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The thing about rehabilitating a villain who is also a teenage girl is that sometimes, the rehabilitation comes in the form of party games and non alcoholic cocktails. Sometimes it’s supervised visits to the 3A dorms and sitting in a circle, surrounded by kids who were your enemies only about 750 days ago.
This is something both Ochako Uraraka and Himiko Toga learn as they sit next to each other, the rough denim of Ochako’s jeans brushing against Himiko’s bare knee.
The other girls had really taken to Himiko. Not at first, no, at first there wasn’t a person in that class who wasn’t suspicious of her, but soon enough she had been adopted in.
Out of them all, Mina liked her the best. She loved Himiko’s high-energy approach to things; she loved that Himiko was so willing to try different styles and enjoyed dressing up.
Nowadays, every time Himiko visited the dorms on the aforementioned supervised visits, her first stop, after being welcomed by Ochako at the door, would be Mina’s dorm to get changed.
Tonight she was dressed in one of Mina’s dresses. A light blue number that had more fabric in the skirt than everything in Ochako’s closet combined, and a high sleeveless turtleneck.
She looked pretty. Then again, Ochako couldn’t remember a time when Himiko /didn’t/ look pretty. The other girl was like a dream come to life, and she would’ve sworn that every time Himiko visited, she got prettier. If that were even possible.
“So, everyone knows the rules, right?” Tooru asked from the other side of the circle, clasping her hands.
“To truth and dare?” Katsuki scoffed, “Yeah, obviously.”
“Be nice!” She exclaimed with a huff, “Don’t make me come over there, Bakugo.”
“Oh, you wanna go Invisible Girl?” Katsuki asked, though it was clear to everyone present that it was an empty threat.
“Be nice, Kacchan,” Izuku said anyway, placing a hand on Katsuki’s knee.
Ochako watched as the explosive energy drained out of Katsuki at the contact, and she sighed internally, her eyes flickering over to the pale, scarred knee sitting next to her.
She wondered how Himiko would react if she reached over and put her hand on her knee. She wondered if Himiko would giggle in that cute way she does, or if she would blush and hold Ochako’s hand back.
A part of her mind, one she didn’t particularly like, reminded her of the all too real possibility that Himiko might push her off. That if Ochako crossed that line, Himiko might
be put off rather than meet her halfway, and the hair on her arms stood on end.
Logically, she knew that wouldn’t happen. She knew that Himiko liked her, after everything they had been through together. Ochako knew. It didn’t stop the insecurities from piling, though. She cleared her throat and pulled her knee away, putting a fraction of space between them.
“Let’s start?” Ochako asked the room, hoping her voice didn’t give away her turbulent emotions.
A chorus of agreement came from the circle, and Ochako turned her eyes to Himiko, who was laser-focused on the sudden space between their knees.
“H-Himiko chan?” Ochako called, swallowing hard when those magnetised yellow eyes met hers. Thin blonde eyebrows ruffled in confusion.
“Hm?” She asked, her eyes flickering between their knees and Ochako’s face.
“Are you ready to play?” Ochako asked again, trying her hardest not to blush at how close Himiko was.
“Oh… yeah!” Himiko exclaimed after a moment. “What are we playing?!”
“Truth or dare, weird girl. Keep up!” Katsuki yelled from the other side, grumbling at the way the other girls all glared at him.
Himiko tilted her head to the side, “How do we play that?” She asked, frowning slightly as she tried to place the game amongst the few times she had been allowed to play with the other kids at her elementary school.
Ochako’s chest constricted at the realisation that Himiko didn’t know because she had never gotten the chance to play. She nodded, sinking one sharpened fingernail into her palm before explaining the rules as best she could.
Himiko’s smile stretched wide enough to split her face in two once Ochako was done.
“Sounds fun!” She exclaimed, grabbing Ochako’s hand and squeezing it tight. “So who starts?”
A brief argument broke out at the how of the game before the group settled on spinning a bottle.
Himiko watched, her excitement mounting as turn after turn passed. Dares were thrown, secrets revealed, and she watched as someone stripped to their boxers and went running outside in the snow. She watched as Bakugo confessed to his stack of Shoujo manga hidden under the bed.
On and on the bottle spun until finally it landed beside her. The puckered end, to be specific, and to be even more specific, it landed on Ochako Uraraka.
Himiko shrieked, excitement bubbling over when she realised it was Tsuyu who was on the other end and had to ask Ochako the question.
Ochako swallowed hard, silently pleading with her best friend to go easy on her.
The dreaded question arrived, and Tsuyu asked, “Truth or dare, ochako-chan?”
Ochako looked around the room. There was no good option. Some were looking between her and Izuku like they were going to fall apart if she didn’t pick truth. Some were rubbing their hands together like a dare was the answer to everything.
She swallowed again and answered, “Dare! I’m no coward.”
Tsuyu and Mina wore matching smirks that immediately had Ochako regretting her decision.
“I dare you,” Tsuyu began, her grin growing as she spoke, “to kiss the person you have a crush on.”
The chaos that followed was immediate, as the circle devolved into squealing and bets being placed on who she would kiss. All around Ochako, names flew, people pointing out everyone from Izuku to Mina. Someone to her left suggested Katsuki, and was immediately met with a familiar red shoe smacking them square in the chest.
Ochako paid attention to none of it. She couldn’t. Not when she could feel Himiko’s eyes on her.
Himiko was squarely focused on Ochako. Body twisted to face the other girl as she gazed up at her rigid, almost frozen posture. She could see how hard Ochako was blushing, the red disappearing up into the roots of her hair and down past her collar. Himiko counted it as Ochako tapped her fingers against her thighs restlessly.
She forced herself to hold back, not to reach out and settle her nerves. The thing is, Himiko wanted to know something. She had been curious about something for a while now. Ever since the war, ever since everything between them had changed forever, Himiko had been curious about what it would take for Ochako to move first.
For as long as she had known Ochako, she had been the one to initiate things. Whether it was their fights or pushing Ochako to be honest about her feelings, even down to when Himiko would visit the dorms and she would have to pick their activity for the day. Himiko always made the first move. She wanted to know if Ochako would.
If Ochako even wanted to.
So she waited, eyes half lidded and leaning on her arm, she waited and watched to see if anything would change.
Ochako turned her head to face Himiko, slowly, tentatively, like she was scared something would go wrong if she moved too fast.
“H-hey, Himiko-chan,” Ochako managed to force out.
Himiko giggled at her stuttered greeting. “Hi, Ochako-chan,” she replied.
Ochako’s breath caught in her throat at the sound of Himiko’s laugh, her mouth suddenly drier than a desert. Something glinted at the corner of Himiko’s mouth, and Ochako found herself distracted by the sharp end of a fang peeking out, nestled between Himiko’s pink lips.
She swallowed hard.
“This game is fun,” Himiko said, interrupting Ochako’s runaway thoughts.
“Yeah?” Ochako asked, her attention momentarily captured by her overwhelming need to ensure Himiko is always comfortable and happy. “You’re enjoying yourself?”
“Mhm,” Himiko nodded, reaching up to tuck a stray strand of hair behind Ochako’s ear. “You’re so cute when you’re nervous, Ochako-chan,” she said, pinching the permanent pink discolouration on Ochako’s cheek before letting her hand fall.
Ochako went still as stone when Himiko’s fingers brushed against her cheek, all thoughts racing out of her head except for the soft pads of Himiko’s fingers.
“Y-you think I’m cute?” Ochako forced herself to ask, swallowing the bile that rose in her throat as her stomach churned.
Himiko raised her eyebrows. “You already know the answer to that,” she said, rolling her eyes fondly.
Ochako blushed even harder if that were possible as Himiko’s response, and nodded, trying to find the words to respond. Around them, the chaos had died down. Some had been wrestled into silence thanks to concerned friends like Izuku or Mina, others were clinging to each other as they watched a love story unfold before them.
Neither of the girls noticed.
Ochako’s eyes flickered down to Himiko’s lips again, her mind blanking at the sheer desperation bubbling to a boiling point inside her. She wanted to kiss her so bad. Ochako wanted to lean in and close the distance that had been lingering between them since the war. To take Himiko’s face in her hands and touch their lips together.
She had dreamed of it so many nights. She had lain awake in bed, wondering what Himiko’s lips might taste like, wondering whether they would be soft and bouncy or rough and chapped like her own were. She wondered whether they would just taste like saliva or if she would put flavoured lip gloss on.
Ochako shuffled closer, their knees touching again. She nearly fell apart at the way Himiko shivered when the denim on Ochako’s jeans scratched against her knee. “Himi…” Ochako trailed off, trying to force some saliva into her mouth, and painfully aware that her breath probably smelled like the seaweed snacks they had eaten earlier.
“Yes, Ochako-chan?” Himiko asked, tilting her head ever so slightly, batting her eyelashes in a way she knew drove Ochako up the wall.
“D-don’t do that,” Ochako stuttered out, her heart skipping several beats as Himiko’s move landed with intended effect.
“Do what, Ochako-chan?” She asked, looking up at the other girl through long droopy lashes.
“Act like you don’t know what you do to me,” Ochako said, reaching out to grab one of Himiko’s wrists, pulling her closer.
Himiko gasped, her lips parting as a puff of air escaped.
“You’re doing this on purpose,” Ochako muttered, her other hand rising up to cup Himiko’s jaw, her thumb dragging over the apple of her cheek.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Himiko replied, sinking one sharp tooth into her bottom lip as she tried to calm her racing heart.
This was more than Himiko had ever expected. More than anything, she was ever prepared for from her shy, nervous, Ochako-chan, but here she was. Sitting in front of all of Ochako’s friends, practically straddling her lap as she tilted Himiko’s face up a smidge. She swallowed the heartbeat reverberating in her throat and sucked the blood out of her now torn lip.
For comfort? Confidence? Something else entirely? Himiko had no clue, and she wasn’t sure if she would know anything for sure ever again if Ochako didn’t close the distance.
“Himiko,” Ochako said, her voice steady now as her eyes zeroed in on the bead of blood on Himiko’s bottom lip.
“Y-yeah?”
“I’m going to kiss you now,” Ochako told her, meeting Himiko’s hooded eyes again. “Is that okay?”
Himiko nodded, the effort almost Herculean with how her body had turned to jelly. She was sure she would have melted into the ground if not for Ochako’s hands holding her up. She didn’t have to focus on much else for any longer, though.
As soon as Himiko nodded, Ochako closed the hairsbreadth of distance between them, and their lips met for the first time. Himiko whimpered at the soft press of Ochako’s lips against her, her hands immediately rising to curl into fists and gripping onto Ochako’s shirt for dear life.
Ochako’s own hands met on Himiko’s jaw, cupping her face with the gentlest of pressure, as if she was terrified to hurt her, to ever cause her pain. Her eyes burned with the effort of holding back tears as she committed the taste of Himiko’s lips to memory.
The silence in the room was so thick it couldn’t have been cut with a chainsaw when the girls finally pulled apart, still holding onto each other like they couldn’t even dream of letting go ever again.
“I like you,” Himiko whispered, her lips swollen.
Ochako laughed, squeezing Himiko’s face between her hands. “I like you too.”
And the chaos resumed with a vengeance as friends and classmates tripped over themselves to claim bets won and whisper about how unexpected that was.
Once again, neither Ochako nor Himiko noticed. There were only two in the world for now, and that was more than enough for both.
It would be forevermore.