Chapter Made by doesdekusparkjoy.

(Don't) Give Me Some Space

Ochaco Uraraka was an extrovert. And sure, there were plenty of other reasons why quarantine was absolute hell , but that was certainly at the top of her list. The virus had spread faster than anyone could have expected, and UA was quick to send students home from dorms. For a while, they had only cancelled classes, and that little bit of time was nice. Despite the chaos and the fear all the students had, they were able to spend time together, and none of them were quite as scared. Unfortunately, it didn't last long. At first, it was nice. She was so happy to be home and see her parents, her home, her bed. She hadn't realized how much she'd missed her bed!

The first few days back at the house, she felt great. She stayed up a bit later, she slept in a bit longer, but she kept herself on a routine. Every day, she showered and got dressed like usual. Her mother insisted on it, claiming that if she acted like everything was normal, it wouldn't bother her as much. She'd give her parents a big smile and a big hug each before they left for work. They were essential workers and it made her sort of nervous, but she knew they were being safe. She wouldn't let the smile fall from her face until they were out the door.

Every morning, Ochaco promised her mother and father she would have breakfast. She never did. Every afternoon, Ochaco would brush off the messages she got from friends asking if she'd eaten lunch, reassuring them with a bunch of happy-looking emojis and as many exclamation marks as she could manage. It wasn't a big deal, she convinced herself. She didn't know why everyone was so worried about her. It was honestly frustrating at first, feeling like people were treating her like an irresponsible child. She knew it was the best option she had for contributing to helping the family during this. They already didn't have much money, but now, it felt like the company was bringing in less and less. Construction projects were getting postponed left and right. Her parents were trying their best to keep this a secret from her, and it almost worked.

But then, one night, she had been coming downstairs to say goodnight to them when she heard the hushed conversation at the dining room table. Her parents didn't usually argue, they always seemed happy and laid back. Listening to these strange new tones, thick with panic… they caught her off guard. Every word they flung at each other seemed on-edge. It seemed that more than anything, they were concerned about her. She couldn't stand the idea that they were making sacrifices like that and not telling her. After this, Ochaco was far more aware of things around the house. Her parents were still smiling, but they were quieter, more tired.

They hadn't been packing their lunches to take to work like usual, and they never came home for lunch breaks. The first day she realized this, she nearly broke down crying. But, that was when she decided that if they were skipping meals to save money and food, she could too. They still had dinners as a family, and she sometimes snacked throughout the day, but she mostly filled her stomach with water for the time being.

She slowly got more lethargic, still forcing a smile for her parents every time. It was exhausting, like everyone in the household was putting on a mask to lie to everyone else. She slept more, hoping that would chase away the gnawing feeling deep in her gut. After the first few days, the nausea set in. Going long enough without eating meant that she got so hungry that she felt like throwing up. After a few weeks of this, she had basically tuned out her stomach's incessent growling. At that point, her sleep schedule had almost entirely derailed. She'd hardly sleep, awake at such odd hours that she felt she couldn't even message her friends without them worrying. Though, she already felt like any conversation she had with them couldn't be about something other than quarantine. She wanted so desperately to forget about it, to talk about anything else.

It seemed like everyone else was doing well. All she had wanted was to make everyone else smile and now? It seemed like they didn't need her. She felt so useless, like everyone was happy and for some reason she just wasn't. It tugged at her heart, and she felt so selfish. Why couldn't she just be happy? It was so hard without all of her friends. She was so motivated and energized with all of them around her, supporting her by smiling at her and thanking her for all her hard work. It was the little things like that that Ochaco found herself needing. She felt silly feeling like she needed that sort of validation, but she was struggling with this isolation.

Too often, she found herself staring at her ceiling for no particular reason. She would just zone out, feeling tired enough to drift off to sleep but not quite being able to. She was sure she could go to sleep if she really wanted to, but it was the middle of the afternoon and she had only woken up a few hours before. She couldn't help that she was so tired. She thought that maybe it would help if she showered. She knew she should probably, since it had been a few days now, but it was getting harder to drag herself out of bed. She knew her parents were probably becoming concerned about her, but she got away with most of this behavior by saying she was just chilling, or doing homework, or watching a show. There were plenty of good excuses she could pull to not need to leave her room.

After a few particularly low-motivation days, Ochaco had basically ghosted everyone. This was the last straw for Izuku, whose anxiety about Ochaco's well-being had only been growing since they left the dorms. He'd been trying to stay in contact with her the best he could, but once this unexplained absence began, he knew he'd have to do something about it. She was his best friend, and he was going to help her through this no matter what.

After a long talk with his mom, he'd made a decision. He put on a face mask and went for a little walk. The streets weren't too bad, mostly just dead quiet and uncomfortably still. Being outside made it feel like nothing was moving, that the world had stopped turning. Their world certainly had. He thought briefly that it might be more accurate to say that the world was spinning out of control and maybe that's how it was for some people. But right now? He felt like time was frozen. Everything had been forced to halt and they were stuck living in this strange, monotonous world for some indiscriminate amount of time. At least, he didn't know how long this would last. He didn't know that anyone did.

He was fairly lost in thought for those few minutes before he got to Ochaco's house. Honestly, he was starting to get more nervous to see her. What if she had just stopped talking to him because that's what she wanted to do? What if she had only talked to him before because she had to get along with him, and now that they were in quarantine, she wasn't obligated to humor him anymore? That couldn't be right, but more often than not his overactive imagination and rambling way of thinking led him down some strange paths of thought before he could question how logical they actually were.

Now, as he stood staring at her window, it began to dawn on him that he didn't really have a fully thought out plan. No matter, he could roll with the punches. At first, he wanted to message Ochaco, but knew that wasn't going to work at the moment. He couldn't go to her front door or get too close to her so he made up his mind and took a few steps closer to her window to knock on it. The knocks were timid at first, but after a few stronger ones, he figured it was enough to get her attention. He took a few steps back, maintaining that recommended distance away from her, in hopes that she would open the window.

When Ochaco heard this, it almost sort of worried her. She had no idea who or what could be hitting her window like this in the middle of the afternoon. So, with a bit of hesitance, she pulled her curtains and then her blinds open. Looking out and seeing Izuku's worried eyes turn excited when he saw her, she almost broke. Suddenly, the hungry ache of her stomach was no match for the guilty, stabbing pain in her heart.

Without waiting another moment, she opened the window. The screen still separated them, but this way at least they could talk to one another. Before she knew it, she was crying, but Izuku wouldn't pressure her to talk about it. He never would. He knew that she hated not being able to keep all of her emotions bottled up, so he didn't want to bring it further to her attention, it was obviously at the forefront of her mind already.

All he could do was slide his mask down his face to give her a smile, and she sniffled a little before she returned the gesture. For the first time in weeks, it felt like she could really smile. She was still working through the tears, and her voice came out sounding like it had only a fraction of its usual enthusiasm and vigor.

"I really missed you."

THE END