Hizashi and Ochako have a talk. That's it. That's the chapter.

Hizashi thought his day had been going okay. He'd spent most of the day with Eri, coloring with her and adding a little bit of teaching in, since it was clear Overhaul had been ignoring her education. He'd picked up a ton of children's books when they went shopping, and he found she really enjoyed being read to, so he'd started teaching her how to read on her own. She was a really smart kid, and while she had a long way to go, she was picking things up rather quickly and he couldn't be prouder.

The return of his husband and the two vigilantes hadn't changed much, except Eri had immediately been attached at the hip to the duo. Not that either one seemed to mind much. It was interesting, Hizashi mused, seeing how their walls seemed to fall down around Eri and only Eri.

It wasn't too long for the world though, as they'd ended up shuffling off to Recovery Girl's office to have their final round of healing and removal of their casts and stitches. Hizashi wanted to celebrate it, and by the time they returned, they were too exhausted to stop him, so he got to make them a nice, big dinner with mochi ice cream for dessert. Yes, he had picked up on Ochako's weakness to mochi and sweets in general, and he was more than fine picking at it in the hopes it helped her relax around them.

He'd been paying a lot of attention to them, and while they liked to present a united front, he'd noticed small differences. Ever since Bakugo had shown up and given that card over, it had softened Izuku ever so slightly. Not a lot, but just a little bit. Whereas Ochako, she hadn't quite gotten to that same level, still incredibly resistant to trusting them.

He wasn't offended by it, of course not. He wasn't an idiot. With their pasts, of course they'd be incredibly untrusting, and they just got supremely lucky Izuku had such a close bond with one of their students. Without Bakugo…Hizashi was pretty sure they'd never have managed to convince the duo to stay, if he was being honest.

The problem was that it only really worked on Izuku. Ochako seemed to be mollified by the fact Izuku was happier, and Hizashi thinks Ochako and Bakugo are getting along?...Maybe? It's hard to tell, but the snipping back and forth seems to make Izuku happy, so…he'd take what he could get.

But with the incident the night before, as well as Ochako's clear discomfort, he was kind of expecting some fallout sometime soon. She was not doing okay, and he could tell. The main problem was he wasn't sure how to approach her about it yet, so he bided his time. Which seemed to be the theme of the day for him and his husband recently.

Bedtime had seemed normal, for everyone involved. Eri went to sleep without issue, and the new nightlight in her room, the hallway, and the vigilantes room seemed to be of help. At least, nothing like the prior night woke Hizashi up. His bladder, on the other hand, well…it wasn't unusual for him to get up in the middle of the night for a quick trip to the bathroom.

And while his hearing was not the best (years of a sound based Quirk like his would do that to you), and he didn't have his hearing aids in, he compensated in other ways. He did have pretty good night vision, and that's how he noticed it. As he left the bathroom, he managed to catch a glimpse of a huddled figure out on the living room couch. It was too big to be Eri, so… He approached slowly, but didn't try to hide the sound of his approach. He didn't want to startle anyone, especially as he was pretty sure who it was, and when she lifted her head enough to glance up and see him, he knew he was right.

Ochako was curled up on the couch, a blanket wrapped around her like a cloak, her fingers clenched tightly into the fabric. Even in the dark, he could see the faint, shimmering trails of tears on her cheeks, but she quickly sniffled and looked away from him. Her voice was very soft, very quiet, a bit raspy, as she spoke. "'m fine. You can go back ta bed."

"You don't look that fine, kiddo," he risked disagreeing with her. She glared balefully at him, but the effect was ruined by the red-rimmed eyes and teary gaze. He decided to take another risk. "Mind if I sit?" he asked, pointing at the other side of the couch.

"'s your house," she muttered. He nodded, accepting the comment for what it was, and carefully took a seat on the other edge of the couch, not wanting to crowd her.

He let the silence fill the room for a moment, before turning to her with a soft smile. "So…want to talk about it?"

"Nothin' to talk about," she replied.

"I'm not going to pester you," he reassured. "But there's a reason you're out here and not with your boyfriend right now. No one else is up, it's just us. Is this something you can't talk to him about?"

She was quiet for a moment, her hands fisting tighter in the blanket. She pulled it up higher, scrunching her shoulders, to the point only her eyes were visible above the edge of the blanket. She was muffled, but clear enough he could make out what she was saying. "'s not that. I don' want Deku to worry. He's got enough to deal with."

"Okay. I can understand that."

She blinked, finally looking directly at him. "You can?"

He nodded absently. "Yeah. Sho and me, we've been together for a while, but sometimes it's really hard to talk about what's bothering us. We've seen a lot of nasty things in our line of work, and it weighs on you. We both have our own problems, our own pasts, and sometimes it's a struggle to reach out and open up. Sho barely sleeps as is, I never want to be the cause for more sleep struggles for him after all."

He wasn't looking at her, trying to give her a bit of privacy, but he could hear the rustling beneath the blanket and the slight sound of sniffles. "'s not the same," she muttered.

"I'm sure it isn't. We're all different, so it'd be pretty dumb for me to assume I fully understand what you're going through. But that doesn't mean I can't empathize either."

She was silent for a while, before murmuring quietly. "It's stupid though."

"If it's upsetting you, it's not stupid," he replied gently.

"...Did Shouta tell you about last night?" she asked, her voice muffled.

"Yes. He told me some theories about what was bothering you, but it was his guesses, so maybe he's wrong."

"What'd he think it was?"

Hizashi took a moment to collect his thoughts. He was fairly confident in his husband's guesses, but he knew that if he wasn't careful she'd shut down, since both her and her boyfriend seemed allergic to looking 'weak' in front of people. He decided being direct was his best approach, especially with her. She'd always seemed to prefer direct statements from what he'd noticed. "He said you had a nightmare about Izuku caught in a fire. Which he guessed had something to do with what happened to your family."

He didn't need to be looking at her to know she was curling in on herself, able to feel the couch cushions shifting and the blanket rustling. She stayed quiet for a bit, Hizashi choosing not to interrupt her thoughts. "...Deku almost died," she whispered. "I can't stop thinkin' about it. He was there and bleedin' and he almost died. He's all I got. I can't lose him. An' I keep saying the fire and him in it and losin' him to it. An' I look down and see it on my hands, all his blood and I can't...I just can't!"

Hizashi was going to speak, but she cut him off, her voice getting faster and faster as she spoke, as if she could no longer contain the words and they rushed out of her in a river. "An' it was all my fault, I'm supposed ta check for breaches in security, I always check, an' I didn' see nothin', I didn' find nothin', nothin' was outta place but I musta missed it! I missed the bombs, I missed whatever did it, it's all my fault he got hurt and almost died and then I was too slow to call Eraser and he almost died 'cause I took too long and-"

"Ochako, breathe," Hizashi insisted, turning to look at her as he could hear her beginning to hyperventilate. He got up from his seat and knelt before her curled up form, holding one hand out but not touching her, making sure her shaky eyes met his as he spoke. "It's okay, you're okay, he's safe and sound, sleeping. You're both okay," he reassured, a steady, quiet mantra to try and help her calm down before she worked herself into a panic attack.

She swallowed, eyes closing as she shuddered in place. He could see her hands fist in the blanket, noticing the spark of pink as she accidently activated her quirk on the blanket, but with how tightly it was wrapped about her it barely lifted on the edges. He didn't call attention to it, deciding he'd wait until she calmed down to say anything. It was painful, to watch her face twist as she tried to get control of herself and being unable to really reach out, but he knew better than to interrupt her.

It took a long, agonizing minute, but her breathing slowed enough that he could see her eyes crack open, just enough for him to meet her gaze. She didn't say anything, but she seemed to be calm enough to let him speak, so he took a risk. "Ochako?" he asked softly. He waited until she offered him a very small affirmative nod before speaking again. "Would it be alright if I gave you a hug?" he offered. He knew it was risky, but he just wanted to try and offer her what comfort he could.

She didn't move or make a noise for a good long minute, but after a bit she started shuffling sideways, towards the center of the couch. At that point she seemed to notice her Quirk was active on the blanket, and she tapped her fingers together quickly to end the effect. After she was out of the corner of the couch, she nodded to the spot she'd just vacated. He was…confused. There was plenty of room for him to be in the center, or the other side, why was she-

Oh. Even in the dark, he could see the discolored skin on her left side, the burn scar that she went out of her way to hide, and like a bolt of lightning he understood. She didn't want him on the burned side. Now that he thought about it, she only ever let Izuku be on that side of her, or touch her there, even when she was holding Eri she held her on her right side, never the left. That…was a lot to unpack and he needed to not do that right now.

He gave her a grateful smile, making sure nothing he'd been thinking showed on his face as he clambered to his feet, wincing slightly as his bones creaked from having been in a weird position for the past five minutes, taking a careful seat where she'd indicated it was okay. He let one arm go across her shoulder, but knowing the burn was there, he didn't let his hand touch the burned part. Instead, he very gently, giving her room to push back if she wanted, placed his hand on the side of her head and pulled her into his side, the teenager tensing up slightly but allowing it after a moment.

He let the silence radiate for a while, until he could feel her breaths slowing down. When he judged her calm enough, he decided to continue his risky behavior and spoke quietly. "I'm not going to pretend I understand everything you're going through, but as someone married to a man who risks his life on a daily basis, I can empathize, at least a little."

She sniffled for a moment, her tense shoulders relaxing slightly. "...I guess heroes gotta deal with this all the time, huh?"

He shrugged, making sure not to jostle her. "To a point. We kinda prefer it not be like that, but…well, we all have our nightmares after all. And well…me and Sho have our own baggage from back in the day."

She turned her head slightly, enough to look sidelong at him. "What happened?" she asked quietly, her eyes going wide a second later. "I-I mean, if'n you wanna tell me," she hurriedly added, sounding apologetic for asking. He held back his snort at her reversal.

"It's fine, I wouldn't have brought it up if I wasn't willing to talk about it," he said with a casual dismissal. His casual attitude was very much a front; even the thought of Oboro was still painful. But if it helped her, well… "His name was Oboro Shirakumo. He was a classmate, with me and Sho, back in our UA days. The three of us were our own little unit, not that Sho was overly happy with it," Hizashi chuckled at the memory. "He likes to say we kidnapped him into friendship, but I like to think he just appreciated how pretty we were."

The barely audible giggle made him have to fight not to let his grin spread too wide as he continued his story. "We did everything together. Studying, heroics exercises, hanging out. Oboro even tried to convince us to start an agency together when we graduated. Sho was a wet blanket about it, but even he was coming around to the idea. Oboro was…he was a force of nature sometimes. Always smiling, brilliant and shining in the sun, always cheerful no matter what was going on."

"Isn't that how you are?" Ochako asked, making him blink at the comment, confused. She scrunched in on herself slightly, sounding slightly embarrassed. "We…liked to listen to your show sometimes. You know, background noise while we were workin' cases and stuff."

He didn't deny the nice warmth that filled his chest at that, but decided to keep his voice light as he spoke. "Well, nice to know someone appreciates my efforts. Sho normally rolls his eyes at me." He took a deep breath. "It's…nice you say that. I was always loud and in peoples faces, but the whole always smiling thing is more…because of Oboro, really."

He paused to consider what he said next, because speaking of him was always so difficult, but he really did want to explain what he meant. He hoped that the more he opened up, the more she'd be willing to in return. "Well, I'm sure you've already got an idea what happened. It was during work studies in our second year. Sho and Oboro got one together, thanks to Nemuri." At the confused glance she shot him, he clarified. "Oh, Nemuri is Midnight. She was our upperclassman, and one of our friends too. Anyways, they were working with her and a hero called His Purple Highness. There was a villain attack, and while protecting some children, Oboro…got caught in a collapsing building," his voice trailed off to a strangled whisper as he tried to finish his story.

He cleared his throat. "A-anyways…yeah. That uh…that kinda shook us. And Sho, well…he's never stopped blaming himself for it. Even now, over a decade later. So…yeah. I sometimes have nightmares about losing him in a building collapse, or to a villain, or to any other of the numerous ways we heroes face death. It's not exactly the same as what you feel, but…well, like I said, I can empathize, at least a little."

She was quiet for a moment. "I'm sorry you lost your friend," she eventually offered.

He let out a sad chuckle and squeezed her lightly. "Thanks, listener. I appreciate it."

He could hear her swallow as she tried to muster up her words. "...how…how do you deal with it? Deku's all I got. I'm just so…so scared. I'm always so scared. It was bad before, but now it's even worse." Ochako let out a choked, sad laugh as she knocked her head into Hizashi's shoulder. "Then again, guess I'm always scared. I don' know how not to be scared anymore. You always gotta be afraid of where yer next meal comes from, of where yer gonna sleep, or if yer gonna freeze when its winter. Gotta know where the gangs are so you don't get caught by them and sold off or somethin'...else. And then I got into stealin' and tradin' info and…yeah, not gonna lie, it's kinda fun," she wiggled guiltily at admitting that, but he kept silent, letting her continue.

She paused for a minute as if to collect her thoughts. "I'm not really afraid for me, not anymore. I know where I'm gonna end up. But Deku is a good person," she insisted. "He's not like me. He didn't steal for fun. He did it to live, an' he felt so bad about it too. He didn't give info to bad people, that's all me. I convinced him that was okay. I mean sure, only to dumb bad people who'd fuck it up and get in trouble, but still. Deku's good. Kacchan knows it too. Deku deserves better. An' he's all I got left an' I keep being selfish and keepin' hold of him but I just can' let go! I-I…I'm just no good for him, but I can' make myself say that to him," she murmured quietly. Her shoulders slumped. "Deku's good, Hizashi. He really is."

He waited to see if she'd say anything else, but when she didn't he chose to speak. "I don't see how you are any less good than he is, Ochako."

Her head snapped around to look up at him, disbelief in her eyes. 'Didn' ya hear what I said? I liked stealin'!"

He hummed. "Did you like to steal for the sake of it, or did you steal out of necessity and decide you liked the thrill involved after the fact?" She paused, blinking up at him in confusion at his words. He clarified. "What I mean is, you were forced into a terrible situation where you had to do some things that were questionable. So you did what you had to do to survive. Your enjoyment of it didn't matter. When you're stuck with awful things, you find what joy you can, and so you found a bit of a thrill in what you did. A lot of heroes have a bit of a thrill-seeker in them too, you know. Comes with the territory," he offered with a grin.

Ochako scoffed. "Yer still savin' people. I was stealin' and dealin' information."

"Again, your situation was very different. It's understandable. And most of all, Ochako, you are a child," he held up a hand to forestall the protest he could already see her winding up to do. "I don't mean that you haven't matured in some ways. You've had to learn how to survive on the streets, and that takes a lot of strength to do. But it doesn't change that you are still very young, and the world has a lot more to offer you than what it has. You deserve better, Ochako. It's not just Izuku who does. You do too."

"...you're wrong," she muttered half-heartedly, but didn't argue further.

He chuckled. "Has anyone ever told you you're very stubborn?"

"Deku says it at least twice a day."

He snickered, hearing her answering giggle. He noticed she was leaning more heavily into his side, her voice slightly more breathy, and he could tell she was getting sleepy once more. He spoke softly, making sure no judgment or insistence was in his voice. "You wanna head back to bed, listener? I imagine Izuku's probably missing you right about now."

She let out a deep sigh, her head nodding slightly. "...yeah. I should. Don' want him wakin' up without me." She slowly pushed herself up, sitting upright and letting the blanket fall down as she got up, wincing slightly at the motion. As she started to walk back to their bedroom, she paused, her back turned to Hizashi. After a moment, she turned around and looked at him. "...thank you," she whispered, before spinning about quickly and heading back to the room she shared with Izuku.

As the door slid shut behind her, Hizashi let out a deep sigh, leaning back against the couch. He got up, tidying the blankets on the couch up just a bit, before heading back to his bedroom. He couldn't fix all her issues for her, no matter how much he wanted to, but the gratitude in her voice was more than enough for him.