body say

by vanilluhbeaux

Katsuki knows there's something special about Ochako when she walks in his tattoo parlor—he just doesn't know what it is.

7. boy feels girl

p id="docs-internal-guid-8c5357c0-7fff-dc9b-75b2-0966c5d94f3c" dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"It took a week for it to finally sink in, but Ochako discovered that rising with the sun was not a completely awful way to live. Old habits and her circadian rhythm typically demanded Ochako to rest her body until nine in the morning—no matter how late she got in—but she learned to override this natural feature by exposing herself to massive amounts of sunlight a day. Ice cold drops leaked from her still wet hair and she was secretly grateful as the hot sun was starting to become very aggressive through the lightly colored glass in the greenhouse./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Carefully, she stepped over a pile of blankets and got a watering can, though she was sure she didn't need it. The humidity in the greenhouse was enough to make her sweat—and she was sure that the tall, crystalline plants in front of her were well hydrated. Tsuyu's voice poured in through a small speaker she kept on the floor next to the floor next to the makeshift bed, and Ochako, though irritated, was grateful for the company. "I just don't understand why you're not going," Tsu said, "You can't skip Momo's party!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Watch me," Ochako said into the phone's speaker, walking through the greenhouse. "I'm just not feeling like a party would be good right now…not for me at least. I really don't have the heart for it." A heavy sigh escaped her throat and she rotated between the plants, taking notes of which ones were budding. She'd have to get someone out here soon, she figured. What fun. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You need to get out more," /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Tsu said, and Ochako could feel the concern in her voice—she almost gagged. /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""It's not healthy to stay cooped up in that greenhouse."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I'm not cooped up here," Ochako argued back, "I've just been working. Everything needs to get packed and sold, and the shop needs to be restocked." /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""That shop is just a bullshit—" /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Tsuyu started, exasperation evident in her voice./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Very expensive bullshit that pays my bills," Ochako interjected./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""—Cover-up and you know it. You just gonna spend your life watching your weed grow? What's next, you selling it on the street?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Yes,/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" Ochako thought, furrowing her brow. "No," she said, grabbing the speaker and stepping out of the marijuana room and into a long, dark corridor. It was hot and humid and as much as she used to burn the plant she grew—she couldn't stand the ripe smell. She never could, and maybe that attributed to her kicking the habit as easily as she did. It'd been over a year since she even thought about getting high, though lately, she'd been thinking a /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"little/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" could get the stiffness in her body—and then she'd push that thought out of her mind. "I'm just workin' hard, tryin' not to be on that same shit." She followed the path until she reached another bright room, this one smelling less like marijuana and more like roses. stepping over /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"another/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" makeshift bed, this one undisturbed. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""And like, that's /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"fine—/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"but it seemed like that same shit was working for you. You seemed happy for a minute."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"That made her pause—stopped her dead in her tracks. Ouch? She opened her mouth but snapped it shut before she could say anything, not having a proper response to it. Honestly? She was—/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"she still is—/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"happy. She looked down at herself, seeing a nearly faded lotus flower on the inside of her wrist and sighed, hoping Tsuyu didn't hear. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of the end of another one of her tattoos—her favorite one thus far. Small, yellow koi fish swimming in a pond right above her hand, and one tiny, yellow fish above the water. A couple clouds later and the small fish was gone, replaced by a winding, red dragon. She smiled, watery and small but still visible, and almost laughed in spite of herself. She wasn't a fish or a dragon but /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"dammit, /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"she could be if she just… if she just...she didn't really have the answer to that. Whoops. Maybe the wisdom would kick in when she got bigger./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"She always missed that part./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I am happy," she said, opening a glass door and being greeted with lavender invading her nose. It was a welcome invasion, and she admired the long stalks of purple flowers. "I'm happiest when I'm in my bag."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Happy people have cocktails with their friends on their birthdays and don't sulk over boys," Tsuyu said pointedly, directly. If Ochako wasn't mistaken, she could hear a little attitude in her voice. /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Feisty. /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"She hadn't seen this side of Tsuyu since they were in high school—getting bullied by the richer girls and kicking their asses after. "You /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"need/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" this."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I don't /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"need/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" anything," she said, picking up a pot and cradling it close to her, inhaling the scent and trying to relieve her mind of the /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"other /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"plant that she seemed to crave. "and I still have bandages on my head from my last night out. I'm not going." Her head throbbed at the memory of it—a sign that she shouldn't be trying to remember /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"shit/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" from that night./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"It's been a week since she had her head knocked against the pavement—at least it /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"felt/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" like she'd been hit against the pavement—and it didn't ache as much as it used to. Every now and then she'd get an ear splitting headache, but they were temporary and not the worst thing she'd experienced. She heard her friend babbling in her ear but she wasn't listening, her mind was already made up and she was stuck in her decision. "Look babe," she said, "I'm trying to get back in my bag. I'm buildin' an empire, and that needs my undivided attention right now. I can't drink myself into a coma just because it's Momo's birthday—she'd get it." /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""She /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"would not /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"get it!" Tsuyu huffed, "She's the same Momo that cancelled her sweet sixteen because I had a headache cause /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"someone/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"," Ochako was keenly aware that she was the someone in question, "convinced me to get a tattoo behind my ear."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""And it's a dope tattoo!" Ochako nearly shouted, looking at her own faded lotus./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""...yeah," Tsuyu said absently, undoubtedly feeling her own flower, "but that's beside the point. I'm still sending my MUA over tomorrow so /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"please—/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"just fucking go."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Ochako rolled her eyes. She would /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"not /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"be going—her head throbbed at the thought of at stanger entering her house and touching her. She closed her eyes for a second, but as soon as the world went dark she found herself back behind that restaurant, looking at innocent red eyes and marring them with her own blood and scaring him without having to touch him. Yeah, no—she wouldn't be going out. Going out was dangerous and good people saw bad things and she would /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"not /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"ruin anyone else. It was irresponsible. She was too old and too grown to be doing such stupid things. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"This...this was wisdom. And wisdom fucking sucked./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"She looked through the glass windows, and saw something she hadn't expected to see—a dark car/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"./spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" She almost recognized it, but still kept her guard up—just in case her memory didn't serve her right. It wouldn't be the first time, and she needed to be prepared. She instinctively reached for a gun, but she tensed when she remembered that—/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"shit—/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"she was in a glass house. And her whole livelihood would be /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"compromised/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" if she'd shot out the glass windows. She'd need another plan—and quickly. She hadn't known how long whoever drove the car had been here, and how much they'd seen. Hell, she didn't even know how /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"many /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"of them there were. /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"This /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"is what she meant—how could she even think about a party when a simple conversation distracted her so much? She'd been building this for /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"so /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"long, and she wasn't ready to lose it yet./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Deciding quickly, she slid her hand down her pants and gripped her knife, ready to throw at a moments' notice. "I'll call you back," she said, her voice cold and curt. She didn't even hear her friend's goodbye, signaling that she understood and ended the call quickly. She inhaled quickly and focused, listening for anything that could be out of place. All Ochako needed was a sound—just one creaky step or misplaced crunch and she would have them. She almost chuckled, she hadn't had an adrenaline rush like /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"this /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"in a minute. She felt like a predator—an alligator, stalking a gazelle that got a little too close to the water./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"She knew she wouldn't hurt them...not much, anyway./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"And then she heard it—she couldn't miss it. There was a soft, but unmistakable crunch that echoed through the glass walls. She ducked down and looked through the transparent walls, finding a human shaped figure wandering through another glasshouse, surrounded by bright yellow flowers. She almost felt bad for them—sunflowers were adaptable plants and could grow anywhere, but that particular greenhouse had a problem with ventilation and things got /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"very /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"hot, /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"very/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" fast. They walked around slowly, clearly looking for something—or /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"someone—/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"but finding nothing but flowers upon flowers upon flowers. She could /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"just/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" see beads of sweat forming on them—good./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"She quickly left the glasshouse and slinked over to where the young man was, taking him in. Turns out her mind wasn't quite as dull as she expected. The young man turned around, revealing a shock of red hair and dark, bewildered eyes. "Shit! Ochako!" Kirishima mouthed, throwing his hands up. He said something else, but she couldn't hear through the glass. Heaving a sigh of relief, she dropped the knife in the grass and entered the greenhouse, cursing the ventilation system that she wouldn't fix. "I've been lookin' for ya for /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"days!"/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" he said, wrapping his hands around her shoulders./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"She winced, and saw the hurt flash in his eyes. /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Shit. /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"She was still sore from the scuffle, though her dark tattoos hid her bruises well. "Shit th-that was an a-a-accident I didn't mean tohurtyouI'dnever wannahurtyou I'm," he could barely get out, and Ochako suddenly found herself in her nineteen year old body, behind her old high school with a barely legal, barely unstandable nineteen year old Kirishima who'd seen a little too much and done a little too much. /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Shit./spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" She gently reached up and wrapped her arms around him, pain searing through unused muscles and she tried not to let out an audible hiss. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You didn't hurt me," she promised, moving closer to him, as if that was possible. "And I would /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"never /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"hurt you. Never." She held him, ignoring the protests from her arms but the stiffness in her legs were threatening to end her. "You believe me?" she whispered, laying her head on him. His heartbeat was fast, but not erratic, slowing down by the second. She could feel his breathing evening out, her head rising and falling with his chest./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"She felt his arms wrap around her, and smiled softly. "Yeah," he said. "I believe you." There was a pregnant pause, and it seemed like the air froze around them—cold and uncomfortable. "What happened to you? You haven't been like that since we were kids, 'Chako."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""A dead man tried to have me killed, Eiji," she said softly, explaining herself. "I have to stay—"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""That's bullshit—people are /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"always /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"trying to kill you." He had a point—both living and dead people /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"were/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" after her. It was just part of her job. It was normal—and she—this—was normal too. If she didn't want anyone else—if /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"she/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" didn't want to get hurt, she had to fall in love with what she was doing again. And she was. She loved flowers, that was the whole point of the greenhouse. And that's why she was here. Right? Right. Because she loved it here—because this was her life and she loved it and she was not afraid of anything ever. "You haven't been like this since we were /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"kids. /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I almost smell pot on you./spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I'm grown now," she said, brushing the comment off./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You're not acting like you're grown now," he said, letting go. "You sleep here," he accused. There was no point in denying it—there were piles of blankets and quilts in every section of this gigantic plot of land./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I've slept in worse places," she defended./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""It's a mini armory."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: center; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He wasn't wrong./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I keep some of my stuff here."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: center; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"She wasn't wrong./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You don't go out anymore."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: center; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He still wasn't wrong./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I'm working—you know what I'm like when I'm working. I just get so caught up in the shop—"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: center; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"She still wasn't wrong./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Your friends are worried about you."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: center; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He wasn't lying. He might have struck a nerve./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""They shouldn't be!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: center; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"She might be lying. She /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"was/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" shouting./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I'm /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"worried about you!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: center; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He really wasn't lying. He was /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"shouting./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I'm /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"fine!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: center; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"She really was lying. She was /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"not /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"fine./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He noticed. He didn't comment on it—he didn't need to. He'd always have this sick way of seeing through her bullshit and getting the truth out of her. Instead, he crossed his arms and stared at her, and once again, she was nineteen and he'd seen too much. It was really frustrating—he left her exposed and exposed was dangerous and he had no idea how easily she could be undone by a street urchin with a scar on his eyebrow. She couldn't—she /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"shouldn't /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"allow him to do this to her, but he did and there was nowhere she could go to escape it. He saw straight through her and it was /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"not fair. /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""How do you do that shit?" she asked softly, defeat evident in her voice. "I'm fuckin' sad 'cause he wants nothin' to do wimme and I'm scared 'cause I don't wanna hurt anyone else with my bullshit," she said, her voice watery. There were giant tears threatening to fall from giant brown eyes but Ochako wouldn't—couldn't let herself cry. Not right now, not over were bigger things to cry about that she hasn't wasted tears on, so she didn't /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"deserve/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" to cry here. She needed to save the theatrics until she fuckin' had a real reason to cry./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You should text Bakugo," Kirishima said, scratching the back of his head. He wasn't shouting, but that didn't mean he wasn't being honest./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I don't wanna talk to him," she lied./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You're lying," he clocked her. "You haven't lied to me like this since we were /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"kids, /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Ochako!" He's shouting again./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""So what?!" she screamed back, feeling sadness and anger and the weird mix of both of thoise feelings that she couldn't fuckin' name bubble up inside her. "I lie all the fuckin' time!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You don't lie to /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"me!" /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Kirishima shouted again, placing his hands on her shoulders. "You don't fuckin' lie to me and you don't have that sick look in your face 'cause you're a fuckin' grown up! Why are you actin' so fuckin' /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"childish?!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Why are you on my fuckin' case?!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Why are you acting like this?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""'Cause I don't wanna hurt him again! 'Cause I wish I could take it back!" Quickly, she started shaking her head, about to follow up but he beat her to the punch. He pulled her infor a tight hug, his head resting in her hair. "Last time I went out I almost got him /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"killed/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;". I don't want to get anyone hurt again—I don't want anyone else /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"hurt/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" because of me and it's fuckin' scary. I almost wish I'd never fuckin' met him, 'cause then he wouldn't have had to see that and he woulda continued being fuckin' peaceful and keep bein' fuckin' innocent. I /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"hurt /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"him."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""People get hurt." He wasn't screaming, or lying—but he never really lied, unless he had to. Then he'd do what he had to do—and this was what he had to do. "That's just the way life goes. But people choose what they want to hurt them—and he'd choose you if you let him."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""He hasn't even texted me," she scoffed, pulling away from him. "He doesn't want me to hurt him, either."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""He's a dumbass and he says shit he doesn't mean when he's in really stressful situations—and choosing him means choosing that kind of hurt. And I think you'd choose that kind of hurt."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I don't /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"want /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"to choose any kind of hurt."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"That was valid...right? She could choose not to be hurt—nobody wanted to be hurt. To seek out hurt is just masochistic, and only a sadist would knowingly hurt others. She didn't think she was either of those things. She just did what she had to do and that was that. She was not /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"wrong/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" for not wanting to hurt him or get hurt in the process either. She don't even want to do it like that—she'd rather sit and sleep and eat here everyday instead of starting something like that./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Do you wanna go home?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"That...that sounded nice, actually./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: center; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"x/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"She wasn't surprised to find her house /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"not /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"unattended, though she was surprised her brother hadn't made it in for the night. He didn't come home every night, but he was there whenever he didn't expect Ochako to be in. There was something about leaving their house empty that unsettled him, so he always had someone 'trustworthy' in the house—in this case, his usual pick, Miss Mina Ashido—a very good 'friend' of his since they were in high school. Ochako almost rolled her eyes at the thought—Mina had been toeing the line of friend and more than friends for /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"years/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;", and with how stupid her brother was, she'd be toeing that line for plenty more. It didn't matter, she supposed. No matter what, Mina kept the same, placid smile on her face, cool with whatever rolled her way./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You're still here?" Ochako said, taking a seat on the floor across from her. She could feel the dirt now embedded into the fluffy, white carpet but she ignored it, tucking her legs underneath her body. Mina nodded, her pink curls shaking easily and probably landing in the couch. /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Great. /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Where's Denki?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Dunno," Mina said, lying back on the couch. "He left some weed and told me to just chill here while he worked."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You smoked on my couch?" Ochako asked accusingly, prompting a laugh from the other girl./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Nah," she said. "I rolled up in the kitchen and smoked in the garden. It's beautiful out there, girl. Y'all really snapped." Ochako visibly relaxed, earning another snicker from Mina. "There's still a blunt left if you want it."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I don't do drugs," she brushed off, taking out her phone. She'd be lying if she said she wasn't tempted—her back /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"hurt /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"and her feelings /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"hurt/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" and she had had /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"enough/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" of feeling so...so...so much. So /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"often. /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"She wanted to just turn off the feelings for a moment, and she'd be fine. Being numb for a minute could be /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"everything./spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" She tapped open her messages, seeing that, as Kirishima said, her friends had been texting her—all worried about her. How sweet—she almost rolled her eyes at the thought. They didn't need to be worried, a fight with her really nice—pretty—amazing—honest—/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"notherfuckingboyfriend—/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"acquantaince, was nothing to be worried about./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You're so dramatic," Mina said, swiping the phone, "You used to get higher than giraffe dick with me and Denki a little while back."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""That was a while back," Ochako said, reaching for her phone, "I'm not as stressed as I used to be," she lied—but Mina wouldn't catch her. She'd never been good at catching anyone in a lie, and the girl wasn't gullible but /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"whew, /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"she was dumb. That would've been dangerous if she was anyone else—but she wasn't. She was Mina and she was family and she could be as dumb as she wanted to be. Ochako chose not to worry about it, choosing to eye her phone instead. Every grab at her phone was met with a pull back and a teasing glance from large, almost golden eyes./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""'Cause you're /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"boring," /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Mina prodded, going through the phone. "How was your date?" she asked, changing the subject. She scrolled down in the phone into the text thread between Bakugo and Ochako, half-reading the conversation, disappointed to find no contact between the two in a week. She huffed before turning her eyes to the suddenly quiet. "I mean, like, I know it went very not good and you ended up concussed and y'all ain't spoke in a week but...like, how was the date? Was it romantic?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You shitting me?" Ochako asked, lying back on the floor, staring up at the high ceiling./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""No," Mina said, turning on her side to follow Ochako's movements, "What was it like? What's he like?" She was intrigued, staring at the gangster girl with half-lidded eyes. She propped her head up with her elbow and stared at the brown eyed girl, fully expecting to be taken away into a wondrous story about love that ends tragically. It'd be like something out of a fairy tale, she imagined. A real life love story—and Mina would try and keep herself from becoming jealous./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""He's...a lot," Ochako finally said, after a breath between them. "He can be really funny, and arrogant—so fuckin' arrogant. The guy's a cocky /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"dick/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;". You know, he wanted to get me outta my clothes when we first met—not on some 'Oh let's smash' thing—but like a 'Shut up and let me do my job'. Got me to shut the fuck up and let him handle it. I let him do a lot shit I normally don't let people do, and it was easy...I just gave him control, a little bit anyway." She chuckled, getting lost in thought. It was simple...so easy to daydream about him. "He's got more talent in his left thumb than most people have in their whole bodies. I was gonna let him do my tattoo—"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You don't let anyone tattoo you except Kiri," Mina mumbled, already entranced by Ochako's story./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I know...he's really talented, Mina. Like one of the best artists I've ever seen. When I met him I just sat and watched as he drew out what I wanted and it seemed like something out of a movie. Just gorgeous. When you see someone who's that talented work, you just gotta shut the fuck up and /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"watch. /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I was really amazed by him...it was kinda like being starstruck. Kiri actually got his advice on this one," she said, pointing to the yellow koi fish absently, letting her fingers barely touch her skin. She stopped to look away from the ceiling and at Mina, who watched her as intently as she could—her brain undoubtedly clouded by whatever she smoked in her garden. "He's so passionate," she almost whispered, feeling her face heat up./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""And then what happened?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""And then we went out," she said simply. "For a while, we had a really good time. We were just grabbing dinner, and really I thought it'd be safer if we stayed in, but we went out anyway. He thought I was perfect—can you fuckin' believe it? Me? Out of all people? Perfect?!" Ochako almost let out a laugh, the idea seemed ridiculous to her, impossible even. "He really thought my fucked up ass was /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"perfect/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"./spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"" /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"She went silent, and Mina swore she saw a tear run down her face./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""And then what happened," she said, her voice soft./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""And then he found out who I really was...and I wasn't so perfect anymore. I could've gotten him /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"killed—/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I was so fuckin' stupid for even goin' after him."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I 'on't think you're stupid," Mina said, sitting up. "A woman in love following her heart is never stupid—you're brave."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I wouldn't call it love," Ochako said absently, "It was very intense...and I miss him."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""That's /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"perfect!" /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Mina screamed, her eyes fixated on the phone. "That's the perfect word to describe your love story—/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"intense/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;". It's passionate's ugly sister!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Thank you?" Ochako said, rolling her eyes and standing. She walked to the fridge and got out a bottle of water, twisting off the cap and drinking it slowly. Maybe intense was the right word to describe her brief affair—emotions ran high from the start on her end. The more she tried to reel it in, the less undone she became until all she wanted was him. Ochako almost sneered, how did she turn into a hopeless romantic in less than a month? Lo—/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Infatuation /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"had her /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"fucked /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"up. Another thing just wasn't fucking fair. How could she ever think about going out with him when she nearly got him killed? That wasn't fucking fair. Those carmine eyes didn't need to see any of the atrocities that happened when the lights went out—and she'd went out and destroyed that innocence. Good fucking job. She ruined another life without even /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"trying./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"There was a brief shriek in the living room and Ochako moved quickly, rushing to Mina and reaching underneath the couch. Like most places in the house, it held a fully loaded pistol, ready to used at a moment's notice. Quickly, Mina dropped the phone—which Ochako now noticed was vibrating—into the gangster's lap. "Answer it!" Mina screamed, "Quick!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Without even bothering to check who was trying to Facetime her, Ochako slid the phone open. She was surprised to be a shock of blonde hair and angry eyes peering into her own./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Is that all you had to say! That was intense?! Fucking intense?! You could've gotten yourself fuckin' killed and that's /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"just /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"intense to you? Do you have /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"no /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"survival instincts?! What the actual fuck, Ochako!" /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Ochako threw a quick glance at Mina who mouthed 'Welcome' to her and turned back to the phone, silently grateful. "In my defense," she started, "it was /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"really /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"intense."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""It was reckless!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I probably could've handled things better that night," she said, looking around to see Mina sneaking out of the living room and up the stairs, probably into someone's bed. "I wasn't going to let you get hurt," she swore./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"could've been hurt. Shit, you /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"were /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"hurt." /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"So that's it, she thought, looking at the blonde on the screen, angrily ranting about how dangerous everything was. This whole time, he—just like everybody else in the fuckin' universe—was fucking worried about her. Ain't that something. /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""And the lying? You fucking suck at it! You're such a bad fuckin' liar and I'm a dumbass 'cause I knew you were hiding something and still fucking went out with you and I'd do a-fuckin'-gain. You're so fucking stupid and confusing but you're so fucking smart and all you can say is 'That was intense?'! Use your fuckin' brain—"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I'm sorry," she said, cutting him off. And just as quickly as he started yelling, he stopped. "I didn't know how to tell you the truth—didn't know when or where or if it even /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"mattered/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;", and I'm sorry. You shouldn't have found out the way you did."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""No, I shouldn't have," /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"he said, his tone actually even for a moment. /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I knew you were too good to be true but I didn't know—."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Do you want to know me?" Ochako interrupted. "Like, know me, know me? I'll explain everything if you give me another chance."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"There was a long pause between them and for a moment, Ochako thought her wifi disconnected. It wasn't until she heard a small sigh that she realized he actually had to think about it—he wasn't sure if he wanted to give her another shot. She almost scoffed at herself, of course he wouldn't give her another chance. This isn't some high school teen drama or a romance novel, this was her real life and you only had one chance./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"She just so happened to blow it./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I don't want you to lie to me again. I don't fuck with randoms and I don't fuck with extras and I especially don't fuck with random, lying extras."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"She was taken aback by his honesty—it was the first time she'd ever heard him say anything like this. She knew he could be /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"blunt,/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" she'd heard glimpses of it before, but he had never been blunt with her. If she wasn't hooked by now then that did it, now, more than ever, she want—/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"needed/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"—him to know her. Really know her. And hopefully, she'd still be the pretty, perfect girl to him anyway. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Hopefully. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I don't want to lie to you. You said I'm bad at it," she said, chuckling. "Do you wanna come over? I have wine."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Eiji told me you don't even wanna be at your own house right now. Come out here, it's probably safer over here, anyway."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"She gasped in mock surprise, "My house is practically a fortress!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""And my apartment is better than your fuckin' house could ever be! It's...cozy/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"," he said, a half smile taking over his face. He looked like something out of a magazine, too pretty and too perfect and all she was going to do was mess him up...and she didn't want that. She wanted him to stay pretty and perfect and untouched and unsullied forever. She didn't know what she'd do if she got her dirty little fingers all over him—but there was nothing she wanted more. He was pretty and passionate and perfect and dammit everyone needed something like that in their lives—a personal slice of heaven. Did that make her selfish? She'd ruin him and she knew it, she was vicious and acidic and dangerous and he could melt under her pressure but he was right where she /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"wanted /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"him. And she wanted him, desperately. She wouldn't be worrying about him so much if she didn't./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Shit./spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" She was in her head again. He could get her out. /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Do you need the address?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Or he could leave her there./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""No," she said—honestly, for a change. "I already have it." His eyes went wide for a second and then he regained his composure—/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"good. /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I'd still like it if you sent it to me, though," she answered, almost shyly. "It'd make me feel like you trust me."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I'll send it in a text so you don't get lost./spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"She silently thanked Mina, ending the call and putting the phone to her chest. She /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"almost /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"didn't mind that the girl was most likely indulging a marijuana coma in her bed. Quickly, she made her way to the shower and prayed she had at least one bag packed—she did /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"not /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"plan on coming home tonight./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: center; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"x/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"So far, Bakugo hasn't lied. His apartment was /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"very/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" cozy. The first time she was here, her brain was pounding against her skull so she didn't notice, but he had small paper lanterns strung up around the edges of each wall, the lights providing a nice, warm glow. There were hardly any actual lamps, but the one she noticed was tall and seemed like it was made of dark wood, nestled neatly in a corner. A brown couch was up against a red, brick wall and there was an opening that Ochako assumed led to his bedroom—though she wouldn't ask./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Taking her shoes off as she entered, she noticed that he didn't have a speck of carpet on the floor—just wood and you can tell he kept his house in pristine conditions. She couldn't find a dust bunny anywhere—so different from the apartments she was used to. She dropped her bag near a counter with bar stools around the side, smelling something /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"spicy/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" in the air. Gingerly, she took a seat on the couch and almost laughed—it was softer than it appeared. "You have great taste," she said, looking up at the blonde./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Yeah," he agreed, sitting on a coffee table across from her. "I couldn't allow myself to live in some shitty place." He stared at her in a way that didn't make her feel /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"uncomfortable /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"but made her tense, her instincts screaming at her that she should be alert. But honestly, she couldn't find it in herself to care /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"what/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" her instincts were saying. She was here and she had those bright, red eyes looking at her intensely—and that's what she wanted. /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"This/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" is where she wanted to she wasn't going to screw this up./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Definitely better than some of the ones I lived in," she laughed, allowing herself to sink into the sofa./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You didn't grow up with cash?" he asked, bewildered, "I know mafia money runs deep—and there's some rich bitch shit in your crib." Ochakos eyebrow quirked up and she found herself sitting up straighter, her own brown eyes flickering with intensity. He said he'd wanted to know her, but she hadn't expected the questions to fire off so /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"soon/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"—she wasn't ready for this. She'd just gotten here and here he was trying to unravel her and figure out who she was—and fuck it, she was going to tell him./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Nah, not really," she said, her voice smaller than she thought. /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Shit. /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I wasn't lying when I said I grew up poor," she started, looking him directly in his eyes. He didn't waver, his gaze intense, but he managed to soften up and at least /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"look/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" inviting. "My parents died in a freak construction accident and my uncle took me in, but he had Denki and didn't have a job with benefits, if you get what I'm saying. We bounced from shitty apartment to shitty apartment until we were teenagers." He leaned back a little, and she watched him, her eyes never leaving his face. She didn't miss the ease sinking their way into his features./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""So what are you? Some kind of real-life Cinderella?" She watched as his features crinkled into a laugh, and she rolled her eyes at the comment./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""If Cinderella had to shoot everyone at the ball then /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"maybe/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" she could be like me," Ochako said confidently, allowing herself to finally look away from those intense, red eyes. Instead, her eyes drifted down to his body—and she was surprised. He was strong, she could tell by the way he grabbed her, but he was also really /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"lean/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"—not an ounce of fat on him. She could faintly see the etch of abs through his black tank top, and his baggy sweats almost matched hers. How cute. What caught her attention the most was the tattoo on his left shoulder—what looked like his only one. A gigantic, black 'K' surrounded by scorched vines and smoke—though there was no fire. "Why'd you get that?" she said, poking it. His skin was soft to the touch and suddenly, she wished she'd done more than just poke him./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"She didn't miss the way his carmine eyes widened slightly, glancing to his shoulder before throwing it in her direction, showing it off. Of course he'd show it off. If she didn't know better, she'd probably say he did it himself. "Kirishima's a sick ass artist, that's why," he said. "I told him before he could work in my shop he had to prove that he was fuckin' dope and he fuckin' /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"did. /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He's a stupid li'l fucker though, branding me like I'm his bitch or something." Ochako let out an audible laugh this time, and /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"man, /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"it'd been a minute since she felt like /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"this./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You should feel /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"honored/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" that he chose to brand you!" she defended him, smiling. "He's the only one I let do my tattoos."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""How'd you meet him?" he asked, quickly, "He's been my best friend for years, and everytime I moved, I begged my parents to bring me back here cause I didn't wanna leave his stupid ass. I'd spend /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"weeks /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"at his mom's house."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Ochako thought about it for a moment, scrunching up her eyebrows. It had been so long ago, when she thought about it, the years she spent before meeting Kirishima seemed like an eternity ago. In a sense, it was. But only in a sense, she supposed. "I guess I was, like, seventeen," she started, "Denki and I transferred into some posh private schools with stupid uniforms and the most stuck up people, so we would ditch and get high. We didn't get how much of a /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"privilege," /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"she almost hissed the word, "attending that school was. We could've gone to college...or at least, /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"he /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"could. Would've flunked out, but still," she said, her voice trailing off. "We're smoking and we run into the corner store and end up stealing a bag of chips or something—we had money at this point so we didn't have to, but we were li'l shits. And then some kid with red hair and a hero complex stops us outside the store—Kirishima worked there and saw us. But instead of bustin' us, he just smoked the rest of the bowl with us. I don't get high anymore and he isn't a cashier at a corner store. I've kept him close ever since." She smiled at the not-so-distant memory, laughing softly. "That man means a lot to me…"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""It was you, wasn't it?" Bakugo asked, catching her off guard. "You paid off that loan shark."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Oh," Ochako said, contemplative. She slowly shook her head and said, "I killed him." It came out soft, just a breath above a whisper. "I don't allow anyone who fucks with my family to live. That kind of mercy is a luxury I can't afford." Her voice was quiet and cold, each word laced with steel. That dangerous feeling was in the air again, but all Ochako could do was search his eyes for...for anything. A hint of emotion and she would know where she stood./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I'm gonna ask you somethin' and it's gonna be weird, so don't fuckin' make it weirder." Her eyes narrowed and she unconsciously backed away, her back sinking into the couch. "That's fuckin' makin' it weirder."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""What do you want?" she asked, uncharacteristically nervous./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Take this off," he said, pulling at her clothes. She looked confused for a second before she looked down, noticing her jacket. "You're always covered up," he explained, his voice trailing, "and I gotta know if this shit's real."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Oh. /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Oh. /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"She nodded with understanding heavy in her eyes and unzipped her thin, black hoodie. Slowly, she removed it, those big brown eyes never leaving his, though she could see his eyes moving from her face into her body and suddenly, she felt self conscious. Underneath the jacket she had on a white, thin tank top and if you looked hard enough, she was sure you could make out the light pink bra she was wearing. And even though that would've been /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"distracting, /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Bakugo's eyes were more drawn to her arms. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"There, he saw clouds, starting from her shoulder and black ink filling in spaces from where the clouds were. A little further down and there was a butterfly, fluttering about on her skin. Next to it was a dragon's head, it's body trailing down her arm until it became a tiny fish in a tiny pond at her wrist. Quickly, he grabbed her arm and looked at it closer, his calloused fingers still managing to be gentle on her skin. He bought her arm closer to him, examining the ink intensely. His eyes flickered from that arm to her other wrist, noticing small, faded flowers littering that arm. The corners of his mouth flicked up, and Ochako hoped he would smile, though none came./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""This shit is real, huh," he said, mostly to himself. But when his eyes looked to hers, she felt the need to respond./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Yeah."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He held up her other arm, pointing to the flowers and asking, "These your first ones?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""No," she said, turning around. Lifting her hair, she pointed to a cloud at the base of her neck—a tattoo Bakugo had noticed before. "I got this one when I first got into it."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""What'd you do?" he asked, his eyes never leaving her./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Me and Denki used to blow all of our money on weed," she laughed, turning back around. "We decided that instead of just spending our money, we should be making it. They really had fifteen year old kids moving massive amounts of heroin and getting tattoos. Our dad had a /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"fit."/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" Bakugo let his hands slip down from her arm and into her hand, his fingertips touching every piece of her hand. He stopped when he felt her fingers, rough scars where her fingerprints should've been. "They're still there," she said, as if she could read his mind. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""What happened?" he asked, his eyes almost apologetic. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""It's kind of a long story," she said, laughing, "but full of suspense."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I don't think you had any intentions of going back home tonight," he said, throwing a glance at her bag. "Talk."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Well, I was sixteen," she started, eyes downcast, "Denki and I were doing our thing, had about two thousand on us—which we thought was a lot—and these guys pulled up. They weren't trying to buy anything so we told them to piss off, and they grabbed us and stuffed us in the back of a van. They knocked my head around pretty good I don't remember much about how we got to this warehouse, but we were in a fuckin' warehouse and they had cameras in our faces—"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Did you know them?" /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""At sixteen, I didn't know /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"anybody. /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I was just a dumb kid," she said, twiddling her fingers. "We were pretty beat up, and the guys had this metal plate. They put my hand to it and it /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"burned, badly." /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"She opened and clenched her hand, making an angry fist. "I screamed and Denki tackled one of the guys, and the other forgot about me to try and get Denki off. That was the biggest mistake they made. I got up really fast and grabbed his gun out his pocket and shot him—'cause the fucker didn't die instantly—twice. I told Denki to back up and shot the other guy in the forehead." /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Bakugo spent his past life as a gambler, Ochako was convinced. His poker face was strong, unwavering, and it did nothing to settle Ochako's stomach. Everytime she recounted that story, which she recounted more times than necessary, her stomach twisted itself in knots. She stared down at her fingertips, the burns still taking up residence on her body. "The cameras were showing my Grandad—the head of our family—what happened. He wasn't concerned with two street kids like us at first, but when he saw our will to live, he couldn't help but want to see us. He took really good care of us after that…" She almost smiled, warm memories of Grandad flooding her mind. She almost let out a soft sigh, relishing in his memory. "He was really good to us," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. "There's no way I could've ever repaid him."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"For a moment, they sat together in silence. It draped over them, like a blanket, keeping them warm and comfortable without the notice of its existence. Ochako almost thought it was special—how she could just sit and be quiet and not have any ill feelings, even after she left herself so exposed. If he said the wrong thing it could break her in half, but instead he said nothing and she was whole and wasn't concerned with falling apart. She bought her eyes away from her fingertips and looked back at Bakugo, who had been looking at her with those unwavering, innocent eyes that she found /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"so /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"enchanting. It was almost alarming, how serene those bright red eyes could be, just sitting and resting, relaxed on his equally relaxed face. Those same eyes that were once so /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"angry /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"at her were now gazing at her like she was nothing but /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"everything/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" he wanted—and she couldn't stop the butterflies from swirling inside her. She raised a hand to put over her tummy, but was caught off guard when Bakugo grabbed it, holding it gently./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You really aren't just an average, small business owner like everyone else on the street," Bakugo said, breaking the silence but not dispelling the warmth between them. Ochako laughed, a light, dangerous laugh that made the warmth just a little hotter, a little heavier, and a lot more deadly./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You wouldn't like me if I was average," she told him. She was teasing him—and he was fully aware of it this time. The room seemed to close in on them, and Ochako swore the thermostat must be set up to an unbelievably high degree. /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"This/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" was a little too comfortable, she found herself too close to him but wanting nothing more than to get closer, and let him know /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"everything /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"about her./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I do like you," he said, moments before closing the tiny space between them and crashing his lips onto hers. It was desperate, what seemed like years' worth of tension building between them finally coming down. Honestly, it would've caught Ochako off guard had she not been thinking about doing the same thing. She relaxed into him, sinking further into the couch and her hands getting lost in his blonde hair. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Woah. /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Exploring fingers tugged on /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"soft/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" blonde spikes before deciding to massage his scalp, eliciting a soft moan from Bakugo. Quickly, she pulled away, almost as if she had been burned. Red eyes slightly widened with panic before they settled in on Ochako's features, brown eyes half-lidded and lips puckered and /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"almost/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" bruised. "Fucking intense enough for ya?" he asked, teasing her./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"She /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"wouldn't /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"be outdone./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Not even close," she said, wrapping her arms around him and pulling him in for another kiss, this time /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"she /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"was the one getting closer to /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"him/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;". She moved so that she was sitting in his lap, kissing and nipping at his bottom lip in a way that she /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"knew /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"was driving him crazy. She could /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"feel/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" him moving underneath her, shifting himself so that she could feel just how badly he wanted her. His hands dragged up and down her sides before firmly planting themselves on her hips, giving hard, appreciative squeezes when she kissed him /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"just right. /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"There's a long, bruise-inducing kiss between them before Ochako moved from Bakugo's lips to his neck, alternating between kissing and sucking and biting—which Bakugo found out he /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"doesn't /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"mind at all. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Swiftly, he moved from his seat on the coffee table to the couch, lying on his back and letting Ochako straddle him. Her hips moved almost automatically, rhythmically grinding against him. One hand moved from her hip to the swell of her ass and he could taste the moan she let out—a soft, breathy noise that was almost too delicate to come from /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"her. /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The space between his pants was already uncomfortably tight, and he knew it would only get worse from here. Still, he couldn't help but let his other hand slide underneath her tank top, grabbing her bra and pulling it down, nearly breaking it. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Wait," she said abruptly, sitting up./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""What's wrong?" Bakugo asked, propping himself up as well. "If you wanna stop we can stop—ain't no rush or pressure or none of that shit." Concerned red eyes searched bright brown ones and were surprised to be kissed after—short and chaste, nothing like the ones from before./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I don't wanna stop," she said, sliding her legs off of him and standing, "but I don't know if your couch is gonna have enough space for what I wanna do."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"And just like that, he gingerly picked her up, her legs wrapped around him a way he /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"wished /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"she would do later/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: center; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"x/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The only thing on Ochako's mind was figuring out how the /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"fuck /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"was she going to get Katsuki Bakugo even closer to her. Her shirt had been lost moments after they entered his room, and his hands were tracing and rubbing over pink, pert nipples. Another breathy noise escaped her throat and she found her back arching, pushing herself closer to him. Her neck tickled from where his stubble grazed her smooth skin, bright red bruises being left. A soft nip on her neck had her moaning again, and quickly, Bakugo's hand found its way into her pants. "Mmmm," she breathed, relishing in the feeling on his hand /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"so /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"close to her./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"That was enough to drive him /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"mad. /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Recklessly, he grabbed the waistband of her sweatpants and pulled them down, leaving her in nothing but a pair of blue panties—Bakugo almost laughed when he noticed the light pink lace around her waist and thigh. "That's cute," he laughed, his hand cupping the outside of her core. His breath hitched when he felt how /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"warm /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"it was, her panties damp enough to make his dick throb in his pants./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Shut up," she said, a light flush covering her face. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You're cute," he said, pressing a finger onto the damp spot, eliciting a gasp from her. He flashed a dangerous smile at her and for once, she was intimidated by him. /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"How the tables have turned. /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He dipped his head down and licked her breast, tongue swirling on her nipples. His hand traced lazy circles around her panties, pressing down and applying pressure when he felt like she wasn't loud enough. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I—I," she said, desperately trying to form a thought but not being able to find too many words, "/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Fuck."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You like that?" he asked, his voice heavy and husky and hot against her neck. That alone would've been enough to make her see stars, but /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"fuck—/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"she would not be undone like this./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I—I," she tried again, nodding her head, "I like that." With that, he snatched her underwear off and inserted himself right between her thighs, his breath hot against her. "I like you there," she sighed, a small giggle escaping her. His hands left her breast and trailed down her body, feeling smooth skin and raised scar tissue that he would've asked about—but he was busy. She squeaked when she felt his tongue licking her, and she couldn't help but to throw her hands into his hair. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"That little action spurred him on, and he licked again and again, the bottom of his face practically drenched with her juices. He gripped her thighs tighter, spreading her legs a further and putting his tongue deep inside her. Her moans, breathy and heavy, were only getting louder and she found her back arching higher. His tongue left her folds and he sucked her clit and she /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"screamed./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You look so fucking good like this," she heard him say against her pussy, licking her feverishly. She was already so wet before he touched her but now? It felt like she was going to drown him. It was almost overwhelming, and she could feel herself winding up, her hips moving against his face on their own. He stuck his tongue inside her and she moaned loudly, and a second later he added a finger, and she screamed again./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Fuck Katsuki," /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"she cried, running her hands through his hair and pushing his face deeper in her. He didn't seem to mind, and she swore she felt him smile against her before pulling his tongue out of her pussy and swirling it around her clit. "Ka—Kat," she tried desperately, but she couldn't find the heart to finish what she had been trying to say. She couldn't focus—her mind was fuzzy and blank and she could feel the tension building inside of her and she knew she could break anytime soon./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He swapped his mouth for his hand, rubbing circles on her clit while he thrusted his fingers inside her. Her fingers sucked him one eagerly, and he could feel her walls tightening up around them. They both knew she wouldn't last much longer. "Say it," he urged, "say my fucking name."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Katsuki!" she screamed, hips rolling on his fingers. Flashes of white almost blinded her and she couldn't hold it in any longer. "I—I."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You gonna cum for me, baby?" he finished for her, a wild smirk on his face. She looked desperate, her round face flushed and mouth open, unintelligible words and loud screams falling out of bruised lips. She nodded, unable to find words but letting her own hands rub and play with her nipples./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I'm gonna cum," she panted, hips rolling and eyes closing. She could feel whatever was building getting ready to overflow and she didn't know how much longer she could hold it in. Her legs started shaking against Bakugo's shoulders and seeing the way he smirked at her was threatening to send her over the edge./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Cum on then," he said, adding another finger before moving his mouth back onto her./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"And then she /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"snapped. /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Those big brown eyes opened wide and she screamed, loud and heavy and her nails gripped the blanket with enough force to rip through them. Her hips rolled, inadvertently rubbing her clit against his tongue, and the extra friction made her thighs twitch./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Bakugo relished in the way she tightened around his fingers, his tongue lapping up all of her juices and whatever he couldn't lick up landed on his face. He moaned into her, and was surprised to hear her moan in response. He pulled back and kissed her feverishly, desperately, his tongue slipping into her mouth and allowing her to taste herself. He kept his fingers inside her, lightly trusting as she rode out her climax./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Gently, he slipped them out, not surprised to find them coated in her slick juices. He bought them up to her lips and she eagerly took it, sucking his fingers until there was nothing on them but her spit. "You taste good," he said, smirking. Ochako smiled back at him, eyes hazy and half-lidded, and pulled him into a kiss, her back against the mattress and his chest against hers. It wasn't long before his lips left hers, moving to her cheek, and then moving to her neck and /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"fuck, /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"she liked when he licked her right there. Unconsciously, she opened her legs to him, nestling him in between her thighs./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Get inside me," she said, her voice barely above a whisper, "I want you inside me."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Don't have to fuckin' tell me twice," he replied before slipping inside her, her walls squeezing him and her slick helping him slide in deep. "You're so fucking tight, angel." She cried as he thrusted in her, filling her up and emptying her, before sliding back in again. Her eyes were glued to him, watching as he disappeared and reappeared inside her. She wrapped her legs around him, pushing him as far inside her as he could go, and she could swear she felt him in his chest. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"She met his thrusts, pushing her hips into his and her nails dug themselves into his back. She knew that it would leave angry, red half-moons on him but she couldn't bring herself to care. /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"This /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"was more important than any scratch she could leave. She propped herself up and Bakugo reached a hand under her, holding her against him. She caught a glimpse of him through her heavy eyes and saw that he was looking at her, those red eyes glazed over and lustful and /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"staring /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"into her, and she swore she was going to finish again—soon./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Fuck 'Chako," Bakugo said, slamming into her, "you feel too fuckin' good." She was seeing stars—this could be it. She clung to him like a second skin, melting into him and turning to putty in his hands. "You're so fuckin' wet for me," he whispered in her ear, his breath hot against her skin, "I can't believe you wanted me this fuckin' bad." It was true, she could feel her juices all over him, dripping all over his thighs. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"His hips jerked faster, more controlled and Ochako felt him melting into her, and she knew he wouldn't last much longer. Truthfully, she had no idea how much longer she'd last, either. She couldn't focus, her skin was on fire, and in this moment, she swore that he was the only other person that existed. "You—You're close," she panted, rolling her hips against his. "I—I can feel it."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Mmhmm," he agreed, unable to form words. "So fuckin' tight," he said, going faster, his arms wrapping around her tighter./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You gonna cum in me?" she asked, but it felt more like a demand. Her half lidded eyes had that familiar, dangerous glint in them and Bakugo's breath caught in his throat once he caught a look at them. All he could do was nod, his hand holding her tighter. She nodded with him, placing a sloppy kiss on his face. "You're gonna cum in me," she said, her voice a little more determined. There was no mistaking it—she wasn't /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"asking, /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"she was /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"telling. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"And that is all it took. Gripping her tight, he plunged as deep as he could into her, emptying inside her. She moaned at the feeling, lowering his face down to meet her lips. It was bruising and sloppy and she could feel his cum seeping out of her—and she loved every second of it. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Love—wasn't that presumptuous. It was strange, Ochako felt a whirlwind of feelings when it came to Bakugo, but /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"fuck/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" she did not want to love him. Love caused a surge of emotions and emotions were unpredictable and lethal. And really, those were two of the last things she needed in her life right now. Things were crazy enough as if and it looked like Katsuki was going to be around for a while—and that's where she wanted him. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"She gazed at him, sleepy-eyed and spent, lying next to her with his arm wrapped around her loosely. His breath was soft and even against her, and she knew he'd be asleep soon, if he hadn't fallen asleep already./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"And still, she loved this/span/p