Trio
Ochako isn't so sure whether she likes her new home. It's much smaller than her old one back at Mie, but this way her father will get more work and earn more money, and her mother promises that one day they'll live in a small castle with a unicorn and a rainbow over their heads, so she smiles and nods her head earnestly.
She's still three, turning four in a few months, and doesn't know quite what to do when her parents take her out to play in the park. She's shy, hiding behind her mother's skirt and looking at everything in childish awe when her mother gently ushers her towards the group of children laughing and playing tag.
She feels a little afraid to go near them, they looked like they were having fun and she didn't want to interrupt. She then spots a pair of boys entering the park, one with cool spiky blonde hair and one with curly, soft looking green locks. When their eyes connect for just a brief second, she somehow finds the courage to walk up to them and greet them with her meek, shy smile.
"Hi, I'm Ochako, and I'm new here. Can I play with you?" She asks nervously, her feet shuffling.
The green haired boy lights up immediately, and Ochako realizes that his eyes were the color of nature, warm, inviting and soft. "Of course! My name is Izuku! You can call me Izu like Kacchan does!"
She feels happiness blooming in her heart. She nods vigorously, her cheeks taking on a pinker sheen. "Okay, Izu!"
"Hey! I thought only I get to call you that!" The blonde boy next to him complains loudly, his curious, fiery red eyes flashing over to her. His small frown quickly washes away into a boyish grin, and Ochako thinks that he is very much like a wolf pup. "Ah, whatever. You seem cool enough, so I'll let you play with us! My names Katsuki, but you can call me Kacchan too!"
She feels her cheeks warm even more, and her small smile widens into a happy grin. "Okay, Kacchan!"
"And now, we get to call you by a nickname!" Kacchan declares proudly, folding his arms. "Let's see… what do you like?"
"I like mochi!" She answers quickly. "They're so chewy and yummy!"
"You're face is kind of round like one too!" Kacchan teases. "Round face!"
"Hey!" Ochako puffs up her cheeks, feeling her previous shyness fade away into something similar to comfort. "That's not nice!"
"How about Chako?" Izu quickly suggests, his smile bright and eager. "It sounds cute like you, and it's easy to remember!"
Ochako feels her face burn even more at his innocent comment.
"Eh, that's lame," Kacchan pouts, his eyebrows coming together in a cute furrow. "I like Round Face better!"
"But Kacchan, that's not very nice!"
"Fine, how about Angel Face then? She looks like she can't even hurt a fly!"
Ochako then thinks; she didn't mind being either Round Face or Chako or Angel Face, because the only thing that mattered was that they were the ones who picked it out for her.
"Oh hey, now that we have three of us now, why don't we have a group name? You know, something like the three musketeers or something! Something cool and hero-y!" Izu suggests brightly, his eyes gleaming and shining.
"Oh," Ochako pipes up, bouncing a little with nervous energy. "I want to be a hero when I grow up!"
Kacchan and Izu look at her, both of them with surprised and eager smiles on their faces. "Really? We do too!"
Their group name needs to be cool, something like the explode-gang, Kacchan adds as they walk around the park.
It sounds so mean, Ochako pouts. How about something less scary?
Ooh, ooh! Izuku chirps. How about…The golden trio?
Ochako and Kacchan share a look and say at the same time, too cheesy.
They never really figure out a name even after they play tag, hide and seek and ever other game imaginable, but it's okay if they never can, Ochako thinks secretly to herself.
XXX
Izu and Kacchan are the best things that ever happened to Ochako.
Izu is sweet and caring, he does all the girly things with her even though Kacchan wouldn't and he doesn't mind. He likes threading through her soft brown hair, clumsily making braids and weaving flowers, and he listens to her every single word. She feels like she's on cloud nine every time Izu is around her, and he enjoys her company as much as she enjoys his. He loves helping her, and he says that he'll be an awesome hero one day and protect her no matter what.
Ochako's heart flutters at that, and she vows to protect his smile even if she has to go through a million needles.
Kacchan is rough and little mean at times, but he doesn't actually mean any harm. He's just not as skilled as Izu when it came to expressing affection, she concludes, and spends more time trying to understand him. She has more fights with him than with Izu because they are both stubborn and hate losing, so she ends up storming back home with angry tears more times than she can count. But Kacchan always arrives at her doorstep the next day with a new packet of mitarashi dango in his hands and a brash apology at the tip of his tongue, so Ochako can't stay mad at him for too long.
When they end up being in the same class in kindergarten, she feels so ecstatic. They can be together and play from morning till evening, and maybe they can even have sleepovers! Izu is just as happy as she is and agrees to her idea really quickly, and although Kacchan tries to act cool, they both know that he secretly wants to too, and he agrees to her idea in the end.
"I want to help mama and papa one day, so I'll get a really cool quirk and help around the worksite," Ochako whispers softly to the two boys in her room. Her bed is too small to fit all of them, so she scatters her blankets and pillows to make a makeshift bed on the floor, and the three of them are like sardines in a can, but they don't mind at all.
Izu turns slightly to look at her with confused eyes. "Huh? But I thought you wanted to be a hero, Chako-chan?"
Ochako hesitates and Kacchan intervenes. "Izu's right, Angel Face. You should do what you want to do, instead of worrying about other people all the time. I'm going to be the number one hero and beat up all the villains like All Might!"
"And I'm going to be a great hero, and save a whole ton of people!" Izu's eyes gleam in the faint moonlight. "Just like All Might!"
Ochako giggles lightly. "Izu and Kacchan both love All Might a lot!"
Izu and Kacchan both answer at the same time, "Of course I do! / Well, yeah!"
"Oi, Izu! I admire All Might more!"
"Nuh-uh!" Izu never backs down when they talk about All Might, showing one of his more persistent sides and Ochako loves it. "I look up to him more! I even collect all his cards and figurines!"
"I do too! I bet you don't even have the Christmas limited edition action figure!" Kacchan argues, his voice getting louder from beside her.
"I do! And I even have the ultra rare trading card that I got from-"
There is a loud knock on the door that startles the three of them, and Ochako hears her father's voice. "Kids! I know you love each other, but it's already late, and I think you should really go to sleep now!"
"I don't l-love them!" Kacchan splutters out indignantly while Ochako and Izu comply with slightly pouting faces.
Ochako snuggles further into the warmth of her blanket, hooking an arm around Kacchan's and another one around Izu's. Izu comes to her side almost immediately, a happy sigh emitting from his mouth while Kacchan jerks away for a little bit, before grumbling quietly under his breath and shuffling closer to her in response.
The next morning, Izu is practically stuck to her back with one of his arms draped across her body, Kacchan's face is buried in the crook of her neck as his arms coiled around one of hers, and Ochako has never felt happier even though some of her body parts are stiff.
She wishes that they could be like this, just the three of them forever.
Even if Kacchan's quirk manifests a week later and Ochako feels scared every time she sees the strange look in his eyes.
XXX
Kacchan is being distant, and Ochako and Izu have no idea why.
Whenever Ochako invites Kacchan over for another sleepover, something she thinks the three of them desperately needs, Kacchan always turns her down. At first it wasn't so bad, the strange look in his eyes being only a small glimmer, but then it got worse. He doesn't call Izu 'Izu' anymore, and calls him 'Deku', a word that Ochako knows that isn't nice at all. He starts calling her 'Round Face' instead of 'Angel Face', and unlike the first time he says it, it's not teasing or good natured.
Ochako doesn't know why he is acting like this, and Izu is just as lost. They stop having their sleepovers because they both agree that they need Kacchan for it to work, and Ochako feels more and more lost as the days go by.
Kacchan hangs out with new kids now, showing off his blasting sparks and sweaty hands, and Ochako doesn't like it one bit.
After a small incident in which Ochako and Izu tags along Kacchan's small expedition with his new 'gang', the relationship between the two boys seem to get worse. Kacchan is snapping and yelling at Izu more often, and Izu is getting hurt and more confused than he had ever been.
She marches up to him one day and asks him why he is being so mean to her and Izu, and he responds in a way that she could never imagine.
"You guys are lame! You both don't even have a quirk yet, and all you do is sit around and be boring! I have new friends now; they think I'm awesome because of my new quirk and they don't look down on me like Deku!" He arrogantly states and puffs out his chest, and Ochako thinks it's only because of that that they befriended him in the first place.
She tells him that. She tells him that they don't look at him for who he truly is; clumsy with emotions and expressing, sweet even though he tries to hide it, passionate and fiery behind a bad temper. His anger flares at that, and before they both know it, Ochako is screaming in pain and Kacchan's hand is sparking and on her forearm.
He recoils from her with a shocked expression, and Ochako knows that he didn't mean to. He never really means any pain that he causes her, and she can see the immediate panic and guilt that reflects in his eyes. But she is in pain and she feels betrayed, and she can't do anything but glare and slap him as she runs away into Izu who she knows is waiting for her at the kindergarten gates.
She doesn't see the hurt in his eyes when she leaps into Izu's arms, crying and sobbing, and when Izu lifts his gaze to look at him with confusion, shock and betrayal all mixed into one, Katsuki feels his heart squeeze even tighter than before.
The trio becomes a duo.
XXX
Katsuki is a bully, she whimpers to her parents. Katsuki is a bully and a meanie and a butt-faced knucklehead and-
Her mother's lips are pursed harshly together as she finishes wrapping Izu's new burn in a bandage, and her father is as stone faced as she is. Ochako doesn't like the way Izu flinches whenever he hears even a small firework spark. She wishes that she could march up to the blonde and whack him with a see-saw, which she technically can now that her quirk manifested, but she doesn't want to stoop to his level and hurt people because of it. Her mother and father try to help them by talking to the principle and the teachers, but no one really does anything and it only makes them angrier. They pamper the two of them with so much love in return that sometimes Ochako feels love-sick. She is glad for their support, but the bullies are still there.
So she settles with remarks and verbal counters when Izu hesitates and fails because their opponent is still Kacchan to him, and tries to ignore the pain whenever he spits mean comments about her as well.
Chubby, fat cheeks, dumbo, Round Face- Ochako feels her self esteem go down every time he mentions her appearance, but fortunately, Izu never lets her put herself down.
Even with his burned hands and scarred skin, he keeps his arms around her and soothes her with a shaking yet firm voice.
"You're not fat or dumb at all," He tells her as he wipes away her tears. "You're pretty, beautiful, and really, really smart! You're better at understanding people than Kacchan is, and I think you need to be really smart to do that! You are amazing Chako-chan, please don't forget that." He kisses both of her chubby cheeks as he says this, and Ochako feels tears of happiness cascade down them instead.
And she returns the favor.
"Don't listen to him, Izu!" She says hotly as she hugs his trembling form, both of them covered in her blanket. "You are the nicest, strongest person I know! He's just being mean because he can, and he wants to hurt you for no reason at all. You don't need to pay him any attention, because you are brave and sweet, and my number one hero. Forever." She kisses his forehead as she says this, and Izu sobs into her shirt. "And besides, I don't think Deku is a bad name. It sounds like 'never give up!' to me!" And his sobs get even louder.
The bullying gets worse when the entire class finds out that he is quirkless, even though they are all four, and Ochako feels like the world is challenging her. More and more people start to pick on her and Izu, laughing at them, making mean remarks, but she has his back and he has hers, so they grow up together with a storm raging around them.
XXX
They grow up to an age where they don't kiss each other's cheeks or foreheads anymore, but they are still closer than close, and Ochako is trying to get smarter and stronger.
They are in their third year of junior high, and she has to get better. She has to get into U.A. because she knows Izu will too, and she wants to go to the same school that he will. The downside is that Katsuki also wants to go to U.A., but she doesn't let that damper her mood.
Even if he starts sprouting about the fact that she and Izu are kidding if they think that they can get in.
"I don't think that that is for you to decide Bakugou," She clenches her teeth and curls her fists, glaring into his red eyes. "We'll do whatever we want to."
"Oh, so the little girl thinks she can do better than me," He sneers, and Ochako wants to hit herself for thinking that he would look better without that nasty expression. "Fat chance! Even if there was a miniscule chance that you can, there's no way that useless Deku will get accepted when he doesn't even have a quirk!"
"T-There's no harm in trying," Izu stutters, but for the first time in a long while, he is standing up to his bully and Ochako feels a swell of pride. "I-I mean, you never know-"
Katsuki pounces and Ochako feels frustrated that she didn't jump into action earlier. She is upset that the teacher never says anything and lets this scene of cruelty occur, but she is far beyond expecting the adults besides their parents to actually care about their well-being.
Katsuki approaches them after school again, stealing Izu's notebook and burning it. Ochako is already mad when he does that, but she can't believe her eyes when he just throws it out the window, as if it is trash.
She hears a distinct plop and feels dread. All that hard work that the both of them did, spending so many nights together, observing hero videos and analyzing- all gone to waste.
When he makes a remark about Izu throwing his own body off the roof, Ochako decides that she cannot hold it any longer.
Her hand snaps out before any of them- even before Katsuki's lackeys- realize and a bright red mark imprints itself onto Katsuki's cheek.
Katsuki whirls his head to look at her in shock, but she ignores it and glares at him with hatred in her soul, and for the first time in a long, long time, she sees him hesitate. She sees the slight guilt in his blood red eyes, but it only makes her blood boil.
Now? She feels like hissing. After all you've done to us, now you decide to feel bad?
"I hate you," She pushes out, and everyone there freezes in place, and she realizes that she has never actually told him that out loud. "You're just a bully, and that's all you'll ever be. You'll never be a hero like All Might. Izu's better than you, he always has been, and he will be the number one hero I'll support with all of my heart."
She then promptly grabs Izu's hand and jumps out the window. She hears shocked voices and screams from many passing people, but Izu just holds on tight to her and she activates her quirk, their landing safe and sound.
The notebook is soaked but not unreadable; Izu tries to cheer her up even though he is probably hurting more than her. But then she looks at him and she sees the overflowing gratitude and endless bottom of affection in the pool of his green eyes, and she doesn't feel like her lungs are trying to choke her anymore.
When Izu nearly gets killed by a slime villain a few minutes later, she feels helpless and weak, and she screams when the thing aims for her next, but then-
Wind. Sharp, blasting wind pours out of nowhere and blows the slime away, and she sees yellow.
The rest is history. She's with Izu every step of the way. She learns of All Might's secret that he isn't supposed to reveal to anyone- much less to two little kids- and feels disappointment when even All Might says that Izu's dream is impossible. Then she nearly has a heart attack when Izu rushes forward to save Katsuki, out of all people, from the slime villain, and suddenly, she's crying with her best friend on the ground when All Might appears in front of them, telling Izu that he can be a hero.
She is proud and happy, and feels like life is finally offering them a piece of hope.
She isn't supposed to hear the small, exact details, but Izu is persistent. He convinces All Might that he wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her, and that he wants her to know everything. All Might is very hesitant, telling her that it would be a huge burden that it isn't even hers to carry.
She cheekily remarks by saying, "If it's a burden that big, I don't want to leave Izu alone with it. He still can't even hold two litres of bottled soda."
"Hey!" He protests immediately, his cheeks turning red. "You used your quirk, so that's not fair! Don't bring that up now!"
All Might gives in eventually, and Ochako and Izu are in it together. They train hard, Izu's training schedule even harsher than hers because his was made by All Might while the both of them made hers, and study when they don't feel like collapsing.
As she nearly falls asleep in class, she realizes that Katsuki isn't picking on them as he used to anymore, but that thought quickly fades away when the teacher yells at her to stay awake.
The entrance test arrives faster than expected, and she stifles her laughter when All Might offers a strand of hair to Izu and tells him to eat it.
Izu looks flabbergasted, horrified and confused at the same time.
XXX
Ochako isn't so sure whether she should be proud or really, impossibly angry when Izu jumps higher than she could ever imagine and whams a huge mechanical robot in the face while breaking almost every bone in his body.
She settles for being both, and they both get accepted to U.A.
She meets new people. A frog-looking girl named Tsuyu, a girl with spiky black hair named Yaoyorozu, a boy with half red half white hair- and a bunch of people she would grow accustomed with later.
The quirk apprehension test is tough, and she is glad for that infinity on the ball throwing test, but nearly steps up and punches Katsuki in the face when he accuses Izu of imaginary crimes against him.
She and Izu befriend a new guy with darkish blue hair and square glasses, and his name is Iida Tenya. They immediately try to come up with a nickname, something Iida found strange, yet endearing. They settle on the name Ten-kun and the bespectacled teen blushes bashfully. Ochako thinks that he is quite cute and funny, and secretly hopes for him to be a part of their group with no name.
When she compliments him on his appearance and personality, Ten-kun looks flustered, and Izu seems more pouty than usual. She doesn't know why Izu is making that face, so she tries to make it up to him by offering her last piece of meat and patting his head. It works only for a little bit, because she can still hear him muttering about something under his breath as the three of them walk back to class.
There are many lessons that leave a strong first impression on her, but one of the most impactful lessons has their first battle trial in it. She appears in a skin tight, pink suit that she didn't expect, and embarrassedly whispers to Izu that they should have been more specific when they designed their costumes together.
Izu stiffly nods, not looking at her and Ochako wonders why. His face seems to be flushed, and his eyes swim around. She doesn't understand why until a short, purple haired boy practically drools at her outfit, and Ochako suddenly feels like hiding.
The stares on her body makes her feel like she is a little kid again, being belittled by-
Izu snaps to attention almost immediately after that, and she's surprised when he practically growls at the short boy. He bites his lip and looks at her with flushed cheeks, and tells her not to listen to him or anybody who makes rude comments on her body, because she is beautiful and perfect, and she deserves all the sweet praises in the world.
She feels like fainting, but nods back with a red face, unaware of all the surprised stares surrounding them. From a small distance away, Katsuki feels his fist tighten as the disgusting feeling of something unknown to him churns in his chest (He knows what he's feeling, but he pretends not to, like every single time).
The big incident at USJ happens, and Ochako barely remembers it all. Her memory consists of fighting against villains, a gray haired boy with blood red eyes who for some reason, screamed loneliness to her, All Might battling a huge black monster, and panicking when she realized that All Might was nearly about to reveal his true form to the students.
More time passes, and they are in the middle of the sports festival. She is squaring off against Katsuki, and although no one else but the three of them know, the fact that they used to be friends sends a bitter pain through her heart.
Katsuki's eyes are unreadable, on guard, but when he blasts her with his quirk, she notices his arm shaking even more than it probably should, and feels slight relief that she isn't the only one affected by their history. She loses against him, of course she does - she thinks to herself bitterly - but he doesn't insult her, or do anything of the sort. After she is carried away by the stretcher and healed by recovery girl, she is surprised to find him in her resting room.
"Ka-Bakugou?" She catches herself, her lip trembling. Katsuki notices her slip-up, and his lips twitch slightly, but revert back into a scowl. He stands up with the chair making a screeching noise, and grabs her collar and brings his face close to hers.
"Round Face," He snarls with anger evident in his eyes. "Why the fuck would you pull such a stupid, suicidal move on me, huh? Did fucking Deku set you up for this?"
A spark of anger flashes through her veins, and she reaches up to grab his wrist. "He didn't," She responds curtly. "I thought of it all by myself. Do you have a problem with that?"
Foreign emotions flicker in his eyes, and she barely manages to recognize them as worry, pride- when he lets go of her and leaves the room as if he is an angry storm.
After she is done crying and talking to her parents on the phone, Izu is fighting against Todoroki, someone who Ochako had originally thought to be cold and stoic. But then she realizes that the boy is so much more and Izu can't seem to leave him alone. She makes a mental note to talk to the taller boy later.
She doesn't have the chance until one fateful day during summer vacation. There were quite eventful happenings, the incident in Hosu which Izu revealed everything to her about, the final exams in which she made a new friend called Aoyama-kun, and running into the gray haired boy who called himself a villain.
Momo had phoned the class 1-A girls for a day at the pool, and the boys happened to join along. It got a little hectic after someone suggested a race, but Ochako was never one to back down from a challenge.
"Ooh, ooh, hey, can I join too?" She bounces up and down, her hand in the air. "I want to try and race against you guys too!"
Most of her male classmates look shocked, but Izu and Katsuki didn't seem particularly so. The blonde merely lets out a small scoff at her request while Izu beams and agrees.
She kicks a lot of asses, but not all. She still loses to Todoroki and Izu and Katsuki and Ten-kun, which wasn't really fair because most of them used their quirks.
Surprisingly, Todoroki was the one that came up to her after their race.
"Uraraka," Todoroki says a little awkwardly. "Good race."
She lets out a small laugh and flashes a bright smile at him. "Thank you! By the way, Izu and I were planning on eating at a fast food restaurant later, do you want to come? I'm sure Izu wouldn't mind!"
Izu, of course, didn't mind, and Todoroki becomes Sho-chan that day.
XXX
Katsuki has been kidnapped a few days ago, and although Ochako still doesn't like him, she feels worry for him. She isn't blind; Katsuki is not exactly the mean buttface from her past anymore, and she doesn't like it that guilt is eating Izu up either.
So when Kirishima suggests taking him back, she goes along with them. Their little group has Momo, Izu, Ten-kun, Sho-chan, and Kirishima, and although she is a little more than worried, she tries to stay optimistic.
The heavy tension is slightly broken when Momo suggests for them to get disguises, and suddenly, Ochako is wearing a quite revealing dress to pair with Momo, and Izu doesn't look at her again.
("Midoriya~, you sly dog!" Kirishima teased the flushed greenette as he nudged him in the side. Izuku could only squeak in protest.
"K-Kirishima-kun?! It's not what you think-"
"Kirishima, give it a rest." Sho-chan interrupted, although there were signs of a smile on his face. "I know how you feel though."
Izuku snapped his head towards his other friend. "Sho-chan!"
"What?" He tilted his head in false innocence. Izuku groaned and slapped his hands to his forehead as Kirishima snickered in the background.)
The heavy air returns when they encounter a villain way too out of their league, but then Katsuki appears and Ochako can't seem to focus on anything but him anymore. She sees panic, fear and worry in his red eyes, and feels overwhelmed with emotions of her own.
She wants to save him. They come up with a plan, and she knows that only Kirishima is able to fulfill a certain role.
But then an unexpected thing happens; one of the villains actually manages to nick Kirishima who had let his guard down, and blood is dripping from his arm. Kirishima hisses in pain, Ochako panics and reaches out.
"KACCHAN!" She screams, tears in her eyes. She sees his eyes widen and her voice trembles. "COME BACK TO US!"
Us. She prayed. Them. Izu, Ochako and Kacchan.
Powerful blasts explode from his hands, and he's soaring and suddenly, he's there, grabbing her hand with more power than necessary. His eyes are glinting with wetness and his voice raspy, but she can hear him.
"Idiot," He breathes, choking slightly. "Angel Face."
Ochako feels like crying.
XXX
Time passes, and almost everyone in the classroom has a nickname now. People from other classes look at her weirdly when she uses them in places like the hallways, but she doesn't care. Slowly, their nicknames seem to spread across the school, and now, she has nicknames for Monoma, Kendo, Tetsutetsu, Ibara, and Shinsou as well.
Izu follows her, calling them with childish hope that they would respond, and although they're already high scholars, they respond, some a little more embarrassed than others.
But the biggest change? Their relationship with Katsuki.
She reverts from calling his last name to Kacchan, and Kacchan doesn't call her Round Face in a hurtful way anymore. He still calls Izu Deku, but the venom and hate isn't quite there. He still doesn't like talking to him, but he talks to her occasionally, and Ochako sees that he is trying to make progress.
So she invites him to help her make a few batches of cookies for her dorm mates because they both know how bad she is at baking, and he accepts.
"Angel Face, you're not supposed to put that in! Haven't you read the damn recipe?!"
"I did, I swear! But, I just thought, you know, wouldn't it be nice if-"
"NO. Follow the damn recipe or I'll chuck you out of the kitchen."
"But it was my idea!"
"I can still kick you out!"
She wants to mend their relationship. They had been through hateful phase, but she still remembers the innocent fun that they used to have before quirks came in and made everything weird. She thinks that it is possible to start over again, so she dishes out her secret weapon.
"Sleepover at my room, tonight." She says in utter seriousness. "Don't bail out."
"Why the fuck do I have to-"
"You know, we stopped having sleepovers after you pushed us away." She quickly intervenes. "Izu and I both agreed that we didn't want to do this without you. You're back now. Please, let's do it again?" She sticks out her bottom lip, looks up at him with teary, big eyes and he buckles, just like how he used to when they were kids.
The three of them are like sardines in a can that night. Her bed being too small, the floor takes over its place and Ochako is squished between the two of them. She feels a little weird; both of them are grown up and muscular while she's still the soft, little girl in between.
Katsuki refuses to talk to, or even look at Izu, so Ochako and Izu do most of the talking. But sometimes, she hears small snorts and scoffs, with a couple of grunts, so she knows that he is listening to their idle chatter.
"You know," She whispers softly. "I'm glad that we can do this again."
She hears shuffling and turns her head to look at Izu, who was facing her. He smiles at her and shuffles closer, and she freezes when his lips press against her cheek.
"Me too." He remarks shyly, his cheeks flushing as his eyes glimmer. She feels her heart soar as she smiles back at him.
Kacchan lets out a grunt, and Ochako is reminded of what to do next. She turns over to him, wraps her arms around his strong body and presses a kiss to the back of his neck. He literally freezes in place, and she whispers one more time, "Thank you."
She sleeps facing upwards that night, sandwiched between a frozen statue and glowing angel.
When she wakes up the next day, she's stuck in Katsuki's embrace, his blonde hair falling over his closed eyes and his peaceful expression. Izu's pressed up against her back with his face buried in the crook of her neck, his curly hair ticklish along with his breath. She feels hot all of a sudden, but at the same time, a nostalgic feeling takes control and she falls asleep again.
(The three of them are unaware of the small space between the door and the wall, and the flashes from a couple of phones until Ochako catches them later. She's glad that Katsuki didn't see the pictures, until she lets her guard down and there are suddenly explosions and red faces with flustered yelling everywhere.)
The trio, although still quite shaky and vulnerable, is sort of back together, and Ochako thanks the universe with all her might.
She promises to never let go no matter what happens, and the universe agrees.
XXX
Katsuki isn't blind. He knows that Ochako is special; he always had since the first time they met when her big, brown eyes entrapped his. He doesn't dare say anything sappy to her because Deku's the one who sprouts off that nonsense, not him, but he feels himself falling, falling, deeper and deeper.
He blames her for being her.
When he wakes up in the middle of the night during another one of their sleepovers, he sees Deku looking at her like she's the centre of his world. He doesn't like it. He moves closer towards her and traps her in arms and Deku's gaze spikes up to meet his.
Kacchan, his eyes seem to say.
Deku, he scowls back, but the puny little boy doesn't back down. Instead, he shuffles closer to the two of them, and puts his arm around the both of them.
He freezes, and looks into his eyes once more.
I forgive you, thank you, his eyes seem to say, and Katsuki wants to punch him for being a know-it-all, like he's always been.
He closes his eyes and dreams of them as four year olds, back when the world was simple.
*Omake*
She's in the lounge room with Sho-chan one year later, when she has a huge revelation after reading an 'average' teen magazine that Mi-chan (Mina) recommended.
"Sho-chan."
"Yes, Ochako?"
"Chako."
"Chako."
"I think there's something wrong with me."
"Why?"
"I think… I like Izu. Romantically."
"Hm. Didn't you always?"
"…And Kacchan. At the same time."
"…"
"…"
"Oh. Ok."
One of the reasons why Sho-chan is her counselor.
Unknown to her, the next day, Izu comes to Shouto for advice and Kacchan follows after him the day after, albeit, a lot more hostile and brash.
Shouto briefly thinks that he could start a business.
Practicing using present tense and I couldn't help it. My fantasy OT3. It would be so cute if the three of them hung out together.
Headcannons: Izuku and Ochako are two sweet angels who give everyone in class 1-A, plus a few others, nicknames. They don't mind. They like it. Even Kacchan does. Why do you think he lets them call him that?
Shouto is definitely best wing-man. Along with Eijirou.
~LunaricFairy12~