Chapter 3

Something Beautiful

Katsuki unloaded his pockets into his locker, taking out his scrubs.

He didn't know why it had to be a hospital. It was Shouto's idea, not his. Obviously, Half 'n half wasn't very good with the sunlight, and in a hospital, you could walk for miles without coming across any natural daylight. And being a porter was a low-profile job, which made it easy to hide.

Katsuki could recognize the logic, but that didn't mean he was content with it.

He'd once had goals to do greater things, to prove himself and be better than all the other shitty extras that'd tried to get in his way.

But then he'd gone into that stupid forest, and now, he was somebody nobody porter that no one paid attention to.

"Hey, you're the guy that took Ms. Shuzenji to the memorial service, right?"

He paused with his shirt halfway off of his torso, turning to find that whoever had spoken was indeed talking to him.

He found some extra standing behind him with his hands confidently placed on his hips, his red hair spiked up with what had to be a shit ton of gel.

The guy was still staring at him patiently and expectantly.

Katsuki tsked, turning back to throw his now discarded shirt into his locker, "Why the fuck does it matter to you?"

The guy didn't seem to be at all taken aback by Katsuki's gruff tone, still smiling pleasantly, "She really appreciated it. Wouldn't stop talking about how nice it was and how nice you were for taking her there. She's in my ward, and she doesn't get a lot of visitors, so I'm sure it meant a lot to her."

Katsuki yanked the shirt of his scrubs out of his locker and hurriedly shoved it over his head. Geese, this guy loved to just talk and talk and talk…

Katsuki slammed his locker shut, cutting the guy's rambling short, before he turned to walk away without a word.

That didn't seem to deter the guy one bit, the red-head following after him as he excitedly introduced, "My name's Eijirou Kirishima! What's yours?"

From her spot on the living room couch, Ochako gazed after Shouto as he trudged down the stairs and disappeared through the curtain of beads into the kitchen. He didn't offer her any morning greetings, not even a nod, like he usually would.

Katsuki hadn't told her much about what had happened at the hospital a few days ago, because in all honesty, the blond didn't seem to know too much either. All he knew was that another vampire who seemed to know Shouto had attacked and killed one of their coworkers as some sort of threat.

Despite her lack of knowledge, Ochako could tell the event was taking its toll on Shouto. There were only subtle differences, really, but since Shouto tended to not talk a lot, she'd had no choice but to become familiar with his mannerisms.

Apart from taking a few days off from work, he'd been staring off into space more rather than following the conversation with his eyes. And normally when he zoned out like that, it seemed to be because there were all sorts of things running through his head. But lately, his silence seemed blank and fuzzy instead of analytical.

He came back into the living room with a mug in his hands and settled onto the couch beside her, not even casting her a glance.

Ochako knew he wasn't trying to be rude or anything. In her book, he had every right to be upset and distant.

She pulled her feet up onto the couch, hugging her knees as she tentatively asked, "How'd you sleep?"

"Fine," he answered immediately, still not looking at her. "You?"

Ochako quirked a brow. His knee-jerk response was a dead give-away that he wasn't really thinking and processing, especially given that he returned her question.

Her silent, blank stare seemed to finally nudge him towards realization, "Oh, I'm sorry-"

"It's fine, Todoroki," Ochako waved his apology off. "Besides, I don't really know if sleeping is impossible yet. I...haven't really tried, in all honesty."

He hummed into his mug tiredly for a second, "Why?"

Ochako shrugged, resting her chin atop her folded arms, "I might dream."

He cast her a quick glance out of the corner of his eye, "And...that's a bad thing?"

"I'm afraid of what I might see," she breathed out softly. "I mean…I've been trying to accept the way things are, and if I happen to dream about what things could have been like if I hadn't died, I think it'll set me back, you know?"

He hummed in understanding before going silent once more.

Ochako pouted as he seemed to zone out again.

Shouto had never been super talkative, but this was far from his usual observative, somewhat content silence. This was heavier, speaking levels to his internal frustration and exhaustion.

Ochako wished she could help him somehow, like asking if there was anything she could do to take on his burdens or do something to cheer him up. It wasn't like she had anything else to do anyway, and the two boys were starting to grow on her, despite her initial intent to drive them out.

Despite her wishes, she knew there wasn't much she could do, given her current condition and lack of knowledge about vampires and their politics.

But maybe... maybe she could find him a friend. Someone who wasn't supernatural like her and Katsuki. Someone who could distract him from everything that came with being undead and make him feel human again.

Like that boy with the green hair that lived down the street. They seemed to be about the same age, or at least the boy seemed to be around the age that Shouto was physically frozen at.

She cleared her throat, "I've been thinking, you know? You and Bakugo getting the house...it was to participate...to join humanity , right? And what have you guys done? A few trips down to the bar?"

His eyes shifted to her again for a moment, a silent question as to where she was going with this.

"Laughing with people, listening to their stories, making friends, forming bonds," she hummed, " That's what being human is about."

"...so?"

"I'm telling you to make some friends," Ochako pressed, a bit exasperated. "There's this boy I see every now and then that lives down the street, and he's probably around your age. Well, I mean...he's not over a hundred, but you know what I mean."

"If the way my dad acted was anything to go by, you're not allowed to talk to your neighbors until you've nodded at them for fifteen years."

Ochako stared at him in blank silence for a moment before a giggle slipped through her lips, realizing he was being completely serious.

"It's risky, Uraraka," he stated, something heavier seeping into his tone. "Both for us and them."

Ochako wasn't stupid. She knew he was thinking about what had happened with his coworker or possibly another similar event from his past. It wasn't like she hadn't realized she was breaching an uncomfortable subject and tender topic. But there was this indescribable tightness in her chest; a part of her that longed for him to not waste the opportunities he had that she didn't anymore.

"Look, I don't…" she took a deep breath to gather her thoughts, "...I know I don't know everything about vampires and what you went through in the past, but...aren't you the one always telling Bakugo to accept what he is? And isn't part of accepting yourself accepting all of those risks?"

He still didn't look at her, but she watched his profile shift; his expression morphing in thought.

Ochako continued to push her point, "Hide in plain sight. Stop being afraid. Invite the world in." She set her chin atop her knees, her voice becoming a bit of an upset grumble, "I mean, I would do it, but...nobody can see me anymore. Just you and Bakugo. Supernaturals, not humans."

He glanced at her, questioning, "I thought-"

She shrugged, hugging her knees tighter to her chest, "Since I saw my dad, I'm...I'm not here . I'm past tense."

Ochako was aware that the conversation was shifting away from where she wanted it to be. But she figured now was as good a time as any to let Shouto know the most recent update regarding things about being a ghost that she didn't understand.

She and Katsuki hadn't ever really gotten the chance to clearly tell him about what happened when her dad had shown up at the house out of nowhere. The two boys had avoided each other for some reason when Shouto had returned from work that day, and then the next day, everything else had been quickly overshadowed by what had happened to their friend at work.

She let out a heavy sigh, "It just...It feels like everything's changing. And, I know we haven't known each other for that long, but still…"

"Everything will settle again," he stated nonchalantly. "That's how time works. It's like a snowglobe."

She shook her head, letting out a breathy laugh, "Nothing phases you, does it? You just...never seem to be afraid of anything."

"I wish that was true."

Ochako shifted her gaze to him, but he was still just staring blankly forward.

She scooted a little closer to him, "I want you to be honest with me, Todoroki. Is…is this it?" She felt she could be a bit more leveled with Shouto than with Katsuki. Their 'conditions' were more similar than either of theirs was with Katsuki's. Katsuki would still keep aging, but the two of them were unmoving, frozen in time while time marched forward. Their existence was stagnant.

"If nothing changes…" she continued timidly, "...will I just stay like... like this ? Here, but... not here . Forever?"

He was silent, staring forward for a moment before answering simply and honestly, "Yeah."

Tears gathered in her eyes, but she'd known. She's always known.

She nodded, swiping at them as she gave him a watery, but genuine smile, "Thanks."

And she really met it, grateful for the confirmation he'd given her in a world full of so many unknowns.

"And I think you're wrong, Uraraka."

She gave him a curious glance, brows furrowed.

He finally turned his gaze to her, "Everything you said earlier...if you really think that doing all that is what it means to be human, then you can still be human, too."

It was moments like these that made Uraraka question what her life had become.

She'd spent a good majority of the first half of her day moping around the house, and now she was desperately fisting her hands in the back of Shouto's shirt as he paved the way through the crowd in a club.

She abosolutely did not want to get separated from him in this unfamiliar place, even though she knew she could poof home in the blink of an eye should she lose him. She also stuck close to him in hopes that if she was practically glued to his back, she wouldn't have to deal with people passing through her as often as they would were she following behind him at a usual distance.

Shouto didn't seem to mind, anyways.

When he came to a stop in an isolated corner, Ochako pressed up onto the balls of her feet to peek over his shoulder. Her eyes widened in surprise when she found a girl staring right back her. She was leaned back against the wall with her arms folded over her chest, black hair chopped short and clothes all leather.

"Uraraka, this is Kyouka Jirou," Shouto introduced as he stepped out from between the two girls. "She's a…'kindred spirit.'"

"'Kindred spirit?'" Ochako confusedly repeated in a mumble. She finally untangled her fingers from Shouto's shirt, clasping her hands nervously in front of herself, "You...you're…"

"Dead?" the other girl finished. "Yeah."

"I'll leave you to it, then."

Ochako's hands timidly reached for Shouto when he disappeared back into the crowd, but he was gone before she could so much as call his name.

Ochako felt like she didn't know how to talk to people anymore, at least anyone other than Shouto and Katsuki. After all, they'd been the only ones she could converse with for the past year.

"So what's it like living with Bakugo and Todoroki?"

Ochako's gaze whipped back to Kyouka, "You know Bakugo, too?"

"Yep," the other girl nodded. "I met him first actually. He came here for a drink a few months ago. I'd gotten used to talking shit about people without them being able to hear me, but...Bakugo could." She shrugged as she pushed off the wall and straightened herself out, "Todoroki came by a few weeks after that, and things played out the same way."

Ochako let a smile slip onto her face, some form of relief finally fluttering through her veins.

Despite appearances, the girl seemed nice. Besides, with everything she'd done to the former tenants of the house, she could completely understand the shit-talking.

She felt some of her inhibitions slowly starting to melt away.

"Living with them is…" Ochako hummed as she sought out an appropriate word, "...great, I guess? I'm just really grateful to have the company. I was on my own for more than half a year without anyone who could see me.

"How long have you been dead?" Ochako asked with a slight glance down at the other girl's outfit. It wasn't necessarily bad, but the leather jeans coupled with a leather jacket and plain white t-shirt weren't exactly the most in-style, either. And...was that a Walkman secured to her hip?

It wasn't like Ochako's clothes were the best either, though. She'd just been chilling at home with her dad before she'd died, afterall. If she had known that she was going to die, she would have definitely picked something better than her light pink hoodie and black leggings. Or at least put on some shoes, so she wasn't sliding around in her thick gray socks all the time.

Kyouka shrugged, not seeming to be too sensitive about the information, "Died in the eighties. You?"

"At home with my dad, almost a year ago," Ochako offered as explanation.

Kyouka nodded, "So...wanna hang out sometime?"

Katsuki tried to not listen as the doctor with the shitty red hair that'd tried to talk to him in the locker room urgently spouted information over the phone, "A projector caught fire during an art history project at the university. Most of them were asleep, apparently." His expression reached new levels of exasperation, but he managed to keep it from slipping into his voice, "Yes, that's German and Italian. And can you ask them to please hurry up with the translators? They're in a lot of pain."

Certain that there wasn't anything for him to do here, Katsuki had tucked himself into a corner as paramedics, doctors, and nurses rushed from bed to bed. It wasn't like he was qualified to help anyways. He'd only been called in to help wheel the stretchers in.

Shitty Hair brushed past him, rushing to the bedside of a girl covered head-to-toe in soot. He patted her arm in comfort as she let out a series of ragged, panicked coughs, "It's fine. You're gonna be fine."

Katsuki let out a heavy puff of breath, his hands still shoved in the pockets of his scrubs as he walked up to Shitty Hair, "Look, if it's any help I can speak some basic Italian."

Shitty Hair turned to him, giving him a surprised stare, "What?"

"I spent a summer abroad there when I was little," Katsuki hurriedly ground out. "Now do you want my help or not? You said you needed an Italian translator, right?"

"I...yeah," a blinding smile spread across his face. "Thanks, dude. This way."

After making plans to meet up with Kyouka in a few hours, Ochako had returned home to find that Shouto wasn't there. With no one to talk to, she'd settled herself on the couch right next to the window to partake in her last-resort passtime.

But people-watching was not anywhere near as mellow as it had been for the last few months.

At first, Ochako hadn't thought she was going to see anyone out and about today. It was pretty cloudy, after all, and gently raining on and off. She couldn't blame anyone for wanting to stay inside on a day like this.

But then she'd seen a familiar head of bushy green hair from down the way.

She'd smiled softly for a moment before she realized something was wrong.

He was walking too slow...and it wasn't too long before she realized he was limping, one of his arms wrapped loosely around his middle.

She pressed her face closer to the window, her eyebrows creased with worry.

The tip of the boy's right shoe got caught in one of the cracks in the sidewalk, and her hands flew to her mouth as he tripped and barely managed to catch himself on the concrete.

Panic flooded her system, and before she could even think of what to do, in a flash, she was by his side.

She dropped to her knees in front of him, her hands hovering over him. Her eyes went wide at the sight of blood soaking his shirt across his midsection, the hand he'd been holding over his stomach equally coated with red. He was littered with cuts and bruises, one of his legs looking a little mangled beneath his jeans.

Oh God, was he unconscious? What the hell had happened?

"Hey, hey, its gonna be fine," the comforting words slipped through her lips before she could stop them, even though she knew he couldn't hear her.

His eyes fluttered open, one of his irises barely visible beneath the puffy, swollen flesh around his socket.

She stilled as he focused right on her face. His eyebrows furrowed, but his gaze was unfaltering.

Ochako sucked in a slow gasp, disbelief in her voice as she breathed, "You...can you…"

Before she could finish her question, his eyes stuttered shut, his head lulling against the concrete.

Panic once again overtook her surprise.

She wanted to help, but...could she help? No one had been able to see her since her encounter with her dad, or at least that was what seemed to be true up until a few seconds ago, so would she even be able to do anything?

"Uraraka? What are you doing out here?"

Her head whipped around, finding Shouto a short distance down the sidewalk with bags full of groceries in his hands.

"Todoroki!" She all but sobbed,"You need to help!"

Shouto didn't move an inch, the groceries slipping from his grasp and clattering to the concrete as his hands and expression went slack.

"Hurry!" Ochako pressed, her confusion as to why he wasn't doing anything giving way to something akin to horror when she came to a realization.

His eyes were on the boy's blood.

Ochako's eyes went wide. Was he frozen because it was hard to resist the temptation to feed, or was the scene too reminiscent of the incident of only a few days prior?

Either way, there was obviously some deep internal struggle warring within her housemate.

But Ochako knew they didn't have time for that.

There was a boy bleeding out on the concrete in front of her, and she'd be damned if she condemned him to the same early end she'd faced.

"You can do this, Todoroki," she urged, trying to keep her voice from wavering. "He needs help, and you're the only one that can do it."

His eyes jumped to her and he swallowed.

She held his gaze firmly, doing her best to pour all of her honesty and desperation into her expression.

With another quick swallow, Shouto ducked his head and shot forward, his knees hitting the concrete right beside her.

He moved as gently as possible, but still fast enough to keep himself from getting distracted from his task. He grabbed one of the boy's arms, the one that wasn't coated with blood, and slung it over his shoulders, slipping one of his own arms underneath the boy's knees while the other supported his back.

Ochako hovered around the pair nervously as Shouto hoisted him up, following devotedly behind them as Shouto walked the same path he walked to work everyday, but this time with much, much more urgency.

As he sat in a visitor's chair in a hospital room, Shouto was grateful for the monitor beeping in time with the green haired boy's heartbeat. The beeping masked the sound of the boy's heart pumping, and allowed Shouto to disassociate the sign of life from the thought of the blood flowing through his veins.

After their trek to the hospital, it'd taken Shouto all he had left in him to wash the boy's blood from his arms with sink water instead of with his tongue.

Ochako was pacing behind him, her hands shoved into the pocket of her sweatshirt. He couldn't pinpoint exactly what the girl was feeling, but it seemed to be some mixture of worry, nervousness, confusion, and excitement.

Apparently, it seemed like this boy could see her.

Shouto had an inkling of an idea as to why. He'd been bleeding out, edging closer and closer to death by the minute.

But Shouto wasn't going to tell Ochako that. It'd crush her hopes, and hey, maybe this kid really did have the ability to see the dead. It wouldn't be the first time Shouto had heard of something like that.

And it seemed like they were about to find out.

Ochako froze in place as the green haired boy let out a soft groan, his head shifting against his pillow.

His green eyes fluttered open, wandering around the room in a daze for a moment before settling on Shouto. He stared in silence for a moment before mumbling in a hoarse voice, "Um...who...who are you?"

"I was the one that brought you here," Shouto answered slowly and evenly. "Oh, and 'here' is the hospital, by the way. You were injured fairly bad and collapsed right in front of my house."

There was a brief lull in the conversation, the boy's expression shifting as he processed and remembered.

Despite his curiosity, Shouto didn't ask to hear what had caused his injuries.

"Oh, thank you. Really," the boy's expression of gratitude was genuine and pure. His soft smile slowly faded as his brows pinched in confusion, "But, if you don't mind my asking...why are you still here?"

When a faint whoosh sounded out from behind him, Shouto knew Ochako was gone. Like he'd expected, this boy couldn't see her. It'd simply been a product of the situation.

Shouto shoved that aside to deal with later, when there wasn't a human watching him so intently, "No one really had any idea who you are, so they couldn't contact anyone. I figured it'd be best if you weren't alone when you woke up, and I work here, so they let me stay."

"Oh," the boy nodded in understanding, a soft smile appearing again. "Well, thanks for that, too."

"No problem," Shouto nodded as he stood from his chair. "But if you don't mind, I'm going to go find someone a bit more qualified to talk to you about...everything."

"Oh...right," the boy nodded back, still obviously a little bit out of it. "Thank you...again."

With one last nod back at the boy, Shouto brushed through the door...

And immediately ran into someone waiting on the other side.

His eyes went wide, "Yaoyorozu?"

Before he could even finish saying her name, she was grabbing onto his forearms desperately, "Todoroki, I...I couldn't stay there any longer…"

Shouto pulled one of his arms out of her needy grasp only to grab her elbow and tug her towards a nearby storage closet. He couldn't let anyone see her, especially here, where people were more likely to recognize her. It'd only been two months since she'd died, after all.

The second he turned back to her after closing the door, her head fell forward onto his chest.

"Shigaraki, he…" she sobbed, "...he made me k-kill my parents."

Despite the weight of the news, Shouto wished he could be surprised, but...that was just what they did. When you transform, you sever all ties. Begin life anew.

And he had been the one to force that onto her.

Her grip found his forearms again, and she lifted her tear-streaked face to plead, "Please...help me…I've been clean for a week now, but I just know I'm going to kill tonight."

He gripped back just as tightly as he urged, "You can't. You've got to stop yourself."

Momo shoved herself off of him with a sob, collapsing back against the wall and sliding down it, "I can't. It's all I can think about. When I can kill again and feed. It's this...screaming pain in my blood and my nerves, right under my skin."

Shouto crouched down cautiously in front of her, not entirely sure of what to do.

But that didn't matter, because before he even had the time to think, she grabbed onto him again, clinging to him as she buried her face into the crux of his neck and shoulder, "There must be something you can do. I need something to keep me going, please. You work here. Just...just get me some blood. That way, I don't have to kill anyone."

He shook his head solemnly, "That kind of blood doesn't work, Yaoyorozu." He pried her off of him before finally and properly sitting all the way down in front of her. A thought came to mind, and he tugged up the long sleeve of his jacket, digging his own fangs into the soft skin on the inside of his wrist to break the skin.

He held his wrist out to her, and that was all the instruction she needed. She grasped his arm with both hands, her lips sealing around the wound as she eagerly began to suck.

Shouto winced. It'd been a long time since he'd felt the sensation of having his blood sucked from his veins; since he'd been turned by Shigaraki in the middle of the war. This trick was one the other vampires had taught him, but he'd always been the one on the receiving end, not the one offering up his blood.

Momo's mouth only ever left his wrist to take in air desperately, managing to breathe out between gulps, "...Thank...you..."

"Look," Shouto ground out, trying to keep himself from making noise as she hurriedly sucked, "meet me outside in thirty minutes. Just don't kill anyone. I promise I'll help you."

Ochako had seriously considered staying home instead of meeting up with Kyouka. But after nearly half an hour of sitting numbly on the living room couch, she'd decided that she still wanted to go. That she needed to go, because after everything, she still desperately needed a friend.

So, she left the house early, giving herself enough time to walk to her location. She could have poofed there in an instant, but actually taking the time to walk calmed her nerves and made her feel more alive again.

She and Kyouka had agreed to meet at the cemetery to...Well, she didn't know what they were going to do, but she assumed the other girl had something in mind since she'd been the one to suggest it.

Kyouka was already waiting by the front gate, a soft smile spreading across her lips when she saw Ochako, "You made it!"

"Yep!" Ochako buried her hands in the pocket of her hoodie, quirking her shoulders, "So...what's the big surprise?"

Kyouka nodded behind herself, through the gate, "This way."

Ochako's grin faded. She hadn't even blinked an eye when Kyouka had asked her to meet up in front of the cemetery. She'd never even considered that they'd actually be going inside.

Dread filled her now that she'd gotten an idea of why they were here.

Shouto wet one of the towels in the hotel bathroom, trying to clean the blood from his neck. The puncture wound from Momo's fangs had long since stopped bleeding, but she'd been sloppy in her desperation. Blood was crusted all the way up to his ear and stained down his shirt.

When the mess there was taken care of, Shouto moved on to the blood that was caked around his mouth and slipping down his chin and neck.

He wasn't sure when he'd done it, but at some point when Momo had been feeding from him, his fangs had instinctively found her neck, too, her blood smearing around his lips as he broke her skin.

When he was clean, he tossed the towel straight into the garbage. As he came out of the bathroom, he zipped up his jacket to hide the stains of blood on his clothes.

From where she'd collapsed onto her back on the bed, with blood still drying around her mouth and neck, Momo whimpered, "It still hurts."

"I told you, vampire blood isn't the same. It'll only dull the pain for a while. The only way to overcome the need is to stop entirely."

With a heavy breath, her eyes fell shut and she quivered out, "So this is it? We meet up in hotels like lovers having an affair...that's all we can do?"

Shouto stood still, thinking silently for a moment before he asked, "Come home with me."

She sniffled, covering her eyes with her hands, "I'm not...I don't think your housemate would like that."

"Then that's his problem," Shouto retorted immediately. "Besides, he may not be one of us, but he has the same goal. We're trying to be human again. We're taking back the lives that were stolen from us."

He hoped she understood what he was really getting at: Please...take back the life that I stole from you.

"I can't," she sobbed, pressing her hands harder into her eyes. "I can't be around them without wanting to rip their throats out...I should...I should just go back."

"What?" Shouto hissed.

He was angry, but it wasn't like he couldn't understand. It was the need to belong. To live within boundaries, because it was scary outside, all alone.

He knew that better than anyone.

"I'm a burden," she murmured. "I shouldn't have come to you in the first place."

"Yaoyorozu," he took a step closer, hesitant to touch her. "I...I'm not going to take another choice from you," he promised, but part of him wanted to force her to stay. "But don't...don't make a decision you're going to regret."

Silence.

Neither moved, and Momo's breathing had even settled down.

Her hands were still pressed over her eyes, and she dutifully kept them there to avoid catching sight of him as she rolled onto her side, her back to him. When she spoke, her voice was barely above a whisper, "Thank you, Todoroki. And goodbye."

Shouto felt a hit flash of anger and panic, but she'd made her choice. And he'd already made a massive mistake that had taken her agency from her once. As he'd promised, he wasn't going to do it again.

He turned over his shoulder on the way out of the door, "Call me when you need me again. I promise I'll be there."

Ochako numbly stared down at her own grave stone, her voice empty as she remarked, "You know...I've never seen it before."

"It's beautiful, don't you think?" Kyouka hummed from beside her.

"Beautiful?" Ochako resisted the urge to laugh bitterly. "I was only eighteen. I had my whole life to live. I was happy."

With all the leather she was wearing, Kyouka's shrug was practically audible, "You can still be happy now."

"How can I be happy?" Ochako mumbled miserably. "I've lost everything. I never got to fall in love. I never got to have the children that I wanted."

"You're beyond that now. Needs, cravings, all that. But the beauty of the world," Kyouka turned from the gravestone, admiring the way the sun streamed through the clouds and danced through the leaves of the trees and glimmered on the surface of the ponds in the cemetery with a content sigh, "it's all still here for us. It's a better place."

"Better place? Isn't that where we should have gone?"

"No, no…" Kyouka shook her head. "That's what I used to think, but then I stood by my grave, and I felt the peace and the stillness of it. And I knew that this is where I wanted to be. Forever."

Ochako finally tore her gaze from her grave, her brows cinched, "Forever?"

"Yeah. Well, unless you find some kind of resolution."

"To what?"

Kyouka shrugged again, "Your life. The things you did, or didn't get to do, or maybe even your death."

"You mean…"

At Ochako's silent stare, Kyouka answered her silent question, "You're still here for a reason, Ochako."

When Ochako finally got home, Shouto and Katsuki were both sitting in the living room, on opposite ends of the couch.

When the door clicked behind her, Shouto's gaze found her, "Where have you been?"

She could pick up on his undertones, and knew that he was pressing to see if she was okay after she'd vanished from the hospital room earlier. They'd decided to keep what had happened with the green haired boy a secret between the two of them given that Katsuki was quick to anger when it came to things that might pull attention to their household. It was incredibly lucky that they hadn't run into him at the hospital.

To answer Shouto's silent question, Ochako smiled softly while answering his verbal one, "I met up with Kyouka. She took me to the cemetery."

Ochako was curious about the state of the green haired boy, but she'd ask later, when their housemate wasn't around.

Katsuki snorted, snidely remarking, "She sure knows how to show a girl a good time."

Ochako fixed him with a glare, "It was really nice, actually. She made me realize something about why I'm still here. There's clearly some unfinished business. Something I didn't do in my life, and when I figure it out, I think I'll be able to...move on."

Immediately upon her finishing her sentence, the pipes let out an awful groan. Ochako quirked a brow as she looked up at the ceiling, "So now they do it when the water's not even on?"

"I talked to your-" Shouto cut himself short, choosing his words a bit differently to avoid the sensitive subject, "our landlord again. Don't worry about it. So, what needs to be resolved?"

She shrugged with a wry smile, "If I knew that, it wouldn't need resolving."

"So...what are you gonna do?" Shouto asked quietly.

"I...I don't know." After a short pause, she bounced on her feet once to shake off the solemnity, clapping her hands together, "But, I think getting some pens and paper would help me figure it out. Organize my thoughts, you know?"

As she ran up the stairs, Shouto stared after her.

"What the fuck is that face for, Half 'n Half?"

"It's just my face," Shouto answered blankly.

Katsuki narrowed his eyes, "I would've thought you'd be saying this was a good thing."

With a deep breath, Shouto started, "I've known for a long time that she's still here because something is unresolved. God only knows what she could uncover. This is why I've never said anything about it."

Katsuki's brows furrowed.

"Now you're making a face."

The blond rolled his eyes, going back his phone now that he'd lost interest, "She needs an answer, Half 'n Half. One way or another."