Ochaco sat bolt upright, hastily tossing her bedsheets off of herself. She gasped for air and tried to slow her frantic breathing as her eyes swept around her darkened room, her senses on overdrive. She glanced over at the small digital clock that sat next to her bed. The bright display read 1:30.
Ochaco took a deep breath, trying to regain her composure. It was the nightmare again. The same as last night, the same as the night before that. She'd been plagued by the same recurring dream every night for over a week, and each night she woke up terrified and drenched in sweat, as she was now.
She could still see it clearly, even after waking up so suddenly - Herself looking on helplessly as Izuku and the others snuck out to try and save Bakugo. The newscaster covering the carnage in Kamino. All Might delivering horrible, disturbing, heart-wrenching news.
"Ah, young Uraraka," he'd start, his face sunken and pale, "I'm afraid to say… young Midoriya is… no longer with us." She could clearly see the pain and torment on All Might's face, but could only imagine the look of horror on her own.
She laid back down, staring at the ceiling, her breathing still heavy. The worst part was, despite knowing that it wasn't real, despite knowing that Izuku had come back from Kamino okay, she still woke up with tears threatening to roll down her face.
She wiped her eyes and sighed. There was no chance she'd be able to get back to sleep now. She slipped out of bed and out of her room, making her way down to the dorm lobby, still dressed in the pink shorts and white shirt she'd fallen asleep in.
The wood floors creaked quietly beneath Ochaco's feet as she crept into the lobby. She made her way towards the kitchen looking to grab a glass of water, before she stopped, catching sight of a familiar shock of green hair peeking above one of the couches. She crept over to the couch and peeked over it, confirming her suspicions. Izuku lay there, asleep, one of his many hero notebooks laying open on his chest. He was dressed in a pair of shorts and a rumpled black T-Shirt. Ochaco smiled. She'd better wake him up, he'd get in trouble if he found himself there in the morning.
She moved around to the front of the couch and shook him, trying to wake him up.
"Hey Deku, you gotta wake up. You'll be in trouble if you aren't in your room come morning," she whispered. Izuku's eyes fluttered open, and he sat up, letting out a yawn. His hero notebook fell to the cushion beside him.
"Uraraka? What're you doing here?" He asked.
Ochaco laughed. "Says the one asleep on the couch."
Izuku's eyes snapped open, and he was fully awake within moments. "Ah crap, I fell asleep! It's not morning is it? Mr. Aizawa is gonna kill me for breaking curfew-"
"No, Deku, it's not morning," Ochaco said, interrupting him. "It's one A.M, you've got plenty of time to make your way back upstairs. Why are you down here, anyways?" She asked, sitting down beside him.
Izuku picked up his hero notebook. "Well, I haven't been sleeping well recently. I've been having nightmares and stuff, so I've been coming down here and going over my hero notes. It helps me relax."
"Hey," Ochaco said, "I've been having nightmares too. That's why I'm down here, I guess."
Izuku looked surprised. "Really? What about?"
"Oh, they're about-" Ochaco stopped herself before she blurted out the answer. God, that would have been beyond embarrassing. "They're about… classmates. Everything's just been really dangerous lately, you know?"
Izuku nodded. "Yeah. I'm worried someone's gonna get hurt. I dunno how I'd keep going without you all. You in particular, Uraraka." They were quiet for a moment before Izuku realized what he'd said. His face turned scarlet and he started to stutter. "I mean, like you're a really good friend, and I- And you're awesome, and- That sounded different than I meant it too, and-"
Ochaco put a finger to his lips, laughing. "I know what you meant, Deku. Thanks. I don't know what I'd do without you, either." She leaned back against the couch and stared out the large window in front of them. "It's really pretty out at night, don't you think? I don't know why, but something about the stars calms me down. They always have, since I was a little kid. I used to sneak out and sit on the sidewalk and stare up at the stars. My parents always gave me an earful for that," she said.
Izuku laughed. "I've always just gone over my hero notes. My mom would come into my room in the morning and yell at me for staying up the whole night, surrounded by my notebooks, but I'd just keep doing it night after night. Guess I never learned. I wonder what my mom would say if she saw me now, doing the same old thing I did at home."
Ochaco laughed, too. "I think your mom would be more concerned with the fact that you're up late with a girl. I think she'd faint."
Izuku smiled. "Definitely. I didn't think she was going to make it through the night that time you and Iida came over to study." He picked up his notebook and started to flip through it.
As the pages flipped past, one in particular caught Ochaco's eye.
"Hey, that was a page about me!" She said. "Go back to it. I wanna see what you've written about me."
Izuku laughed and flipped back a couple pages. "Okay. I don't have much, but here it is."
Ochaco scooted in closer, pressing up against Izuku's side to see the notebook. Izuku tenses up at the sudden contact.
"Not much?" Ochaco said, laughing. "You've got a ton! There must be three pages of notes, just on me!"
Izuku scratched his head nervously. "Yeah, that's not a lot for what I normally have. I've got almost thirty two pages on All Might."
Ochaco started laughing harder. "You really are a crazy fanboy, aren't you?"
"Yeah, I guess…" Izuku said sheepishly. He continued to flip through the notebook, showing her more pages about her and their various classmates. She'd laugh at the cartoonish illustrations and listen carefully as he explained his thinking, enjoying the whole experience while leaning against him. He loosened up as the night went on, relaxing into the position. Soon enough, they were nearly laying down on the couch. Izuku was still pretty calm about it as the two flipped through his notebook, so Uraraka was pretty sure he wasn't quite awake. She really wasn't either. Her mind was foggy. She knew she should be returning to her room soon, but she really didn't care. It was much nicer here with Izuku.
Ochaco leaned her head back against Izuku as he yawned in the middle of a sentence, closed her eyes, and smiled.
XXX
"You two are honestly the last two I'd expect."
Ochaco's eyes blinked open and she sat up quickly, remembering where she was. Before her stood Mr. Aizawa, his familiar dead-inside expression staring back at her, and a cup of coffee in his hand. She and Izuku were majorly screwed.
Aizawa pointed at the clock. It read 5:45 "I've got no idea how long you two've been here, but I'm going to assume it was all night." Ochaco nodded, her face bright red. Izuku was still asleep on the couch beside her. Aizawa rolled his eyes. "I'll punish you two later. Now wake him up and get back to your rooms before you give your classmates any bright ideas about breaking curfew." He took a long sip of his coffee and meandered out of the building, the sound of the door closing behind him like a gunshot amidst the silence.
Ochaco sighed, the color disappearing from her face. She looked down at Izuku. Well, at least it'd been a nice night.
Well that was fun to write. Hope it was fun to read, as well. I'll probably post something else in the next day or two, so look forward to that. No clue if it'll be another oneshot of these two or not, tho.