Tenya Iida had not slept peacefully on his nap. A few minutes after falling asleep, he had started dreaming vividly. He was back again in that alley in Hosu, having found the Hero Killer Stain, the blood of the hero Native still fresh on his blade. As he had before, he fought the Hero Killer with no success and fell to his chipped, unkempt katana. Stain watched over him, speaking about how Tenya had failed at being a true hero. Tenya knew he had made progress, he was becoming a real hero, a hero like his brother, a hero like Izuku.
And as he thought his name, Deku appeared, the lighting of Full Cowl illuminating the alley. And so did Todoroki, with fire and Ice. But Tenya didn't see them attack Stain, didn't see what had happened that day. No, he saw something different, something wrong. Izuku and Shouto walked over to him and held him up, and their eyes were red. They held him in place. He was still paralyzed, he couldn't even speak, he couldn't even shout. Stain walked over, his eyes full of hatred. Full of death.
Izuku leaned in to whisper into his ear, and his voice was…wrong "You know he was always right about you, Tenya. You have always been a fake hero, and fake heroes don't deserve to live." Stain swung his sword, and Tenya felt a cold pain in his neck. He wasn't supposed to feel pain in dreams, was he? He felt the pull of gravity and fell. As he fell, he started to spin, and he could see behind him. A suit of white armour was falling down, limp. His thoughts were sluggish, he could barely hold onto them, but he managed to think that was my body.
Tenya woke up in a cold sweat, on the floor. At first, he couldn't breathe, he couldn't see. He was panicking. But a second later someone was by his side "Tenya! Its alright! You´re fine!" The brown-haired person placed his glasses on his nose, careful not to smudge the lenses with fingerprints or grease. When Tenya saw it was Ochako, everything was alright. His breathing became easy and regular, and he felt the nightmare slip away.
He got back up and sat down again. "What was it, Tenya-chan?" asked Tsuyu, with her usual monotone. "Just a nightmare, Tsu-chan, I dreamt of Stain again. It must be those Swedish MRE´s they gave us, they were probably too heavy for my stomach!" he joked, trying to take importance away from it. The dream worried him, he should call Tensei and discuss it later. "How much did I sleep, anyway?" "Twenty-three minutes" answered Tsuyu. The dream was more suspicious by the minute.
At least Ochako looked better, even if all he could see on her face was worry.
Tenya had been struggling for quite some time now with how he felt towards Ochako. For two years she had pushed away Izuku discreetly, and now he knew that it was because she had not known how to handle her feelings for Izuku. Tenya had not known that, and had tried to keep normality in their group of friends, always pushing to keep everyone happy and to make everyone fill like they belonged.
As time passed, he and Ochako stayed close, and he started to notice a lot of things. He liked the way her hair moved in the breeze, the way a dimple formed in her right cheek when she smiled. He liked the way she walked, the way she fought. He started to take an interest in her family, her interests outside the common ground they shared as friends. And at one point, he almost felt ashamed of wanting to be with her alone, instead of keeping the friendship between Ochako, Izuku and himself. He loved the friendship, but he started wanting more.
When Graduation Day arrived, he had gathered every ounce of his courage to ask Ochako out to the party, he was ready to accept he might have feelings for his friend. Romantic feelings.
And then Ochako surprised him and asked him first. He was ecstatic, and the first thing he had done after that had been to call Tensei, just telling him that he was happy with life. But afterwards he had thought a bit less on what Ochako had asked, and more on how she had asked. She had looked…relieved? Was that because he had said yes, or because she had been more scared of asking someone else, and was relieved she hadn't needed to face that situation?
His doubts all but died at the party. Ochako looked beautiful in a pink dress and the way she had smiled when seeing him had pretty much set his feelings straight. He liked Ochako. Izuku and Hatsume had gone together, both had said "Just as friends!" just enough times for Tenya to start to doubt it. He honestly liked the idea of the two as a couple; his hero side appreciated how well Izuku and Mei were an unstoppable source of ideas and innovation, and the current versions of all their hero suits were born of that; and his human side could just see how easily they spent time together and could imagine the same being true in a relationship, and even if the inventor girl annoyed him to no end with her lack of regard for personal hygiene and safety regulations, he did see it made her happy to spend time with Izuku.
His friend and the mechanist had given Tenya and Ochako a lot of space that night. Ochako had always had a bit of disdain for Hatsume and had never been too keen to start a friendship with her and would only grudgingly allow the engineer to work on her suit or support items. Tenya had thought perhaps it was some sort of lingering resentment, like his own for the girl for a while after the Sports Festival. In the end he had acknowledged that Hatsume wasn't a bad person just for adding humiliation to the emotional rollercoaster that was the day of Tensei´s attack. He thought maybe Ochako had a similar grudge and had never poked too much around the subject, even when Ochako cast annoyed glances at Hatsume as she worked with Izuku on projects or "Babies".
The graduation party had been Tenya´s best night in a very long time. The music, the dancing, the excitement for the future…and all of it alongside Ochako. At one point he realized that what he was feeling wasn't only that happiness, but also a certain lack of control. The dancing had made him and Ochako quite thirsty, and they had drunk from the punch Monoma had brought. A few minutes later, he felt his balance growing worse, his speech getting slurred, his head moving just to keep staring at anything. And Ochako, she had started acting very weird, out of character, uninhibited. Tenya then knew they were drunk, and before Ochako could drink more, he decided they should go home.
Ochako followed as he led her by the hand, muttering something about "-at east ain´t that…lissa. Up hers!" Ochako had then taken her hand away and, with both hands, given the finger to everyone passing. Bakugou and Kirishima were leaving as well by then, and Bakugou flipped them the bird in return with a bright smile on his face. "Fuck off, Bakugou!" "You´re alright, round face! If we weren't both taken, we should have gotten together!" He was even drunker than them! "Deku and I are just friends, shithead!" answered Ochako, to which Kirishima, clearly the soberest one of the two, cringed visibly, saying "Ouch!" "I obviously meant the dude taking you fucking home, round face! I can't even tell who he is, Kiri, who the fuck is that?" "It´s Iida, Katsuki" "Holy fuck." Bakugou took a couple of steps backwards, then swaggered back like a pirate with new sea legs "Leeda. You gotta be a Ron Weasley here, so man the fuck up and kiss the girl. Kiri, hold on, we´re flying away to Paris." "Paris, Katsuki?" "I´m fucking drunk, don't ask me to remember romantic places, now grab the fuck on." "Let's just take a cab, Katsuki, let's go home." "You´re no fun, Kiri, but fuck it, as long as they can drive us for some fucking food along the way. Bye you damn nerds!"
Their fellow heroes had taken one of the cabs. "Tenya, what is a Ron Weasley? Is it a sexual thing?" "I have no idea, Ochako. Let´s just go home." The taxi made them extremely dizzy, and they held onto each other for dear life. "This is even worse than overusing my Quirk, Tenya" had said Ochako as they took a corner in the road. Miraculously, they had made it back in one piece back to their team headquarters. There were rooms to stay and food to eat in the morning, and it was quite near to the party´s venue.
After fumbling with the keys for what felt like an hour, Tenya had managed to let them in. "I still have celebration champagne on the fridge, wanna drink it?" had asked Ochako. The alcohol already in his blood didn't want to deny anything to her, and he agreed. Ochako poured the sparkling liquor on red cups, and they drank, talked and laughed. Tenya hadn't noticed when Ochako had sat next to him on the couch, or how close they had gotten. He wanted this. He felt ready. He leaned in and kissed Ochako. His first kiss wasn't perfect, but it wasn't alone. But it had been too much alcohol in the end, and he had to separate. "The champagne was too much, I…have to go to the bathroom!" He had puked an almost clear, ethylic vomit that sickened him, made him ashamed. He had drunk THAT much?
It had made him much clearer headed as well, and he thought, to his dismay, that he wouldn't be kissing Ochako tonight after that. He found her asleep, snoring softly, and carried her to her bedroom. Tenya had enough presence of mind to place her in a safe position and to move her trashcan near, in case she needed it. In the end, he had felt it would have been creepy to stay the night in the room, and had retreated to his own, falling asleep immediately.
The days after had been very awkward. Ochako and him were even closer, but not to the point of intimacy. Tenya felt they should talk about it, maybe even start a relationship. He wanted it a lot. Then Izuku left for America, and everything got slightly better. They actually went in a few dates, but after each Ochako looked even more confused. When Tenya asked her about her feelings after the fourth date, she replied saying that she was feeling conflicted and distracted, and that maybe they should try again when both felt more confident, or it would affect their performance as heroes. Tenya had thought that was logical and had agreed.
Afterwards it seemed the work hadn't stopped, with villains, investigations and disasters every day. And then Izuku was revealed to be working with Himiko Toga, and a few hours later that he had been captured by villains, and Ochako had taken it very badly. Tenya hadn't understood why the anger she had for the villain girl was so fiery, so personal. Until they rescued their friend, and the pieces of the puzzle clicked.
After the battle Ochako had been withdrawn, catatonic, she barely even blinked. She followed them to the tents the Americans had placed and then had looked up and seen Toga. In an instant the fight had returned to her eyes and it was all Tenya could do to stop her. He took her aside, behind a stack of equipment crates, and told her "Ochako, you have to tell me everything. You are not being yourself, and it scares me. I care for you so, so much and I can´t bear to see you like this. Please, just talk to me."
Her shoulders had started shaking, and she sat down before starting to cry. "I fucked everything up, Tenya. I loved him, I loved Deku, and I fucked it all up. Why didn't I just do the right thing? I pushed him into that whore´s arms! Little vampire slut…what does she have that I don't? She´s a fucking murderer!" And then she had looked into her own hands, panicking "Those people in the base…oh God. I think I killed them. I…I didn't even think about it. I was so angry all I saw was red…Oh no, oh no!". He had taken her face in his hands and gently turned her towards him. "Ochako, it´s alright. They didn't die, and I would never think you are a monster. Izuku wouldn't think you are a monster." It hurt to say his friend´s name, after Ochako had revealed her feelings had been for him. But Tenya cared too much for her to let the pain show. He had to be strong for her now.
"You´ll be alright. I´m here for you, our friends are here for you. And…I think I know how you feel, all this anger, all your feelings perverted into vengeance. I felt the same for Stain, I wanted his head squished under my boot, to hear him asking for mercy. And that made me reckless. Look at your broken hand, look at my arm." He slid back his sleeve, the scars of several surgeries very visible, fine control over his left hand much diminished, even after the physiotherapy. "This is where vengeance took us, but Izuku, Shouto, you…you all brought me back. I found my place again. Please, Ochako, let us help you. We need you. I need you."
It hadn't been the last time she had cried after the mission, self-doubt creeping in on her every time she tried to sleep or distract herself. They probably had the same argument three or four times, but Tenya felt she was slowly getting better. Eating a few hamburgers from a local American-style diner had helped her get much more peace of mind. She had even managed to fall asleep, and Tenya had left to join the others.
And now, she looked almost back to normal. Tenya wasn't particularly eager to see Ochako talk with Izuku, the feelings exposed there…he knew it would hurt. It would hurt Ochako, it would hurt Izuku, it would hurt him. Maybe that pain was necessary, but it was no more welcome for its need.
Agent Anna Dobinek was NOT fond of hospitals. They reminded her of her grandmother´s deathbed, of grandpa´s endless grief at paying bills for a doctor that couldn't heal his wife. It reminded her of getting lost as a little kid, looking for the cafeteria, and stumbling unto a bloody leg surgery. The amputation had stayed on her mind, the trauma forever steering her away from a career in medicine, and her prayers to whatever god would listen for not getting injured like that. In the end, she had probably seen worse as a soldier and secret agent, but that leg…that leg had always remained.
"Anna, you look pale, is everything alright?" Freya asked her, her face full of concern. The Shieldmaiden Hero looked much less imposing in civilian clothes, and pretty much no one had recognized her in Japan. Dressed in yoga pants and a hoodie with a smiling fish, the most imposing thing about her was her hair, the complex braids held together with iron hair rings. "All good, hospitals creep me out, just that."
"If you need to talk, I am here, friend" answered the hero. "Thanks, Freya. You´re cool. Maybe after the meeting, if you still have more of that vodka. It got me all chatty last time." "Indeed, I have another bottle in the suit bag! I enjoyed the vodka talk quite a lot!" The vodka talk had been very stimulating indeed, and the Norwegian hero was surprisingly easy to talk to. Anna already felt closer to her than many fellow soldiers she had known for years. Sadly, before they could start a new game of "never have I ever" they had arrived in Japan. Anna had silently cursed the comfortable speed of Hatsume´s plane, she was just about to suggest a game of spin the bottle.
Back in the present, they finally got to the conference room on the hospital´s top floor. Texas Red was already at the door. "Good, y´all are here. You´ve got executive power from the Nordics, right?" "Aye, power was conferred to Freya Gunarrssdotirr by the prime minister and Secrets Minister." "Excellent, let´s hustle then." He pushed the door open and walked inside, instantly commanding the attention of the Japanese representatives inside.
In the Japanese side of the table sat All Might, an Inspector Gadget looking dude who introduced himself as Tsukauchi and a representative of the Hero Public Safety Commission and Japanese Intelligence, a rather non-descript lady in a pant suit, who didn't give out a name. On the side of the table sat Midoriya and Toga, speaking in quiet voices, being very close to each other. By God, she was really thinking they made a cute couple.
"So, you represent Japan? Good. Our government is taking full responsibility for all of this operation, with all its details. All the paperwork for Miss Toga was already approved on both sides and now she is our prisoner, to do with as we deem appropriate. As the authority over her sentence, I will call this a "flexible house arrest", and when the terms of our agreement with her are met, negotiation over her further sentence will happen entirely with US authorities."
The Hero Commission woman spoke up "Mr. Johns, strong-arming the Japanese government to use a criminal according to our laws as your assassin is hardly what we would call an agreement." Anna decided she didn't like this woman. "It´s Deputy Director Johns for you, ma´am, and the paperwork is behind me. And it leads me to the second thing, a team of your Heroes getting mixed in our operation after getting called by a non-existent Spetsnaz force. They may have screwed up our plan immensely, but they got my assets out and got me just enough intel for our operation. So, I´m calling in favours again and my mountain of papers, these kids are not getting any fallout for this. Am I understood?"
Tsukauchi answered to that "We can be flexible on that, as licensed heroes they can work in contest with international partners. But Miss Toga´s involvement has been leaked to the public, and the Japanese government has no good answers to that. On the Police´s side, a statement by Midoriya could be a good thing, and we can have the press ready. We advise against revealing Toga outright and keeping all of this as quiet as possible."
"Got it. Now, I guess you have not been briefed on our operation? Agent Dobinek, if you would." Anna took the spotlight "We are hunting down Pestilentia. Midoriya is on board, as Toga´s handler. We are taking him dead or alive, and we are pretty close now. The Nordic Confederation aided us in the Denmark situation, and sent their number one Hero, Freya." She pointed at her friend "Hello!" and continued "we´re making it all public when we are successful."
"Very concise. Thank you, agent. Now we will answer any questions not restricted by OPSEC. We have, lets see…twenty minutes for that. All Might and Midoriya have had a draining day, after all."