It happened a few days later, on a Saturday, when she awoke from her nap.
Bakugo was sitting on the floor, back against the bed with a book in hand, when Ochako began to stir behind him. But instead of the typical whine of a child being pulled unwillingly from their slumber, he heard a pained groan and then a gag, accompanied by an unmistakable stench.
"Oh, shit!" He whipped around to see the previously floating blanket fall down from the ceiling as Ochako continued to empty the contents of her stomach onto the sheets.
"Katsuki…" She sobbed between her coughing. "I don't feel good."
"Wait, don't touch anything!" He tried to warn her, but the moment her fingers landed on the pillow, it lifted a few inches from the mattress and set her off on another wave of nausea, though thankfully without the chunks.
Knowing it was no use to try and teach her amidst the panic, he hurriedly grabbed the quirk resistant gloves from the top drawer of his dresser and fitted them onto her tiny, frantically grasping hands. It took a few tries since she wasn't fully cooperating and he was busy wrinkling his nose at the acrid smell starting to permeate the room.
"My head hurts…"
"I know, Ochako. Just give me a second." He held her by the wrist, careful not to touch the pads of her fingers for fear of activating the newfound quirk.
He finally wrestled them on, but saw it did nothing to soothe the crying child. Grimacing the entire time at the thought of getting bile on his shirt, he picked Ochako up from the bed and stood up with his arms enveloping her body, patting rhythmically on her back.
Snuggling into his embrace, her wails soon turned into shaky breathing and her tears became short sniffles.
"Feeling better?" He murmured.
"Uh huh." She said weakly, making no move to lift her head from Bakugo's shoulder.
"Ugh. It smells like shit in here." He tried to set her down, but her whole body tensed and clamped.
"I wanna stay here." She mumbled into his shirt, no doubt getting her saliva on it.
He sighed, though he found he wasn't as irritated as he thought he'd be. "We really need to clean the bedding. It's fucking disgusting."
"... I'm sorry."
Bakugo felt as though the 3-year old had just plunged her arm into his chest and squeezed his heart with those two, barely discernible words. She said them so small, so shamefully, he wanted to punch himself for making her feel as though it was necessary to apologize.
"It's not your fault. It was your quirk." He reassured Ochako, holding her steady with his left hand while gathering the sheets with the other. If she wanted to stay held, he was gonna make it happen. It's not like he wasn't strong enough anyway.
"My quirk is getting sick?" She turned her face towards him, bottom lip wobbled in disappointment.
"No, you can lift things by touching them. You, uh, cancel out their gravity so they float." Or, at least that's what he thought happened. He knew the basics of his peers' quirks, but that was pretty much the extent of it.
"What does gravity mean?"
"Uhhh." How was one supposed to explain the concept of fucking gravity, of all things, to a 3 year old? "It keeps stuff from flying away."
The explanation seemed to be enough for Ochako, because she remained silent as he loaded the washing machine with the soiled sheets and their smelly clothes, leaving him shirtless and her with a white undershirt on. Then they trudged along to the bathroom to wash her face and mouth.
When he finally peeled off her fingers from behind his neck and set her down on the counter, she immediately burst into tears.
"What the hell?"
"I'm sorrrrrrrryyyyy!"
"Kid, I'm not mad about the sheets. It's fine."
"B-but I can't h-h-h-help now!" Her breathing got caught on the 'h' in her hyperventilating.
"What are you talking about?"
"I can't he-help you o-or daddy anymooooore! I-I can't build an-anything or-or-or fight meanies becau-cause then my tummy will hurt everytiiiiiimmmmme!" She continued to cry into her hands, blubbering on about how this wasn't the quirk she was hoping for.
How on earth did she keep thinking of others, even at a time like this?
Trying not to smile in the face of her misery, Bakugo lowered Ochako's hands from her face and squished the little girl's cheeks to make her look up at him.
"Quit crying and listen up."
Though they remained wet, she peered up curiously with her big round eyes, hiccuping through her inhales and almost making him forget what he was about to say.
"You are gonna be strong as hell and seriously kick ass with your quirk so stop worrying about it. Got it?"
"But I don't wanna throw up again..."
"Well, you won't throw up every time. And you're gonna do amazing things with your quirk. I promise."
"No! I'm not gonna use my quirk ever again!" Unconvinced, she crossed her arms in a huff and declared her stance, swearing off of using her quirk.
What could he do? He wasn't charismatic enough to persuade a toddler. If there was any kid he could get to agree with him, it'd be this one, and she wasn't buying it. He supposed it wasn't unexpected, she always was a stubborn one.
But he also couldn't leave her like this. It'd be a shame to let her continue thinking her quirk was useless or less than what she'd imagined, even if she was supposed to return to normal in a week. She generated her own meteor shower and directed a whole class full of heroes on a rogue mission with it for fuck's sake!
Bakugo absent-mindedly scrubbed her face clean, to the misfortune of the toddler who got a mouthful of soap, and supervised her teeth brushing, all the while trying to brainstorm an idea for how to show her just how badass she'd become.
He finally came up with a decent idea while she got redressed in a clean pair of star-studded footie pajamas. It didn't make any sense, they were still about 5 hours away from going to bed, but there was no arguing with her.
It wasn't like anyone was around to judge their choice anyway, they all went out again. He and Ochako were pretty much the only ones who stayed back at the dorms. Bakugo used her nap schedule as an excuse, but it was mostly so he didn't fall victim to whatever nonsense Class A was sure to bring to the public space.
"I'm done!" Her little voice called out from the other side of the door, signaling it was safe for him to enter the room. Bakugo zipped up the back of the fuzzy thing and then held her hand to lead her to the couch in the common area.
"Alright, Ochako. I'm gonna show you a video of a hero with the same quirk as you." She perked up with immediate interest, though she tried not to show it, somewhat sneakily peering at the pink and black clad woman on Bakugo's laptop screen. "Her name is Uravity."
Bakugo scanned the toddler's face for any sign of recognition, but didn't find any.
"She can make things float too?" Ochako asked curiously.
"Yep."
"... And she's a hero?"
He swallowed the lump in his throat. "One of the best."
Ochako's lips flattened into a straight line, contemplating the possibility. Before she could voice her suspicions, he hit the spacebar to let the video start.
It was a news clip from a few months ago. Everyone returned from their internships for the night and proceeded to gawk at the sight of one of their own lifting a bus-full of school children over the wreckage of an ill-timed fight. They learned a few hours later that Uraraka blacked out the moment the wheels touched back down on the asphalt, but really, none of that surprised Bakugo.
She always was stupidly gutsy like that.
The pair watched as Uravity strained every muscle in her body to guide the yellow bus carefully, slowly, over the chasm splitting the road in two. They watched from multiple perspective shots, a mismatch of clips from an overhead helicopter, a bystander on the street, even the bus driver, all shouting in disbelief at her incredible feat.
"Woah." Ochako couldn't help but watch in awe, now completely enraptured and not bothering to hide her intrigue. "Does she work with you?"
"Uh huh." Bakugo felt himself grin, having successfully reeled her in.
"Then she must be really strong!" She determined excitedly.
"She is." In more ways she could know.
"And-and... I can do that too?"
"Yeah, someday."
And it wasn't just the knowledge that they were the same person, that she quite literally would one day be able to pull off the same move. It was a deep, reverberating, desire for this little girl in front of him to succeed. He couldn't imagine her not accomplishing every single thing she wanted.
"So let's try this again." Bakugo moved to take off one of her gloves, but Ochako leaned back, holding her hands close to her chest, shaking her head.
A sharp pang of disappointment cut through him. She had never run away from him before, only toward.
"You trust me, right?" Ochako nodded, though the concern on her face didn't ease. "I'm right here, it's ok."
Squeezing her eyes shut in dread, she let Bakugo take off one of the gloves and only blinked in surprise when nothing happened.
"Don't touch anything yet. We need to start small." Bakugo looked around for something light she could practice on. He swiped one of the blank sheets of paper from the side table. Everyone in their class had gotten in the habit of leaving spare paper around for baby Uraraka to use for drawing. "Here. You can touch thi- What the fuck? Are you ok?"
Ochako remained completely frozen on the couch, terrified of moving wrong and going queasy again. "I'm not touching." She whispered, hyper focused on her task.
"Damn, cheeks." She still had enough energy to glare at him for not using her name, apparently. He rolled his eyes and gently grabbed her wrist. "You're fine. Watch."
He pressed the sheet of paper to all five of her fingers, watching her face as he let it float easily up to the ceiling.
"Katsuki! Look! I'm doing it!" She squealed with delight.
"And you're not getting sick, see?" He carefully removed the other glove and guided her hands together, matching the fingers to one another so the paper could flutter back down to the floor.
"More! More!" Her brown eyes sparkled as she bounced on the cushion.
"Alright." He chuckled and brought another piece of paper to her fingers.
"No! Something bigger!"
Bakugo grinned at her determination, seeing the familiar fire raging in the backdrop of pure excitement.
"That's my girl! Try this!" He gave her the tv remote without hesitation. But when his brain registered his words, it was as if he was the one flipped up into the air, the ground being pulled out from underneath him.
What the hell?
His girl?
Where did that come from?
"Look, Katsuki! It's floating!" Ochako laughed gleefully, oblivious to the inner turmoil he was wrestling with.
"Uh, yeah. Let's, uh, bring it back down before you go too far."
Scrunching her face in concentration, she pressed her fingers together and winced when the remote smashed against the table, making the back pop off and batteries roll out.
"Oops?"
"It's ok. Destruction is good." Bakugo ruffled her hair before piecing the thing back together. Let's see what else you can float."
They spent the evening testing her limits with apples, tennis balls, shoes, and other relatively small objects. When her stomach began to roll at the water bottle, Bakugo took a mental note to try again the next day. He was unsure whether it was the actual weight of the container or the extended use of her quirk that was doing her in.
Caught up in the excitement of their impromptu training, Bakugo ended up moving the dirtied sheets into the dryer much later than he had planned. He only remembered when Ochako was happily munching on her dinner, which usually meant a little over an hour until bedtime.
"Damn it, the laundry. Eat your dinner, Ochako. I'll be right back."
"They look like hoppies!" She squealed at the strategically shaped rice balls on her plate.
"You mean bunnies?"
"Hoppies!" She insisted.
"Whatever." Rolling his eyes, Bakugo left the toddler in hopes of having clean, dry sheets by the time she went down for bed. He tsked at the timer, showing a little over an hour, and returned to see the aforementioned girl pouting at her food.
"What's wrong now?"
"They're too cute…"
"They're riceballs. Just eat 'em."
"But the hoppies…"
"If you don't eat them, I will."
"No! They're mine!" She quickly shoved a rice ball the size of her fist into her mouth, making her cheeks swell up like a chipmunk.
Smirking at his victory, Bakugo sat down next to Ochako and started to eat as well. Every once in a while, he would hear her growl in frustration, not being used to the gloves impending her every move, but he didn't bother helping her. He knew how persistent she was and that she'd figure it out eventually.
And everytime her face hardened in determination and then proceeded to brighten into satisfaction at her accomplishment, Bakugo celebrated inwardly as well, which was strange because it's not like her successes had anything to do with him.
"Alright, time for bed." All the training must've taken a toll on Ochako because she was nodding off with rice stuck on her face.
"Noooooo." She forced her eyes open, but they immediately began to droop closed.
"This ain't a fight you can win, Ochako."
"Yes, I can!" She clenched her fists resolutely, glaring in defiance as he cleared the plates into the sink and quickly washed them. Though, she didn't struggle against Bakugo when he picked her up or when he brushed her teeth, a chore she had recently been wanting to do independently.
She was so exhausted, the distance between the bathroom and laundry room was enough of a walk for her to pass out in his arms, her fists twitching and eventually relaxing.
When Bakugo saw that the sheets were going to take approximately another 30 minutes to finish drying, he sat back on the couch with the toddler against his chest. He figured he'd wait for the dryer to go off and then move Ochako to the bed then.
But maybe he was more tired than he thought. Because the next thing he knew, he was being pulled out of his own slumber by someone tugging at the child in his arms.
Wait.
Someone was taking Ochako?
"No!" Bakugo squeezed her close and groggily opened his eyes, slowly focusing on the green-haired dweeb Deku. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" His voice was deep with sleep and boiling anger.
"Sorry, Kacchan." He whispered sheepishly, retracting his arms. "The others are coming and I thought maybe you wouldn't want to be caught sleeping on the couch, cuddling Uraraka."
"I'm not cuddling anyone." He spat out, ignoring the fact that the toddler's hair was indeed in his face and that he was refusing to let go.
"O-ok. Well, everyone's gonna be here in a few minutes, just as a warning. I mean, I guess I already said that so I shouldn't repeat myself. But it's never a good thing to just assume. Not that I'm saying you didn't understand the first time. I'm just trying to be clear about the information. Of course, you're Kacchan so you would've understood right away. Unless you're still too asleep to have registered what I said the first tim-"
"Deku. If it weren't for the kid sleeping on me, I would've decked you a long time ago. So shut up and go away." Bakugo demanded measuredly, but the rumbling woke Ochako up anyway.
"I'm sorry!" Deku said flustered and scurried away.
Ochako rubbed her eyes and snuggled in closer to fall back asleep when the rest of Class A entered the common area, chatting and generally making a ruckus.
"Would you all shut up?" Bakugo hissed at them, trying not to blow his top at the giggling nuisances.
"Awww, that's adorable!"
"Fuck off, Sparky!"
"Mama Bakugo!"
"Don't you dare take a pictu- No! Shitty Hair, I swear to god!"
"Shhhh! Don't wake her!" Kirishima snickered with his phone out. "Wait, what's that on her hands? Are those…?"
Bakugo nodded in confirmation, adjusting as Ochako yawned and opened her eyes. "Quirk resistant gloves."
"Oh, she has her quirk now?" Momo asked with her hands clasped in excitement.
"Woke up puking on the bed." Everyone's face simultaneously twisted with disgust at the image.
"But I can lift things better now. Right, Katsuki?" Ochako asked sweetly.
"Can we see?"
The toddler nodded and took one of her gloves off, reaching for the paper on the couch from earlier in demonstration. Without hesitation, she placed all of her fingers on the surface and watched make its ascent up.
"Nice job, honey!"
"That's so exciting! What else can you float?"
"Here! Try this!"
As their classmates rushed forward with their congratulations and encouragement, Bakugo shook with irritation. "Alright, extras! Back off! Give her room!" Glowering at the crowd, he pulled off Ochako's other glove so she could bring the paper back down.
Her giggles developed into another yawn, clearly not done with her sleep for the night. "We're turning in so stop your yapping and keep it down out here." Bakugo grumbled and held Ochako with one arm to free up his other hand for the now-dry blankets, leaving the rest of the class to deal with the new information on their own.
Once back in the room, Bakugo did his best to smooht out the sheet onto the mattress and fluff the pillows back up all with one hand. It wasn't quite to his perfect standards, but it'd have to do. Thankfully, all of Ochako's stuffed animals survived the ordeal unscathed so he arranged those out for her too. Damn. His room was almost unrecognizable.
"G'night, Katsuki." The toddler mumbled almost incoherently, flopping onto the bed like a ragdoll and scattering the stuffed animals. Why did he even try?
"Good night, Ochako." He laid down and waited for her to latch onto his torso before adjusting into a comfortable position and covering them both with the blanket, toasty warm and scented with fabric softener.
"One day, I'm gonna be strong like Uravity and be your partner." Ochako vowed with her last waking breath.
And as her soft snores filled the room, leaving Bakugo alone with his thoughts, he finally whispered out loud to no one in particular-
"That would be nice."