Long ago in a far away land there was a small but prosperous kingdom. The Queen was beautiful and warm, and her bright smile was only rivaled by her love for her people. The King was handsome and kind, and he always treated the people fairly. There was no happier day in the kingdom than when the beloved King and Queen gave birth to a beautiful baby girl.
Uraraka Ochako, the crown princess of the kingdom of Uravity, was born on a warm Thursday morning and even the birds wanted to sing her arrival into the world. They said that rather than crying after she was born, as most children did, the baby princess took one look at her parents and smiled so brightly that it brought tears to the eyes of everyone in the room.
The palace staff doted on the young princess, and she grew into an adorable and happy child. She loved to help out anyone she could, and tried her best to sit quietly for the lessons she had. To know the princess was to love her, everyone said.
However, when the princess reached her thirteenth birthday, things began to change. The princess was still as friendly and kind as her parents before her, but there was something off about her. Strange growths came out of her fingertips, and sometimes when she touched things they began to float in the most unnatural way.
Her parents and the palace staff were beside themselves. They called doctors and healers from across the kingdom, trying to find the source of the princesses strange ailment, yet there was none. As the princess grew older, her power grew with her. What was once only stray objects soon become larger objects until occasionally she could even float people if she touched them. The princess tried to suppress her power, but it was in vain. She began to wear gloves at all times in order to keep the magic at bay, but she was plagued by nausea and pain as she held back the strange magic.
As the princess neared her eighteenth birthday, the power grew strong enough that even the barrier of the gloves was not enough to protect from her power. Finally, it reached a breaking point, and it was beginning to become impossible to hide it from the citizens.
The princess traveled with her mother and father to the outskirts of the kingdom. In a crumbling cabin, there lived on old witch doctor, ostracized from society because of his dark nature and tendency to speak in words that no one could understand.
"Send her away," the shadowy witch doctor said, and Ochako clutched her mother's hand tighter at the horrid thought.
The witch doctor chuckled darkly and without humor. It was a painful sound and Ochako felt her mother shiver. "It sounds like the young princess has a curse," he had said.
"Who would want to curse us?" Ochako's father asked.
The witch doctor waved a dismissive hand. "I know not." He focused his eyes, devoid of all emotion, onto Ochako and she shivered. "But curses are tricky things. Best to send her away and let the magic do its work."
Ochako's mother clutched her hand tighter. "Will she be hurt?"
The witch doctor waved the question away. "Curses work in strange ways. It shouldn't progress beyond what it is. But, suppressing the power is clearly beyond her, so it is best if you send her away."
The witch doctor had refused to say anymore on the subject, and the royals had left with heavy hearts.
It was a few days later when Ochako realized the true, well, gravity of the situation.
Everything had been packed in her quarters, and she was moving, doing what the creepy man had told them. Ochako made an effort not to cry as the carriage she rode in with her parents pulled away from the only home she had ever known. The comforts of the palace staff, the warmth of the citizens when Ochako walked out among them, it was all over.
"It's for your own good, darling," her mother had said, struggling to hold back her own tears.
Ochako wouldn't let any tears fall as she focused outside the window. "Yes, of course. I understand."
She had to be strong. This was for her parents and their kingdom. They couldn't have their daughter be a freak. They had to focus on the kingdom.
Ochako had no idea how long they traveled. It all blurred together. They traveled far away from the well populated city she knew and loved. They stopped periodically, for food and rest, and Ochako didn't really remember much as she ate mechanically and laid down on hard cramped beds. She was never sure if she really slept, but went through the routine anyway. Soon even the scattered farms were left behind as the road they followed become smaller and more uneven.
At one point, in the dim twilight, Ochako could made out a forest up ahead, and right in front of that, a small sturdy tower made of stone. It was a cute prison, and Ochako could see herself wading in the small stream next to it and gardening in the patches of earth around the base.
There was a dragon, just as her father had said. Being so close to the woods and so far out of the city, made it dangerous and a breeding ground for thieves. The dragon was there to protect her, but Ochako also had a feeling that the beast had strict orders not to let her wander too far away. The dragon was large, able to curl completely around the base of the tower and rest its head on its tail. It's scales were a sandy color, and Ochako thought it asleep until it rose its head when they exited the carriage. Its eyes were a piercing red, almost glowing in the dim light.
Ochako was distracted from the dragon with the hustle and bustle of arrival. The dragon uncurled itself around the tower, allowing them all entrance and curling up on one side of it. Servants moved around them, bringing her belongings into the tower quickly and efficiently. It was mostly clothes and books, with a few scattered knick-knacks and portraits to remember home.
Once everything was inside, Ochako insisted she could do the rest, and bid goodbye to the servants that she had known all her life. It was challenging, but she knew the hardest part had yet to come.
"You'll be safe here Ochako," Her father promised, hugging her tightly. "No one will hurt you here." It was left unsaid that she wouldn't be able to hurt anyone here either. Ochako decided not to think about that for now and let herself be comforted by her father's warm arms for as long as she could.
Her mother's warm hug was next. "We love you, Ochako. We love you so much."
Ochako tried again not to cry, but she couldn't stop a few tears from escaping. "I love you both too."
They left quickly after that, which Ochako was thankful for. She tried to hold it together until the carriage was out of sight, and she knew they wouldn't be able to see. This was hard for her parents too. She shouldn't make it any harder.
"So, it looks like it's just you and me then," she said, letting the smile fall and looking over at her dragon companion.
The dragon snorted, a puff of smoke coming from its nose with the harsh sound. "Just you." It put it's large head back down as if to sleep.
Ochako was frozen. The dragon had just spoken to her, with a very human voice. It was deep, and more of a growl than any human's voice could be, but still. It could talk.
"You can talk?!" Ochako felt herself gesticulating wildly, a habit that many governesses had tried to break her of without much luck.
The dragon opened one bright red eye too look at her. "Tch. Fucking obviously."
Ochako was quick to back track. "I'm sorry, That was rude of me! I've never met a dragon before."
He rolled his eyes dramatically. "Clearly."
"I'm sorry again! What's your name? Mine's Ura-"
He snorted again, and the powerful blast cut her off. "I know who you are, Princess." Her title was dripping with scorn. "Your dad paid me a fuck ton to watch your tower, so that's what I'm going to do."
There was a moment of silence where Ochako searched for what to say. "You never said your name. What should I call you?"
He huffed. "Bakugou."
"Hello Bakugou, it's nice to meet you!"
"Uh huh," the dragon answered. "Why are you here anyway? I don't care or anything, but most people don't abandon their only kid to a fucking dragon."
Ochako kicked the dirt at her feet self consciously. It couldn't hurt to tell the dragon. He was stuck here the same as her. "I'm cursed."
"Cursed?" The dragon lifted his head up, suddenly more interested in the conversation.
Ochako wiggled her gloved fingers. "When I touch things, they start to float into the sky, and they don't always come back down. My parents were scared, and the kingdom can't know, so they hid me here."
The dragon looked annoyed, putting his head back down. "That's not a fucking curse. You just have a Quirk."
"A Quirk?" Ochako asked, tasting the unfamiliar word on her tongue. It sounded foreign, perhaps from the kingdom to the west? Ochako's kingdom was rather isolated and she never had been able to pick up languages well.
"Damn, I thought you were supposed to be smart or something," the dragon said, and Ochako bristled. "A Quirk is a blessing from the gods. They're supposed to be a fucking miracle or something. Most people had them where I'm from."
"Where are you from?" Ochako asked. Bakugou huffed and didn't answer the question.
Ochako took a deep breath. This magic had ruined her life. "Well, where I'm from it is a curse, and this magic has forced my own parents to exile me to this tower until it breaks."
"Fine, stay in the stupid tower for all I care," Bakugou said scornfully. "I get paid the longer you're here, so whatever."
"You aren't very nice!" Ochako informed him. Bakugou did not seem bothered by this information as he closed his eyes and went back to sleep again. She slammed the door behind her anyway.
The tower quickly became her new normal. The first floor was wide open other than a large fireplace in the middle, and consistent mainly of a practical kitchen on one side and a comfy sitting room with enough room for her books on the other. A staircase ran around the edge, and the next floor was set up as a cosy bedroom for her. There were three other floors with rooms, but she had no use for them, so Ochako kept them closed. She did like to sit on the large open roof. The view of the open countryside was beautiful and soaking up the sun was so relaxing.
Bakugou came and went freely, and Ochako was only a little jealous. He had to eat, she supposed, and she knew that she could clearly never feed his appetite. Every week, Bakugou came back with a bundle of supplies clutched in his claws, and Ochako supposed this was the way that her parents were helping her without letting her near normal people. It was sweet of them, and Ochako cried when she found the strawberry pastries she liked so much in the first bundle.
Cooking had been a challenge. As a child, Ochako had been friendly and curious, and her mother had joked that she could make friends with anyone. She had spent time with all the household staff, and that did give her some experience in the kitchen. However, being completely in charge of all her eating was completely different than occasioning stirring something while the cooks all gushed over how adorable she was.
Another challenge that she had never face was getting water. It had always been something that was just there when she was at the palace, but now on her own, she had to make her way down to the stream with buckets and fill as much as she could carry. It was exhausting.
Three days into her stay, tired of Bakugou's snickering as she struggled with the heavy buckets of water, Ochako took advantage of her seclusion to use her curse. Pulling off the gloves she usually wore, Ochako touched the bucket, filled halfway with water. It floated gently up, sloshing gently over the sides as it tipped a bit, and Ochako straightened it out with careful touches.
"That you're Quirk?" Bakugou asked from behind her. Somehow the dragon had snuck up on her, and the bucket fell from the air, pouring the water out all over the grass.
"My curse," she corrected snappishly.
"You're not super good at it," the dragon observed.
Ochako screamed wordlessly and stomped her way back to the tower. It was only after she had slammed the door behind her that she realized she didn't get any of the water she wanted.
The next time that Ochako tried to use her curse, she made sure that the dragon had left. She went back down to the stream where she had left her buckets, and carefully filled one with water again.
This time Ochako held onto the rim with both hands as she used her curse. The previously heavy bucket became as light as air in her hands, and it was easy to carry it back to the tower.
Of course, once she reached the tower, the dilemma of how to get it down occurred to her. Ochako never really thought about getting the objects down before. They usually came back to earth after a long enough time, or if she stopped thinking about them. She couldn't exactly stop thinking about the bucket unless she let it go, but if she let go, then the water in it could fall and that would make this whole thing pointless.
She was still trying to figure out the problem five minutes later as the bucket grew heavy once again in her arms. Surprised by the sudden weight, Ochako dropped the whole bucket outside the doorway, leaving the water to hit the grass and soak her feet.
This was ridiculous. This was her curse, and here, where no one could see her, she was going to figure it out. Thankfully, she knew one person who seemed to know about the strange magic.
Ochako sat on the grass in front of the tower as she waited for the dragon to come back. He was never gone for long, and sure enough, just as she was debating finding something to do, she heard the steady wing beats of the dragon.
Looking up, she caught sight of his sandy scales and watched him make as way down into the clearing.
"How are you?" Ochako asked the dragon. Manners had been drilled into her from a young age.
"Fucking fantastic," he snapped back, and Ochako was wondering how he was already annoyed with her. "What do you want, shorty?"
"I want you to tell me about Quirks," she told him, deciding ignoring the insult was the best course of action. The foreign word rolled off her lips slowly.
He looked a bit less angry, so she supposed he was interested. Although his draconic face was proving harder to read than she had thought. "What about Quirks?"
She took a deep breath. "How to control them."
The dragon let out a deep growl-filled laugh, and a wicked smile curved across his lips, baring some pretty terrifying teeth.
"You really are a dumbass," he got out through his laugh. "It's not something you fucking control, shorty. It's a part of you. You got an arm, you got a leg, you got a Quirk. It's just there."
Ochako pulled up the grass beneath her in agitation. "Then why won't it work right!"
"You have to practice, dumbass," Bakugou told her. The same way one would explain a bedtime to a particularly stubborn child. Ochako supposed that made sense. She had always been trying to suppress the magic, she never really tried to use it before being here. It scared everyone at the palace, including Ochako herself, so she had always tried as hard as she could to pretend she was normal.
"Practice, huh?" She pondered. The curse, if it even was a curse, didn't seem to show any sign of leaving her, so she may as well learn how to control it. "You know about this magic, so can you help me?"
"You want me to help you?" the dragon asked, and Ochako could hear the doubt in his tone.
"Please help me, Bakugou?" Ochako asked, and she made her eyes look as sad as possible. The same trick she had used on the cook to get extra sweets as a child.
The dragon looked away from her. "Well, I guess there isn't anything else to fucking do around here."
Ochako brought the water up manually that day, deciding that getting the job done was more important than the practice for the moment. After she used some of the water to wash a few dishes from the morning, as well as finish up a few other household chores, she went back outside to practice.
"Start small," the dragon advised without any prompting. He was upright and attentive, and Ochako didn't realize how bored he must have been before this. She reached for the bucket again. "Smaller than that, dumbass! You clearly have no idea what you're doing. Just use a fucking rock or something."
Supposing that idea sounded smart, Ochako touch a rock roughly the size of her hand next to her, and it began to rise steadily.
"At least you can do that," Bakugou commented, but Ochako was getting better at ignoring him.
"It's getting it down that's the problem," she told him, watching the rock float up as high as the dragon's head.
He snorted a puff of smoke, making to rock stutter in the air around him. "That should be the easy part. Just let go."
"It's not that simple!" Ochako snapped at him.
"Of course it fucking is!" He snapped back, a bit of a growl in the words. "This power is yours. Act like it!"
Ochako concentrated hard on the rock, trying to visualize that she was dropping it out of her hand.
"It helps to talk sometimes," Bakugou advised, surprisingly helpful. "Has to do with intent or something."
Ochako took a deep breath and focused on the little bobbing rock. She was a princess and this was a rock, and Ochako had never been someone who took defeat sitting down. "Release!" She ordered it.
The rock fell obediently to the ground, and there was a moment of silence as the rock hit the earth.
"Did you see that?" Ochako crowed in victory, throwing her hands up in the air triumphantly. Take that curse.
"Not as shitty as it could have been," Bakugou acknowledged. "Now you gotta do it again."
The lessons continued everyday after that. She was unsure if Bakugou's aggressive teaching method was a strategy to get her frustrated and angry enough to try harder, or if he was just an ass. Either way, it was working well enough, so Ochako didn't question it.
There were some days that were better than others as she learned. Ochako grew frustrated on days where little progress was made, but she supposed this was better than where she had been before she started. Ochako got to the point where she could activate and deactivate the floating at will, even floating multiple objects at once! Her new skills made it easier to get water, which had been the goal, but Bakugou had pushed her beyond that. He showed her how it could be used for protection or even to attack someone. Ochako wasn't a big fan of those lessons, but she could see how defending herself could be helpful in the long run.
On one memorable day, Ochako had been so fed up with Bakugou's biting comments that she had made him float to shut him up. They had never tried on an object as big as the dragon, so Bakugou lost his train of thought as the surprise of floating hit him.
Terrified that perhaps she had gone too far, Ochako had stood frozen as the dragon floated up above her. The tense silence was broken as Bakugou let out a thick dragon laugh, slightly laced with hysteria.
"Even you can learn new tricks!" the dragon cackled from the air, and Ochako let out of breath of relief at his reaction. She brought her hands together in a way that she learned help her visualize the release, but Bakugou called out to stop her. "Don't do that, dumbass! Let's see what you can fucking do, Princess. Hit everything you can with your Quirk."
Nodding decisively, Ochako made their way around the tower, sending up rocks and tools. She sent up her buckets and the pile of wood that she had been preparing for when it started to get cold. She ventured closer into the woods and sent up large fallen trees and boulders from the edge. Anything that wasn't firmly in the ground went into the air. She started to feel dizzy and had to ignore the dragon above her urging her to stop.
When Ochako was on her knees for the fourth time, she couldn't get up anymore. Looking above her, the sky was filled with things that should not be there, and Bakugou had a strange expression on his dragon face. She was too exhausted to work it out, and too proud of all that she accomplished to dwell on it. Bringing her hands together, Ochako carefully released all of her magic and let the objects float gently back down to the ground.
"Damn, Princess, you are insane," Bakugou said, although his tone was more impressed than disdainful. Ochako threw up in the bushes, but she felt more alive than she ever had before.
Training became a lot harder after that, and Ochako did not regret a single moment.
Ochako was quick to learn that pushing herself beyond her limit was not a great way to maintain improvement, as the day after her stunt with floating the dragon, and everything else she could get her hands on, was brutal. She woke up nauseous and weak, and even Bakugou wouldn't let her do any training with how bad she looked.
Deciding that maybe this was for the best when even getting the water made her need to take constant breaks, Ochako pulled out a well loved book and made her way down to the stream. Pulling up her skirts around her, Ochako sat on the bank with her feet in the cool water as she read her book.
She had been reading for some time when, out of the corner of her eye, she saw Bakugou edging closer to stream. She supposed he must be bored without their normal training time. It was his own fault, though since he forced her to take it easy today.
He didn't say anything at first, and Ochako let him come next to her without looking away from the book.
"I don't suppose you have a decent fucking taste in books?" Bakugou asked after a while.
Ochako looked up at him. He was laying next to her, his head down level with her and pearing at the book cover. She showed him the title to make it easier as she explained. "It's about a fairy that falls in love with a human, but the evil fairy queen forbid fairies from talking to humans long ago, so they have to meet in secret."
He scoffed. "Sounds fucking boring."
"Do you read a lot of books?" She asked him curiously.
He snapped his jaw angrily, flexing his claws. "Bit hard to like this, don't you think, dumbass?"
Ochako felt her cheeks heat up with embarrassment. "Right, of course." She paused for a moment, fingering back to the beginning of the book. "I could read it to you if you want."
"Tch," he answered, which wasn't really an answer at all. Bakugou laid his head down on the ground next to her and fixed her with a piercing stare. "Well?!" He prompted.
"A long time ago, in a land very different than the one we live in now, there were two lovers," Ochako started, and the dragon's eyes slipped closed as he listened. She thought he had fallen asleep a few times, but every time she stopped reading he opened one of his bright red eyes and glared until she continued.
While he never outright asked her to read to him again, Ochako took to reading her books out loud whenever the dragon was around.
There was a moment of genuine excitement as Ochako saw another person on the horizon. Ochako had been admiring the view of the countryside from the roof of her tower when she caught sight of a flash of metal. A knight, covered in armor and sitting astride a beautiful grey stallion, was heading straight towards her tower.
Looking down the where Bakugou was sitting by the tower and sunning himself, she could see the dragon watching the figure's progress. She could tell his eyes were narrowed from up here.
Ochako raced down the tower steps as fast as she could, while attempting to straighten her hair and dust off her skirt. She supposed she didn't have time for a bath, but she took a wet cloth to her arms and face to get off any grime. Not wanting Bakugou to be the one to greet the strange, Ochako quickly had her way outside.
The dragon hadn't moved from his spot at the base of the tower, his eyes still followed the closely approaching stranger with distrust.
"Don't be mean to him," Ochako told the dragon. She didn't necessarily want to be free of her curse anymore, but if there was a chance to go back to her family she would take it.
The knight was drawing closer now, and Ochako moved towards him so the poor horse didn't have to get any closer to the giant dragon. The horse looked distressed by the dragon, and outright refused to move when he deemed himself too close, forcing the knight to dismount and make the last on foot. He removed his helmet as he drew closer and his face was pleasant, if not a bit plain and forgettable.
"Princess!" The knight greeted with a deep bow.
Ochako returned a small curtsy and a warm greeting. "Hello, Sir! What brings you to my humble tower?"
The knight drew a vile from a pouch tied to his belt. The vial couldn't have been bigger than Ochako's littlest finger and it was filled with an odd brown liquid. "I have traveled far to the Western Kingdoms, and have brought this cure for your curse!"
Ochako thought of the warm days on the tower roof, the satisfaction of a long day of training, and the quiet moments reading with her dragon. This life was not what she had envisioned for herself, but she loved it here.
The knight's warm smile faltered. "Does you not wish to see her kingdom again? Do you not want to return to your parents?"
Ochako shook herself, ashamed of her hesitancy. A few magic tricks were not better than the love of her family or her responsibility to rule. She snatched the vial out of her hand, uncocking it and downing its contents before she could change her mind.
Ochako expected the liquid to taste as disgusting as it looked, but it didn't seem to have any taste. It was cold, and Ochako could feel it sliding down her throat as it settled into her stomach.
"Do you feel any different, Princess?" The knight asked eagerly, Ochako thought for a moment. She felt the same as always. She reached down to touch a rock, and it floated for a moment before she released it.
Ochako was about to tell the man that nothing had changed, but she suddenly felt her stomach twist painfully. She barely made it behind a nearby bush before she was retching out the contents of her stomach.
"Princess! Are you-" the knight called, but cut himself off with a yelp. Ochako looked over the bush to see Bakugou had moved closer to them and had let off a pretty impressive fireball that exploded in the air in between Ochako and the knight.
Ochako wanted to scold the dragon, but couldn't as her stomach twisted painfully again and she gagged.
"Leave," Ochako heard Bakugou growl, and it didn't sound very human anymore.
"I just want to make sure she's alright!" The knight snapped back. The sound of another fireball was heard and the scramble of a man in armor mounting a horse. "I'm sorry, Princess!" The knight called, but Ochako ignored it as she vomited again.
Ochako wasn't sure how long she emptied her stomach for, but when she could finally turn away from the bush without gagging, she saw a bucket of clean water close to her. Ochako looked over to where Bakugou was once again laying in the sun next to the tower.
After she cleaned up a bit and rinsed out her mouth, Ochako made her way over to the dragon. "Thank you, Bakugou."
"I have no idea what you're fucking talking about," he told her. Ochako smiled, but didn't call him out on his blatant lie.
"Did that bastard's potion work?" Bakugou asked her after a moment.
Ochako touched a fallen branch in front of her, and couldn't stop the smile as it floated up into the air. "It didn't."
He was not the last to come up with some mystery cure for her. And he was not the last to be full of shit, Bakugou's words not hers.
Some of the visitors were unknown magic users who swore they could lift the curse with a few magic words or a disgusting drink. Most of them left willingly, hanging their head in shame at their lack of skills. Others were chased off by a fireball from Bakugou if they refused to leave when Ochako asked.
Some were knights with pretty words and a lack of solution that was annoying and disheartening. Ochako was able to send most of these on their way with sad eyes and empty words.
Some were men with lecherous smiles and eyes that focused more on her chest than her face. They spoke of a lover's kiss or, some of the more daring ones, a lover's embrace that would break the curse. Ochako had frozen at these suggestions, disgust twisting across her face before she could carefully school her features. Thankfully, Bakugou had a habit of picking up these men in his claws and flying them far far away from her before they could try anything.
Her curse was beginning to look better and better than the alternatives. Ochako distracted herself from these attempts by embracing her life here. It had been months since she had left the kingdom, and her little tower was becoming home. She took to exploring the woods around the tower more, and Bakugou was surprisingly knowledgeable about what plants were edible and which ones were not. They still spent some time each day working on her magic, and, as she improved, Bakugou also lectured about making her body stronger, so she had a strict exercise regime as well. Ochako spent time reading every day, and most times Bakugou would join her. Ochako would lean up against his scaly body and soak in the warm it gave off. Some days they spent more time talking than reading, but she never grew bored. It was nothing like her life in the palace, but Ochako savored each moment.
Ochako had lost count of how many times she had suffered through her cycle as a resident in the tower, but this time felt so much worse than the others. Her time of the month had never been consistent in is cruelties, but every part of her body just seemed to hurt so much and simple tasks were harder than usual. She was in enough pain that even Bakugou was trying to be nice to her, which was both strange and sort of adorable. He had made a few teeth marks in her buckets when he kindly left them full of water in front of her door, which Ochako had appreciated as she had no idea how she was going to lug the water all the way over in her state. Bakugou had blatantly denied it when she thanked him, but he didn't have a better excuse for how the water got there, so he flew away in a huff.
Ochako laughed. He was a strange one, but sweet. She hummed as she cleaned up with the water in the bucket, and some of the soreness went away as she tried to imagine what a dragon would look like blushing.
Laughing, Ochako grabbed as many pillows and blankets as she could, along with her favorite book, to head up towards the roof. She wanted to lay up there, soak in the sun, read something she enjoyed, maybe take a nap to forget how disgusting and sore she was feeling.
Ochako had been up there a little while before a shadow fell over her. She looked up to see Bakugou's large head hovering over her. He must have been balancing on the tower, no doubt messing up the curtains she had in the windows with his large claws.
"Do you want something?" She asked him, not willing to deal with his strange attitude recently. She really wanted someone to make her dinner, but his massive size and lack of hands stopped that from being a possibility. Shame.
"There's another idiot coming towards the tower," he told her. His voice was low and quiet which was thankfully not aggravating her headache.
Ochako rolled over and buried herself deeper into the blankets she had gathered in a nest beneath her. "I don't want to see him," she told Bakugou. "I don't want to see any more of them. I like it here, and I like my curse. Why can't they just leave us alone?"
She felt herself crying by the end of it, so she buried her head deeper into the blankets. She felt his head touch her back in acknowledgement before she heard him climb down the tower. Ochako didn't hear much after that, and fell asleep up there on top of her tower.
As days turned into weeks and no more people showed up on the horizon, Ochako was unsure if they had all just given up or if Bakugou was actually doing as she had asked and keeping them away. He had refused to answer when she asked, but also refused to look at her, so Ochako assumed the latter.
Ochako heard the roar before she could see the dragon. The roar was a mixture of anger and pain, something Ochako had never heard from the dragon before. She dropped the basket of berries she had been collecting in the forest as she ran as fast as her legs would go back to the tower.
When she reached the edge of the woods, Ochako felt a hot flash of anger overtake her. A knight, covered from head to toe in armor was attacking her dragon. The knight's long spear was red with the dragon's blood, and Bakugou was balancing on three legs, with the fourth curled protectively close to his body, as he roared a line of fire at the knight. The knight dodged nimbly, and his spear just missed Bakugou's throat. This was not allowed to continue, so Ochako ran across the open field towards them.
"What are you doing?!" Ochako shouted in anger at the knight. None of the others had felt the need to hurt her dragon, and she had a feeling many of them would not have been able to. Bakugou glared at her, but Ochako continued to run to them.
"I'm here to rescue you, Princess!" The Knight called to her gleefully. "Stay back, and I will slay this beast!"
"You will do no such thing!" Ochako screeched, and the Knight's momentary confusion allowed her to get in between him and Bakugou. The dragon attempted to push her out of the way, but failed at only balancing on his back two legs so there wasn't much force behind his shove. Ochako pushed his massive paw, claws and all, away from her body and glared at the knight.
The knight's posture faltered momentarily, before he raised his spear at her dragon again and tried to push past Ochako, who barely went up to his chest. "It is clear the beast has you under his spell. I will save you!"
"You will not touch him!" Ochako felt the anger heating up her face, making her move faster than she normally could have. She ducked under the knight's outstretched arm, hitting him with her open palm and releasing her power into him.
He looked amused by her anger for a second, before the fact he was starting to float upwards registered in his mind.
"What is happening?" He screeched, clutching the spear close to his body and wobbling in the air. Ochako didn't answer as she aimed a powerful kick where she knew it would hurt any man. His armor may have protected him from that pain, but the momentum of her kick paired with her magic let the blow carry him far away. He flew backwards much faster and much higher than any kick of hers should have taken him.
The knight was a spot on the horizon, far away from her tower and her dragon, when she brought her hands together to release the magic. The spot fell abruptly, and Ochako allowed herself a moment of triumph before she remembered the dragon behind her.
"Bakugou! Are you okay?" She fretted, trying to get a good look at his leg. The dragon's head was in the way as he went between staring at her and staring at the horizon with rapid movements.
"What the fuck, Princess?"
"Stay still!" She told him when his head wouldn't stop. "I need to look at your leg."
His eyes were narrowed in concentration and he stilled his head so she could go to his leg. "I can hear him moving from here, he isn't dead or anything."
"I don't care about him," she snapped because clearly he did not understand the gravity of the situation. "What happened to your leg?!"
"Tch, he had a sword earlier and got in a lucky swipe. It hit my scales wrong and they came off. Hurts like a bitch, but the scales should heal. The real problem is when he stabbed me with his spear."
Looking at it was painful. His beautiful sandy scales were torn up, and a deep puncture in the middle was leaking blood. Ochako gasped.
"He knew what he was fucking doing, that's for sure," Bakugou said, shifting a bit as Ochako reached out to touch him.
"Does it hurt a lot?" she asked, quickly trying to remember how to treat wounds like this.
"Tch, of course not," Bakugou lied. "Just a scratch."
Ochako accidently brushed the edge of the wound as she shifted to the side, and the dragon let out a roar of pain. "Stay still!" She demanded.
"Don't tell me what to do!" Bakugou snapped back as he stilled.
"I need to get bandages!" Ochako panicked, thinking too much about what a wound like that could mean. There was a number of dangers considering the blood he'd already lost, the possibility of infection, and the fact that Ochako had no idea what she was doing.
"I'll be right back!" She told him, pressing a quick kiss to cleanest spot she could above the wound. It was something her parents always did whenever she had been hurt as a child. She had learned long ago that there was no actual healing magic in the kiss, but it was always nice to know that someone loved you and would help you.
Ochako began making her way quickly into the house to find some rags, but she had barely made it a few steps before a bright light behind her forced her to turn around. The light was blinding and the heat of it forced her to close her eyes. Ochako tried to call out to Bakugou, but she couldn't get the words passed her throat.
When the bright light cleared and Ochako blinked the spots out of her vision, her dragon was gone. Instead there was a young man with a familiar shade of sandy hair covering his head. His bright eyes were looking at his hands in disbelief. Ochako's eyes wandered to broad, muscular shoulders and arms that looked like he could bench her. It suddenly occurred to her that he was naked.
"I thought you were a dragon!" Ochako screeched, trying desperately not to look too far down. She unwrapped the shawl from around her shoulders and held it out to him.
His fingers, his human fingers, were warm and calloused as they brushed her hand to grab the shawl.
"I'm fucking decent," he snapped after a moment, and if Ochako had any doubt that this was her dragon, that tone cleared it up.
"Bakugou?" She asked, looking over at his features. They were vastly different than the dragon's, but there was something familiar about the way he held himself and the glint in his eyes.
"Obviously," he snapped, crossing his arms, arms that Ochako needed to stop fixating on, over his chest. His really really nice chest.
"What happened?" She asked when she remembered how to speak.
"I was cursed, dumbass," he spat out, scowling deeply with his new human mouth. "You just broke it."
"I broke it?" Ochako asked, not following the conversation. "How did I do that?
He mumbled something towards the ground that was too quiet for Ochako to hear. "What did you say?" She asked stepping closer.
"It was fucking broken by true love's kiss okay!" He yelled at her.
'"True love?" Ochako choked out.
"True love." He nodded gravely.
"So, that means you love me?"
He laughed a very human laugh. Throwing his head back and letting the mirth rack his whole frame. "I knew you were a dumbass, but this is a new low, Princess."
Ochako felt a gasp leave her as she threw herself into his arms. They were warm and strong as they caught her easily. He loved her.
"What are you-" Bakugou tried to say, but was cut off as Ochako grabbed his shaggy sandy hair and dragged his head down to hers.
Their first kiss was warm. It was also wonderful and magical and toe-curlingly good. But she loved the heat the most. The warmth as she melted into Bakugou's arms, his very human and well muscled arms, was safe and secure. There was a bit of fumbling as they figured out how to avoid bumping noses and learned that there was a such thing as too much teeth, but they fell into a deep and wonderful rhythm with minimal embarrassment.
Ochako pulled back when it grew hard to breathe. She rested her forehead on Bakugou's and stared into his eyes, still red and piercing.
"We aren't very good at this," she giggled and felt light enough that she could have been floating if Bakugou's arms weren't tight around her and her hands weren't anchored in his sandy hair.
A smile curled across his lips, and it still revealed an alarming amount of teeth, but it was beautiful all the same. "I guess we'll have to practice," he suggested.
Ochako laughed into his mouth as their lips met again. Practice indeed.