Hey guys! Welcome to my new fic. It's Kacchako based. Ive been working on the story outline/this first chapter. I hope you enjoy, leave me a review on your thoughts?
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Boku no Hero Academia, or it's characters. Horikoshi owns BNHA, not me, lol.
x-x-x
She was a number of things; heavy, broken, and guilty.
Her legs felt like they weighed ten tons, her heart even heavier. The ink on her wrist spelling out a birth date, and one over her right breast had pain embedded in it that reminded her of too many things. Her clothes were soaked, which added a couple more pounds, and her feet trudged towards headquarters - regretfully alone.
Broken, she was. Broken with thick layers of guilt and dead love and all the things that just made it all worse. It's her fault, her mind screamed. It's on you, you have to tell them the truth.
You have to explain to them why you have nobody with you.
The lights were on, cars and motorcycles were lined up outside. The rain that fell from heaven - tears from the fake belief, carefully hid any small detail.
Ochako knew they were inside, though.
Minutes passed, and she was outside the door. Minutes passed as she stood there, body shaking from fear, the cold, and trauma, as her mind raced to find something to say to them. Something to say that wouldn't be so harsh.
With a hand over her stomach, aching pain and anger flooded over, she knocked.
The door opened, revealing Aizawa. His face was sullen, eyebags darker than normal. Seeing her lit a hopeful light in his eyes, but returned back when he noticed she was alone.
He said nothing.
Even if he was silent, she felt the judgement piling over her being. Guilt, anger, regret.He stepped aside.
She barely managed through, before collapsing, the last thing she hears besides alarmed voices of her soon-to-be ex-family, was the deep voice of a man with spiky blonde hair and red eyes.
"Angel."
Tears gathered in her eyes before they shut completely.
"Remember to be aware."
x-x-x
Musutafu was a mixture of light and darkness. The skies were gray and gloomy, but the sun still managed to shine it's way through the clouds' thickness. It was in the middle of autumn, so it was chilly but colorful all at once. The setting was perfect, and Ochako didn't regret moving here at all.
A twenty-three year old with no income, that's what she was. She went to college, and graduated almost a year ago, studying journalism, but also having a certificate of medical assisting from high school. She was very much put together, but also not at the same time.
Moving was difficult. She knew this from the many moves her parents had to make in her childhood, the construction company having to transport somewhere else in order to build. Both that, and her family were struggling. She couldn't get a part-time job until she was fifteen, so she spent her time studying hard towards a career that could pay well until then, but suddenly realizing a few months before graduation that it wasn't her true passion, and that she really didn't enjoy it. Her parents knew, of course, they just nodded when she confronted them, said they were aware, but chose to wait until she came to terms with it on her own.
Her passion was writing. There wasn't a wide supply range of good paying jobs around that she could get, so she chose to move to a smaller town, one towards the South. Her parents were only a few hours away by car, so it wasn't difficult. She needed to get out of their hair, so she looked for houses and found a good deal in Musutafu, and here she was.
She had a medical assisting certificate and a degree in journalism. It was odd, but it was all she had. From aiming towards the medical field, to pursuing writing - maybe she could write a book that could gain publicity to live off of as well as giving to her parents.
It was an unrealistic dream, she knew. Ochako couldn't help but hope though. Writing a book, much less a good one, would take her years, and she didn't have that time.
She was all over the place.
Her car barely ran, her luggage was lighter than it should be, and she had one of those old and outdated smartphones. Her schedule was also a mess, weirdly though from her lack of having a job. She managed to pay the first month for her new home, so she had another entire month to gather money to pay the next. She'd have less time than that, though, because she actually had to find a job first. She only had so much money left, and she had to buy food with it as well.
To put it bluntly, Ochako was fucked.
Usually, her life was planned out well. She planned ahead of time, her schedule being well organized and put together.
Key word: usually.
The second she quit the medical field, she knew all the research and buildup she did to prepare herself for that particular career would be partly useless. That was negatively exciting for her to experience, being on the brink of entering a collage, and deciding to change her entire path last minute.
Her parents had told her they didn't want her life to just be dedicated to working for them. They wanted her to pursue her dream, her passion. So she left home to start anew. Despite her parents saying they wanted her to have more in life, that didn't mean she wouldn't still try to help them while doing something she loved.
At first, when buying the house, she thought the awesome deal she saw on it would lessen her issues. No, it did the opposite. She didn't consider the fact that she needed a job as soon as possible, that she had no friends or family here (the closest being her parents obviously, but they were hours away), and the second she drove through with her groaning vehicle into the town, that it was definitely more different and unique than what she was used to.
The first thing you notice is how old everything looks. There were old buildings around where she used to live, but she only noticed one or two looked newer, and that was probably because they were recently built.
The second thing being was how the streets and sidewalks were nearly deserted. It was almost like life was a rarity here. (This fact made her even more anxious about getting a job.)
And third, the people who were there, sat outside a supermarket with bikes around them, wearing leather jackets and ripped jeans. From afar they looked like ratty scoundrels who were apart of dangerous gangs, but as she drove by - getting their attention, probably because of her loud, loud, car, she noticed the softness and curiosity on their faces. Confusion appeared, with some excitement.
After some pondering, Ochako didn't have a clue if it was a good thing or not.
They radiated the type of energy that drew you in. There were three, all male. One man had red spiky hair with matching eyes. Another one was a bit shorter, sporting yellow hair with a black streak running down a bundle of strands, and the last had slightly longer hair that almost reached his shoulders, black hair. They all sat on motorcycles, arms crossed and smiles adorned their faces. They seemed happy enough.
As she drove farther away from them, she took another look at her map, and paper atop it. The address should be easy to find, the town was small enough to navigate around after a single drive around.
Her house was a one bedroom, one bathroom, house. It was one floor, and from what she'd seen online - it looked quite decent despite probably being centuries old. She'd obviously make some renovations, but first she needed to get her shit together.
Ochako's eyes lit up as her new home came into sight. It was placed in a small neighborhood, where houses were on both sides of a road. There were quite a few, and she noticed they looked equally as ancient as her own.
Something else that captivated this place (it wasn't just the price, she swears) was that it was centered in an area that was a good combination of rural and urban. It wasn't a city, but it wasn't farmland either. It was like the types of towns that was near a farm, except this one seemed like it had some city elements to it. The buildings were old, yes, but they also shared the vibe that despite it, it was packed and populated.
It had to be. Every house she passed on the way here looked like it was being lived in. Like life was present.
As she pulled into the driveway, she noticed the house was built on a lift, not just on the ground.
(Her old home with her parents didn't have a porch, so this was different.)
"This is it," she mumbled. The squeaking of her car stopped just before she pulled the key out. Her brow furrowed in confusion, but left it at that. It's turned off by itself many times in the past, she shouldn't be surprised anymore.
Stepping out of her vehicle, Ochako immediately headed for the door, grabbing her keys on the way out. It wasn't cold, but it wasn't warm either. It was a little into autumn, so she had to cover up a bit, but this area seemed to be slightly colder than her old home.
As she inserts the key, a deep rumble echoes from afar. It was probably one of her neighbors, although since the sound was most likely emitting from a motorcycle, she wondered if everyone had one. She'd seen quite a few around, counting the small group of men standing outside the supermarket.
Ignoring the obnoxious sound, she proceeded into the house. It was exactly like what the pictures depicted, except all the furniture was gone, which was expected. Her parents got her an air mattress that she brought, so she wasn't worried about anything like that at the moment.
A sigh escaped her lips. "Okay…" she whispered to herself. "Okay. Plan. First, get groceries. Then, unpack. Okay...then I'll look around for jobs. Yeah."
Luckily, she knew where the supermarket was. Not to mention, it was of walking distance. She could do this, but no way in hell was she lugging a bunch of grocery bags around.
"No, Ochako, you aren't lazy." Stepping back outside, and making her way towards her car, Ochako opened the car and turned the car key.
It didn't do anything.
"You've got to be kidding me…" Over ten years this car has been thriving, why did it have to give out now?! Why not when she had enough money to get it repaired, or better yet, to get a new one?
"Why?" she mumbled, her head lowering to stare at the ground. That meant that she couldn't be lazy. She had to go and carry a ton of groceries back, because her stupid car decided to break down and die.
Her parents would freak if they found out.
Frowning, Ochako stepped out, and slammed the door shut. Stupid car. Stupid engine. Stupid job scarcity. Stupid everything.
She was beginning to think maybe moving here was a mistake. But she didn't, and wouldn't give up. She literally just got here, no way was she backing down, she had gotten this far.
(She didn't make much progress, actually, but let her believe so.)
So on she went. Her feet practically dragged against the ground, her back slumped over. She thinks if she were more pale, she could pass off as a sick person.
It was a good ten minutes until she reached the parking lot. The men she saw earlier were gone, there wasn't a single motorcycle in sight. She was kind of glad. As friendly as they looked, she couldn't trust complete strangers. Especially strangers who drove motorcycles, and wore leather jackets as if they were part of some gang.
After that, she wasn't so sure of what had happened so far. Her mind went on one track, (food!) and that was it. Not much else was considered, only the basket of frozen cuisine was worth her attention.
At least that was until she realized she had to walk with all of this for ten whole minutes back to her place, while it was getting later and later in the day by the minute. Remembering this at the cash register made her panic on the inside, but the cashier looked cheerful, and she didn't want to freak them out.
After paying, and finally figuring out a good method of carrying all the bags, she left. She was even more paranoid, the sky was dark, and everything was unnaturally quiet.
Lampposts were beginning to light up. Since she found out it was a mix between a city and the countryside, that meant less lights, and more stars she could see in the sky.
Although, now, she was preoccupied with her food, and the route back to her new home.
She didn't notice her other surroundings.
"'Ey, lady! D'you have some money? Please?" A man's voice disturbed the silence. Jumping, and dropping the bags hanging on her wrists in the process, she turned around to see a lanky, scrawny, old man striding towards her. "Can I see yer purse, darlin'? I'm really low…"
Terror enveloped her as the man continued, but started to walk faster and faster. She dropped down to hurriedly pick up her bags, but her arms felt so tired and weak, she ended up having more fall. Cursing in panic, her voice shaking, she got out, "No! Go away!"
"You need to respect yer elders, girlie. Why can't you just lend me some coin, I'll leave you alone…"
(She couldn't let this man hurt her, or take the money she had left. She desperately needed it, she had no job, she knew nobody here...she couldn't ask her parents, they were also financially unstable...what was she supposed to do now?)
The man got closer. He extended a skinny hand, about to grab onto her. Closing her eyes, and shrinking away, her breath caught in her throat when she heard the man groan in pain, and a thumping sound proceeded afterwards.
Her eyes slowly opened, to see the man was laying on the ground, his arms out for protection. The shadow of another person was shown on the ground. "S-Sir...I-I…"
"Picking on people just trying to mind their business is fuckin' low of you, not to mention on a defenseless woman just trying to safely get home. Didn't we let you off with a warning last time, or did you fucking forget that?" Another man. His voice was laced with disgust and anger, her eyes were watering without noticing, following up to the person who had helped her.
Her eyes widened. He was very tall, much taller than her. He sported the same leather jacket she saw the other men from before wear. His hair was light, most likely blonde, and it was spiked up all over the place. His stature was lean, but his shoulders were broad, and she knew from the thickness of his arms, that he was probably very strong. His eyes were flamed with anger, matching his voice and attitude towards her potential attacker.
"I-I'm sorry, sir...I…" The man was in fear, he wouldn't even go to meet his eyes.
"You said that last time, I'm not fucking stupid. If you needed money, then get a fuckin' job, there's plenty 'round. Going 'round terrorizing citizens because you're pathetic really grates on my nerves. If I, or any of my family, catches you doing this one more time, we're throwing you out. People like you disturb the peace we've been trying to keep 'round here for years. Fuck off."
The man was speechless. He hurried to get up, and shakily turned to me, bowing repeatedly, before running off. "I-I'm sorry, Miss. I-I'll go, you w-won't ever have to s-see me again…"
The other man scoffed. "Fuckin' pussy." A scowl rested on his face, before turning to her. "You alright? 'S not the first time he did that. We tried letting him off easy 'cause he's an elder, but this' just gotten ridiculous."
Ochako was silent for a moment. "U-Um…" Her eyes darted to the ground. All she could think of right now was how much of a coward she was. She could have escaped, but she froze up and broke down, and because of this, someone else had to go spend their time to save her ass. "Sorry…"
The man stepped back, his footsteps loud, did she make him angry?
"Hah? The fuck are you sorry for? You didn't do shit. 'S not your fault some dumbass went after you while you were holding a bunch of shit," he ranted, her eyes finally looking at him to see him cross his arms. "Anyway, I haven't seen you 'round before. You the chick who just moved in across the street, right?"
"I...just moved in, yes." she answered. He was so casual with a complete stranger. He was acting like he was just asking her about the weather after he just scared off someone because they were going to attack her. Maybe it was just her who saw it weirdly.
"Ah, makes sense. Saw you earlier today before I left for patrol. That house's been empty for years, I was surprised when I heard someone would be moving in it. Thought it was bullshit at first."
This piqued her interest. "Why think it was, um…bullcrap?" He cursed to much for his own good. He spouted at least almost twenty of them in the past few minutes, spanning from out loud to mumbling under his breath. It was a unique thing to hear, the people surrounding her before were very conservative and polite, rarely uttering any curse word.
It was an interesting change of pace.
He chuckled at her modesty. "It hasn't been lived in for as long as I can remember. It wasn't in amazing shape either, and was in a location in a small town that's not even run by an actual government. It's no surprise, we rarely get new people anyways." he explained, uncrossing his arms.
"Not run by a government? So there's no mayor? Or…" she trailed off, eyebrows furrowing in confusion.
The man straightened his posture. "No, no mayor. You didn't do research about where you were moving? That's fuckin' stupid," he scowled.
"It was a good deal, so I...and I just assumed it was a normal town! How was I supposed to know it'd be some special snowflake place?" Why was he judging her all of a sudden? She puffed her cheeks out, and stood up, and leaned over to pick up her bags. "I have to go, anyway…I don't want to keep you any longer."
His attitude was really overwhelming. He barely spoke much to her, it hasn't even been five minutes, and he's already persecuting her right after he asked if she was fine after nearly getting attacked by some creepy old man at night.
"You're not really keeping me. My shift is almost over anyways, and I was just doin' my job." He mumbled, and walked towards her, grabbing a handful of bags from the ground. Ochako flinched at the loss of her space, and narrowed her eyes.
"You…" she started, but never finished.
"Why are you being so fuckin' stubborn? You obviously can't carry these all on your own, you keep dropping them, your arms are about to give out." He retorted before she had a chance to finish. Was he indirectly calling her weak? That not only did she have to be rescued like some damsel in distress for something that wasn't even a big deal, but he had to carry stuff for her, too?
(She knew she was taking it out of context, but her day's just been getting progressively worse and worse…her car broke down, so she had to walk back and forth, she got nearly attacked, and now some kind of patrol-officer guy was nagging her on her poor choices and calling her out for it. She was fed up, plus she's jobless and quite literally, dirt poor.)
"I can carry it by myself, okay?! I'm not useless or weak. It's not a big deal. Why do you care anyways? We just met, you don't even know my name and I don't know yours. Just go back to whatever work you were doing and leave me alone." Tears gathered in her eyes, but she refused to let them fall.
The man was silent for a moment. His face was still scrunched up in a scowl, his eyes were intense, and she noticed in the silence that the lampposts nearby shined down on his face, more from where he moved next to her. She picked out obvious things like his hair was indeed blonde, his eyes were a scorching red color, and his pale skin had some sort of ashy or sickening tone to it.
His voice interrupted her few seconds of ogling, and she hurriedly looked away, a light blush of embarrassment appearing on her complexion.
"I do care for you. You are now citizen of our town now. As someone of my position I have to do everything in my power to keep people here safe, that means I must care for them on a certain level," he said, his voice giving off something unnatural; robotic, like he's repeated this sentence to himself and others multiple times. "So let me make sure a newbie gets home safely without being jumped again because too much is, quite literally, on her hands."
Ochako sighed. Talk about her being stubborn, when he was bluntly refusing to not help.
"Fine," she mumbles, pouting her lip. He grabbed most of her stuff and stood up, and she allowed him.
He stared at her for a second, before stating, "My house is across the street from yours, anyway. It didn't matter from the beginning."
Sighing for the hundredth time, she gave in. She did in fact need help, her day had been pretty terrible so far. Plus, he was holding the majority of her stuff. Hopefully, bad luck wouldn't strike her to where he'd take what he had with him.
The more she thought about it though, it wouldn't work out. They're literally neighbors, she can guess which house he was in because he mentioned that he saw her earlier. The only time she felt human presence outside her house was from that loud engine noise that had likely emitted from a motorcycle.
Plus, he mentioned patrol shifts, so he was some kind of officer, who ranted about maintaining peace. It wouldn't make sense, especially after he had helped her.
Maybe there was one person she could trust already, she hadn't been here long either.
As they walked, she spent time darting her eyes from the sidewalk to the man. He didn't say anything, he didn't make much noise at all really after she agreed to let him help.
(At this, Ochako realized that she still didn't know his name.)
She wanted to ask, especially when he lived right across from her. The silence, though, was oddly comforting. Disrupting it may make things more weird and awkward than they already were.
Their neighborhood was beginning to get closer and closer. It really wasn't a long walk, if that old man hadn't went after her, she'd be home safe and sound by now.
"What's your name?" she blurted, before stepping onto her driveway. He was silent for a second, but answered.
"Katsuki Bakugou," he replied, and turned to look at her. His eyes held the same intensity as before, did he always have that look in his eyes? "What about you, cheeks?"
"Cheeks?" she repeated, mouth agape at the sudden nickname. He didn't evaluate. Ochako never realized they had completely stopped in their tracks right at her driveway.
There was quite a few long periods of silence between them. Was he always so quiet? Or was he doing that because he didn't know her?
"O-Oh! Um…" she stuttered, realizing he had been staring at her the whole time, awaiting an answer. "Ochako Uraraka, that's my name."
"Oh," he muttered, and continued his way down her driveway. "C'mon, cheeks. 'S already late, you don't want to keep me, do you not?"
(She just told him her name, and he ignored it, and just continued calling her by some nickname? What was that even referencing to? Did she really have chubby cheeks? Or did he just forget her name already?)
"H-Hey! My name's Uraraka to you, thank you very much." she retorted. She heard him chuckle under his breath. Was he doing it on purpose?
He was already up on her porch, waiting for her to come and unlock her...door? "Hey, you're not coming inside!" she shrieked.
"Do you want me to just drop everything here and let you go back and forth from inside to outside? Or do you want things to be easier? You're really fuckin' stubborn, you know. 'S kinda frustrating."
Oh. Her brain just failed, very majorly. "Uh, sorry! Sorry, um...and you're no better! You didn't have to follow me here. Like I said, I'm not weak or useless. I could've done this on my own." She ranted, shoving her key in the lock, and twisting it. Pushing it open, she stomped inside, hearing him chuckle from behind. "Why are you laughing? Am I really that funny to you?"
He walked in, and set her stuff down in a corner. She had yet to bring her luggage in, she could do that tomorrow. All she wanted to do after this, was to sleep.
"No, no. You aren't funny. I just find it amusing on how mad you are, usually that's my role."
Ochako rolled her eyes, and frowned. "You don't seem like the angry type."
Bakugou lifted a brow. "You can't judge my character so fast, you just met me. Also, I should head out." All she knew from him so far was that he had a wide range of bad language drifting in his mind, and ready to spill out of his mouth. He came off as passive to her mostly, but he was right. They just met, she has no clue what his mannerisms were, or how he acted on a daily basis.
At least he was leaving now. As grateful as she was for his help, again, all she wanted right now was for complete silence and some sleep. Maybe all her pent up anger and frustration lately would vanish over a nice, comfy nap.
"Before I go, you at least owe me a 'thank you', right, cheeks?" There was the nickname again.
"Uraraka. And thank you, truly, for today. I just want to pass out now, if you don't mind."
He nodded, and turned around to walk out. Walking towards him to see him off, and to lock the door, she saw him stop in his footsteps. His head turned, a hint of a smirk lingered on his face, Ochako's body stilled.
"See you 'round, pink cheeks."
She didn't have anymore energy to correct him.
He left her porch, then her driveway. She leaned against the doorframe, watching him confidently stride across the street to a house that was almost, almost, identical to hers from the outside. She finally decided to shut her door, but a thought popped in her mind, making her sigh in exhaustion.
(My air mattress is still in the car.)
