Chapter Text
“Come on Uraraka! It’s only been 1 hour; you can’t be backing out yet!”
Ochako barely dodges another hardened knuckle to the face. If she doesn’t sharpen her senses soon she’ll end up with a scarred face worse than a certain trio from her class. When Kirishima had asked her to replace Bakugo - his usually preferred workout partner - for the day as the explosive blonde apparently had some business to take care of but would be back around evening time, which is all Kirishima got out of him when its hard to even pry a full sentence from the boy’s mouth, so if it was something that Bakugo didn’t even initially intend to speak about then there’d be a higher chance of getting the sun to shine bright pink than him spilling the beans. She’d jumped at the opportunity to work out and spar with one of the strongest people in her class, who honestly wouldn’t? Kirishima had been all excited and pumped up about finally getting to work out with her since they’d wanted to do so since first year when she showed enthusiasm over his overall not so popular room decor.
Falling over onto her butt after dodging a particularly sharp punch aimed right at her jaw she takes a deep breath and pants out “Not backing out! Just- need a quick breather!” Kirishima being a hardcore gym-rat isn’t surprising but still, you really need durability to keep up with him in a spar, which of course; Ochako does have but most definitely not as much as the redheaded rock in front of her.
He just grins and nods, his shark teeth flashing brightly as he reaches out his hand for her to grab onto and pulls her up on her feet from her spot on the mat. “You’re keeping up well though. I must say, it’s been a while since I’ve found someone who could keep up with me in training, other than Bakugo of course.” He adds brightly, not that he’s ever not bright, the guy’s more enthusiastic than a child winning an arcade game. That just makes him a hell of a lot more fun to both hang out with and definitely also train with.
While Ochako is most definitely not in the “weaker” category of the class, she’s not in the strongest either. And while being right in the middle might be enough for some, it’s just a lazy excuse to not work harder; at least in Bakugo’s eyes, which of course means that she needs to work harder and push herself to the limit, and plus ultra. Being in the “average” category of her class isn’t enough, it’s lazy and shows no sign that she’s serious about becoming a great hero. Which is why she decided to start training more, though she’s clearly been doing it completely wrong considering how hard the “big leagues” spar and this is Kirishima going just a little bit easy on her; even if she asked him not to, he and most of the others in class 2-A insist that being a girl means to need protection or else they’ll break. It’s a lame excuse for sexism that most don’t see. Some of them (Kirishima being in that group) are getting better at going all out no matter who the opponent is.
Ochako smiles back at the redhead.
“Thanks Kiri, that really means a lot, especially coming from you.”
Placing both hands on her hips she leans backwards to do a quick stretch, being thrown around like a living ragdoll even for just an hour can really take a toll on your back.
Kirishima flashes his whites in a proud and joyful grin once more, gosh if Ochako had such an adorable smile she’d probably also use it as much as her cheerful classmate. “Always!” He nods, then cocks his head in the direction of the bench which currently held onto both their bags, water bottles and Kirishima’s absurd amount of protein shake and bars.
“Need a sip before we continue?”
She smiles and nods in agreement. Water is important when working out in general so when sparring with Ejiro Kirishima? Yeah hydration is required if you wanna live.
“Yes please-uh!” She groaned out, dragging herself to the bench where liquid heaven awaited. When picking up the water bottle she winced at the damp sweaty feeling underneath her gloves and pulled them off.
Kirishima hummed out a noise as if to get Ochako’s attention while he was still swallowing a mouthful of water.
“Hm… you wear those to limit your quirk right?”
She finished pulling off the second glove and placed them besides her bag while answering. “Yup! To make sure I don’t accidentally activate it mid spar, if I do activate it while throwing you around there’s a high possibility the hit you’re gonna take is far more painful, and if you’re weightless you might just bounce right off the floor and… into the ceiling.” She smiled sheepishly at him. The redhead just let out a little laugh. “I totally get it! I certainly appreciate the fact that my well being is a concern being considered” the sharklike teeth were flashed again. Jeez, how the hell does someone get gifted with such a beautiful smile.
Popping the little bubble of envy starting to form, she grinned back and chucked down another mouthful of water. “Mhm! Well yeah! Even if your hardening would save you from a harsh fall I don’t know if your reflexes would be able to keep up with the speed of your own body with my quirk being activated!” She threw a bit of lighthearted teasing at him, which he immediately caught. “Is that so? Well doesn’t your quirk cancel gravity? I think it would rather slow me down a bit than turn up my speed.” He laughed, then placed a dramatic hand over his heart. “And are you questioning my reflexes? I am quite offended, Ochako Uraraka!” She let a snort escape and folded in on herself as laughter went free from her stomach. “Stop that! You’re acting like Monoma or Aoyama!” Her sentence ended with a giggle.
Kirishima grimaced but there was no real resentment behind his expression. “Alright I’m okay with you comparing me to Aoyama, but Monoma? Seriously?” His brow was raised while another traitorous grin was threatening to escape his lips. Ochako poked his forehead with her index finger a few times while responding. “Awe come on! He’s not that bad! At least not anymore. Even Bakugo gets along with him now!” Snorting, he halfheartedly swatted her finger away. “Yeah, cause that maniac literally had to watch him fight one of the most dangerous wars in modern history while being unable to physically defend or help him at all…“ his tone grew a little heavier and he swallowed. “I’d let go of a grudge after an experience like that too…” Her gaze softened.
Bakugo and Kirishima being best friends is something that the entirety of U.A’s population has been aware of practically since the first week of this class being here. When the war ended and Kirishima found out what happened to his closest friend, the boy who was like a brother to him, he went into a dark place flooded with guilt and self blame. Knowing that Bakugo’s heart will never fully recover to its former state of glory, and knowing he wasn’t there to help, it made had his mental state go downhill. Luckily Mr. Aizawa, with his sharp eye and strong observation skills, saw the place his normally so joyful and happy student was going, had a talk with him a got the boy a few sessions of therapy. It surprisingly didn’t take long for the sweet guy to get back on his feet, but at moments like these, where the subject changes so drastically from playful jokes to trauma that he doesn’t feel he even deserves to have, it doesn’t matter that he was doing his own part in the war. To him, the fact is that he wasn’t there. At that place. That time. Busy with keeping his own group alive and fighting the villains actively trying to kill them, having no chance or choice to be near the fight where something so negatively impacting was happening without his knowledge.
Not being able to control who lives, and who dies.
It’s a feeling like no other, and a terrible one at that. One Ochako is far too familiar with.
Suddenly she didn’t wanna go back to working out. A deep pit formed in the center of her torso, the spot between her ribs starting too feel like empty space. Taking a deep breath and reminding herself that self pity wouldn’t solve anything for them right now, her hand found its way to his shoulder, the sudden contact seemingly pulling him out of a train of thought. Crimson eyes met with hers, she knew another person with that same shade of burning crimson eyes, though Kirishima’s has always been less intense. His felt more like looking into a bonfire mid June, sitting around with friends in the late evening, flames keeping the warmth on their body that the sun earlier neglected, serving as temporary protection against the cold and with that comes with the unforgiving night. Kirishima always did have that effect on people, safety and contentment always comes into play when around him. that’s just who he is, even when down, looking into those deep red eyes always feels like getting a warm embrace from a big teddy bear, which is very accurate considering his actual hugs.
She fought the urge to let out a giggle at that thought. A teddy bear is an extremely accurate way of describing the redhead.
Gosh, she really wanted to hug him. Especially when those warm red eyes looked so incredibly sad.
“You know…” Ochako started, trying to find the right way to word what she wanted to say without making it worse. “It wasn’t your fault. And I know it’s hard to get your heart and soul to believe and accept as so, even if your head is aware…” she winced internally as the words leaving her mouth hit a little too close to home for comfort but she tried not to let it show.
The urge to hug him tugged harder her harder as he took a deep breath and nodded, sorrow still engraved in his features. “I know… you’re right.” He smiled and wiped his tearless eyes, as if afraid his body was gonna betray how deep his sadness went. “It’s just, sometimes… there’s this small part of me that worries he isn’t fine, that it’s all fake and he’s still laying there,” his Adam’s apple bobbed unsteadily as he swallowed. “… alone.”
Oh no. Yeah nope. Never ever again did Ochako want to see Kirishima like this. She attached herself around him like koala, hugging his side tightly. He blinked a few times at her sudden action, then smiled and turned to hug her back. “Kirishima, if you ever start feeling like that, talk to me! I don’t want you dealing with stuff like this alone…” she ignored the slight sting in her eyes and the strained way her words formed.
Ochako felt the hug tighten, then looked up as she heard a sniffle, fully prepared to hug him tighter as well but yelped as the redhead yanked her closer to him. “Please don’t cry Uraraka! If you cry, I’m gonna cry!” That statement alone was enough to make her tears fall faster. “I just-“ his voice caught and he sniffed before opting to burry his face in her hair. “I hate to see my friends hurt, or upset, it’s the worst and especially when it’s someone as cheerful and kind as you.” The words were slightly muted by her hair but that didn’t make them any less emotional. They sat there for a while, letting out tears quietly and holding each other close, then agreed to call it a day.
As she stood up to start packing her stuff, she realized a moment too late that using Kirishima’s shoulder as support for herself to get up, would of course erase his gravity. In a panic she immediately released her quirk, making the poor boy fall onto the floor… or more like, onto her. Which ultimately led to them both to crash down into the hard gym floor, harshly knocking the air out of her lungs, as if someone stuck a vacuum down her throat and turned it on max.
“Shit!” He yelped as she hissed in pain, not only was the guy a lot taller than her but he also weighs like 68 kilograms worth of muscle, so a hit like that definitely isn’t close to harmless. “You okay?” He asked, a hint of guilt hidden in his tone. It’s not the first time for her to hit the ground like this while training though so it’s not as bad as it could be. Then again, Kirishima’s one of the last people she’d consider as small so adding that Amount of pressure on top is… painful. About to answer, she opened her mouth but was (quite rudely) interrupted by the rumbling voice of an angry blonde, whom by the way, wasn’t supposed to be back from whatever thing he needed to do, until later that evening.
“I ditch you for three hours and you end up making out with a girl in our rented gym room. Which, fyi, I paid for. So you get out if getting laid is more important to you than actually working out and getting stronger.” Bakugo’s grumbling and complaining only made her roll her eyes, then froze as she realized two things. One; he doesn’t realize it’s her. And two; he thinks Kirishima and her are- making out?! What the heck! Actually, pause. Three hours?! It had only been like one hour since Kirishima and her started training, and he’d mentioned that Bakugo left about one hour earlier. Well that doesn’t add up.
“Geez man, warn me next time you plan on sneaking into the room I’m in and randomly start speaking like you always stood there.” Kirishima started, his tone light and playful. “And fyi,” he turned his head to make eye contact with the blonde as he mimicked how it was said before, making Bakugo scowl deeper than Ochako thought was possible. She was almost tempted to tell him that if he tugged the corners of his mouth any deeper, they might meet his toes, but for safety reasons (both of her physical state and dignity) she keeps her mouth shut. “This isn’t just some girl, first of all. It’s Uraraka, and before you say anything, no, we weren’t making out, but when you get floated into the air and then dropped within the span of around 4 seconds, there’s the chance that you do not have control over where you land.” Kirishima let a grin spread as Bakugo blinked, then scoffed and looked away. Eyes having not even grazed her existence once.
Ochako tilted her head and looked at him carefully, he almost seemed… embarrassed? Well that’s something new.
His lower lip was pushed to top the upper while slight color started prickling at the corner of his ear.
She found her eyes trailing down the left side of his face, over the scar that stretched across his cheekbone like a lightning strike. Proof of his role in the war and what he’d sacrificed to win. It looked pretty though.
She often found herself wishing her scars were more visible, sure there’s a huge scar in her stomach that always made her insides twist uncomfortably every time she felt it, along with an almost star shaped one on the outside of her left thigh but that one was only visible when she wore Mina’s mini shorts that the pink skinned girl swears are the most flattering thing Ochako can wear. She had a few on her arms and legs in general but none of them harsh enough to be noticeable unless u look closely… as if anyone would ever look that closely at her.
Bakugos scars were far worse… though that’s the wrong way to describe them in her opinion. Beautiful, or special gives a more accurate view of it for her.
Rough and ragged, stinging and stretching his face out in this nice way that along side his current heart condition forced him to stay calmer, and of course he’d still scrunch up his nose and furrow his brows as much as possible to still seem intimidating, though the deep (and painfully obvious) forced scowl looked more like a sad kitty pouting. It’s actually kinda adorable, though saying that to his face might make him strain a nerve. It’s kinda ironic how he likes to poke fun of her baby fatted cheeks when his in reality aren’t really that much better. Okay, maybe she might be projecting a little bit but when ever he pushes up his lower lip in a desperate attempt to scowl, he just looks like a little child who’s mom said no to the lollipop he wanted, cheeks puffing out a bit like he’d just stuffed them full with rice cakes. Would it be inappropriate to giggle in this situation? Katsuki Bakugo literally just accused her and Kirishima of making out! Which; why the hell would he think that!
Heat finally found its way to her cheeks, the ones a certain angry blonde adores to include in her nickname every chance he gets. As Bakugo’s quite inappropriate words finally seep into her brain, color follows the heat and her body decides to become hyperaware of the fact that knuckles 2.0 have in fact not gotten off of her yet and- okay ow, her lungs still feel like a torn plastic bag getting wipped around in a hurricane.
Ochako opened her mouth to try and contribute a word to the conversation but was cut off by her own lack of air. Okay, yep, Kirishima was still very much crushing her, the weight of his body on her ribs making it hard to breathe as the pressure increased every second. Damn, how much muscle does this man have!
Attempting to take a deep breath she tapped his shoulder ever so urgently, the contact seemingly making the redhead realize the problem. He winced and got off immediately, air finally rushing into her lungs.
“Oh fuck, I’m so sorry Uraraka.” His brows furrowed with a hint guilt, lips thinning slightly. “S’okay…!” She coughed and blinked, rubbing her ribcage in a small attempt to try and soothe the pain. “Remind me to never get stuck under someone twice my size ever again.”
Kirishima laughed as he got up. “Noted. But no, Bakugo. No funny business in here.” Said Bakugo turned his head towards them again, or rather; towards Kirishima. The blonde still hadn’t spaced her a glance, at least not of what she was aware of.
Bakugo scoffed, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms over his chest, though he must’ve strained his right arm doing so as it still wasn’t recovered. “I know that now, shitty hair. Ya don’t needa remind me.” His eyes trailed over to Ochako, finally acknowledging her existence. Then went back to Kirishima again. “What, have you guys been crying in here or something?”
Oh, right. They had been crying, and for a lot longer than she thought. Looking as it was already pretty late in the afternoon, the sky starting to turn pretty shades of purple and pink. “We were taking a water break and somehow started talking about, uhm,” she looked at Bakugo with an expression she hoped told him what she meant. “You know.” She was thankful that he in fact did seem to understand, his (adorable) forced scowling expression softening slightly, and probably lessening the strain on his face muscles. “Ah.” he offered in acknowledgment. Sighing, he walked over and surprisingly joined her on the floor, which was extremely out of character for Bakugo as it’s both extremely unhygienic and sweaty as hell on these training room floors.
“I told you to stop worrying already” Bakugo shot a look at Kirishima, but the fire from before had burned out and no intent to actually intimidate his best friend remained.
The redhead smiled with a mix of sheepishness and sadness. “Yeah… sorry, it’s hard. I just,” he stopped in his tracks, trying to find the right words to say without making himself cry again. Sighing and scratching the back of his neck, he glanced away and Ochako thought for a moment he almost looked shy? Gosh, why was every buff man from her class looking so adorable today? The tips of the boy’s ears tinted a peachy red blush, she supposed it might be a bit awkward for him to stand while she and Bakugo were currently on the floor beside him. She was about to pat the spot next to her, offering him to sit down with them but the blonde was miles ahead of her, except he didn’t exactly offer him to sit down… he more, er- well, she supposed he attempted to yank him onto the floor, and he probably had intended to do so without pulling Kirishima’s shorts halfway down with him. She desperately held back a snort, and even as much as she wanted no more than to see the expression on their faces, she decided to spare Kirishima’s dignity just a bit and looked away as soon as she realized what Bakugo’s action included.
A strangled noise was all she heard, but it was unclear if the person sounding it had been Kirishima or Bakugo, it was almost cute. Okay, again. What’s up with all her classmates suddenly turning into some adorable little creatures today? Maybe not little… but still.
“Bakugo-!” Okay THAT was Kirishima. The blush could be heard in his voice and she once again resisted the urge to let out a laugh. Another voice grumbled and it sounded anything BUT apologetic. “Calm down loser. No reason for ya to be freaking out.” Damn okay. But even if Bakugo was trying oh so hard to make his voice sound as calm grumpy as possible… he gravely failed to hide the quickly (but not quite) recovered shock and slight embarrassment in his voice.
Ochako refrained herself from letting another “cute” sneak into her current train of thought. She kept pressing her palm to her lips to stop herself from letting out a snort. “You can turn around again, cheeks. Shitty hair ain’t naked anymore.”
That comment finally made her release the small giggle she’d been holding in.
“Sorry.” she smiled at them sheepishly, taking in the amused smile on Bakugo’s face along with the slight embarrassment stretching across Kirishima’s features.
“It’s alright,” the redhead sighed. “And I wasn’t naked, Bakugo! You barely even pulled my shorts off!” He shot said Bakugo an annoyed glare, to which he responded by flashing a shit eating grin at him, obviously not opposed to the idea of irritating Kirishima further. “Well someone had to get you out of that god awful fashion statement. If you’d been wearing those ugly ass crocks they would’ve been first on my list but even you aren’t stupid enough to wear those while training.”
She winced inwardly, not wanting to mention that she herself found Kirishima’s crocks kinda cool and even had her own pair in a light pink color. But hey! Who can blame a girl for getting some quick and efficient footwear. Plus, she saved herself a whole bunch of money that she could spend on things such as clothes or groceries!
Unfortunately, Kirishima did not seem to like the fact that only he was getting shamed and shot back at Bakugo with a defensive groan, “Uraraka has those too, you know. And they’re not ugly! They’re efficient” she nodded along, only forgiving him for dragging her into this because the guy didn’t mean anything bad about it and most likely just wanted to defend himself from the glare burning through him.
Bakugo raised an eyebrow at her, the eyes he gave her making her feel unfairly judged. She frowned slightly at his eyes moving up and down her once. “Hey you can’t blame me! Like Kirishima said, they’re efficient! So you can stop looking at me like I’m some creature from outer space now, thank you very much.” She crossed her arms and attempted to glare back at him, though it seemed to have the opposite effect as she’d been hoping for as Bakugo smirked and let out a small snort, shaking his head.
“You’re both stupid.” He huffed out with a barely concealed smile.
Kirishima grinned and bumped against his best friends shoulder playfully. “You know you love us~” he sang, reminding Ochako that he and Mina went to the same middle school and had been growing even closer throughout UA. They had picked up on each others habits quite a bit, one of them being how Mina usually teased with that playful melodic tone. It honestly quite amused her.
Bakugo groaned and pushed back at Kirishima less playfully but the latter didn’t seem to mind it, laughing loudly making the former pounce on him. She let out a giggle as Kirishima yelped at being jumped down by Bakugo, who’d apparently given up on acting annoyed. As they continued doing their thing she felt her phone vibrating and pulled it out, ignoring Kirishima’s cracked voice screaming for help as she read the messages sender.
Speaking of Mina.
Pocketing her phone clumsily and half scrambling to her bag she send an apoplectic smile towards the two boys rolling around like a bunch of headless chickens on the floor. She held her phone up again and nodded her head towards it. “Mina texted, she’s giving me an hour to get ready or else they’re leaving without me” Bakugo raised a confused brow and tilted his head, not at all minding the redhead under him attempting and failing to push his hand off of his cheek, whining slightly. “Ready for what?” The blonde asked, still not moving his hand. “Girls night!” She explained excitedly, it had been too long since they’d had a real one and because of how busy everyone’s been after the war it’d been hard to find a date where everyone was free. “Momo’s taking us to see this awesome outside art installation, the theme is ‘the unknown’ so it’s gonna be stuff like outer space and deep waters,” it’s exactly the kind of things that Ochako had been fascinated with since she was little, so when Momo had told her and the other girls about it, she was overly excited to see she wasn’t the only one with a arguable hyper-fixation in that area. Like hell she was gonna miss it. “Afterwards we’re gonna go eat at Hagakures moms evening café, apparently she-“ she could’ve probably kept going on, rambling about the night that was waiting for her, but thankfully Bakugo is know for his very minimal patience and (not so rudely?) interrupted her. “Didn’t you say pinky only gave you an hour? I’d recommend you hurry to the dorms and take a shower so you and the rest don’t have to suffer from the aftermath of working out with this devil.” He jerked his head, gesturing toward Kirishima still pinned under his hand, muffled sounds of protest escaping his mouth. She winced inwardly at his words and nodded. “Yeah, good call.” She hurried out, giving a quick wave to the two. As she went out of the room and began walking down the hallway she could hear the sound of Bakugo groaning in disgust. “Did you seriously just lick me you bastard?!” She snorted as Kirishima’s laughter filled the hall.
As she exited the gym building, the fresh air of the late summer evening filled her nostrils and she took a deep breath, letting the calm breeze wipe through her sweaty hair, cooling the damp of her neck.
She stood there for a moment, closing her eyes and allowing the feeling swallow her. As she began half running to the dorms a thought crossed her mind.
It may have been a year of harsh experiences stacked on top of them, but its all gonna be okay.
She’s okay.