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Although Spirit Halloween was not ideally the sort of place Ochako and Katsuki wanted to meet the love of their life, it was where it all began.

 

For nineteen-year-old Ochako Uraraka, the reason she went to Spirit Halloween that day was to find a Halloween costume that did not cost an arm and a leg to afford. She had a precise budget that she was set on following through with. She did not work all those late-night hours at the park as an art instructor, facilitating art activities for the local children in the community over the summer for nothing! The theme of this year's group Halloween costumes is "What is old is now gold."

 

Ochako's best friends all had their costumes already picked out. Mina Ashido, always the ever-graceful and constantly spontaneous dancer, would be going as a 1960s Go-Go dancer. Kyouka Jirou, the shy but talented musician, would be going as a 1970s disco dancer. For the past few years, Mina and Kyouka have always seemed to have methodically planned out costumes that paired well together and suited each other's respective tastes. Mina did not mind showing off her toned legs by wearing short skirts, while Kyouka preferred to have long sleeves on her body if possible. Tsuyu Asui, the friendly frog-loving and frog-talking friend, would be going as a samurai frog from one of those obscure foreign comics that nobody knew about unless you were over one hundred years old and grew up reading those comics more than eighty years ago. Every year, she was something frog-related, and this year was no exception. Still, her creativity never ceased to amaze everyone, Ochako included. Lastly, there was Momo Yaoyorozu, the kind-hearted heiress who had more wits than she had money, and that was saying something because the Yaoyorzu surname came with endless wealth and power beyond most people's comprehension. However, Momo was more than her surname; she was humbler than most and always had something pleasant to say about others. Momo could afford to be anything and everything, but she would go as a knight for this year's Halloween. Even though she was basically a princess, she wanted to be a dashing knight in shining armor. It was surprising that she did not decide to have a white horse to ride on, but she did ride on top of an autonomous robot cart that had a horse's head attached to its front, and on its back was an attached tail. It even neighed as it moved about.

 

With unique costumes already selected, Ochako could only hope whatever she chose would not be criticized by her companions because she loved her best friends and her opinions truly mattered to her. When she entered Spirit Halloween, she was greeted by hastily painted black walls and catchy Halloween pop songs playing.

 

"Calling all the monsters. Calling all the monsters. Calling all the, calling all the, calling all the monsters."

 

The song intro blasted all through the building, and Ochako could not resist doing a little dance, a slight movement of the hips, waist, arms, and legs. The last time Ochako had heard that particular song's intro was when she was in middle school, and that was only six years ago.

 

I feel so old now, she thought to herself, frowning because her middle school years seemed to be forever ago when in reality, it was more than half a decade ago.

 

At her local Spirit Halloween, the children's costumes were always displayed at the front, along with the backyard animatronics, plus the latest costumes related to the current pop culture hits. The further she went into the store, the more options were presented to her. She scrunched her nose and frowned once more at the display stand where she found the pimp and hustler costumes. According to Mina, being a pimp isn't just about wearing specific clothes, but it's all about the lifestyle and mindset. Mina could be quite bold with her words.

 

Since anime has become mainstream, she could go as Naruto Uzumaki or Tanjiro Kamado, but she'd rather wear those one-piece character suits instead. But, she doubted a Pikachu onesie would fit the theme. Going as Pikachu was still way better than going as a sexy cavewoman, that was for sure!

 

When she spotted the plague doctor costumes, she did consider going as one, but it seemed too morbid. Besides, her friend group preferred to keep things light-hearted. Maybe for another year, she could be a plague doctor because she did like the quality of the costume sets available for it.

 

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of rolling her eyes at the many risque women's Halloween costumes, which always seemed to be sexier than their male counterparts, she found something that could work. There was a display stand with an illustration on top of a brunette woman from an ancient civilization wearing a gold headpiece on her head, and she had an olive branch in her hand. Below her were Halloween costumes for ancient civilizations' gods & goddesses, plus emperors and empresses.

 

Do I want to be a sun goddess, or do I want to be the last empress? She could not decide between the two, so she decided to bend down and go through the costumes' sizing options, hoping there would be at least one plus-sized version of each costume on the display hooks. Unfortunately, there was no plus-size version for either the sun goddess or the last empress costumes. Just as she stood up and walked from the display, she bumped into the strong and solid chest of someone.

 

"Watch it, Round Face!"

 

She looked up to find herself eye to eye with a scowling young man who appeared to be around her age. His red eyes met her brown eyes. Up close, Ochako could silently appreciate just how handsome he was with his spikey ash blonde hair, sharp & chiseled jawline, triangular eyes, refined nose, and high cheekbones. If only he did not look at her like she had just told him she insulted his great-grandmother and stole all of her groceries, running off with bags full of prune juice.

 

"I'm sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going," Ochako apologized, bowing down.

 

The first thing Katsuki Bakugou noticed about the young woman he bumped into was just how round she was. Not only was her face round, but so was her hair and body. Her hairstyle was rounded to suit her face shape, and it worked because her rosy pink chubby cheeks seemed to bulge whenever the front parts of her hair on the sides bounced up and down. He was never one to be low enough to become a degenerate pervert, but he was not blind.

 

Cute, he thought to himself, because she reminded him of Strawberry Shortcake with her blush pink cardigan, white dress with a strawberry pattern and ruffled hem, pastel green stockings, red strawberry leg warmers, and chocolate brown flats.

 

His face softened, and so did the tone of his voice. “Whatever, just don’t let it happen again, Pink Cheeks.”

 

“Pink Cheeks?”

 

Pointing at her cheeks, he rolled his eyes as if he were telling her the most obvious thing in the world.

 

“They’re pink, aren’t they?”

 

“I guess they are.”

 

Noticing the lack of a costume in her hands, he asked, “Why don’t you have a costume?”

 

Gesturing to the display stand, she answered, “They didn’t carry anything in my size.”

 

“So, you’re not going to go as an empress or a goddess?”

 

She nodded her head. “No, Sir.”

 

“Damn it, just how old do you think I am? I’m nineteen for crying out loud!”

 

Her brown eyes, which reminded him of the finest chocolates in the world, widened after hearing his age.

 

“You’re the same age as me!”

 

“If that’s the case, then don’t treat me like I’m some old coot.”

 

“My apologies!” She waved her hands in the air defensively. “I did not mean for that.”

 

Taking a deep breath, he allowed himself a minute to prepare himself for what he was going to say to her. Either his words result in a good ending or a bad ending; the outcome all depends on her.

 

“Since you don’t have a costume and you’re the same age as me, you’re going to have to pick out both of our costumes.”

 

Tilting her head in confusion, she asked, “Huh? Why?”

 

“Because, if you can’t wear something because it’s not in your size, then that means it’s not worth my time,” he explained as if it were the apparent thing in the world.

 

“What if I have bad taste in Halloween costumes?”

 

He argued, “You can’t have bad taste if you can sing and dance along to the entirety of Calling All the Monsters.”

 

“Oh!” 

 

Her face began to redden at the realization that he had caught her dancing at the store and that he had seen the entirety of her makeshift music video moment.

 

“Is that a yes or a no?”

 

“Um, I suppose it’d be nice to have an extra set of opinions around…So, yes, let’s find Halloween costumes for both of us to wear!”

 

For the remainder of their time there, the two of them explored the store thrice before coming to a final conclusion as to what to be for Halloween. Even though Katsuki had told Ochako to pick out both of their costumes, she only picked out his. Luckily, Katsuki was secretly picking out something for her. In the end, Katsuki picked out a Katniss Everdeen costume for Ochako, and Ochako picked out a Peeta Mellark costume for Katsuki.

 

The two of them got into fits of laughter when they revealed the costume they got for the other person.

 

“Katniss Everdeen, really?” Ochako raised an eyebrow before pointing to the extremely superimposed photo of Jennifer Lawrence on the cover of the costume. “We look nothing alike.”

 

“I could say the same thing,” Katsuki smirked, pointing to the extremely superimposed photo of Josh Hutcherson on the cover of the costume.

 

Ochako shrugged her shoulders and, with a sheepish smile, she admitted, “I had a bit of a crush on him when I was younger…Remember the Whistle meme of him that happened not too long ago? I was all for it!”

 

Scoffing, he said, “Remember? My good-for-nothing roommates, Deku and Denki, had that damn photo of him in that damn Whistle video printed a bazillion times and plastered them all over campus!”

 

She argued, “Hey, I wouldn’t mind seeing that face every day on campus! He’s a short king with a lethal face card. Actually, Yuuei University had the Josh Hutcherson incident!”

 

“Yeah, that was them! Because of them, all of UAU knows who Josh Hutcherson was.”

 

“Wait! You go to UAU?”

 

“Duh! Where else would I go?”

 

Ochako shrugged her shoulders once more. “I don’t know…Many of the community colleges here aren’t so bad.”

 

“Yeah, I know, but none of them offer actinobiology.”

 

“What’s that?”

 

“It’s the study of the effects of radiation on living things,” he explained.

 

“Oh, wow! I didn’t know such a major like that existed! I’m majoring in food safety, which is not even a quarter as cool as what you’re studying.”

 

“Yeah, sure. But we do need people like you with degrees focused on ensuring the damn safety of food throughout the production and distribution process…Food poisoning has become a recent problem at UAU.”

 

“I know!” She nodded her head in agreement before pointing out, “My department is actively trying to eliminate these cases, especially amongst the students who live on campus and rely on the dining halls for their daily nutrition.”

 

“Makes me grateful that my old man and the old hag bother to send me off to campus with containers full of food every time I visit.”

 

“Lucky you!” Gesturing to the checkout counters, she added, “Come on! Let’s pay for our costumes and continue the conversation once we’re done.”

 

Despite multiple attempts to pay for her own costume, Katsuki bought both of their costumes, which resulted in incessant teasing by the cashier by the name of Nejire, as written on her name tag. Feeling like something had to be done to show her gratitude towards him, she offered to treat him to frozen yogurt at the nearby frozen yogurt shop, which he accepted to have with her.

 

Before they parted ways, they exchanged Instagrams, and Ochako was quick to like all of his posts and stories like the madwoman she was. Great thing, Mina Ashido and Denki Kaminari weren’t there because those two would most definitely tease the living daylights out of Ochako and Katsuki, respectively.  

 

Perhaps date and destiny were feeling funny because a few days after their encounter at Spirit Halloween, the two of them began running into one another inside and outside of campus. Turns out, Ochako’s best friend, Mina Ashido, is childhood friends with Eijirou Kirishima, who is one of Katsuki’s closest friends. Mina and Eijirou grew up together, but they didn’t reconnect until university, where they happened to share a bunch of their general education requirement classes together. Of course, this resulted in the friend group consisting of young men and the friend group consisting of young women spending time together and getting to know one another.

 

This year’s Halloween was the Halloween where things changed for both friend groups, but that was another story at another place set to be told for another day.

 

Looking back, Ochako was glad she never went as a goddess or an empress because the matching Katniss and Peeta costume that she and Katsuki wore was a huge hit. It was a mere coincidence that they chose characters from the same fandom who happened to be a canon couple, but it all worked out for the best because they ended up winning third place for best couples’ costume, even though they weren’t a couple at all. It was not on purpose that their characters were a couple, but perhaps it was meant to be.

 

Looking back, Katsuki was grateful that he had noticed Ochako from the moment she entered Spirit Halloween. She had come only two minutes before him. When he entered the store, he was welcomed by the sight of her dancing and singing to a Disney Channel song from his childhood, and surprisingly, he was not annoyed by what he saw. He should've found it to be childish, but he didn’t. Only damned extras disliked Calling All the Monsters, and Round Faced Pink Cheeks was not one of them.

 

Ochako would have to wait a few years for his confession, but truth be told, he was interested in Ochako romantically the first time he saw her. He never believed in the notion of love at first sight, which his parents always claimed happened to them, but maybe the old married couple was on to something.

 

Fun fact, Ochako went as Strawberry Shortcake when she was in second grade, and for Ochako and Katsuki’s second Halloween together, they went as Strawberry Shortcake and Huckleberry Pie. That particular Halloween was one full of comedic moments, but perhaps it would be best if it were told by Eijirou and Mina instead, as that Halloween was all about them.

 

However, this is Katsuki and Ochako’s story, and of course, there’s a happily ever after because there always is. But we won’t get into that just yet. Still, it is safe to say that Halloween is one holiday that both of them hold dear to their hearts, and Spirit Halloween will always be the first place they go for all things Halloween-related.

 

The End.