and gestured at the point in her chest where roses had once blossomed, Himiko's shoulders slumped over. She pressed a hand on top of one of Ochako’s hands, and Ochako clung to the warmth like a lifeline.
“I’m sorry,” Himiko said.
“It’s okay. It’s not like anyone can choose who they do or don’t fall in love with. Besides, thanks to the surgery at least I won’t need to go through that pain again.”
Himiko’s mouth opened as if she wanted to interject but clamped her mouth shut just as quickly. As Himiko turned away to face the syringes perched on the counter, Ochako focused on picking at the skin around her nail beds. On paper, people painted love as something worth fighting for against all odds – that any price was worth those waves of sweltering emotion. But Ochako could still vividly remember her heartstrings constructing around her own lungs… and well the constant hollowness sure beat the feeling of suffocation.
As Himiko picked up a syringe and approached Ochako to draw blood. While Ochako gawked at the needle, images flashed through her mind of bloodstained rose petals falling onto kitchen tiles. Himiko’s eyes widened as Ochako jerked away from her on instinct.
“Sorry, just a little squeamish about blood ever since… you know.”
“You don’t need to apologize for anything.” Smiling softly, Himiko rummaged through a drawer and pulled out a stress ball. “Cling onto this if it helps.”
Accepting the stress ball from Himiko, Ochako dug her nails into the styrofoam. Her eyes shut as the needle pierced her skin, but the warmth of Himiko’s hand against her arm grounded her. Even if Ochako wasn’t ready for the rest of the world to know about the bloodstained roses that had spilled from her lips… at least here beside her newest nurse Ochako could finally just exist.
A tight spandex bodysuit clung to Ochako’s curves. The outfit’s deep red hue shone beneath the fluorescent light. Originally, she had bought the bodysuit in that color to hide any blood she might have coughed up while working out. But now it just made her chest ache with the reminder of how roses had taken root in her ribcage.
Walking up to the rack of weights, Ochako exchanged the pair she was holding for ones that were five kilograms heavier. As Ochako lifted the weights up and down in a repetitive motion, a familiar voice cooed across the room.
Decked out in a weathered pink t-shirt and black gym shorts, Himiko waved at Ochako. “Hey, there!”
“Hey,” Ochako said. “You go to this gym too?”
“Mhm. I thought the gym would be a great place to run into cute girls.” Himiko winked. “And I wasn’t mistaken.”
Looking around the room, Ochako tried to spot whatever cute girl Himiko was talking about. Maybe the one running on the treadmill with a ponytail of silky hair bobbing up and down each step she jogged.
But some foolish wishful part of Ochako, thought that Himiko’s gaze was lingering on the way the fabric of the bodysuit clung to Ochako’s thighs. Which was impossible. Because if Ochako had learned anything from her last hopeless romance, it was that there were so many people out there more worth falling for than her.
From the corner of her eye, Ochako could’ve sworn she spotted Himiko staring at her biceps. Focus. Ochako fixated on the hum of the treadmills lining the gym walls. Her head grew light as she lifted the weights. Every tendon in her arms tugged sharply. But she had to push past that little bit of pain. Otherwise, when was she ever going to be able to build her strength back?
Suddenly, the weights shifted out from beneath her fingertips. She just barely caught the weights as they started to slip out of her sweaty grasp.
“Don’t overexert yourself, cutie.”
Gasping for air, Ochako steadied her footing as well as tried to conceal how her knees were buckling under the weight.
“I’m fine. I know my limits.”
Rolling her eyes, Himiko pointed to herself. “Take it from a healthcare professional. If you overdo it and get hurt, it’s going to take even longer for you to fully recover and get back to saving people at full strength.”
With an aggrieved sigh, Ochako set the weights back down on the rack and raised her hands in defeat. “Fine, you win.”
“Yippee!” Himiko clapped her hands in defeat. As Himiko did a little twirl, Ochako followed how Himiko’s gaze landed on a coffee cup sticking out of a trashcan in a corner of the room. “Want to go grab a coffee? Hydrate, don’t diedrate.”
“Where did you even get that phrase from?”
“The internet.”
Ochako let out a chuckle. “That adds up. But isn’t caffeine dehydrating?”
“I guess it is. But coffee does technically still have water in it so I’m happy to turn a blind eye.”
“And I suppose I am too as long as I’m getting coffee with you.”
Wiping the beads of sweat off her neck, Himiko grinned back at Ochako. A wide open free smile. Ochako’s heart skipped a beat at the sight and she went pale over the electricity suddenly crackling through her nerves.
Because she couldn’t fall in love again.
And even if she could, she refused to become entangled in the thorns of unrequited affection again.
No, her racing heartbeat had to be all in her head.
Slinging her gym bag over her shoulder, Ochako shot up abruptly. “Actually, I got to go. No, time for coffee.”
As she started to hurry out of the gym, Ochako could sense the gaze drilling into her back. And despite her best attempts to ignore the visions in her head, she could picture Himiko longingly staring after her even though Ochako knew better than to think that someone wanted her.
Clutching her wrists, Ochako swallowed hard as she stepped through the doorway of the clinic. Adrenaline pumped through her veins as she made a beeline for the desk, looking back and forth to make sure she didn’t cross paths with a certain nurse.
Ochako couldn’t risk getting caught up in Himiko’s sunshine smile. Because she couldn’t afford undoing the surgery. She wasn’t supposed to fall in love again. She refused to postpone her rescue hero work longer than need be. No one deserved to remain trapped beneath rubble all due to Ochako being unable to lift it thanks to her unruly heart.
Breathing heavily as if thorns had woven their way into her lungs tissue all over again, Ochako accepted the clipboard from the front desk. Relief pooled off her hair as an unfamiliar nurse with pale hair and mouse ears appeared to lead her down the hallway. No blonde hair or gold eyes in sight.
As the nurse dropped Ochako off in the exam room, Ochako found herself tapping her nails against her knee. All that was left to do was to exit the clinic without crossing paths with Himiko. Easy peasy. A surefire way to not become ensnared by Himiko’s pretty sing song laughter.
But every ounce of relief drained away once the door creaked open a few minutes later. A woman with mismatched scrubs stepped in – a top that was deep scarlet and pants the color of the sky. The mismatched outfit was like a sign that she had learned to prioritize doing the things she loved over what other people thought of her. A large brown paper grocery bag hung by her side as Himiko flashed Ochako a wide smile.
“There’s something I wanted to tell you.”
“Oh?”
Ochako inhaled deeply, clenching her fists. But despite her urge to squeeze her eyes shut she stared back at Himiko dead on. This was it. Himiko was going to break the painful truth to Ochako. There was no way Himiko could like Ochako back. Not when she’d seen Ochako at her low point, recovering from infected lungs. The exact opposite of the polished hero Uravity was on camera.
Picturing bloodstained petals drifting onto the tiles of the exam room, Ochako swallowed hard and held her chin high. No matter how painful the onslaught of heartache would be, Ochako knew that she could get through it. That she could survive it. Because she had done it before.
“I know this is probably going to be terrifying because of what you went through. But I think we have some sort of spark so I wanted to at least put it out there.”
Ochako furrowed her brows in confusion. “Wait, what?”
“I like you, Ochako. Before you no one’s ever smiled at me the way you do even after finding out what my quirk is.” Reaching into the grocery bag, Himiko pulled out a bouquet and held it out toward Ochako. “So I wanted to ask you out.”
Stunned, Ochako blinked back at her. Rich scarlet petals shone in Himiko’s arms. Flowers that had once spelled out death for Ochako but now were so full of life next to Himiko’s beaming expression .
“Roses?”
Himiko nodded. “Because you probably associate them with being sick. I wanted to give roses a happy meaning again.”
As Himiko held the bouquet, Ochako hesitantly accepted the flowers. A sign of mutual attraction. The opposite of unrequited. Even the faint scent of blood on the petals didn’t make Ochako’s stomach turn the way she would have expected it to – since the faint iron aroma reminded her of Himiko.
Maybe the surgery hadn’t made her incapable of falling in love after all. Maybe it was possible for Ochako to be wanted.
Clearing her throat, Ochako clutched the bouquet close to her chest. “Want to get coffee sometime?’
Himiko’s bright fang-toothed smile flashed beneath the clinic lights. “I’d like that a lot.”
