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A/N: This work is part of a series! It mentions an OC from a past part, so you might want to read back!
“Remember what we talked about.”
Katsuki rolled his eyes. “Fucker has it coming.”
“Babe-” Ochako had to keep herself from grinning as she watched Katsuki’s annoyance increase at the pet name. “-we-” She crawled toward him, situating herself in his lap. “-agreed. No acts of violence during our honeymoon.”
They’d finally ventured away from their little beach nest and back to the main resort to take advantage of the facilities. They enjoyed breakfast together before spending hours at the spa. A couple’s massage, a mineral soak, skin treatments, and two pedicures later, they were situated with tea and snacks.
“You know as well as I do that if Kagami told us about what he planned on doing, it wouldn’t have been as effective.” Ochako decided that she was willing to keep an open mind about the therapist.
“It was a bitch ass move.” Katsuki didn’t talk about that incident.
His agents warned media personnel that bringing it up in any capacity would end the interview and would ensure that Katsuki would never speak to them again. It had taken one time for him to make good on his threat.
The reporter had asked him how his relationship with Best Jeanist and Edgeshot had changed since the war, even everything that had happened. Surprisingly, Katsuki had yelled or raged. There wasn’t even a wisp of smoke. His lips tightened, he nodded, and then walked away.
His parents didn’t talk about it.
His friends and former classmates didn’t bring it up. Whenever they talked about UA, that major event was never mentioned. They passed over it as if it had never happened.
Ochako never mentioned it. She touched his chest as if the scar wasn’t there.
She agreed. “Yeah.”
Katsuki never thought they needed to talk about it.
“But I think it helped, ya know?” she stated, rubbing her nose against his cheek.
He clicked his tongue, refusing to give the devil his due. “Just don’t say that to the hag when we get back.”
She pressed a kiss to his forehead. “I know,” she mumbled, kissing his furrowed eyebrows before moving to the planes of his jaw.
“You know-” Katsuki pulled her closer to him, humming at the attention. “-we could just go back to our room,” he murmured as he leaned into her kisses. “We can always just say we enjoyed that assholes sessions and found enlightenment or whatever the fuck.”
Ochako clumsily nipped at the side of his neck as she dissolved into giggles. “I doubt Kagami would lie to your mom for us.”
“I wouldn’t.”
Ochako sprang back, head popping up. She planted her hands on Katsuki’s shoulders as she watched Kagami walk into the room.
“Don’t mind me,” he insisted, walking in front of the table. He tucked his arms behind his back. “I’ll only be a moment.”
“How is this fucker a bigger cockblock than Dunce Face and Scarface put together?” Katsuki growled, tightening his hold on his wife.
“I apologize,” Kagami bowed with a knowing smirk. “I understand that this probably isn’t what you had in mind for your honeymoon, but I hope you find the insights you gain to be useful.”
“Do you always attempt to traumatize newlyweds with their worst memories or are we just fucking special?”
Ochako closed her eyes, sighing as she shook her head.
“I simply show people what they need to see,” Kagami answered, unrattled.
“Your quirk is very unique,” Ochako complimented, trying to salvage this conversation somehow.
“Can’t wait to see what fucked up shit you show us today,” Katsuki added dryly.
Ochako closed her eyes for a moment, inhaling as her lips tightened. There was no point in saying anything.
“No quirk today,” Kagami grinned. “I find for certain people it works better when I have the element of surprise. I have no doubt that if I attempted to reach into your subconscious, you’d resist, which would make it harder for me.”
Katsuki grunted.
“Today, for the two of you, is about rest and reflection, so I would like you all to continue that journey,” he clarified, folding his hands in front of him. “Follow me, please.” With a nod, he turned and walked toward the door.
Katsuki sighed, rolling his eyes as Ochako took his hand so they could follow.
“I would like the two of you to spend an hour inside a sensory deprivation tank,” Kagami announced as he led them into the room, pointing to a large pod looking thing in the middle of the room. He lifted the top, showing the water inside.
“Um,” Ochako started, pointing to the tank, “I can make myself float.”
“Yes,” Kagami chuckled. “This exercise is about reflecting on your journey. You two are married now-”
“No shit. It’s our honeymoon you’re ruining,” Katsuki grumbled.
“But how did it start?” he probed. “Were you friends, rivals, or invisible to each other? I think it’s easy for couples to get lost in love and sex, but who are you when we strip everything away? How can you be alone with this person?”
“That’s a fucking oxymoron.”
“Probably.”
This man was worse than Eijirou in deflecting Katsuki’s snarky comments.
“But I hope the time you spend inside will offer you some insight,” Kagami nodded. “So whenever you’re ready, take off your clothes and hop in.”
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Contrary to popular belief and the many times he had vocalized it, Katsuki did not like being able to hear himself think.
Think was fine.
Too many thoughts were scary.
If he wasn’t careful, his thoughts could send him spiraling down the slide of trauma and what-ifs. This was the main reason he preferred to stay busy. He didn’t want time to think more than he needed to.
This chamber was his worst nightmare.
He didn’t want to think about the beginning of his relationship with Ochako. If he had to think about it, then he’d have to think about UA. And thinking about UA meant thinking about the fact that they’d almost lost each other.
The logical part of his brain knew that there was no point in thinking about what could have been. It was a waste of time because they were both here, together, and happy, but-
His brain was forced to think about facts from the past.
Recovery.
The memories from the ICU still lingered in the back of his mind. The droning of machines, the sterile smell, and listening to people talk as if he weren’t there anymore.
Had she gone through the same thing?
Katsuki blew out a slow breath as he looked at the metal ceiling above before looking to his left to see her floating peacefully next to him.
As much as he hated to admit it, he hadn’t technically known her name during that first Sports Festival. Katsuki knew the names of the people in class. From the moment he got the rank list from the entrance exam, he crossed them off with people in his homeroom.
Putting names to faces and quirks was a completely different story.
She’d pushed him to the limit without realizing it. When he’d told her during their third date, she’d just laughed and waved him off. Ochako genuinely didn’t realize how close she’d come to taking him out.
Katsuki isn’t sure how they didn’t become friends after that.
Or how they hadn’t bonded over their chest injuries.
To be fair, he hadn’t seen her at all during her recovery which now haunts him.
The whole class had grown closer after everything, but had they been friends?
They’d developed some sort of comrodory in the field that could possibly be defined as friendship. They would talk. He quickly learned her coffee order, and she would always keep extra packs of hot sauce at her desk for him. The chatted and did things like friends, but Katsuki found it hard to say they were just friends before they started dating because it always felt like more.
He glided his hand toward her, letting his fingers brush down her arm.
Ochako hummed quietly looking over at him, eyebrows raised to silently ask him if he was okay.
Katsuki nodded as he took her hand in his.
It would be cliche to call her his best friend. Not to mention it felt that particular title didn’t feel strong enough.
They were more than lovers.
The title of wife had been granted by the law. He loved how it sounded, but still didn’t feel like a word worthy of what they were.
Calling her his soulmate felt like a cliche, but-
She was his other half.
The softness to his hard edges.
He snorted, unable to help the smile on his face.
“What?” Ochako asked. Her voice echoed loudly in the chamber as she floated a little closer next to him. “What’s so funny?”
“Nothing, just-” His voice sounded so strange in the nothingness. “It’s stupid.”
“I’m sure it isn’t.”
He would never admit any of this in the light of day, so now seemed like the perfect place to talk about it. “You think it’s weird we were never friends?”
“We were friends.”
“No, we weren’t.”
“Yes, we were!”
“Fucking when?”
“High school!”
If he were her friend, he would have been by her bedside during recovery, or at least they would have done rehab together. “Trauma bonding doesn’t count.”
She rolled her eyes. “That aside. We were friends, or at least I thought we were.”
“No-” He huffed. “I mean, even when we weren’t dating and shit and were just-” For the life of him, Katsuki couldn’t find the right words for it. “-You were always more, even at UA.”
“You called me Maru,” she giggled, clutching his hand and kissing his knuckles before holding his hand against her chest.
He hadn’t realized then that he’d given her the sweetest nickname.
“And said my guts and roundness were respectable.”
“The highest fucking compliment I’ve ever fucking given.” He should have known then how much she meant to him.
Ochako clutched his hand, drifting a little closer to him. “If it makes you feel better,” she started softly, “I should have known it was you forever ago, and now we have forever.”
They did.
“Do you think this thing is soundproof?” she grinned, eyes glowing devilish as she ran a hand down his chest.
How could it have been anyone else who could have come close? “Who gives a fuck if it isn’t?”
(To be Continued...)