Brief Note: I apologize for how OOC a certain character is in this chapter, but please be aware that I'm doing my best to keep our main crew as in character as possible!

I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 4

The Truth Will Set You Free

"Hey dude!"

Katsuki nearly slammed his head into his locker in annoyance at the chipper voice that called out to him from behind.

He'd managed to go an entire shift without seeing Shitty Hair, and he'd thought he was gonna make it home in the all-clear.

He didn't know how many times he'd ducked around the corner to avoid him or just straight-up walked away within the last three days, but this guy just couldn't seem to take a hint.

Katsuki wasn't at all about friendly chit chat and making friends, especially when he wasn't the one initiating it. People had to prove themselves before he even considered giving them any of his time.

And the fact that he wasn't human anymore made him all the less eager to go and befriend a bunch of moronic people who had no clue about the monsters lurking in the dark.

Katsuki whirled on him, "What do you want?"

Shitty Hair's locker was quite a bit further down the row from his own, but there wasn't anyone else in the locker room, allowing them to talk freely.

"Are you getting off, too? Wanna, like...grab dinner or something?" the redhead started striping himself of his scrubs, "I mean, we've talked to each other every day for the last three days, so I thought we could hang out outside of work for once."

More like you've talked at me every day for the last three days, but whatever, Katsuki mocked in his head.

He turned to tell him to piss off, but stopped short when the redhead tossed his top into his locker.

Fuck, this guy was solid as a rock.

"And I wanna hear about Italy!" Shitty Hair continued happily, "I think it's super cool that you used to live there. Never left the country myself, but I'd like to someday."

Katsuki yanked his gaze away, choosing to stare into the depths of his locker instead.

What was this guy's name again? Kiri-something, right?

Katsuki stopped short again. Wait...why did he care what this dude's name was?

Something was wrong with him, and it was screwing with his head.

Tomorrow was the full moon. That had to be it.

"So, how about it?" Shitty Hair asked again, "Where do you like to eat?"

Not that was something Katsuki could answer, "I don't eat out. No shitty restaurant's better than my cooking."

"Really?" Shitty Hair asked, surprise underlining his tone, "You're into cooking?"

Katsuki whipped towards him with a glare, "So?"

Shitty Hair held up his hands in defense, a little chuckle in his voice, "Not judging. Just didn't think you'd like something like that."

Katsuki tsked, yanking his coat on, "Like you know anything about me."

For the first time since Katsuki had met him, Shitty Hair sounded a bit exasperated, "Okay, well, I'm tryin' to fix that, if you haven't noticed."

The redhead lightly cleared his throat, "Look, there's just not a lot of guy's our age around here, and I figured it couldn't hurt to have friends in the workplace."

To his own surprise, Katsuki found himself genuinely thinking this over.

If this guy wanted friends, then of course it made sense that he was looking for people the same age. And it wasn't like there were many to choose from. The only other guy their age Katsuki had seen around was Half 'n Half.

Given how the last two instances of coworkers getting close to the Vampire Bastard had gone, if Shitty Hair decided to try and befriend him instead, he'd end up dead or turned within the next month. Then, he'd be just another countless victim in the vampire scheme that'd been ongoing for centuries now.

Katsuki's glare deepened.

Like hell he was gonna let the vampires have another shitty victory like that.

He slammed his locker shut, startling the other boy.

The blond turned on him with a glare, "We ain't going to some shitty restaurant. We'll go to my place, and I'm gonna cook the best goddamn meal you've ever had in your life."

Ochako snuggled into the corner of her armchair, lightly humming along with an old vinyl Kyouka had brought over with her. She considered herself lucky that she lived with someone who was over a century old, given that record players weren't exactly the most common household appliances. Otherwise, Ochako would've had to disappoint her newest friend.

She looked over to where the other girl was stretched out across the couch, her head on one armrest and her feet propped up on the other. Kyouka's eyes were closed as she gently bobbed one of her feet to the beat of the music.

"Hey, Kyouka," Ochako softly called out. "I wanted to talk to you about what you said the other day. About how there's something that needs to be resolved before I can move on."

Keeping her eyes closed, Kyouka raised a brow as a silent signal for her to continue.

"It got me thinking," Ochako hummed. "That's what I need to do. Finish my unfinished business. No more sitting around here all day just waiting for the boys to get home."

Kyouka pursed her lips, "Alright."

"So, what I thought was...What I wanted to ask you was," Ochako took a deep breath, "would you help me?"

Kyouka's eyes popped open, her gaze finding the other girl as she softly questioned, "Me? Really?"

"Yeah. It could be like a favor...between friends."

"Friends?" Kyouka repeated the word, soft and slow.

Ochako gave a chipper nod, "Yep."

Kyouka considered the proposition for a moment, a smile taking over her features, "I could definitely do that."

A small giggle slipped through Ochako's lips as she beamed back.

She'd have to thank Shouto a thousand times for introducing the two of them.

Kyouka earnestly pushed herself up and swung her legs off the couch, her hands finding a notebook and pen Ochako had tossed on the coffee table earlier.

With the most enthusiasm she'd had in a while, Ochako pushed herself out of her arm chair and settled on the floor by Kyouka's legs.

"Alright then. Tell me about Ochako."

"Okay, um…" Ochako paused in thought as she leaned against the bottom of the couch. Where was she even supposed to start? Where did one even begin to describe their entire life?

"Well...I'm eighteen-or was eighteen when I died. And I was about to start attending the local college, majoring in architecture. That's why my dad and I moved here."

Ochako dropped her gaze and cleared her throat, not sounding as chipper as she continued, "Well...that, and we wanted to get away from the old house. My mom died about two years ago, and she was just...everything in that house reminded us of her." She bit her lip and shrugged, "It wasn't so bad for me, but for my dad...being there was hard for him a lot of the time. So we moved here…and then I fell down the stairs and died. The end."

When a sudden surge of that familiar weight of regret hit her chest, Ochako buried her face in her hands, "And now he's all on his own…"

Kyouka stared at her in silence for a moment before bluntly asking, "You say all that and you seriously can't figure it out?"

With a pout on her face, Ochako lifted her head to give her friend a confused stare.

"It's your dad," Kyouka stated, as if it was the most obvious thing. "He's why you're still here. I mean, who knows what the specifics are, but it's obviously got something to do with him."

Ochako pondered that for a moment. What things did she regret that had to do with her dad?

Her memories of what had happened leading up to her tumble down the stairs were a bit fuzzy, and immediately summoned an onslaught of feelings of fear and confusion. Despite those emotions, which had probably been coursing through her during her fall, she knew her dad had been there with her before her death.

If she was unable to move on...had they been having a fight before she fell?

That didn't sound like the two of them, though. Sure, they'd had their arguments and their relationship had become a bit more strained and distant after her mother had died. But she still loved him more than anyone else, and she couldn't imagine having said or done anything harsh enough to keep her from fully passing on.

It had to be something else.

Ochako hummed as an idea came to mind, one that sounded much more plausible, "I...I think I still want to show him that I love him and look after him. He always did so much for me, even when it was hard. I always wanted to pay him back for all that and show him how grateful I was...Maybe...Maybe that's what I need to do."

Kyouka gave her a soft smile, "Well, that's definitely a good place to start. Why don't we think of some things you could do?"

Another wave of gratitude washed over Ochako. With a bright grin, she buried her face in the other girl's lap and threw her arms around her waist, "Thanks, Kyouka."

A light tingle went through Ochako when she realized that this was the first time she'd been able to feel someone in over a year. Even though the boys were supernatural, she still passed through them just like she did with everyone else. But it wasn't like either of them tended towards physical displays of affection, anyways.

Hugging Kyouka didn't feel the same as hugging a person had when she was alive. It was cold, like hugging ice.

But it was more than she'd been able to do in a long, long time.

As she snuggled even further into her friend's lap, Ochako held that feeling tight in her chest.

Katsuki's glare deepened as he approached his house with Shitty Hair in tow.

There was music blasting inside. And it was some stupid, shitty old song that he was pretty sure was older than him.

He barely managed to unlock the door without breaking the key. As he shoved his way into the entryway, he was ready to give Half 'n Half an earful for his awful taste in music.

But he froze in his steps when he saw Headphone Girl standing in his living room, bobbing her head to the beat.

Of course it was her.

Shitty Hair's bright smile didn't fade as he stepped through the door and started tugging off his shoes, "Man, do you always have music playing or something?"

"Wait here," Katsuki hissed, his glare deepening even further at the smell wafting from the kitchen.

There was no way Half 'n Half was the one cooking, because he was hopeless at it. That left Pink Cheeks, but why the hell was she cooking when she couldn't even eat?

"Mind if I sit down?"

"Do whatever the hell you want," Katsuki spat as he charged through the beads.

Sure enough, Ochako was slaving away at the stove.

He kept his voice low so as not to be overheard by Shitty Hair, but he really didn't have to keep it too low because of the music blasting, "What the hell are you doing?"

"Making pasta," she hummed happily. "For my dad."

He stared at her blankly for a second before blurting, "What? Why?"

"Because I think it's what I need to do to move on," she shrugged, straining the noodles in the sink. "We were always tight on money, so my goal was to get a degree and a decent job so I could take care of him and pay him back for all he did for me. I never got the chance to do that, so…"

Katsuki stared at her in a silence for a moment again, "That's fucking stupid."

She turned over her shoulder to stick her tongue out at him.

"And do you really have to do it tonight?" He gestured with his head through the beads, "A loser from work followed me home."

There was a clang as she hurriedly dropped the now-empty pot in the sink before whirling around excitedly, "You brought a friend?! I didn't think you had friends!"

She abandoned her noodles to go take a peak.

Katsuki stepped in front of her before she could get to the doorway. He knew full well that she could just pass through him, but that she was inclined not to do so since she said it felt weird, "No. I don't want anyone finding out about all this supernatural shit."

She rolled her eyes as she moved to walk around him, "It's not like he can see or hear me."

Katsuki stepped in front of her again, "I said no, Pink Cheeks. And you better keep your damn friend away, too."

A pout cinched her lips as she leveled him with a glare of her own for a moment before finally caving, "Fine. But you have to buy me more noodles since these are going to go to waste!"

With that, she vanished.

He huffed out a quick breath before calling, "Shitty Hair!"

"I like the beads, dude!"

Katsuki watched him walk into the kitchen, catching a glimpse of where Ochako had reappeared in the living room. She was kneeling on the side of the couch where Shitty Hair had been sitting, her elbows on the armrest and her chin propped atop her hands, squishing her cheeks.

Katsuki rolled his eyes at the goofy smile on her features, a curse nearly flying through his mouth as Headphone Girl gave him a teasing smirk and a thumbs up.

When his break came, Shouto decided to head to the hospital room of the boy he and Ochako had saved the other day. He wasn't one for kindhearted visits and chit chat, but he knew that Ochako would want to know how the boy was doing.

Besides, he didn't like spending his breaks in the cafeteria anymore. Not since he'd lost his unofficial break-time buddy.

He glanced through the window in the boy's door. The unexpected presence of a woman at his bedside had Shouto slowing to a halt for a moment, but he wasn't one to let himself be deterred by the small things.

With a light rap of his knuckles on the wood, he pushed the door open, peeking his head through, "Mind if I come in?"

The boy's features lit up in a nervous, but still warm grin, "Oh, yeah! Sure!" He turned to the woman at his bedside, "Mom, this is the guy that brought me here."

With a warm grin that echoed the boy's, the woman at his bedside turned to Shouto, "Oh, yes! Please come in!"

"I'm Shouto Todoroki," he introduced himself with a slight bow as he took a few steps into the room.

"I'm Inko Midoriya, and this is my son Izuku."

Shouto felt that the 'my son' part of her introduction was a bit unnecessary. The resemblance between them was uncanny. Their eyes were the same round shape and shade of green, and their faces shared similar soft features. A scarf was wrapped around the woman's head, concealing her scalp, but it was easy to imagine her with hair the same hue as her son's unruly mop.

Shouto knew what the scarf covering the woman's scalp likely entailed, and the way she let out a series of raspy coughs into her handkerchief only further pushed his deduction.

But it wasn't any of his business, so he didn't say anything.

Instead, he asked the boy, "How are you feeling?"

"Um...alright, I guess," Izuku shrugged, smiling brightly, "They said I can go home in a few days."

Inko shook her head in disappointment, a heavy, ragged sigh slipping through her lips, "I say this as a mother, but the young ones these days can be foul. Just the way they treat each other. You know...picking on anyone who's different."

Ah...so that's what had happened. It was by no means a full account of how the boy had ended up with such injuries, but nevertheless, Shouto quietly took note of the information.

"I'm...I'm not different," Izuku muttered.

"Yes, you are," Inko pressed, but there wasn't anything in her tone that implied that was a bad thing. "You're sensitive and kind. Much different than those thugs."

"Mom," Izuku whispered nervously, his eyes barely flitting up from his lap, "you're kind of making me sound weak."

"There's no shame in being sensitive," Inko insisted, looking to Shouto, "Right?"

"Not at all," Shouto stated, his words entirely genuine.

Izuku suddenly cleared his throat, obviously eager to change the subject, "Um, you said you found me in front of your house, right? That must mean we live pretty close to each other. I don't remember exactly where I was when I passed out, but I do remember making it to my home street."

"Yeah, maybe," Shouto answered with a slight shrug. "I haven't really talked to anyone in the neighborhood much. I've only lived there for...about three months now."

"Well, I guess that's the way life is now," Inko remarked with a sigh, her voice still lighthearted. "We've lived here for about six months, and I don't even know half of the neighbors."

"If you don't mind me asking," Izuku's fingers anxiously fiddled with his blanket, "does your girlfriend live with you, or something? I just...I swear I saw a girl before I passed out. Figured you might know her since you're the one that ended up bringing me here."

Shouto stared back in silence.

So, Izuku had seen Ochako. But as they'd confirmed on their last visit with him, he couldn't see her now that he was very much not on the verge of death.

Shouto debated his approach, hurrying to find a solution before his silence grew suspicious. He knew how much Ochako yearned for a friend, but that just wasn't possible. At least not now; not until she could be seen by people other than supernaturals again.

Besides, she had Kyouka now, right? And no matter what, when it came to dealing with humans, he had to deny Ochako's existence in order to keep themselves safe; 'protect the house,' as Katsuki had once said.

"I...no," Shouto settled on his answer. "You were lying all alone when I found you. I do have a roommate, but...it's another guy."

"Oh…" Izuku brows furrowed as he dropped his gaze, muttering more to himself than to the others, "I don't know, guess I must've been hallucinating, or something. You know...blood loss, and all that..."

Inko stared at her son with worry cinching her brow for a moment before she smiled at Shouto sweetly, "Shouto, would you like to come over for tea sometime? I'd like to thank you for what you did for Izuku. And I didn't think there was anyone Izuku's age in the neighborhood. It'd be great if you two could become friends."

"Mom, don't pressure him," Izuku softly protested.

But Shouto wasn't really listening anymore. He'd zoned out after hearing Inko's invitation.

The last time he'd accepted such an invitation, he'd been unable to overcome his baser instincts and turned Momo.

He was not going through that again.

But then he remembered Ochako's words.

Making friends, laughing with people, hearing their stories.

That's what it meant to be human. If he let himself be tethered by regret and fear, their purpose would be null. If he couldn't prove to himself, in addition to Katsuki and Ochako, that he could reintegrate with humanity without failing and succumbing to his instincts, then what was the point of living?

He gave the mother and son his best attempt at a smile, the slight quirk of the corners of his lips small, but genuine, "Yeah...Yeah, I'd like that a lot."

"Damn, dude! This is amazing!"

"Of course it is. I made it," Katsuki grunted as he slid into the chair on the other side of the table, across from Shitty Hair. He quickly stabbed a few noodles and a strip of chicken and shoved his forkful into his mouth.

Yeah. He could definitely feel the full moon coming on tomorrow. An almost incurable hunger always overtook him in the days leading up to a transformation. It was like his body was telling him to load up on everything he could to give himself the energy needed in order to shift from one state of being to another.

Shitty Hair hurriedly shoveled in another mouthful, too, speaking around it, "Where'd you learn to cook like this?"

Katsuki's jabs slowed in the process of filling up his fork again, his voice low as he ground out, "...Mom..."

This time, thank God, Shitty Hair seemed to pick up on how little he wanted to continue the current conversation.

The redhead hurried to move things along, a grin on his face, "Wish I knew how to cook like this. 'Cause, let me tell ya, running into a patient at a fast food joint only an hour after you've told them to eat healthier is not a fun experience...Think you could teach me a few tricks sometime?"

Katsuki froze again at the proposition. In retrospect, he knew becoming someone's friend wasn't a one-and-done deal. But he'd been so riled up and out of it lately that the thought of hanging out with this guy more than just this once hadn't even crossed his mind.

But...he wasn't hating this by any means. At least this guy didn't have a shit ton of mental and emotional baggage to constantly drag around and dump on others, like Pink Cheeks and the shitty vampire did.

Despite not receiving an answer, Shitty Hair didn't seem at all upset. After taking another bite, he sighed happily, the fork still in between his lips, "Seriously, with skills like this, you could definitely open up your own restaurant."

"I...wanted to…" Katsuki almost slapped a hand over his mouth after the admission slipped from his lips. He hadn't meant to say that...it'd literally just tumbled out.

"Really? Mind if I ask why you didn't?"

Katsuki finally got hold of the reigns again, and his growled response was much more in line with his usual behavior, "Shit happened."

As the blonde went back to shoveling food into his mouth, he could feel Shitty Hair's quiet stare on him.

"Well," the redhead started, "if it's still something you want to do, you can always try again whenever you're ready. It doesn't matter slow you go as long as you don't give up."

Those words were the first to make Katsuki genuinely regret what was happening.

It was stupid of him to think he could be friends with this guy. Kirishima Eijirou, he finally remembered.

Someone like Eijirou, someone that genuinely and firmly believed in stuff like perseverance and ambition, really didn't belong with a monster like him.

When her dad walked into the house this time, Ochako was proud of herself for holding back her tears.

Shouto hadn't come home yet, and after dinner with his friend, Katsuki had left again, heading to another late-night shift at the hospital. With his friend still standing in the entryway, he'd hurriedly whispered to her, saying he was covering for someone else. But she was fairly certain he'd left just to walk his redheaded friend home.

With no one around to judge Ochako for her behavior, she trailed after her father as he trudged up the stairs and turned into the bathroom just off of the landing.

As he knelt down in front of the toilet and spread out some sort of instruction booklet atop the seat, Ochako leaned against the doorway, a soft smile on her features.

As a little girl, she'd loved to watch him work. Although plumbing wasn't nearly as fascinating as (and a lot grosser than) his craftsmanship had been, watching him like this still took her back to those quiet moments.

With a determined brow, he reached behind the toilet and used his tools to disconnect some of the tubing.

Ochako's brows furrowed as he reached into the loose pipe, pulling out a small wad of fabric that was discolored from months of water damage. Ochako was no plumbing genius, but it obvious that whatever he'd pulled out was the cause of the pipes' awful groaning.

He heaved out a relieved sigh, speaking quietly to himself, "There it is..."

"Daddy, what...what is that?" A rush of cold surged through Ochako as he unfurled what he'd yanked out, her eyes going wide.

It was a pale pink thong, with a simple lace trim.

Ochako stumbled backwards into the hallway, all but collapsing against the wall. She stood in nearly the same exact place she'd been on that night, her knees quaking as memories of what had led up to her death surged through her.

For the first time in her life, Ochako was afraid of her dad.

He was drunk.

Her dad almost never got drunk, but there was the smell of beer on his breath as he pinned her against the wall with his large hands on her tiny shoulders, "What the hell is this, Ochako?!"

Tears stung her eyes, "It's exactly what it looks like! What's wrong with it?!"

She was going off to college and considered an adult by all legal standards. As far as she was concerned, it was perfectly normal and acceptable for a girl her age to have stuff like thongs and other frilly underwear. Ochako thought she might even be a bit behind on that curve if the things her friends from high school wore and owned was anything to go by.

And of course she'd gone out and bought it on her own. She didn't have a mom to take her shopping for those types of things, and the prospect of asking her dad about that stuff made her way too uncomfortable.

And it wasn't like she was going to just waltz into the house afterwards and announce that she'd just bought her first thong. She'd hid it out of embarrassment, not to cover up some secret side of her.

But her father wasn't listening to such reasoning, "I didn't raise a whore."

Ochako knew he didn't mean it. He was drunk, and not at all himself.

But hearing him call her such a thing stung more than his bruising grip on her shoulders. She hopelessly shook her head, tears spilling down her cheeks as she sobbed, "You don't-you don't mean that."

His fingers shot into her hair, tugging on the strands, "Who'd you wear this for?!"

"Daddy, stop! You're hurting me!" her hands desperately clutched onto his wrist, "I promise! I haven't had sex with anyone!"

"Liar!"

He shoved her to the side, her feet tangling over themselves as she stumbled over the landing. A panicked scream burst from her lungs, but she couldn't stop herself.

Her tumble down the stairs ended with the crack of her skull against the tile of the entryway.

After knocking on the door a few times over the course of two minutes, Kyouka decided to just poof into the entryway, "Hello? Anybody there?"

An exasperated sigh slipped through her lips when she saw Ochako curled up on the couch in the living room, her head turned away from the door, "Oh, you're here. Sorry, no one answered when I knocked, so I let myself in…"

Her voice faded out when she recognized the tell-tale shaking of Ochako's shoulders. She hurried over to the brunette, crouching down in front of her friend, "Ochako...what's wrong?"

Ochako was silent for a moment, her mouth opening and closing as if she was trying to speak, but her throat couldn't follow through.

When she was ready, she started with a sob, "It was my dad. My dad...my dad killed me."

With her voice croaking out through her tight throat, Ochako recounted the entire story. She lost herself to sobbing several times, having to pause for a few minutes so she could recollect herself enough to carry on.

"He was just...he was so angry. He wasn't ever like that," she sniffled, swallowing heavily in a poor attempt to ease the tightness in her throat. "He always put up with me. No matter how stupid and-and selfish and clueless-"

"Stop that!" Kyouka exasperatedly cut her off. "You're not any of those things. You're amazing, Ochako. You're...you're the best friend I've ever had."

Ochako's lips quivered as she did her best to give her friend a bitter, grateful smile despite the heavy weight on her chest. But then her attempts ceased, her eyes confusedly focused on something over her friend's shoulder.

Kyouka followed her gaze, finding a door that hadn't been there before. It was made of wood so dark it was almost black, with thin stripes of curved, gleaming metal swirling across its surface in elegant designs.

Ochako slowly pushed herself up from the couch, the unexplainable feeling pulsing from the door leaving her tears forgotten on her cheeks to dry, "That...that wasn't there before…"

As she made her way to the door, she turned back to glance at her friend. But Kyouka wasn't looking back at the door anymore. Her head had returned to its natural forward position, her profile full of dread, but also something like grim acceptance.

Kyouka knew something that she didn't.

"Kyouka...What is it?"

"Death," Kyouka answered simply as she pushed herself up off of her knees.

A chill raced down Ochako's spine. What did Kyouka mean? Weren't they already dead?

"Well...what do we do? Do we go through it?" she looked between Kyouka and the door as the girl slowly approached it, reaching out. "What-what happens? Don't go near it!"

"It's for me," Kyouka explained softly, an underlying grimness to her resolute tone. She rested her fingertips on the dark wood, looking back at Ochako, "It's come for me."

For Ochako, the news was slow to sink in. "You're...you're leaving?" she choked out, newfound tears springing in her eyes.

They held each other's gazes in silence for a moment, dread pooling in both of their chests.

Desperation suddenly spilled from Kyouka's lips, "Come with me."

Ochako shook her head numbly, "I...I can't."

For the first time since Ochako had known her, Kyouka's aura of calm coolness cracked, bits of fear seeping through, "I don't want to go on my own."

Ochako's heart ached for her friend, but she couldn't bring herself to give in, "I...I don't think I can, Kyouka. Like you said, it's yours. It's not for me. This is your death."

There was silence for a moment before Kyouka nodded, dropping her gaze. A bitter smile overtook her features, "I just needed to meet you. All this time, and all it took was making a friend." She took a deep breath before smiling at Ochako with more confidence, "Goodbye, Ochako."

The dam holding Ochako's tears snapped and she rushed forward, nearly tackling Kyouka in a tight hug. Tears folded down her cheek as she squeezed them shut just as tightly as she was squeezing the other girl, "I'm going to miss you."

Kyouka hugged her back just as tightly, burying her face into Ochako's hair.

After they parted, Ochako held Kyouka's gaze until she reached for the door. When she twisted the handle, Ochako turned to the side, focusing on the floorboards instead.

She was curious, but she didn't want to see what was on the other side, lest she change her mind and decide to go along.

There were still things she had to take care of here. The situation with her father was still a mess, and she couldn't leave without saying goodbye to the boys.

In time with the creaking of the hinges, a faint light spilled across the floor, bringing a feeling of gentle coolness.

The sound of a door latching shut echoed throughout the empty living room, and when Ochako lifted her gaze, both Kyouka and her door were gone.

When the boys came home, Ochako tearfully told them about what she'd remembered and discovered.

Shouto had come in first, and had sat with her patiently, agreeing to wait until Katsuki got home to hear why there were tears on her cheeks again.

Then, Katsuki's entrance was an exact repeat of the last time he'd come home to find Ochako in tears. He'd briefly lashed out, asking what was wrong this time. But he'd quickly realized something genuinely stifling had happened, and grew quiet.

After he'd heavily plopped himself by her other side, Ochako had asked them both to listen to the entire story before saying anything.

And true to Shouto's simple promise and Katsuki's affirmative grunt, both had sat quietly on either side of her on the couch as she'd talked. She'd expected herself to still be ashamed and sobbing all the while, but she found the words slipping from her mouth with surprising ease.

Maybe it was because of Kyouka. The girl's final exit had driven the tight clutch of denial from Ochako's chest, and she felt she was more than ready to finish her business here, and join her friend and mother on the other side.

And when she finished, she was surprised again when neither of them said a word. Shouto simply stared pensively forward, like he had so often as of late. And Katsuki had buried the lower half of his face into a pillow he'd tugged onto his lap halfway through her tale, his dark glare burning holes into the armrest as he all but strangled the cushion against his chest.

As much as she wished they'd say something, she didn't blame them. It was a lot to take in.

The person she loved the most was the reason she was dead.

And that shouldn't have been true.

Because love should be the opposite of death. It should be one's biggest reason for wanting to be alive. Because what else was there?

When Ochako felt like she'd given them enough processing time, she quietly started, "Why didn't I move on?...Trying to do things for him wasn't it. Finding out what happened wasn't it." She let out a heavy sigh, "So what do I do now? What's left?"

In a rare display of comfort, Shouto hesitantly and gently lifted his arm to rest on the couch behind her. With the current state of things, it was the closest they were going to get to a hug.

His voice was soft as he remarked, "I guess that's what we'll have to find out."

AN

Damn, writing Kirishima and Bakugo stuff if haaaaaaaaaaaaaaard...

Also, if you couldn't tell, I'm a big fan of the idea of Ochako and Shouto being really good friends. I know its nothing somethin we really see in the show, but I still like to imagine it and I suppose some parts of this fic are a manifestation of that...

Anyways, thank you for reading!