Beauty and the Beast
When her vision returned, Ochako was met with a quaint little house complete with a vegetable garden enclosed within a waist-high fence. Rectangular plots of soil housed little green tomatoes drooping from vines, snap peas hanging in pods, and herbs of all kinds sprouting in neat rows.
Her heart sank at the sight.
This wasn't home. It certainly wasn't the school library where she was supposed to be.
Once again, she had been transported to a different realm, planted into an unfamiliar setting wearing clothes that wasn't hers. This time, she had a white dress buttoned all the way to her wrists with a light-blue frock over it. It was modest, though tight around her waist.
It made it even harder to breathe through the panic of being separated from Bakugo again.
The last she saw him, he was about to be killed by a huntsman. Who knew what this world had in store for them? She couldn't imagine he'd sit still in a quiet place such as this. He must be somewhere out there, in the bustling town across the bridge.
"Fair maiden!"
Ochako jumped at the booming voice. She turned around to see a tall man with a broad chest and dimpled chin leaning against the fence on his enormous forearms. He had a red shirt belted just under his ribs, though there was no real need. The garment was stretched so tightly against his body, she could count each ridge in his abs. He was a hunter, judging by his thick, leather gloves.
Already wary of his presence, she stiffened in defense when he swung open the gated entrance without her permission.
"Today is the day all your dreams come true!"
She highly doubted that. Her dreams included becoming a respectable hero, making sure her parents lived out the rest of their lives without need, and knowing what it would feel like to be loved by a certain, explosive blonde.
None of which this absurdly proportioned man could grant her.
"What would you know about my dreams?" Ochako asked skeptically as she sidestepped the stranger's grasp and narrowly avoided his meaty, sausage fingers gripping her hip.
"Well, you are the most beautiful girl in town! And I the most handsome. Imagine the children we would produce! Women love children, do they not?"
Ochako shuddered at the thought of reproducing with such a repulsive, presumptuous man.
"It's only natural you'd long to be my wife!"
"I-I-" She stammered in disbelief, wondering if this man even knew her name.
"Speechless with joy, I see! Just wait until the wedding night." The raven-haired man grinned suggestively and leaned forward to pin her against the wall of the house.
He may have had the muscle mass and the advantage of size, but she had the element of surprise.
Ochako elbowed him in the solar plexus with the full force of her weight, making him double over with a groan and shift his center of gravity forward. She took this opportunity to follow his downward momentum and flip the gorilla of a man flat onto his back.
"Don't. Touch me!" She growled and ran off before he could retaliate. That throw bought her some time to go find Bakugo, but she doubted she could completely outrun the man all the way to the town. Thankfully, he brought a horse to come woo her.
Swinging herself onto the chestnut stallion, Ochako urged it to start galloping onto the main road before the man could catch his breath and re-right himself.
She tensed her thighs to steady herself as they ran into town, only a short 2-minute trip. And the tension never went away as the villagers gawked at her atop the animal. It was like they'd never seen a woman riding horseback before.
"She's an odd one." They whispered.
"Honestly, the kinds of ideas that run through her brain…"
"She's pretty-"
"Beautiful-"
"But peculiar."
"Yes, quite strange."
Ochako frowned. Not because of their comments, they didn't bother her in the slightest, but because there was no Bakugo among them. She was sure he would've challenged every person who dared to speak out if he were.
"You're a feisty one!" Ochako gasped and turned around to see the buff man chasing after her, only a few paces behind her casual saunter with his teeth grit in furious determination. "I'll break you, yet! No one runs from me!"
The town was tiny. There was one identifiable bakery, a grocer, and what looked like a bookstore. If Bakugo weren't here, she couldn't think of another place to look other than the woods. But that's where he was before. Maybe she should've gone there in the first place.
"Hiya!" She dug her heels into the horse's flank and pulled the reins in the direction of the trail leading into the trees, leaving the small-minded villagers and their now red-faced, conceited champion in the dust.
Entering the forest brought feelings she was wholly unprepared for. It wasn't the rapidly increasing heartbeat or the clamminess in her palms that alarmed her, but the pit of want gnawing at her stomach. The warmth that spread from her core, all the way up to her flushed face at the memory of what almost happened in the privacy of a different grove of trees.
She remembered the heat of Bakugo's mouth trailing up her neck, tasting her with intense, uncontrollable fervor. More than that, her body wouldn't let her forget just how much she wanted it to happen.
God, what was wrong with her? She couldn't spend the rest of her life reliving that moment every time she was in mere proximity of a few trees. How pathetic would that be?
A howl broke through her spiraling thoughts, nearly giving her a heart attack.
"Bakugo?" She called out, half dreading and half hoping he would still be in wolf form. "Is that you?"
It wasn't.
Ochako gripped the horse's mane in fistfuls, willing the creature to stand still with her in front of the pack of grey wolves closing in on them. She didn't dare to breathe as the yellow-eyed predators waited for any sign of weakness.
At the first snarl, Ochako was bucked off with a distressed neigh. She tumbled to the frost covered ground and wheezed as the air was knocked out of her lungs.
All but one of the wolves chased after the horse. The last posed to attack Ochako as she scrambled to her feet, using a nearby tree stump to steady herself. She snapped off a dead branch to wield it like a sword, waving it wildly to try and make herself bigger and more threatening.
She didn't dare look away from the growling animal for fear of it lunging at her whilst unprepared. But she did notice a locked gate to her left, a steep decline to her right, and the rough bark digging into her back.
Oh, if only she could use her quirk and float out of this situation.
Ochako yelped as the animal leapt for her, snapping its teeth dangerously close to her face. She just barely dodged the carnivorous, landing a hit on its muzzle with her almost comically useless stick. Only just getting her footing straight, she thrust her weapon up with a gasp and winced as it fractured into splinters between its sharp canines.
The wolf was now angry, though she couldn't really say it wasn't before. It circled her with its shoulder blades hunched as Ochako desperately patted around her for another makeshift weapon. She felt her heart sink as she came up empty.
A scream escaped her as the wolf pounced a third time. Ochako thought for sure that this would be the end of her. She didn't expect to be saved by a 7-foot tall creature, roaring as the wolf's teeth sank into its forearm.
No, his forearm.
The long hair, covering every inch of skin from all four limbs to the hulking, rippling back, was a familiar ashy-blonde. And if she really thought about it, the yelling sounded an awful lot like "fuck off", but that might just be her imagination. Ochako couldn't see his face, but she knew this had to be Bakugo.
Or, some sub-human version of him.
She wanted to jump in and help, watching him wrestle the feral wolf that was now latched onto his shoulder, but the fear wouldn't let her. There was something about the claws at the ends of his paw-like hands and the horns protruding from his head that struck a carnal terror into her.
Maybe it was the self-preservation instinct within her. Because Bakugo was now a beast strong enough to fight off a wild animal with his bare hands. He let out an inhuman roar and swiped at the wolf, knocking it into a tree and ending the brawl for good. The creature let out a long whimper and limped away in fright.
Ochako almost did the same as Bakugo turned to face her, his chest slashed and bloodied, lip pulled back in a snarl.
"Why the fuck were you out here by yourself?" He managed to growl out before succumbing to his injuries, dropping to his knees with a thud.
Yes, Bakugo was a beast. But he just saved her life.
She rushed forward to support his colossal weight, shoving away the frightening realization that he could crush or smother her if they weren't careful.
"I was looking for you." Ochako said with a small, measured voice.
"Don't touch me!" He ripped his arms away from her outstretched hands, hissing at the painful motion. "I-I'm a monster."
The fear melted away into compassion. As scary as it was for her to see him like this, she couldn't imagine what it would be like to actually live it. "No, you're not. It's just the effect of whatever quirk we're under. We'll figure it out."
"I don't mean this body." He huffed, slumping onto his side. "I… forced myself on you. I fucking bit you."
A shudder ran through Ochako's body at the memory. "It's ok." I almost let you. "That was the quirk too. It's not like you did it on purpose, you couldn't control it."
Bakugo turned his red-tinged face away, gulping in what Ochako assumed was shame.
"I don't blame you for it at all, so let's just consider it forgotten." If only the feeling of his tongue wasn't forever imprinted onto her brain.
"... Fine." Bakugo cleared his throat and hesitantly grabbed her hand in assistance. She knew he must be in a lot of pain if he was willingly accepting her help.
They walked through the iron gate together in silence, and continued in that state all the way up to the steps of a run-down castle. The windows were covered in a fine layer of grime and vines had infiltrated every guard tower. Ochako could tell it was beautiful once, before it had been abandoned and forsaken.
"Is it ok for us to go in there?" She asked, panting from the energy exerted to half-carry an almost unconscious Bakugo.
"As far as I know. It's mine." He groaned with each step.
"Yours?" She used her whole body to push open the double doors into the grand entrance.
"Oi! Candlestick!" Bakugo barked out.
Ochako balked at the name, wondering where that came from until she saw a golden candelabra hop into view along with a teapot and an ornamental clock. These places were becoming stranger and stranger.
"Go find some bandages before I bleed all over the place."
The object seemed to bend in a little bow before it scooted to another wing of the castle. Wherever the medical supplies were, Ochako assumed. She bent down curiously as the clock approached them, its face turning into a mirror before reflecting a scene that made her grip Bakugo with concern.
It showed a group of villagers marching through the forest with torches and pitchforks. They were led by that pushy hunter riding the caramel-colored horse that previously deserted her to the wolves.
Ochako didn't know what their mission was, but she couldn't imagine good things happening once they came upon the castle housing Bakugo. If they were already so quick to judge her for deviating from their narrow-minded norm, they definitely wouldn't hesitate to attack him.
She made sure Bakugo was seated against the wall, as comfortably as one could on a marbled floor, and peered out the window to see the flicker of flames already reaching the halfway point between the town and the castle entrance.
"Bakugo, you have to hide." Ochako crouched down to bandage the puncture wound on his arm with strips of fabric torn from her frock, too impatient to wait for gauze. "I don't know if the villagers know about you, but it won't do us any good to find out."
"I'm gonna fight." He insisted even though he was too weak to even fend her off from placing pressure on his chest where the wolf slashed at him.
"You can't." It wasn't a matter of opinion. He was going green just standing up. How was he going to fend off attackers? "I know you hate needing help, but you have to let me deal with them."
"No. You aren't doing it alone."
She would've been touched by his concern if she didn't know he was only saying that because he could never turn down a brawl. "You have to trust me, Bakugo."
"Damn it, Uraraka! This isn't about trust! You already fucking died for me once, I won't let you do it again!"
She stopped breathing.
But only for a few seconds, until she realized what he was really trying to say.
They were friends, or, at the very least, close classmates. It's unimaginably hard to watch someone you know die. He must've been shocked to see her get shot by the huntsman before they were transported to this new realm.
And this was Bakugo. He was probably mostly upset that he didn't get to be the one to save the day.
That's what this was. Right? She shouldn't have made it into anything more.
"Well, I'm sorry you didn't get to be the hero in the last story, but you already saved me from the wolf and you are in no state to fight anyone else. You're staying here and that's final."
"That's not-"
"I will knock you out if I have to, Bakugo."
He glared at her, but didn't push. Which was good because she didn't know how she'd ensure his safety if he were actually out cold.
The red-shirted man was climbing over the gate now. Unfortunately for Ochako, he spotted her from his vantage point.
"My bride!" He called out as he jumped down and opened the way for the rest of the townspeople to enter. "Do not fear! I am here to rescue you!"
Bakugo looked up at her accusatorily. "Bride?"
"I don't even know his name." She muttered, annoyed at the man for making the guy she actually liked think something was going on. "I'm gonna see if I can make them go away. Stay here. Seriously. I mean it."
"Yeah, yeah. I'm temporarily incapacitated, not deaf."
Ochako smiled at her grumbling partner and patted his cheek before running out. Bakugo must've been really tired, because he leaned into her hand at that last one.
She slipped out the doors and closed it behind her resolutely, leaning on the seam to make it clear that no one would be passing her.
"My love!" Ochako made a face at that one. "When I saw Phillippe return injured and alone, I knew you were crying out for help! You can rest easy now. I am here to slay the Beast!"
So he did know about Bakugo.
Well, he wouldn't be getting inside. Not if she could help it.
"There's no need for that." Ochako projected her voice to reach the whole throng of people now standing on the steps. "As you can see, I'm perfectly fine and there's no such thing as a beast here. You can go home now, everyone!"
Clearly not as brave as they made themselves out to be, most of the pitchfork and torch wielders retreated to return home. Disappointingly, the unnervingly grinning man only moved closer to her.
"In that case… Let us prepare a feast! For our wedding!"
"A wedding?" Ochako scoffed at his delusion. "Let's make this clear. I will never marry you!"
The townspeople who lingered behind heard her firm rejection and began to mock the tense-jawed man, catching the attention of those who were beginning to re-enter the forest. Soon, the whole crowd was openly ridiculing him for his failure to woo the strange, unweddable woman who should've been grateful for his proposal.
Ochako thought that would be the end of it, but she didn't account for how truly dangerous the man could be.
"Who would say no to me? It's clear this woman's gone mad from the presence of the Beast! We must go kill him and restore the safety of our town before we are all put in danger!" His words stirred the mob, re-equipping themselves for a brawl.
"What? No!"
"Do you see? She is under his spell! Protecting a monster such as he! Let's go!"
Overwhelmed by the sheer number of people, Ochako fled back inside to make sure Bakugo wasn't in plain sight anymore. To her relief, he was no longer slouched against the wall where she last left him. Even better, all the sentient furniture was prepared to defend their home.
"You're coming with me." Ochako yelped as the man gripped her arm and sneered.
"Let go! I'm not going anywhere with you!" She struck his elbow hard to make her hand go numb at the impact, but it was worth it when the man cried out and let go.
Or, it would have been, if he didn't pull out a gun at her in retaliation.
"You…" He spat out. "You are beyond saving, wench."
Everything happened so fast, Ochako couldn't process what she witnessed until she was standing in the aftermath.
All at once, the bullet shot out and lodged deep in its target's chest while the shooter was launched into the air, leaving Bakugo at Ochako's feet, bleeding profusely, while the black-haired man lay lifelessly at the bottom of the steps.
Bakugo took the shot for her this time, stepping into the line of fire as he pushed the hunter back with the last of his monstrous strength.
"O-oh my god!" Ochako knelt on the ground, hands trembling as Bakugo transformed back into his human form. She didn't know what broke the curse, but she watched helplessly as his face turned alarmingly pale from blood loss. "Why would you do that?"
"N-n-now… we-we're ev-even…" He grimaced, clutching her hand for a split second before he went completely slack.
The sound she made wasn't human. It wasn't real.
Was this the loss he felt when she was shot? Did he experience this same sense of despair so deep it physically pained him?
Just when Ochako became sure that she would never feel happiness again, a familiar light erupted around them and made her sob out loud in relief. Even if it didn't take them back to the library, it meant he would be ok. Alive.
She would get another chance.